Article: Annual raises fall short, leaving IT pros to grin and bear it

NetworkWorld Magazine, Jan 5, 2009, has an article on the IT hiring and salary outlook for 2009. There's lots of good information broken down into IT specializations and geographical areas (in the USA) to set your expectations by.

If you can't get a hold of a hard copy of this issue, much of the article's information (and more) is online:

IT salary survey: pay overview

2009 IT hiring outlook

2009 salary map

Network World Salary Survey

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Comments

savior faire

I have been in systems development since 1973. IT people are horrendously over paid, even back in the 80s and early 90s. The bubbe started getting even more out of hand in the mid 90s through today. The party is over.

Ahriakin

savior faire wrote: »

I have been in systems development since 1973. IT people are horrendously over paid, even back in the 80s and early 90s. The bubbe started getting even more out of hand in the mid 90s through today. The party is over.

I think you forgot to add this at the end :

Very few professions require the amount of ongoing training we need in order to stay competitive, or have their core materials change so rapidly. Also to be actually good at the job you have to be very smart and talented (I know this is not Unique to IT but for the salaries you will have to put up with during your time in the trenches there are easier ways to make that money with those talents), there are plenty of folks who have gotten ahead minus these attributes and yup they are overpaid, but I wouldn't call them IT professionals, just chancers who happened to know how to plug in a mouse.

Edit: Oh and thanks for the links JD

. Nice that the rollover map has Security as a hot skill for pretty much them all .... (crosses fingers)

msteinhilber

Ahriakin wrote: »

I think you forgot to add this at the end :

Very few professions require the amount of ongoing training we need in order to stay competitive, or have their core materials change so rapidly. Also to be actually good at the job you have to be very smart and talented (I know this is not Unique to IT but for the salaries you will have to put up with during your time in the trenches there are easier ways to make that money with those talents), there are plenty of folks who have gotten ahead minus these attributes and yup they are overpaid, but I wouldn't call them IT professionals, just chancers who happened to know how to plug in a mouse.

I agree with this. I have invested a very large amount of my time outside of work either performing work for my job that I am unable to do during business hours. I have also invested heavily outside of work training both for technology we will be using at work as well as training to advance my career. I think many of us in IT who earn large salaries do a LOT of work to earn those salaries and make many sacrifices, there are some out there who just got lucky and don't have to work as hard for their salary, but I suspect eventually as things evolve they are going to become obsolete and will be forced to educate themselves and/or take a lower paying job.

networker050184

savior faire wrote: »

I have been in systems development since 1973. IT people are horrendously over paid, even back in the 80s and early 90s. The bubbe started getting even more out of hand in the mid 90s through today. The party is over.

Horrendously over paid? I wish......

At least I make more than the Salary Survey says I should

Paul Boz

I'm fortunate to work in security. We have raise reviews next week so hopefully things go well. You can definitely tell that even IT is affected by the economy. Security is especially valuable in this type of economy because when jobs get lost crime rates go up.

bertieb

I'll be happy to keep a job in 2009 - I was called into a meeting today with the rest of the team and basically we've all been put at risk of redundancy. Rubbbiiiiisshhhh. Hopefully I'll not be the one out of the four who has to go - but I'll be happy to keep on the same salary this year and just keep learning/studying hard.

vCole

networker050184 wrote: »

Horrendously over paid? I wish......

At least I make more than the Salary Survey says I should

Same here, it said $30K, I'm making $36K

dynamik

That's depressing. Thanks for the link Networker

Interestingly, going back and changing between HS and bachelor's had no effect.

GT-Rob

Interesting on the slides there it puts certifications at the bottom of Which hiring criteria get the most attention.

I think all those people who come on here and complain about their MCSE not getting them their dream job should have taken a look at this.

msteinhilber

GT-Rob wrote: »

Interesting on the slides there it puts certifications at the bottom of Which hiring criteria get the most attention.

I think all those people who come on here and complain about their MCSE not getting them their dream job should have taken a look at this.

I can attest to this since I've been on the job hunt lately. I've found that the vast majority of my interviews focus more on some of the large projects I have listed on my resume that I have deployed over the years. The other big area of focus is related to questions about classes I have taken during my studies, what I've found helpful that I've been able to apply to my job, etc.

bertieb

GT-Rob wrote: »

I think all those people who come on here and complain about their MCSE not getting them their dream job should have taken a look at this.

I couldn't agree more. I find it amazing that people with little or no experience but with an MCSE (etc) expect to earn high wages right from the word go.

HeroPsycho

GT-Rob wrote: »

Interesting on the slides there it puts certifications at the bottom of Which hiring criteria get the most attention.

I think all those people who come on here and complain about their MCSE not getting them their dream job should have taken a look at this.

The list looks good except for education. I just know too many people who have less formal education than I do, same location, very similar experience, etc., but they lack what I have for formal education, and they're doing just as well as I am. I'd put certifications probably just ahead of education, but it's certainly not three spots back from it.

Slowhand

Wow, I'm apparently supposed to be making roundabout $70,000 per year.

networker050184

HeroPsycho wrote: »

The list looks good except for education. I just know too many people who have less formal education than I do, same location, very similar experience, etc., but they lack what I have for formal education, and they're doing just as well as I am. I'd put certifications probably just ahead of education, but it's certainly not three spots back from it.

I'd have to agree with this. Rumor has it formal education plays a bigger role in management positions but personally I have never seen it hold anyone back.

UnixGuy

Ahriakin wrote: »

..... Also to be actually good at the job you have to be very smart and talented....

+1

But the problem we have a lot non talented idiots who can still **** their way and manage to fool "stupid" management and get higher salaries !

JDMurray

UnixGuy wrote: »

But the problem we have a lot non talented idiots who can still **** their way and manage to fool "stupid" management and get higher salaries !

Yes, but those cheating, non-talented idiots often move up into stupid management and make way for other talented smart guys.

blargoe

bertieb wrote: »

I couldn't agree more. I find it amazing that people with little or no experience but with an MCSE (etc) expect to earn high wages right from the word go.

This is starting to get worse again too with all the layoffs and stuff across multiple industries. I'm hearing a lot more of the "change careers and become a highly paid IT professional in just 6 months and get the lifestyle you deserve" crap commercials on the radio over the past month or so.