Cisco salaries

I hear a lot about how cisco is the best tech qual to take, and I wonder what the top level salaries you could expect after a lot of experience and a ccie/similar? Anyone able to shed some light?

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Comments

nel

Do a search on job boards in your country and area to give you an idea but its not an easy task to get to the top of the cisco mountain and the salary shouldnt be the main reason imo although if you do get to the top then it is rewarding of course

Mrlizzard

nel wrote:

Do a search on job boards in your country and area to give you an idea but its not an easy task to get to the top of the cisco mountain and the salary shouldnt be the main reason imo although if you do get to the top then it is rewarding of course

I'm in the Uk. I looked at the job boards (ones I know of) and I don't see a lot of cisco jobs. I was also hoping for some salaries that people earn/friends earn etc. Real life examples.

laidbackfreak

ive got a couple of IE friends 1 qualified this yr is on 65K+ v good package the other is on around 90k mark....

for me personally its not about the money (tho thats a bonus) if it was id go for something like CISSP ....

but I consider myself a technician not a manager....

and i want to get the Guru status I crave and by that i dont mean a google expert......
its the knowledge from learning and working how something works when it goes wrong that i love....

this site is quite good for an indication :-
http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/default.aspx?page=1&sortby=0&orderby=0&q=cisco&id=1000&lid=2618

hypnotoad

laidbackfreak wrote:

ive got a couple of IE friends 1 qualified this yr is on 65K+ v good package the other is on around 90k mark....

pounds or dollars?

LOkrasa

I think a CCIE at 60K US is being severely abused...

famosbrown

We've got a contractor who is CCIE and his salary was at 185K 6 years ago...that was the last time he told anyone...I'm sure he is well over 200K now though. Him being a contractor is the only way the Federal Government can/could afford him. Otherwise, he wouldn't be a contractor but a regualr civilian employee.

Mrlizzard

laidbackfreak wrote:

ive got a couple of IE friends 1 qualified this yr is on 65K+ v good package the other is on around 90k mark....

for me personally its not about the money (tho thats a bonus) if it was id go for something like CISSP ....

but I consider myself a technician not a manager....

and i want to get the Guru status I crave and by that i dont mean a google expert......
its the knowledge from learning and working how something works when it goes wrong that i love....

this site is quite good for an indication :-
http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/default.aspx?page=1&sortby=0&orderby=0&q=cisco&id=1000&lid=2618

Is that permanent or contract work?

astorrs

LOkrasa wrote:

I think a CCIE at 60K US is being severely abused...

That would be in British pounds. So closer to 110K USD.

hypnotoad

LOkrasa wrote:

I think a CCIE at 60K US is being severely abused...

I know, just had to double-check. You never know which network guru is going to be abused -- it happens pretty frequently in this line of work.

human151

We have one guy on staff, he is our network guru, I believe he passed the written CCIE, but has yet to take the lab. He makes Im guessing 150k a year.

My immediate manager has a CCNA, but could get CCNP if he wanted too ( too lazy I dont know, but he is sharp) and he makes 70k.

I think if you get to the CCNP level you can demand $70,000 a year or more.

Cisco Certified professionals earn a great living but before you can get there you need to be sharp and be experienced. Your born with the prior and getting the latter requires a bit of luck.

Now I have no idea what guys with M$ certs earn. Anyone care to enlighten me?

scheistermeister

human151 wrote:

We have one guy on staff, he is our network guru, I believe he passed the written CCIE, but has yet to take the lab. He makes Im guessing 150k a year.

My immediate manager has a CCNA, but could get CCNP if he wanted too ( too lazy I dont know, but he is sharp) and he makes 70k.

I think if you get to the CCNP level you can demand $70,000 a year or more.

Cisco Certified professionals earn a great living but before you can get there you need to be sharp and be experienced. Your born with the prior and getting the latter requires a bit of luck.

Now I have no idea what guys with M$ certs earn. Anyone care to enlighten me?

Hell, I'd be ecstatic at $50k a year at this point...

astorrs

human151 wrote:

Now I have no idea what guys with M$ certs earn. Anyone care to enlighten me?

Again it all depends on the line of work you're in. I know MCSE's with 5 years experience working for small companies making <40k, and consultants earning 4-6 times that.

laidbackfreak

UK based so sterling ....

and both guys are perm based staff.... the newley qulified guy is convinced he could well have asked for at least another 10k..... he was interviewed on a bank holiday.... and showen a piece of paper with the package ...
the only thng that wasnt filled in was the base salary... he was bascially told to chose a figure....
he's not a greedy bloke

famosbrown

human151 wrote:

We have one guy on staff, he is our network guru, I believe he passed the written CCIE, but has yet to take the lab. He makes Im guessing 150k a year.

My immediate manager has a CCNA, but could get CCNP if he wanted too ( too lazy I dont know, but he is sharp) and he makes 70k.

I think if you get to the CCNP level you can demand $70,000 a year or more.

Cisco Certified professionals earn a great living but before you can get there you need to be sharp and be experienced. Your born with the prior and getting the latter requires a bit of luck.

Now I have no idea what guys with M$ certs earn. Anyone care to enlighten me?

I make over 60K with MS certs...although I'm more on the network side now since starting new job about 6 months ago. Before coming to Federal Government, I did have offers of 65K and 75K for Server Support Administrator and Windows Platform System Engineer, respectively. Turned those down due to having my mind made up about the Federal Government and the advancement opportunities. Not to mention, having time to study and do well in Grad School and Cisco certs.

On the other hand, there are those who have no degree or certs who are making 90K a year for the Federal Government...even some who have no clue what they are doing but they have just been in the "system" for so long and their position is paying that kind of money, LOL.