Anyone w/ Salary of $90,000 to $100,000, Current Certifications Held ?

I am just trying to gauge whether or not this is even attainable given that i want to avoid being in Management/Networking.

So I have been constantly going back and forth in my mind about whether or not i should pursue a VCP. I've heard some bad stories about the exam as well as the fact that unless I get lucky getting a voucher/waiver I might have to pay $5,000 for the required course exams. I am getting ready to take my exams and get my CCNA over the next 60 days. Just thinking ahead..

And even at that If i do get a voucher it would likely be in VCP-NV, which i want to avoid. Not banging on networking, lets just say i dont want to go to work everyday and look at a bunch of numbers on a console all day long.

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Essendon

dave330i wrote: »

I find it interesting that OP doesn't want to spend $5k to earn $100k.

Agreed here. OP, you can do the VCP course in about $200 if you look around. Plenty of threads on here about this.

I believe the VCP gave me a $30k bump in salary, the combination of VCAP-DCD/DCA/DTA and experience gave me another $40k bump in salary. It wasn't the certs themselves though, but the knowledge and and skills that came along with them.

Don't chase the money, chase the knowledge and skills, the cash just follows.

N2IT

Some people can't see past the weeds, no matter how hard they try.

Thechainremains

@ brownwrap, lsud00d..

Well let's see if you look at some of the statistics.. getting classroom taught doesnt always translate to the job.. it sure doesnt translate to your pocketbook either.. If others have skipped paying $5,000.. i should be able to as well..

I dont think my posts are whiny at all.. im merely trying to guage the overall climate of where everyone is at and make an intelligent decision..

brownwrap

I don't have a problem with people who don't have certs. I started my first technical job in 1971. I worked fro the Jet Propulsion Lab (NASA) from 1992 to 2009. It wasn't until I went to work for the DOD that I was required to get certs. What I do resent is people who come in with a few certs and expect to make what I am making because they can't afford the house they want. My first job was $3.18 an hour working on submarines and going to sea as a contractor. I have been an admin on SunOS when it was around, Solaris, SGI, HPUX, Red Hat, and now a Cray. So don't show up and expect to make what I am making without the experience. I don't mind getting certs, I just don't like to be forced to. As for that house on the hill. The first house I bought was condemned and it took me 9 months to clear all of the items that were red flagged. I now own four houses, three of which are paid off, but I see people come in all the time you complain that they just can't make it on their salary.

shodown

Thechainremains wrote: »

@ brownwrap, lsud00d..

Well let's see if you look at some of the statistics.. getting classroom taught doesnt always translate to the job.. it sure doesnt translate to your pocketbook either.. If others have skipped paying $5,000.. i should be able to as well..

I dont think my posts are whiny at all.. im merely trying to guage the overall climate of where everyone is at and make an intelligent decision..

There are different paths to that 90-100K, you have to figure out which one works best for you. If you have hustle in you, you can get to 100K. When I decided that I wanted a 100K I set a goal to do it, figured out what I needed at the time. I got to 100K and said this was too easy. Next I set my sites on 250K. Had to find a different path as the road changed and potholes deeper. I've set my sights much higher now and once again the road has really changed and the game is more fierce, more people playing for keeps. I'll leave you with a few sayings

1. It takes money to make money
2. If your willing to put 6% in your 401K a year, why not put 6 percent investment into yourself
3. Your skills are your job security, not your company or union.

Hope this helped some folks out.

kurosaki00

So hard to even get to 40k...

philz1982

kurosaki00 wrote: »

So hard to even get to 40k...

Actually it's really easy. It's all about your perspective. If you asked someone making 500k/yr they would tell you making 250k/yr is easy. Once you understand how to play the game making money work for you is easy. I just haven't figured out the path to 200k yet but I'm sure once I do I will look back and think it's easy to make 200k. I look back at my first 100k/yr and in retrospect it was an easy formula.

hurricane1091

philz1982 wrote: »

Actually it's really easy. It's all about your perspective. If you asked someone making 500k/yr they would tell you making 250k/yr is easy. Once you understand how to play the game making money work for you is easy. I just haven't figured out the path to 200k yet but I'm sure once I do I will look back and think it's easy to make 200k. I look back at my first 100k/yr and in retrospect it was an easy formula.

This is garbage. How can someone be so arrogant? The fact that you say it is easy is a joke. We're all here educating ourselves (degrees, certs, experience) and we all are constantly trying to qualify ourselves for that next position that comes with a pay bump. Ultimately it requires some luck or knowing someone or just being there in the right place to get the right positions and the right stepping stones. I hardly get paid at all in comparison and work extremely hard just to barely be making it and that goes for many others, and you want to just call it easy? If it was easy, everyone would be getting paid well and we'd all live like the Gatby's.

networker050184

I think what philz1982 is getting at is it's all relative. To someone making $50k making minimum wage is easy etc. Like anything in life practice and perfecting your craft makes it easier.

N2IT

It comes and goes quick. My friend who was head program manager over HBO to go a few years back was making quite a bit. I believe his last year was base 250,000 with over a million bonus. Fast forward 3 years a head now he is making 85,000 10% bonus. Just saying.

Commission structures can change and so can you position if you start to make too much

Still a program manager but..........

hurricane1091

I just don't like the word easy being thrown around like that. It takes time, first and foremost. Then it takes effort, and a lot of it. Takes will power + brain power. Takes the right experiences, some luck thrown in there, and fate to cap it off.

I see what you're saying but look at people here. There's people qualified for positions and they are having a hard time finding them, you would agree right? What else would that person do? There's always things but back to the initial point on that one. Like, I can think of a time where I was in college and did not have a job. And it was hard even to find an unskilled job at that point. It's just never easy you know? I was un-employed in 2014 after the contract position I had ended. Interviewed for T-1 helpdesk positions and couldn't get them and was unemployed for months. Yet at some point I found the job I have now (granted the pay is low) with much more responsibility and requires much more skill. Yet for months I couldn't find a position lower than that???

TL;DR it's never easy. Everyone here puts in a ton of effort I think they would agree.

networker050184

Once you figure out and master the "what else" the person can do to get those jobs it will seem easy. Then you'll think getting to the next level is hard, then that will eventually be easy for you as well. Just the way it goes.

shodown

Hurricane

I think that type of mentality is the reason why it hasn't worked out the way you want it to. I know that me and Philz were both in the navy, so our mentality maybe a tad different than most people on the mental torture we can put ourselves through and still want to win, but i see other guys/gals on here who haven't been in and they have that same drive to succeed and will find a way. There is a person on this site who went from being a security guard to working a very large corp doing massive projects in a few years. We all watched it happen on this site.

Saying its easy is just a way to tell your mind I can do it as we naturally want to avoid hard things. There is always opportunity, but we have to set ourselves up for them. This may require a change in location, change study focus, work on soft skills all sorts of things.

The bottom line that i'm getting at is that if you take heed to what the people are saying who are the position that you want to be in, listen to what they say, figure out what works for you and go after it. Otherwise you can spend the next 10 years on this board wondering why you cant't take off.

hurricane1091

All I know is I can't wake up tomorrow and be qualified to make 6 figures. I'll have to continue to put in the time and effort and hopefully things fall into place. If it's easy for some people to go home after working all day and hit the books consistently and still do personal things (gym, errands, significant other, etc) then so be it I guess. For example, I know I need more experience, more certs, and maybe more college. Easy enough --- except it's not easy. That's time, effort, and money.

So maybe the "path" to 6 figures is easy, but the work required to get there is not. And I'm going to be fine honestly. I've very young and have been out of school for a year. But already I've put in a ton of effort and I already have a plan to get to where I want and what that will require. I just would never look at someone and tell them "Yes, it was easy" once I get to that point. I would tell them "If you put in the time and effort, you can do it".

MrAgent

Well stated shodown. I feel that getting to the level I am at now has been easy, but like you I was also in the Navy, and definitely understand the mentality aspect. I don't give in and persevere in order to attain my goals.

hurricane1091

I guess it's just personal viewpoints. I look at your profile and see you finishing your MS and see the certifications you have. I definitely don't look at that as easy. I look at that as respectable and that you definitely worked hard. I feel like you would be discounting yourself if you said it was easy honestly.

JoJoCal19

Hurricane1091, I believe Philz' response of being easy was directly in response to kurosaki00 saying that it was hard to even get to $40k. I wouldn't call reaching $100k easy, but I do believe it is attainable by everyone. I forget which poster here usually says it but I agree, don't chase the money. Chase the knowledge and the skills and the money will follow.

Alif_Sadida_Ekin

I'm currently at 125k. However, next month I start a new position that I just accepted as a Solutions Consultant. The new position pays a base of 135k + 15k bonus. So, 150k total. I live in the Orlando, FL area too, which is very low cost of living. My certifications are in my signature. The highest level cert I have is an MCSA in Server 2003. Haven't updated my certifications since I graduated from WGU in 2010.

I noticed earlier on in my career, the certifications played a bigger role then they do now. My interviews for the last two or three jobs never asked about my certifications, but my experience. I brought my laptop to several of the interviews so I could show examples of my work and the applications I built. I do notice that certifications hold more weight in network and sys admin positions though, even as you move up in rank. In development, however, no one cares. They just want to see if you can do what you say you can do, and want to see examples of how you did it.

With that said, it all depends what field you're in and who the employer is. I'm sure most can agree that experience is worth more than certifications, but there are still some occasions where employers like seeing them or require them due to contractual agreements with their clients. As others have said though, I wouldn't put a salary on specific certifications because there's no telling how much you'll get paid if you get a specific cert. Experience is really what will determine how much you make.

dave330i

How to make 6 figures in 3 easy steps:

1. Find a high demand technology you enjoy.
2. Become an expert in said technology (usually involves reading a lot of white papers, getting certified, etc).
3. Crush the 6 figure job interview (Companies are willing to take a chance on inexperienced candidate, since not enough supply).

This is what I did when I was a mechanical engineer. I did the same thing when I switch to IT. It took 3.5 years to land the $100k job as ME. 1.5 years in IT.

iBrokeIT

Beautifully put dave330i and I agree 100%. You also have to spend a lot of unpaid time developing those six figure skills and make sacrifices that many are unwilling to make which is what earns you that pay check.

Many people approach the high five figures, decide that's good enough and stop challenging themselves because they are comfortable and lazy.

impelse

This is very interesting.!!!!

srj

This will always be a bad discussion to have. It has been stated so many times that salary is dependent on location. I'm not going to put the emphasis on how correct the statistics are, but check out this page: The salary you must earn to buy a home in 27 metros

These are all large cities, so the disparity would probably be even larger if we were talking about remote locations. Needless to say, look at the difference in salary needed to buy the median priced home. In Pittsburgh, you would only need a salary of $32,000. Someone making $100k in Pittsburgh would appear to be living quiet welll. Likewise, there is probably a much smaller percentage of people making $100k in Pittsburgh, as opposed to San Francisco where you need a $145k salary to afford the median priced home.

This doesn't tell the whole story, but understanding this will get you closer to the truth. I don't know what a better measure is - percentage of median income, percentage of median home price, or a combination of these stats or others. Regardless, this would actually give you better data than an absolute value that some could never hope to achieve, or others require just to own a home.

stryder144

Good point, srj, thank you for posting.

iBrokeIT

SRJ, makes a good point that will also go along with another point that hasn't been mentioned here: access to opportunity.

I lived in Western South Dakota until 2 years ago. There were a lot fewer opportunities to advance my career after a certain point than I have here in the Twin Cities. If you live in an area with a lack of opportunities to advance your career you are going to have to make a choice which you value more: your career or where you live.

There are plenty of places in the US you easily move to and fast track your career by have access to lots of opportunities to make significant jumps in your roles, responsibilities and paycheck.

BradleyHU

it depends on what industry & location you're in....

anhtran35

Fastest way to make 6 figures? Go to a war zone( Iraq and Afghanistan ) on a DOD or DOS contract. You get free food/healthcare and pay is usually above 100k. You will be sleeping in B Huts/Barracks/Connex housing. Tax free of 97k for those that only stay in US for less than 30 days. Paid off a lot of debts in one year. Lifestyle was hard but worth it.

sj4088

I make over 100K. I'm a systems engineer. And as other have noted it isn't the certs but the experience that get you that kind of salary. I haven't had any certs for awhile. Why? Because I have 15 years experience in IT. After about 7 years I stopped getting certs. But when I first started out I picked up every cert known to man because I felt my resume was empty from lack of experience and needed to have something on it. But I never got close to a 100K my first 6 years in IT even though I had a lot of certs.

Certs are nice but they aren't going to get you a 100K. Realistically you have two paths to 100K in IT. Stay in it long enough....10 years or graduate with an engineering degree from a top 10 engineering school(even then it's going to take you 2 or 3 years to get there).

This isn't an anti cert post. I like certs. I'm probably going to start picking them up again myself even though I can get a job without them with no problem.

Iristheangel

I make over $165K and will probably get a $15K bump in March. I have a lot of certifications but I think the ones that count the most are:
CCNA/CCNP
CISSP
MCSA

I would say that the CISSP and MCSA rounded me out well but the Cisco certs really helped since networking is more of my passion

kohr-ah

90k.
CCNP/CCDP.
Experience got me there. Certs got me through HR.

Cyberscum

The crazy thing is that when I made only 50k I felt like I had more money than I do now at twice that salary.