Global Knowledge 2009 Salary Report

darkerosxx

Actually completed by Global Knowledge and Tech Republic:

http://i.t.com.com/i/tr/downloads/home/2009_SalaryReport.pdf

dynamik

I don't know if I laughed harder at the Average Salary Based on Overall Job Satisfaction or what an A+ cert pulls in. These things are a joke and the process and/or reporting is in a serious need of an overall.

darkerosxx

I agree and what's funny is I took several GK classes in 08 and each one of them had me answer this salary survey at the end. Did it count them all? Who knows...

hypnotoad

Page 1: Having a BA degree will get you $70,000 a year!
Page 2: Click here to get your BA degree online in only 8 months!

Ok, so I exaggerated, but I'm convinced these things are a scam. I work in higher-ed. I know how these things go man.

carboncopy

Can I show that to my employer to get a raise?

1MeanAdmin

I don't share others' pessimism about this survey. Yes, like any other survey, it has it's flaws since it doesn't reflect various regions and $81K/year doesn't look "average" to all of us, but at the same time, according to the survey, it is a salary that requires 15 years of experience. I don't think that $80K is too high for someone who spent a decade or two in IT especially if you throw in upper management positions. I'm sure if they provided a break-down by years of experience, 5 years of experience would result in something like $50K which is also not outrageously high.

darkerosxx

You also have to consider probably most of the data sources are made up of people who took courses with GK. If they took courses with GK, that's going to be a limiting demographic, because of the limited locations as well as the high price of courses. It's very likely the right end of the bell curve you're seeing rather than the middle.

CCIEWANNABE

1MeanAdmin wrote: »

I don't share others' pessimism about this survey. Yes, like any other survey, it has it's flaws since it doesn't reflect various regions and $81K/year doesn't look "average" to all of us, but at the same time, according to the survey, it is a salary that requires 15 years of experience. I don't think that $80K is too high for someone who spent a decade or two in IT especially if you throw in upper management positions. I'm sure if they provided a break-down by years of experience, 5 years of experience would result in something like $50K which is also not outrageously high.

i don't want to sound mean here, but experience isn't everything. i mean, i have about 3 years experience in networking and i am always teaching people that have 10, 15 and 20+ years in the field how to do things all the time. don't get me wrong i do thing some experience is important, but the I.T. field changes so often, which is why certifications hold so much weight in my opinion. so when you say 50k is a high salary amount for someone with 5 years experience, i'm sorry bro but someone is lying to you because i make way more than that with only 3 years experience. might i suggest that you find a job as a DoD contractor. that will certainly change your views on how much money you can make with 5 years or less experience! If you have 10+ years in the I.T. field and you are somewhat smart and capable of learning, then you should be pushing 6 figures. If not, well you are doing something wrong. You get what you put into it so if you really love what you do and have the desire to learn more, then the sky is the limit. there's plenty of high paying I.T. jobs out there, you just have to have the desire and motivation to persue them and take the required steps along the way (which means earning the top certs).

UnixGuy

CCIEWANNABE wrote: »

i don't want to sound mean here, but experience isn't everything. i mean, i have about 3 years experience in networking and i am always teaching people that have 10, 15 and 20+ years in the field how to do things all the time. don't get me wrong i do thing some experience is important, but the I.T. field changes so often, which is why certifications hold so much weight in my opinion. so when you say 50k is a high salary amount for someone with 5 years experience, i'm sorry bro but someone is lying to you because i make way more than that with only 3 years experience. might i suggest that you find a job as a DoD contractor. that will certainly change your views on how much money you can make with 5 years or less experience! If you have 10+ years in the I.T. field and you are somewhat smart and capable of learning, then you should be pushing 6 figures. If not, well you are doing something wrong. You get what you put into it so if you really love what you do and have the desire to learn more, then the sky is the limit. there's plenty of high paying I.T. jobs out there, you just have to have the desire and motivation to persue them and take the required steps along the way (which means earning the top certs).

+ 1

I totally agree. The number of experience years matters if you have invested in yourself well in those years, and it also depends on what you've been doing during those years.

Kasor

WOW.... the report is so unreal.....................

Mrock4

Agreed..I know people who wasted 5 yrs of their life, while others spent 5 yrs in the same role really pushing themselves. How you spent that time is a huge factor IMO.

Undoubtedly the report is biased due to GK's involvement but what can you do.

1MeanAdmin

CCIEWANNABE wrote: »

so when you say 50k is a high salary amount for someone with 5 years experience

Really? LOL! I thought I said quite the opposite: "5 years of experience would result in something like $50K which is also not outrageously high"; "I don't think that $80K is too high for someone who spent a decade or two in IT". I assumed that prior comments suggested that these salaries are unrealistically high and I explained why I think they are not. We have no argument: our opinions are somewhat similar. I'm sorry If I didn't express myself clear enough.

CCIEWANNABE wrote: »

i don't want to sound mean here, but experience isn't everything

I agree, "actual mileage may vary", but a survey is about general data, not individual.

CCIEWANNABE wrote: »

i'm sorry bro but someone is lying to you because i make way more than that with only 3 years experience. might i suggest that you find a job as a DoD contractor. that will certainly change your views on how much money you can make with 5 years or less experience! If you have 10+ years in the I.T. field and you are somewhat smart and capable of learning, then you should be pushing 6 figures. If not, well you are doing something wrong. You get what you put into it so if you really love what you do and have the desire to learn more, then the sky is the limit. there's plenty of high paying I.T. jobs out there, you just have to have the desire and motivation to persue them and take the required steps along the way (which means earning the top certs).

Apparently, if I don't brag about my achievements (not that there's anything wrong about this), some people here assume there are none, LOL. Does my nickname irritate you, BTW?

HeroPsycho

What's a 'DoD contractor'?

skrpune

HeroPsycho wrote: »

What's a 'DoD contractor'?

priceless...

arwes

A local company is doing their part to bring salary expectations down! I'm 99% sure this is an ISP that I worked for 10 years ago:

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS: PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES: Support IT infrastructure and online services by installing, configuring, and maintaining Unix/Linux servers, services and applications software under the direction of senior staff where needed. Install, configure, and maintain highly reliable 24x7 production servers for internal and Internet services, including (but not limited to) WWW, FTP, DNS, email, VOIP, authentication, NFS. Support non-Unix server infrastructure efforts, including Windows Active Directory integration, and NAS servers. Support and enhance automated system administration functions such as provisioning, monitoring and configuration management for thousands of hosts. Cisco configuration knowledge a plus. Write intermediate-level scripts to automate provisioning, software installations, and monitor systems health, performance, and security. Install and configure Windows servers under direction of senior staff. Travel occasionally as needed to support remote sites and equipment collocation facilities. Comfortable with most aspects of system administration; for example, configuration of mail systems, systems installation and configuration, fundamentals of security & installing third-party software. Solid understanding of UNIX/Linux; configuration of apache, perl, php, sendmail, bind across multiple platforms. Fundamental understanding of networking /distributed computing environment; can configure NFS, Windows Active Directory, can check DNS information; & advanced routing concepts (BGP, VLAN, VPN, Tunnels). Ability to program in an administrative language (sh, bash, php, Tk, Perl, ASP). Great experience as a Unix administrator for 24x7 server-based real-time systems.

Salary: $7.00 - $10.00 per hour.

darkerosxx

I'm assuming Bayou.

arwes

Yep pretty sure. They've had similar ads in the past with a range from $25,000 - $50,000. I'm more apt to believe $25,000 than anything much higher than that.

Slowhand

I think these kinds of reports are interesting. They're a good source of information about what the IT field looks like, as long you look at the salaries in your area, the requirements for your particular niche of IT, and a whole lot of other factors. I definitely agree with CCIEWANNABE, you only get as much out of those years of experience as you put into them.

With the huge amount of work and responsibility just dropped on her shoulders, FadeToBright is probably going to be a pretty hard-core sysadmin inside of a year or two. Another example is MrD, who went from just beginning his Network+ in 2006 to passing the CCIE R&S lab in 2008, and on his first try no less. In both these cases, there was, (and will be,) a lot of hard work put into a very short amount of time. Compare that to an admin that sits around for seven or eight years, playing Unreal all day and just keeping tabs on the same Windows 2000 servers, NT4 workstations, and an old Cisco 1604 router that's been around since the late 90's. The latter adds up to almost a decade of experience, while the first two examples are (and will be) huge amounts of experience squeezed into the span of two or three years.

Experience is a huge part of getting anywhere in this field. However, just like certs, you can have "paper experience", (in the form of a bloated resume filled with empty fluff,) so it's important to get the most out of those years of experience and not put too much stock in someone just because they've been around a while. Education, certs, and experience all need to have something to show for them, they aren't just magic wands to wave and skill will simply descend down upon you from the heavens.

Incidentally, I've been working in IT for almost seven years now. I've held three different positions as mid-level sysadmin or systems engineer, along with two junior-level positions and have done countless consulting gigs, and it doesn't prove a thing; anyone on this board can tell you that I'm only coherent half the time, and the other half even I don't know what I'm babbling about.

JoJoCal19

Slowhand wrote: »

I think these kinds of reports are interesting. They're a good source of information about what the IT field looks like, as long you look at the salaries in your area, the requirements for your particular niche of IT, and a whole lot of other factors. I definitely agree with CCIEWANNABE, you only get as much out of those years of experience as you put into them.

With the huge amount of work and responsibility just dropped on her shoulders, FadeToBright is probably going to be a pretty hard-core sysadmin inside of a year or two. Another example is MrD, who went from just beginning his Network+ in 2006 to passing the CCIE R&S lab in 2008, and on his first try no less. In both these cases, there was, (and will be,) a lot of hard work put into a very short amount of time. Compare that to an admin that sits around for seven or eight years, playing Unreal all day and just keeping tabs on the same Windows 2000 servers, NT4 workstations, and an old Cisco 1604 router that's been around since the late 90's. The latter adds up to almost a decade of experience, while the first two examples are (and will be) huge amounts of experience squeezed into the span of two or three years.

Experience is a huge part of getting anywhere in this field. However, just like certs, you can have "paper experience", (in the form of a bloated resume filled with empty fluff,) so it's important to get the most out of those years of experience and not put too much stock in someone just because they've been around a while. Education, certs, and experience all need to have something to show for them, they aren't just magic wands to wave and skill will simply descend down upon you from the heavens.

Incidentally, I've been working in IT for almost seven years now. I've held three different positions as mid-level sysadmin or systems engineer, along with two junior-level positions and have done countless consulting gigs, and it doesn't prove a thing; anyone on this board can tell you that I'm only coherent half the time, and the other half even I don't know what I'm babbling about.

See you kind of hit my problem right on in your second example of experience. Its a situation I will be making a thread about soon so I wont hijack this thread, but Im in a very cush admin job that pays more than most people make doing ALOT more work than me so right now Im staying put but Im gaining empty experience doing the same thing day in and day out.

Slowhand

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

See you kind of hit my problem right on in your second example of experience. Its a situation I will be making a thread about soon so I wont hijack this thread, but Im in a very cush admin job that pays more than most people make doing ALOT more work than me so right now Im staying put but Im gaining empty experience doing the same thing day in and day out.

Only thing to do is make the time to study while you're working, and resist the urge to play video games and read forums all day.

Seriously, though, having a "slow" job isn't always bad. If you find yourself with a lot of free time, use it to study and set up labs for yourself. You'll get paid, train yourself, and you'll have all that much more time to yourself and your friends/family outside of work. If you can't get a lot of experience out of your work, the trick is to make the most out of it.