How much salary should I ask for?

I've been working in NOC's for 3 1/2 years and had a "system admin" title for about 6 months. I'm going into a third interview with a mobile gaming company as a linux sysadmin. I think I'm all done with the technical questions as this interview is only going to be with the executives. I live in the bay area and currently make 60k. How much should my salary expectation be when they ask me how much I want?

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PhildoBaggins

EleventyBillion ... look at similar jobs in your area and see if you can find salary rates. $60k-70k territory sounds about right for a bigger city.

drew726

Yeah I've always heard people say ask for more than what you really want but I feel like they'll wouldnt give me an offer if I asked for 80...I really want 70-75.

cyberguypr

You can ask for anything, but as PhildoBaggins said, make sure you do your homework and determine what similar position are offering in your area. If you are low balled an are really interested in the position you can present your case for more $$$ and show hard evidence.

ajs1976

someone recently told me that when you switch jobs, to look for 10-15% increase.

chrisone

always start high then negotiate down.

YuckTheFankees

You might want to look on glassdoor.com and see if there are any reviews on salaries at that company. Glassdoor has helped me with my last 2 jobs.

inscom.brigade

I used this link as a learning tool,

Simply Hired Salaries | Simply Hired

sieff

I'd ask for $95K ... how did it go?

tpatt100

I think there are too many variables that impact what you ask for and what they offer. The average on Glassdoors and a salary survey site sometimes mess up what some people think they should ask for. If you are currently making 60 and are fine with that but see an average much higher on some survey site it doesn't always mean somebody else will pay you more. So many things can move salaries up and down over time.

I used to worry too much about what I should ask for when a company calls to start talking salary. I know it is good to know what the area average is so you don't scare a potential offer away but it mostly depends on you and your current situation.

If you want more and find out the average in your area is higher I would focus more on what your current salary is and the type of work you do. I am at a point where salaries are not that important to me anymore. I have a range that is up or down and sideways that I am comfortable accepting. Work environment and quality of life is probably 75 percent of my decision making now a days. The other 25 percent is something that can benefit me if I have little experience in it but somebody is willing to give me a chance. So I could lose salary or stay at my current level if a job came up that I know would help me experience wise.

Last few jobs though I threw out a range and they offered me the middle which is what I wanted so who knows, try that.

Chitownjedi

I'm in same situation.... had an interview, they loved me, but job is listed at 45-60k, In Chicago while more than I make now, is much less than my experience by itself warrant. Let alone by the end of 2013 I plan on having an additional 4-6 Certifications and the position is glorified Help Desk... so its actually less responsibility then I've had in a while... But now 60,000 is looking very low for my skill-set and experience I want to ask for more during my final interview in 2 weeks, but doing contracts so long and being """""forced"""""<(funny)to take whatever was offered first do to pregnant wife and no savings I'm kind of still in take whatever you get offered mode, even though at some point all these 5 hour study days 7 days a week need to pay off, and I am really really really really tired of being underpaid. Hopefully it works out for you.. I still have 2 weeks to figure out what I have to do... about this offer, or take a big risk and just relocate with much of no cushion....

lol..... Life

petedude

tpatt100 wrote: »

I think there are too many variables that impact what you ask for and what they offer. The average on Glassdoors and a salary survey site sometimes mess up what some people think they should ask for. If you are currently making 60 and are fine with that but see an average much higher on some survey site it doesn't always mean somebody else will pay you more. So many things can move salaries up and down over time.

There can be an incredible number of variables in the mix, too. Some survey respondents may have advanced degrees/certs, or be in some industries that pay better (energy, government, defense. . .). Some of these folks may have tenure at their jobs and have been in them many years. There's regional demand and/or availability of skillsets to consider. There's also exaggeration to be accounted for, as some folks may be reporting salaries with bonuses/perks included, or simply entering false numbers for kicks.

sieff

@drew726 I think it'll come to you. My last negotiation was with the HR recruiter, who confers with the hiring mgr. HR recruiter gave me a range. I asked if there was more flexibility in the figure, told them I was thinking (10-15K) extra based on my experience, decreased amount of time needed to ramp up, 2 week relocation and start time, etc. HR recruiter came back with offer and solid number. It was a good number and honestly like $25k than what I was making before. This was the job that I wanted out of all the other offers I received up to that point. I bluffed again and asked if there was more flexibility - explained I'd be sitting my first CCIE Lab attempt in 6 months and perhaps we can list that in the offer letter and state I'd get another 10K if I passed it in 1 year from my start date. They came back with a 10% end of year bonus plan, added $5K on the salary offer and $5K sign-on bonus after acceptance of offer letter.

Sorry for the long winded summary, but my point is in salary negotiations think outside the box. It's not unheard of to even negotiate an extra week of vacation. There's generally a budget for the salary, but there's a few other pieces on the plate to try to leverage.

tpatt100

Ugh I ALWAYS forget to negotiate extra vacation....I was talking to a coworker and he was telling me he got the same pay as his last job but this was closer to home plus they gave him an extra weeks vacation. If you have a kid or kids an extra weeks vacation for sick kids is pretty valuable imo. I miss my old job which I had unlimited sick time which I never abused but that benefit alone was worth a ton of money looking back.

Zartanasaurus

I have no idea what a Linux admin should get paid in the bay area. Around here a position like that would pay $60K to $80K. So I'd imagine you'd be in the $80K to $100K range. But that's just a guess really.

ChooseLife

I would include into the salary assessment a number of factors related to the position itself.

E.g.

Hours of work: is this 9-to-5 or 24/7 position? on-call off-hours? how much, how often, etc
Criticality of work: sysadmin could be supporting R&D boxes that could go offline for weeks, or a mission-critical system that cannot afford 5 minutes of downtime
Complexity of systems supported / skills required: it could be a couple of straightforward LAMP installs or a Hadoop cluster

zrockstar

Definitely do your research because I think a Linux admin in the bay area should make a hell of a lot more than 60k, so don't use your current salary as a reference. 60k in the bay area is pretty much 40k for the rest of America and you don't see a lot of Linux sysadmins working for 40k. Your goal of 70-75 doesn't sound unreasonable to me.

drew726

yea I definitely am underpaid. I'm just scared it'll put them off

pinkydapimp

You really should avoid mentioning a specific salary number. If they ask, let them know that you are open with regard to the salary and willing to negotiate fair compensation. Usually at this point, i typically ask them what the range for the position is.

If you mention your number first, you will be at a significant disadvantage when negotiating.

sieff

just roll the dice. the best negotiations have been when i already had a job. i was throwing out big numbers to every recruiter that called me. i even threw out $160K to a Cisco Silver partner and they were open to it. that offer was more money than the position i eventually took, but i didn't want to be the smartest guy in the room. i'd stick to $90-100K and see what they come back with. the worse thing that can happen is they say NO and you go back to your current job... what's likely to happen is they'll say "we can only go to $86K".

BigMevy

pinkydapimp wrote: »

You really should avoid mentioning a specific salary number. If they ask, let them know that you are open with regard to the salary and willing to negotiate fair compensation. Usually at this point, i typically ask them what the range for the position is.

If you mention your number first, you will be at a significant disadvantage when negotiating.

I don't think I've ever been the one to initiate a range. Generally I go through the interview process without ever broaching the topic, eventually they'll come around with "this is the range we were looking at offering" and I go from there.

NOC-Ninja

Talk in the streets is that salary at NOC should be around 85k - 95k

YuckTheFankees

LOL. I need an increase in salary if thats the case.

kurosaki00

NOC-Ninja wrote: »

Talk in the streets is that salary at NOC should be around 85k - 95k

LOL
I see what you did there