Salary for unix/network admin 1

[ponetguy2]

Hello everyone, I'm about to start job hunting. I have 9 years experience in IT. five years with unix, 9 years with windows, and also 9 years with network administration. I'm certified with Solaris 8 and CCNA. I don't have a college degree, but I have some college. Five years out of the nine was from the financial industry (focus on electronic trading servers and workstations).

I'm currently earning $74,000/year. How much should I expect to get offered when I go out in to the market. Suggestions on minimum and maximum salary would truly be appreciated.

Carlo Reyes

Technology/Systems - Delivery
Networks and Infrastructure

Chicago Customer Technical Support

 

[kHz]

Good Luck! I hope they both go well and you have two offers.

 

[dennisbbb]

Don't act too cocky (but confident) and pretend you're a super nice guy just here to learn more (shoeshiner?). Lots of smiles... Now that's the right interview attitude... will likely get an extra $10K just for that. hehehe

 

[ponetguy2]

My interview did not go well!!! He tried to give me a technical question which did'nt make sense.

Here is the question he gave me (keep in mind, these are fictional IPs):
you have a NIC (hme0) and the IP is 172.10.2.11, and you snoop this NIC. You find that there are packets coming from 10.0.0.2. Is this okay?

I answered him with I'm not sure, it depends.

The manager quickly answered back w/ this is not okay. Because these are from two different VLANs.

I tried to reason w/ him that if a network has multiple VLANs on a switch or whatever, and some switches can be intelligent enough to forward packets from one segment to another, this would be okay. It really depends on what the Network Admin wants to do.

I tried to answer him as nice as I can, but he was not happy and quickly dismissed our interview. He was probably thinking I'm stupid. Oh well.


Carlo Reyes

Technology/Systems - Delivery
Networks and Infrastructure

Chicago Customer Technical Support

 

[dennisbbb]

If your network has multiple routers, the purpose of VLAN is to stop packets from flooding the network and increase performance.

Eventhough packets can leak to other VLANs, you can never sniff out that they are coming from a certain ip (10.0.0.2).

 

[lambent]

I don't understand why it's not ok. I assume snooping is just like turning on sniffer.

I just turned on Ethereal on my PC and I've found at least the DNS query response from my DNS server that is not on the same subnet as my PC. So this is enough to defeat that manager.

Also if your PC are hosting services like HTTP or FTP, there will be a lot of traffic from other hosts in other network.

And what I understand is that when an IP packet traverses from hop to hop, the SRC and DST IP addresses will not change (except for NAT or encapsulation/decapsulation). Only the layer-2 MAC will change from hop to hop.

 

[dennisbbb]

The idea is, with multiple VLANs in a network topology, you cannot see one another, similar to multiple physical network subnet. You can only see the routing ip of each VLAN.

A good analogy is, your internal network subnet will never ever see packets from my internal network ip, eventhough we communicate thru the internet.

It was a trick question. Someone who have actually played with VLANs in their infrastructure will know this.

Most companies don't use VLAN, so I'm not sure who that manager is trying to hire here.

 

[lambent]

I've VLANs in my network and they're all reachable to other with the use of a layer-3 switch.

Say for example, if you have 2 VLANs, one is 192.168.0.0/24, the other one is 10.0.0.0/24. If routing is enabled over these 2 VLANs, then hosts in both subnets can reach each other provided that the hosts have proper default gateway.

In another scenario, say Company A and Company B. Company A is 192.168.0.0/24 and Company B is 10.0.0.0/24. They both have internet connection and servers that can be access from the Internet. In this case, both companies should not see each other's IP range as NAT must be used in this case and IP addresses are translated.

However if these 2 companies are connected over the Internet using say IPSec GRE VPN, and with proper routing configurations, then Company A can see Company B and vice versa.

You can't say that the manager didn't make any sense. I think he wanted you to explain these possible scenarios.

 

[dennisbbb]

Re-reading ponetguy2 post, the original question didn't even involve VLAN (which btw his explanation is false, all packet broadcast are restricted within a VLAN by frame-filtering. A second VLAN will not pick up packets from the first VLAN, even if overlapping VLANs are involved.)

The original question involves two Subnet in a single network. From a workstation with ip 172.10.2.11, you can never pick up traffic from a workstation with ip 10.0.0.2, since these two Subnet can never overlap each other unless both Subnet mask are 0.0.0.0., which is erroneous.

 

[ponetguy2]

VLAN1 and VLAN2 w/ two different subnets can definetly recieve packets from each other if a router is involved or if they have a layer 3 switch. However, the Network Admin neeeds to configure this in order for it to work.

As I stated, it really depends on what the Network Admin is trying to do. I know the purpose of VLANs. The idea is to separate two different subnets in order to minimize traffic and etc..

The point I was making is, managers during interviews should be more specific with their questions. They should'nt just come up w/ the scenario given above which was very vague, and expect me to answer. He was waiting for a specific answer with a vague question. This is not fair to the person whe is being interviewed. If he would have given me a scenario with details, I would have been okay with it, but he did not.



Carlo Reyes

Technology/Systems - Delivery
Networks and Infrastructure

Chicago Customer Technical Support

 

[dennisbbb]

hahaha.. poor Carlo.

I agree. And if you try to explain or ask questions, you are viewed as being rude and over-stepping. If you sit quiet and nice, you are viewed as an idiot.

 

[ponetguy2]

dennisbbb,

I was laughing about it after a while. At first, I was pissed. It was a loose loose situation. I really did'nt want the job anyway. Their benefits really sucked.



Carlo Reyes

Technology/Systems - Delivery
Networks and Infrastructure

Chicago Customer Technical Support

 

[mikeydidit]

Carlo, you could do what a guy did here a year or so ago. He came in and applied for our server group. The first requirement here is a bachelor degree and the certs are a major plus. He said he had his degree and Cisco certs out the you know what. So Of course he got the position. Until about 4 months later when our HR department pinned him down for a copy of his degree. Then he just didn't show up for work anymore. Too funny. 4 months and no one caught up with the fact that he didn't have a degree or know anything about servers... Good luck on your search by the way. You keep looking and something will come your way.

Mike Jones
Louisiana State University Health Sciences center

 

[ponetguy2]

Thank you mikeydidit. I don't have a degree and most of my certs expired. I only have my SCSA.

Carlo Reyes

Technology/Systems - Delivery
Networks and Infrastructure

Chicago Customer Technical Support

 

[dennisbbb]

Why did you quit your last job before getting another one? I would've taken that route.

 

[ponetguy2]

I did'nt quit. I still have a job. I'm looking because I'm bored at work. I want to learn something new and I want to be challenged.

Carlo Reyes

Technology/Systems - Delivery
Networks and Infrastructure

Chicago Customer Technical Support

 

[rliebsch]

Carlos,

Long time reader, first time reply!

maybe a corporate gig isn't your best option. There are small design agencies, consultant agencies, etc. who will need either a full time in house one man IT department, or even more commonly: a retained contractor who works part time. If you find 2 or 3 such companies, you'll be busy and well paid. Better yet, you find 4 or 5 and hire someone- now you own and run a company.

You do user support, you do application and system support, you get to be the systems, network, security, telephony administrator. You get to innovate in every possible aspect of IT.


Robert Liebsch
Stone Yamashita Partners

http://www.stoneyamashita.com/

 

[ponetguy2]

Hello rliebsch,

I don't know about working for a small shop. I've done it before and it was too complicated. I had two companies and it was really hard. Not to mention the getting paid was a little tough. There were times when my paycheck bounced and there were also times when I did'nt get paid. Actually, they still owe me over 4K. I don't think I can do that again.

I still have a job anyway. I get paid pretty decent in my opinion and our benefits rock. $74k ain't too shabby for someone who does'nt have a degree and with only five years experience as a unix admin. I might be a little under paid as a unix admin, but at this point, who cares.

Thank you for the advise. I think I will do my last interview this week. I will try to get my certs for CCNA, Linux+ and SCSA for Solaris 10. Once I complete these goals, I will go back out in the market.

Carlo Reyes

Technology/Systems - Delivery
Networks and Infrastructure

Chicago Customer Technical Support

 

[dennisbbb]

rliebsch is right. Keep the current job, and do side jobs on the weekend, to increase your income since this is one of the reason to move on, (besides being bored).

 

[rliebsch]

Well, 5 years in with no degree or certs, 74 plus benefits is about right, honestly.

I am now the manager, I have a user support person who helps with some of the windows infrastructure (exchange, file services, blackberry) who gets about 10K less than that.

I am about to bring in someone I know who has about 10 years at ISPs with massive network and linux experience. I am going to offer about 75. I know its probably 2x what he is making now. So I don't feel too bad about it.

I think I was at 75 for my 5th through 8th year.

If you are going to bone up on things keep in mind: workplace transparency. I don't know how important it is for your company, but I am sure somewhere up the echelon, they want always on, always accessible. Blackberry to get mail and calendar in the cab. Clientless VPN for access to email and files from a strange computer. VPN and possibly static routes from home static IP'd broadband. Taken in light with the IP Telephony that will eventually be commonplace...
Anyway thats my observation about what's coming....


Robert Liebsch
Stone Yamashita Partners

http://www.stoneyamashita.com/

 

[dennisbbb]

My gosh, that's a demanding place! I'm always wondering how the salary pay is calculated in the private sector. Wouldn't the manager supposed to watch out for his guys? Since it's not the manager's money anyway, shouldn't he at the very least pay as high as the going average rate to his guys, if not higher?