salary expectations starting out in IT

cojomo2

Hi, after being self employed for 8 years I'm facing a career change. I've always kinda liked computers so I did the comptia A+, N + and will have Microsoft MCTS soon. During these courses I got buckets of hands on experience with networking, virtualisation, server 2008 , and a little bit of Cisco hardware.

A buddy of mine that did the a+ and n+ recently got a job after doing a work exp. stint and he's getting 28k ..was he just lucky? What can I expect when I go looking after I finish my MCTS soon? Ideally I'd love a job in systems admin ...and wouldnt mind working for low pay as long as it wasn't long term. Any info appreciated .

L1011

Pretty much lucky yes. Without experience you'll be looking at 22-24k probably although you should be able to move up relatively quickly once you've some solid experience.

cojomo2

MYOB wrote: »

Pretty much lucky yes. Without experience you'll be looking at 22-24k probably although you should be able to move up relatively quickly once you've some solid experience.

thanks for the reply, thats what I thought. So for someone with a few IT certs but without a degree, that has a 2-3 yrs exp. as a systems admin, could they be looking at circa 35k?..and if so, will this continue to increase with experience and some added certs, or would the lack of degree be a limiting factor?

Cuddlesworth

I'd be surprised if you could walk into a SYS admin job with no experience in IT at all.

L1011

You won't - 2 to 3 years experience as a sysadmin is going to be more than 3 years away from the day you start. 35k is realistic then but its not realistic for 2 years out from day one.

BailMeOut

Rule of thumb in IT is always pick experience over money. Find a job in IT that can be a stepping stone to future better paid jobs once you build up your skills set. If you do this you will be eventually rewarded but be prepared for low pay and crap work for a few years.

sawdoubters

can you get a job in Microsoft or intel,you could go to uk and get big bucks working for banks

cojomo2

AnnyIngram wrote: »

If you don't have experience then you can ask 25 to 30 k probably. It's my thinking but according to the company rule you can get more or less than this range of salary which i mention.

Hi Anny, I notice you are in the USA..so guess your talking dollars there when you mention 25-30?

L1011

sawdoubters wrote: »

can you get a job in Microsoft or intel,you could go to uk and get big bucks working for banks

You don't appear to have much idea of the state of the IT industry, do you?

Cuddlesworth

MYOB wrote: »

You don't appear to have much idea of the state of the IT industry, do you?

He seems to be on the ball. I hear tell the banks in England are hiring for some serious modern skillsets. Think I saw that one of them was going to move off of Windows NT and go to 2000.

thomas anderson.

Between 22k & 30k depending on experience.

L1011

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

He seems to be on the ball. I hear tell the banks in England are hiring for some serious modern skillsets. Think I saw that one of them was going to move off of Windows NT and go to 2000.

Damn, my 2003 (RTM) MCSE is too new :pac: