network admins 2

[fluid11]

I need your opinions on this.

Is there any money out there for network admins anymore and what is the average salary nowadays? Is programming a better field to be in? The market looks pretty bad right now and I'm considering jumping ship into a new field, while I'm still young (23). I like doing IT, but if there is no money in it anymore, then I'm going to get out and do something else. What do you guys think?

By the way, I'm doing Linux, NetWare, and Windows administration right now.

Thanks for your opinions on this,
ChrisP If someone resolves an issue for you, or was helpful, please click the link on the bottom left hand corner of their post to give them a "star" letting them know they helped you.

 

[ThomVF]

Just read this today. Take a survey of the people on a programming forum. Find out how many live overseas and are doing cutting-edge programming for $15/hour....scary
=======================================================
THE IT RUST BELT

Posted July 12, 2002 01:01 PM Pacific Time


"Mother, mother ocean / After all the years I've found
/ My occupational hazard being / My occupation's just
not around."

-- Jimmy Buffet, "A Pirate Looks at 40"

OF ALL THE requests for advice I receive, the hardest
come either from college graduates and career changers
wanting to know how to break into IT or from older
programmers who want to write code until they retire
but can't even get an interview. They've been sold on
the idea that proficiency with computers practically
guarantees employment. Now, nobody wants 'em.

I'd love to offer hope and great advice. Regrettably,
the best advice I have is this: Find a different field
of endeavor. Unless you're in the top rank, there's
little future for you in IT.

The supply of programmers exceeds demand and that
drives down prices -- your wages. That's because the
genie of globalization is out of the bottle, and it's
going to stay out of the bottle at least until the
Internet closes shop.

Twenty years ago, the same thing happened to factory
jobs. U.S. factory workers were unionized, which
simply meant that instead of keeping jobs and
accepting lower wages, their jobs went away altogether
as the factories relocated to the Philippines,
Malaysia, and Taiwan. Now it's our turn: Indian and
Asian programmers work as hard as or harder than their
American counterparts, and for lower wages.

It's easy to blame greedy CEOs for this mess, but
employers aren't just being greedy when they shift
these jobs to foreign workers. If they don't and their
competitors do, they have to charge more for the same
products and services. Not exactly a formula for
success. And when business shifts to the competitors,
the jobs do too -- overseas.

Nor would changing the H-1B program -- or even
eliminating it altogether -- help. Whether foreign
programmers come here or programming jobs go there,
the result is the same except for which country
collects the income tax. Foreign programmers produce
code just as good as that coded by American
programmers. For less. Are you willing to compete?

Is this a good thing? Not for the average U.S. citizen,
I imagine, although it will help keep prices down when
we're shopping.

Not every IT job will move overseas, of course. Much of
management will remain, as will jobs where proximity,
linguistic ability, and cultural familiarity are
important, like network administration, systems
analysis, user-interface design, help desk, and
project management. Nor will all programming jobs move
overseas, of course. Plenty of U.S. factories remain
open, too. But the trend is clear, and it means an
increasing number of American programmers will be
competing for a decreasing number of jobs.

So if you still want a programming career, here's the
best advice I have: Expect to work harder for less.

Are you more optimistic? Send Bob an e-mail
at RDLewis@ISSurvivor.com. Bob Lewis heads
IS Survivor Training (

http://www.issurvivor.com),

organizer of "Leading High-Performance IT."
=================================
Thomas V. Flaherty Jr.
Birch Hill Technology Group, Inc.

http://www.birchhillgroup.com

 

[sleipnir214]

Well, if I wasn't depressed before, I am now. ______________________________________________________________________
Never forget that we are
made of the stuff of stars

 

[fluid11]

LOL sleipnir, I was already depressed anyway

I really don't like programming anyway. I was hoping for some positive viewpoints on network administration, but I don't think I'll get any.

ChrisP If someone resolves an issue for you, or was helpful, please click the link on the bottom left hand corner of their post to give them a "star" letting them know they helped you.

 

[VerboseIT]

Ok ... A positive note.

Some companies are transitioning to remote administration by there helpdesk. Helpdesks are hiring Net Admin. people.




Of Course they are paying helpdesk pay.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Fine print

 

[fluid11]

What about Unix/Linux administration? I still see some high paying *nix jobs. What do you think? If somebody helps you, please click the link in the botton left hand corner that says "Mark this post as a helpful/expert post".

 

[VerboseIT]

*nix if you can find a position is good. I can't say about the future. I hope it will be incredible in the future. Right now it is not wide spread enough and I would consider it a speciality field. Solaris is spread out a bit in the corporate environment because it goes hand in hand with Oracle. Good money and demand, if you have skills in those two.

 

[GlenJohnson]

Go to

http://www.mcpmag.com

and follow the links to this years Salary Survey. Looks to me it depends on the company and geographical location. There's an MCP making considerably more than an MCSE. Check it out. Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
glen@nellsgiftbox.com


"Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud."
Hermann Hesse (1877-1962); German-born Swiss writer.

 

[TekkieDave]

It's been my experience that programmers are a dime a dozen. It's the guy who manages programmers/Nt Admins/infrastructure that gets paid a lot. You may know everything there is to know about a programming language, or a server OS, but there's always someone who oversees these techs, and that guy usually takes home a nice chunk of change every 2 weeks. If you can get in the door at a good company, folcusing on people skills, communication and management will lead you in a good direction.

 

[AIXSPadmin]

I work for a fortune 500 company and the IT managers are not making more than the technical people. Not everybody is a manager and not everybody is a technician. And, truly some should not be doing what they are because they are better at technical than managing, and vice-versa. Communication and inter-personal skills will get you far in either area - and life!

 

[enigma174]

Gone are the days when a teenager with crude knowkedge of Frontpage express can make a million dollars from a fansite.

I'm in a similar position to fluid11: 23, Linux/Unix experience, programmer and wandering what next. I'm currently working as something like a sysadmin - i'm solo here, babysitting a couple of windows boxes and about 25 workstations, looking after the users and doing database programming. I got this job off a client who i was doing bespoke programming for (i was out of work and needed to pay the rent, so i started my own company)

I've found that being flexable is one key to landing a job.
It's no longer acceptable to say "Don't ask me - its a hardware problem.", a fairly good programmer who can also diagnose and fix a hardware problem is worth more than, an expert C++ programmer to a lot of businesses. And if you have this range of skills then these are the jobs you should target.

What i'm wondering is with these skills, is there any way to get out of the one-man-band way of doing things?? While the pay is still resonable, there is a limit to what you can learn.
I guess thats what tek-tips is for.

--cb

 

[fluid11]

I just moved back to NY and I already have a good job offer, but I'm turning it down because its not in the area I want. I think thats a positive sign, and I'm a little less worried about finding a good and high paying job now. I think that there are still plenty of good netword admin jobs out there if you really know what you are doing. Or even better, if you know the right people to get you in somewhere (which I don't really have yet).

ChrisP
MCSE (2K/NT4), CNE (NW5), CCNA, LPIC-1, Linux+, Server+, Network+, A+, i-Net+, CIWA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If somebody helps you, please click the link in the botton left hand corner that says "Mark this post as a helpful/expert post".

 

[GoLdFiNgeR]

Nursing/Health care is in deep need of people,

 

[GlenJohnson]

From MCPMAG .com

MCP*
MCSA MCSE*
1 year $38,700 $37,400 $38,700
2 years $40,200 $45,300 $45,400
3 years $43,150 $46,400 $48,000
4 years $46,450 $53,000 $53,050
5 to 9 years $53,200 $61,000 $59,900
10 to 14 years $56,800 $74,700 $69,200
15 or more years $73,300 $74,800 $75,650
* Includes NT 4.0 and Win2K

From Salaries.com

LAN Support II 25th%ile Median 75th%ile
Illinois -- Rockford $44,018 $49,971 $54,925
$43,411 $49,281 $54,167



Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
glen@nellsgiftbox.com

"Take nothing on its looks: take everything on evidence. There's no better rule."
Charles Dickens (1812-1870); English novelist, dr

 

[AIXSPadmin]

Glad I work in Unix (AIX specifically), because at 7 years I earn more than a Microsoft certified anything with 15 years.

 

[AIXSPadmin]

As with any other job though, nursing does pay well, but you would earn less to start than you are making now. The pay is better than most to start, but you probably wouldn't make more than 40k with overtime first few years.

 

[cwright]

depends on location and if you can get a clearance, if so govt jobs in DC area run 60 to 70 K.