Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
A chance you might've been making too much straight out of college, but 35k is way too low for someone with 2 years' experience.
If you've no ties to this area, expand your job search nationwide.
This... Currently no one wants to say it.. But Cdcs / defense industrial base is in a bubble that is slowly bursting. The next round of brac and possible sequestration might be the kill shot for this area.
50k is not bad to be honest..especially without a clearance or non dod clearence. And even that is a moot point as there are ci poly cleared and full scope cleared seasoned engineers getting rolled off weekly. I know because I get resumes sent to me weekly.
I can say.. Don't drink the cyber juice. Everyone wants to do the work but honestly it's disappearing as well as a lot of it is being consolidated or moved out of the area. And cyber is soooo wide. Ceh doesn't give you a feel for it..
Seriously if you have no permanent ties to the area... I wouldn't sleep on Norfolk area, Georgia, Texas Colorado..
Companies are consolidating... Small businesses are being sold to larger ones.. Turbulent times coming soon.
As others have said.. If you have time to sit and be picky do so. If you don't then take the offers and keep looking. It's work out there.. Recruiters are low balling because they have been told too.
Case in point I keep a passive profile.. I get bites all the time. What I'm finding are the contracts aren't long term or the salaries aren't the same.. This time last year I got low/mid six figure offers for cyber work weekly. This year... Not so lucky. They come... Or I counter hard.. They balk then realize they can't find people and call back.
I'm not leaving my current gig for nothing less than the perfect position. What I'm seeing on the cyber side is everyone moving to private sector...and getting great salaries and sometimes even keeping clearances.
The cloud is cutting costs and jobs in dod. Cyber is going back to the warfighter or being bracked to cheaper locations..
Big companies loosing money on armaments are trying to make up for it by squeezing cyber...
Which is not really working out to well..
Pro tip if you know how to look up contract rates then negotiations are way easier...
There's a wide range in "government IT", from folks who're actively managing and developing for systems, to folks who're actively using systems (e.g. cyber analysts who are glued to their Arcsight screens), to folks who are filling in spreadsheets (*).
(*) Yes, those people are needed. Yes, there's a way they can do their jobs without annoying the active managers/developers. Yes, I am an "active system manager."
The latter don't have as many hard skills as the first two groups. If you didn't pick up any hard skills -- OS knowledge, application knowledge, etc., or the ability to be conversant in those hard skills, life will be harder.
I'm a Virginia Tech Computer Science graduate (class 2012) and was recently laid off from my previous employer. I was working on government contracts. Long story short the prime for the contract I was on was cutting costs and my position wasn't deemed essential so I was given my two weeks. Anyway the past 4 weeks I've been job hunting and I'm getting calls at least 3-4 times a day from various recruiters about job positions related to my resume. I'm looking to get into the cyber security field if possible but if I can't find an entry level cyber security job I'm also looking to gain more System/Network Admin experience as well.
I also have the following certs I did on my own while in school: CCNA(expired last year) MCSE 2003, A+, Net+, Security+, and just got my CEH (certified ethical hacker) last month.
I also have an intern experience, 2 years of part time System Admin/helpdesk related job experience I did while in school, along with 18 months of full time job experience with my last job. It's not like I have no job experience.
So I must have spoken to at least 8 different recruiters and each time they ask me what I was making at my last job (66k) the position they were trying to match me for ends up being way lower (like 35-50k tops). In no way can I live on a 35k salary up here and I really don't want to take a pay cut all the way down to 50k until I'm desperate since it's hard to recover your salary once you take a cut.
Hell, I even got referred for an entry level cyber security posiiton on a contract for $22 an hour........Cyber Security Engineer....at $22/hour....wow. I did an internship in college for $15/hour. I've just never heard of IT positions requiring a bachelors related to IT plus certs and years of experience paying that low. I know IT is not a low paying field unless you have no certs or no degree.
Is the IT field in this area changing or am I just getting lowball offers? A recruiter I met today in person said due to the government cuts, IT workers are taking huge paycuts as well and job positons are demanding more with less salary these days.
Has anyone else had similar experiences when finding technical STEM related jobs in this area?
I didn't bust my rear end off at a top CS program and pay out of pocket for my cert training only to be told I'm at best qualified to do help desk roles for 50k or less. There's got to be a way to find a job making what I was making. The average starting salary for a bachelors in CS alone is like 55-60k. I would think in an area with a high cost of living such as this and from a good school it'd be even higher.
Thoughts?
You have a very impressive list of credentials and to have all that at your young age. (assuming you are mid 20's). I still dont have all that and im much older lol.
Anyway seems like these companies are just trying to take advantage of the fact that you are young and inexepienced in working world and so low balling you. keep looking.
I think thats just how it works. When you are young and starting new (at least at a new company) you have to take a lower salary and work your way up. I am a VCU IS grad and started at 45k (way less than what my degree skills, and job should pay), and at my first performance review got my salary bumped up to 50k.
Once I have 3-5 years hard experience in the field, I expect my salary to be in the 80-100k range. Being young sucks. Take a job with good growth potential and work your way up.
You mention speaking with "recruiters." The only tip I have (and you may already be doing this, as you didn't specify) is to apply directly when you can as opposed to working through a staffing firm. Maybe the recruiters you've talked to ARE corporate recruiters, in which case, feel free to ignore me
Also, don't be afraid to try to go for interviews for some of these jobs. If the hiring managers like you (not the recruiter - the recruiter is really just a middle man/filter), you may be able to negotiate more.
Sounds like you need more experience perhaps doing the manages service provider route for a few years.
Also FWIW I really don't think college matters as much as experience in this field.
Yup, $35K for a CS graduate with two years of experience is low, especially in the DC area.
I agree, if the people I know who are applying for jobs these days are a measuring stick, you can do better. Also agree with the person who advised steering in new directions other than cyber. Friends of mine who were into cyber now seem to be expanding into medical research applications, if it helps.
Recruiters from staffing forms are mostly a waste of time, in my experience. Maybe other people have had better luck with recruiters, but in my family we've learned to avoid them. They often don't completely understand the positions they are asked to fill, which means they routinely match up people to positions that they really aren't qualified for, and often overlook matches that would be a perfect fit. Networking is the way to go, as well as applying directly to companies.
Also, although people here might give you a few good tips, remember to be wary of advice from internet forums. I see at least one person on this thread who is not qualified to give you advice in your field, so there may be others.
Sad but true, while you can get a few good tips in a forum like this, there are also people who want to give advice so they'll feel important even though they don't work in your field, don't have a clue what they're talking about, and don't care if their advice hurts you. I don't know why people like to do this, but they do. You also might hear from people who do work in your field, but what you don't know is their careers are dismal failures and they are the last person you should be listening to.
Your career is important--so get advice from people you know in person and from people who are succeeding.
I think part of the problem is that though you're a CS graduate, you seemed to be geared more toward IT infrastructure. True CS really leads more toward development than infrastructure.
Although I'm not from NoVA or researched the local market in-depth, my experience has been that infrastructure is more frequently low-balled and has less security than development or even non-development roles at software companies. When I first got out of school in 2010, I worked for Northrop Grumman, and they were always hiring and firing, and usually their entry-level cyber jobs geared toward fresh college graduates still required a clearance prior to hire. I had a friend who ran into a wall with CGI because he didn't already have a clearance. With sequestration, the wars winding down, and defense cuts, I'd say this market has gotten worse.
Recruiters are constantly contacting people about helpdesk and other low level work because turnover is very high and the job is stressful. If you've done this work before and have your resume out there, you're going to get contacted because there is always work out there for this type of thing. I would hold off on taking on these jobs, as it's going to be hard to get back to $65k if you go down to $40k, and there is a scarring process that takes place when in a call center role.
I'm a Virginia Tech Computer Science graduate (class 2012) and was recently laid off from my previous employer. I was working on government contracts. Long story short the prime for the contract I was on was cutting costs and my position wasn't deemed essential so I was given my two weeks. Anyway the past 4 weeks I've been job hunting and I'm getting calls at least 3-4 times a day from various recruiters about job positions related to my resume. I'm looking to get into the cyber security field if possible but if I can't find an entry level cyber security job I'm also looking to gain more System/Network Admin experience as well.
I also have the following certs I did on my own while in school: CCNA(expired last year) MCSE 2003, A+, Net+, Security+, and just got my CEH (certified ethical hacker) last month.
I also have an intern experience, 2 years of part time System Admin/helpdesk related job experience I did while in school, along with 18 months of full time job experience with my last job. It's not like I have no job experience.
So I must have spoken to at least 8 different recruiters and each time they ask me what I was making at my last job (66k) the position they were trying to match me for ends up being way lower (like 35-50k tops). In no way can I live on a 35k salary up here and I really don't want to take a pay cut all the way down to 50k until I'm desperate since it's hard to recover your salary once you take a cut.
Hell, I even got referred for an entry level cyber security posiiton on a contract for $22 an hour........Cyber Security Engineer....at $22/hour....wow. I did an internship in college for $15/hour. I've just never heard of IT positions requiring a bachelors related to IT plus certs and years of experience paying that low. I know IT is not a low paying field unless you have no certs or no degree.
Is the IT field in this area changing or am I just getting lowball offers? A recruiter I met today in person said due to the government cuts, IT workers are taking huge paycuts as well and job positons are demanding more with less salary these days.
Has anyone else had similar experiences when finding technical STEM related jobs in this area?
I didn't bust my rear end off at a top CS program and pay out of pocket for my cert training only to be told I'm at best qualified to do help desk roles for 50k or less. There's got to be a way to find a job making what I was making. The average starting salary for a bachelors in CS alone is like 55-60k. I would think in an area with a high cost of living such as this and from a good school it'd be even higher.
Thoughts?
You are in wrong skillset for a CS grad.
1 - Learn ERP (SAP or Peoplesoft) and become functional consultant ,earn minimum $85/hr , though the duration of contracts are less, you earn way more than 66k. you can take breaks whenever you want. If you r lucky you can land up $110/hr after couple of projects, then there is no end .
2 - Learn data warehousing tools earn $55 - $75/hr
3 - Get training as business analyst and earn $80 - $95k full time salary
There are many IT jobs in DC,VA,MD area if you are a citizen or green card holder which pays minimum 75k for 2-3 years experienced candidate.
FYI, I have MS in comp science currently working in peoplesoft.
What value does the OP have besides the piece of paper from a University?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
