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I recently interviewed for and was offered a System Admin position in Boston at a large well known company. I am currently making 60k + bonus in Albany, NY -- they offered me 70k + bonus. This seems low for the Boston area, but I could be wrong since it's hard to find any reliable information.
I already realize that 70k in Boston is nowhere near 60k in Albany...
What kind of bonus? $50 and a hearty thank you, or something that can be measured and predicted? You will need roommates but that salary is do-able. Your share of rent will be $500-800 + utilities(not cheap) in a three bedroom somewhere near public transportation. The only issue with counting your bonus money is that it only comes once a year, so I would ignore it and treat it as a surprise gift.
I live in Boston and work in IT (similar role) and that's approx my salary. I have a $1,500 plus mortage and get by with money left over for vacations and weekend beer money. Obviously everyone's spending habits are different, but I think you could get by on that.
What kind of bonus? $50 and a hearty thank you, or something that can be measured and predicted? You will need roommates but that salary is do-able. Your share of rent will be $500-800 + utilities(not cheap) in a three bedroom somewhere near public transportation. The only issue with counting your bonus money is that it only comes once a year, so I would ignore it and treat it as a surprise gift.
Bonus target is 7%-10.5%.
I'm considering Boston as it's a better market for IT than Albany. I live VERY comfortably in the Albany area and I know I won't be able to find the kind of housing I have now in Boston (2br townhouse w/garage and yard). I'm willing to make some sacrifices to get into a better market, just trying to determine if this is a smart move or not. This opportunity presented itself randomly and I jumped. I have to make a decision very soon.
I'm considering Boston as it's a better market for IT than Albany. I live VERY comfortably in the Albany area and I know I won't be able to find the kind of housing I have now in Boston (2br townhouse w/garage and yard). I'm willing to make some sacrifices to get into a better market, just trying to determine if this is a smart move or not. This opportunity presented itself randomly and I jumped. I have to make a decision very soon.
Lets assume the average bonus of 8.75% so all in about $76k a year. This is enough to live in Boston but of course your money won't go as far as Albany. After taxes, lets say you keep $50k. You can live with a roommate for $800/month or find a small place of your own for $1500/month. Lets assume you get your own place and spend 20k for living a year (rent + utilities + telecom), you are down to $30k. Even if you spend $700/month for Meals & Entertainment, you are down to $21.6k. Now tuck aside $1k/month for 401k, you have $9.6k left over. Save $7.6k of it and spend $2k on vacations/clothes/big ticket purchases. Not terrible but you can save another $10.8k living with a roommate which I would advise you do. It will be good so you can possibly meet people as well.
But you should not be making your decision solely based on money as a criteria. You have to think long-term (you'll be farther ahead in 5-10 years in Boston b/c of opportunity) and about personal life experience (Boston is a great city to open your horizons, explore, meet new people, etc. compared to Albany). You have to think about and consider these things as well before you make the move. Maybe you have enough friends & family and have no interest in starting over - depends on what you want? Remember, you can always move back after a year or two if you don't like it but I have never meet anyone who has regreted moving to a new city, even if it didn't work out, as the life experience was worth it.
I am an IT Director for a small software company in Boston. $70k isn't a terrible sysadmin salary, depending on seniority, precise role and industry. I have almost 15 years of experience in the Boston/Cambridge technology world. So I know the market a little.
For example, I'd pay someone $70k if they had 2-3 years experience with a relatively junior-level skill-set. I'd probably expect someone at this salary to be either Windows server focused (but early in their career, so no deep experience with things like Exchange, MS SQL, Architecture, etc.) or someone who is very much focused on the desktop support side of things.
This is also what I'd consider to be the starting salary for a fresh-out of school Linux Admin. However, the demand for Linux stuff in Boston is quite vigorous (lots of cloud/SaaS/Web 2.0/etc. stuff here) so you should be able to command 75-85k and upwards with even 3 years experience.
Another factor is what sort of business you will be supporting. Are they a biotech? High tech (aka software/hardware)? Finance? Are they some other sort of business that isn't technology focused? The more technology is an essential part of their business the more you can expect to be paid, but there are plenty of "low-tech" companies in the Boston area too and these IT jobs just won't pay as well.
If this company is at all technical, and you have more than a couple years of experience, then this sounds like they went out of market to save money. (An in-market candidate would have demanded more.) This isn't necessarily a bad thing for you, though: Consider that once you're in market and have worked there a little while you can now apply for all those IT jobs that are "Local candidates only". And if you like the company, well you can make the case that they should be paying you more if they want you to stick around.
I hope this helps. BTW, http://www.glassdoor.com/ isn't a terrible resource for this sort of thing. Take their data with a grain of salt, but it should give you something to think about.
Last edited by alpha_beta; 11-26-2012 at 05:04 PM..
Reason: grammar, typos, etc.
I am an IT Director for a small software company in Boston. $70k isn't a terrible sysadmin salary, depending on seniority, precise role and industry. I have almost 15 years of experience in the Boston/Cambridge technology world. So I know the market a little.
For example, I'd pay someone $70k if they had 2-3 years experience with a relatively junior-level skill-set. I'd probably expect someone at this salary to be either Windows server focused (but early in their career, so no deep experience with things like Exchange, MS SQL, Architecture, etc.) or someone who is very much focused on the desktop support side of things.
This is also what I'd consider to be the starting salary for a fresh-out of school Linux Admin. However, the demand for Linux stuff in Boston is quite vigorous (lots of cloud/SaaS/Web 2.0/etc. stuff here) so you should be able to command 75-85k and upwards with even 3 years experience.
Another factor is what sort of business you will be supporting. Are they a biotech? High tech (aka software/hardware)? Finance? Are they some other sort of business that isn't technology focused? The more technology is an essential part of their business the more you can expect to be paid, but there are plenty of "low-tech" companies in the Boston area too and these IT jobs just won't pay as well.
If this company is at all technical, and you have more than a couple years of experience, then this sounds like they went out of market to save money. (An in-market candidate would have demanded more.) This isn't necessarily a bad thing for you, though: Consider that once you're in market and have worked there a little while you can now apply for all those IT jobs that are "Local candidates only". And if you like the company, well you can make the case that they should be paying you more if they want you to stick around.
I hope this helps. BTW, http://www.glassdoor.com/ isn't a terrible resource for this sort of thing. Take their data with a grain of salt, but it should give you something to think about.
Thanks. Good advice. I have 8 years in IT, I have worked my way up from helpdesk, to desktop support, to System Admin for the last few years. I currently do it all for a small SaaS company. Supporting 30+ servers, phone system, network, laptops + desktops, etc. While I don't have incredibly deep Exchange experience, I was thrown into supporting Exchange about a year ago and was the lead on an Exchange 2003-2010 migration. I heard about this job from a friend who works there and he forwarded my resume on, so I'm not sure they were really hunting "out of market". Company isn't super "techie" but it's a position supporting their global server network (think 700+ servers). So it sounds like it should absolutely pay more than 70k. Thank you, your post was very helpful.
Thanks. Good advice. I have 8 years in IT, I have worked my way up from helpdesk, to desktop support, to System Admin for the last few years. I currently do it all for a small SaaS company. Supporting 30+ servers, phone system, network, laptops + desktops, etc. While I don't have incredibly deep Exchange experience, I was thrown into supporting Exchange about a year ago and was the lead on an Exchange 2003-2010 migration. I heard about this job from a friend who works there and he forwarded my resume on, so I'm not sure they were really hunting "out of market". Company isn't super "techie" but it's a position supporting their global server network (think 700+ servers). So it sounds like it should absolutely pay more than 70k. Thank you, your post was very helpful.
Yes, from what you're describing, I'd expect somewhere at least 80-85k base comp, plus benefits, bonus and/or stock (options or employee purchase plan). The whole standalone-sysadmin thing is hard when moving to another company. You've got all the responsibility of an IT Manager/Director with none of the people management experience. The fact that they're not super tech heavy is probably why it seems a little low.
If you take this job, I recommend trying to network your way into the SaaS/software/etc. There's a very very strong SaaS/cloud community here that you should be able to fit into. If you've got Linux skills, strengthen them and advertise them heavily. Also, if you can get some experience with puppet/chef and are familiar with git, you'll find that will serve you very well up here in Boston.
Yes, from what you're describing, I'd expect somewhere at least 80-85k base comp, plus benefits, bonus and/or stock (options or employee purchase plan). The whole standalone-sysadmin thing is hard when moving to another company. You've got all the responsibility of an IT Manager/Director with none of the people management experience. The fact that they're not super tech heavy is probably why it seems a little low.
If you take this job, I recommend trying to network your way into the SaaS/software/etc. There's a very very strong SaaS/cloud community here that you should be able to fit into. If you've got Linux skills, strengthen them and advertise them heavily. Also, if you can get some experience with puppet/chef and are familiar with git, you'll find that will serve you very well up here in Boston.
I should have specified. I'm not currently a standalone sysadmin, I work with a team of a few others (a DBA, Systems Engineer, and IT Manager). But I'm entirely responsible for the corporate home office and the infrastructure associated with it (AD, File/Print Services, Exchange, etc). Also help administer the two datacenters associated with the SaaS product. The possible new position is with a ....being vague here... management consulting company. During interviews virtualization and upgrading the SAN infrastructure were discussed as upcoming projects. So, not an entry level System Admin position. Thanks again for your helpful replies, what you say seems to echo what I've found doing my own analysis. It will in the least help me counter when I talk to HR. There are plenty of positions out there and if I am going to relocate it will be for the right one.
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