Salary Range

zen master

Hey guys, this topic was prompted by something I saw in another forum. What do you guys think is the salary range for IT professionals, and what is the average salary (monthly)? Feel free to include what kind of jobs are represented by the salaries you're quoting. Thanks.

brad-

What city/country?

Any MCP average "supposedly" is around 70k. I'd never see anything close to that in the buttcrack of the south.

dynamik

You could start with these, but they're really not that accurate.

http://tcpmag.com/salarysurveys/
http://mcpmag.com/salarysurveys/article.asp?editorialsid=95
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/mediatec/cm1207/index.php?startid=18

zen master

This struck me as somewhat odd.

dynamik

The "Under 1 Year" numbers? Those are probably all the people who **** their way through exams, get good salaries, and then get canned because they're found to be incompetent

royal

Wow is that chart off.

royal

delete

jryantech

zen master wrote:

This struck me as somewhat odd.

That is the worst attempt at statistics I have ever see.
They should be ashamed.

Daniel333

Location location location.

$50k won't pay the bills here in San Francisco, but you'd be doing alright in other areas.

And experience is a broad term too. I spent a year at a help desk, and didn't learn anything for 6 months of it. While when I was working as an application administrator I learned something new all the time. Same thing about my current job.

BradleyHU

lol @ those surveys...maybe thats idealistically, but definitely not in reality...

TechJunky

Do most people think those wages are low or high? I guess thats what I would like to know.

Can we add a poll?

dynamik

Just the years of experience graph or one of the others? I think the 3-5 years and longer are fairly accurate. Although, it depends on what you do. If all you're doing is A+-level work for a decade, you're probably not going to be making that much. I think the introductory-level certs are blown way out of proportion. I wish they'd only allow you to use the highest-level cert for what you're working with. That would probably paint a more accurate picture. How many CCIEs do you think also have an A+? Do you think that skews the A+ value at all? I think they become more accurate as you get into the more advanced levels.

I thought it was interesting that a CCDP earned more than a CCNP in both Cert Mag and TCP Mag. I actually like the design/planning stage more than the actual configuration. I wonder how many people can get by with a full-time design position. Again, I don't think these results are completely accurate because I would wager a majority of those CCDPs are also CCNPs, at the minimum.

And as Daniel said, location is an enormous factor. You might barely be able to get by in California on one salary, but you'd be living like a king in Iowa if you were able to get the same amount there. You can check out www.salary.com to get more granular with location, experience, etc.

TechJunky

Wow,

After reading all the Microsoft survey's I would have to say two things.

Those are very skewed for where I live and they are very high.

A MCDST making 70k+ I dont think so. If they are I am in the wrong area.

Plus my state shows I should make 90k. I dont make anywhere near that and not many CCIE's make much more here.

However, knowing some fellow employees based on the East coast this seems very valid. They are almost spot on with the Average Base salary by job title. Take into account most are part DBA/System Admin the average wage would be around 75k and thats about spot on.

Based on the information given I would say the salary's are HIGH.

darkerosxx

zen master wrote:

This struck me as somewhat odd.

This most likely represents rising starting salaries for new grads, people changing careers, etc.. In many businesses, salaries are kept confidential and departments can raise the salary for the positions without raising the salaries of current employees, thus putting new hires in the department making more than the experienced employees with a few years of experience.

It happens, it sucks, but it's business.

cisco_trooper

This is why you make your money walking in the door. Don't expect much once you're in....

Kaminsky

cisco_trooper wrote:

This is why you make your money walking in the door. Don't expect much once you're in....

That's very inciteful. Salary increases once you are "in" are pitifull in any organisation. It's what you start at that makes the difference. That's why, unless you have a good reason to stay, you really should consider changing companies every 3-5 years until you find a place you are content with.

Looking at the high end of those stats, 10+ years experience could be on those kind of figures assuming they did job/company hop a lot and got big upgrades at each hop as well as certing their a$$ off in the process. It really does depend on the person's knowledge and experience of course but to think that at 2, 5, 10, 15 years you will be on a certain salary band is rediculous.

What generally happens is you start a job at a certain base salary and each year it goes up a bit but not much. Certainly those bits would not add up to the figures usually quoted on those sites.

This is why I really get irritated at those tv adverts about getting a career in IT and earn £30,000 ($50,000) after the course. These are such a complete rip off and those that tell you you will get a job gaurenteed should be made illegal.. These are just scammers because 100% of the time, there is always some reason they couldn't find you that 30k job.... Taking people's money under false pretences is called scamming and these folks should be put in jail for it in my book !

That's not to say IT is lowly paid. Even at the newbie end, were paid a whole lot more than sales assistants and McDonalds workers for a reason ! How it goes up and how fast it goes up will be completely upto you.

Halcyon Hell

In South Africa the IT Technicians (A+ and at least 1 to 2 years XP) are ment to be paid around 10K a month. Not very likely i can tell you that much. I get about 4.5K but I've been at the same place for nearly 2 years! Helpdesk personel don't earn much at all unless you get into a big company or a IT service company that does mainly field work. Money is made by visiting your clients once a month ie. support calls. I'm not sure how my situation differs from the rest of world except the currency. Rand/$ 11.3100
Rand/£ 17.3200
Rand/€ 13.9800

WJMartin

Have a look at

http://www.jobstats.co.uk/jobstats.d/Rates.html

Used to use these guys regularly to draw comparisons. In light of the current climate where IT departments are letting staff go it's worth keeping an eye on the regional and international variations.