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My apologies in advance if this turns into a blog entry..... I recently relocated to NoVA with what I thought was a decent salary. I'm making in the $120s with the potential for a few small quarterly payouts and an end of year bonus based on performance. I'm somewhat pleased with the salary and the current work-life balance that my company offers.
The IT market here is a lot less demanding than my previous job. What spawned the relocation to this area was the need for a more professional atmosphere and a quality of life that would increase my ambition. The DMV has exceeded my expectations in most areas. However, I'm looking to further my professional network with more people in my field outside of my employer. Ideally I'm looking to broker relationships and get more insight into more facets of technology and market trends. I don't see many interesting and active groups on LinkedIn or Meetup groups.
Ideally, my goals within the next year are to demand a salary in the $175-200K range. I'm willing to compromise my stable 40 hour work week to attain a higher salary. I'm looking for any insight or recommended career paths for accomplishing this. Any pointers or recommended groups to join? I've also considered going back to college to finish my BA (shy by 20 hours) or dedicate some time in studying another language.
Unless you plan on starting your own firm or moving into a serious niche market (think cryptology) you're probably about at the top of your pay range without moving into some for of management. I make a little more than what you make (assuming similar bonuses) and I'm pretty much at the top of what I'm going to get paid here without moving into a higher management role (and taking on business development responsibilities) and part of the skillset I have is very niche.
If you're willing to invest some time and become a SME on something "hot" you can make some serious money without moving into a "finding more contracts" role, but as is you're probably at the the top of what you're going to get paid. Getting your BA is probably not going to add anything and neither is working additional hours, unless you're willing to take on a lot of travel (or a full scope poly).
Do you have a top secret (TS/SCI) security clearance already? I know a lot of the big defense companies are throwing money at people in IT that are cleared. Of course the hard part is getting a company to sponsor you and pay for your background investigation, all while waiting months or more for your clearance to come through.
What do you specialize in for IT? Software development? DBA? Networking? Project management? There's really a lot of options depending on what your specialty is.
I had a clearance about 10 years ago, but I'm certain its expired. I've heard good things about defense contractors in the area, but I've shied away because of uncertainty with defense spending. I've also consulted clients in military and government agencies in the past and my experience has been that the red tape and politics really limit innovation.
My expertise is in the Networking/Data Center space. My fear was that I capped out in terms of salary with my current skill set. I really don't want to get into management at this phase because I do like the flexibility of being an engineer in the field.
I had offers as a sales engineer in the mid-high 100s, but the metrics for bonus and commission weren't sound in my opinion. One example offer, was a base of $100K and sales objectives that had a quota accelerant that could possibly reach the $180K mark. SE offers were typically a mix of base salary and sales quotas, which aren't solely based on delivery, but a percentage of social skills and being in front of the right client at the right time. I'm much more comfortable interfacing with machines than people...
I'm considering investing a considerable amount of study into "Big Data", SDN and Cloud Computing. These technologies are fairly new, but I'm uncertain what type of salaries these skills will demand.
I had a clearance about 10 years ago, but I'm certain its expired. I've heard good things about defense contractors in the area, but I've shied away because of uncertainty with defense spending. I've also consulted clients in military and government agencies in the past and my experience has been that the red tape and politics really limit innovation.
My expertise is in the Networking/Data Center space. My fear was that I capped out in terms of salary with my current skill set. I really don't want to get into management at this phase because I do like the flexibility of being an engineer in the field.
I had offers as a sales engineer in the mid-high 100s, but the metrics for bonus and commission weren't sound in my opinion. One example offer, was a base of $100K and sales objectives that had a quota accelerant that could possibly reach the $180K mark. SE offers were typically a mix of base salary and sales quotas, which aren't solely based on delivery, but a percentage of social skills and being in front of the right client at the right time. I'm much more comfortable interfacing with machines than people...
I'm considering investing a considerable amount of study into "Big Data", SDN and Cloud Computing. These technologies are fairly new, but I'm uncertain what type of salaries these skills will demand.
You're least likely to find that type of salary in some type of in-house role. As a field engineer who just installs, maintains, fixes stuff you're looking at a cap of 120-140 if you really know your stuff. Your best bet will probably be to go the VAR route, go for some type of solutions architect role where the focus is less on installs & deployments and more on designing real solutions that are saving businesses money or increasing their bottomline, oh and be willing to travel. Even at that point the cap I've seen in this area is usually 160ish.
I'd also like to add that this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Exhibit_B
I'm much more comfortable interfacing with machines than people...
is something that will hurt you if you're trying to progress and make more money.
So being a field engineer is cool and all but IMO best way to get to 200k+ without going into management is thru sales. Ridiculous how much the sales folks at my company make compared to the engineers who are doing all the grunt work. I enjoy doing installs/deployments right now but 2 or 3 years from now Im jumping into sales for sure. I know of sales guys who lock up maybe 2 or 3 good lucrative federal contracts thru their friends and make half a million a year just from that. One way or another you need to work on those soft skills, they are just as important as whatever technical skill is hot at the moment
Ideally, my goals within the next year are to demand a salary in the $175-200K range. I'm willing to compromise my stable 40 hour work week to attain a higher salary. I'm looking for any insight or recommended career paths for accomplishing this. Any pointers or recommended groups to join? I've also considered going back to college to finish my BA (shy by 20 hours) or dedicate some time in studying another language.
Maybe I'm just wildly off the mark, but I find it insane that anyone could be dissatisfied with a stable 40 hour work week, taking in $120k single income...all without even having a college degree.
@DCBossMan thanks for your input. This is exactly the type of confirmation I was looking for. In my organization the Architect title is mostly geared towards sales. My background has been mostly with VARS, so I have lots of experience with design as well as implementation. With my bonus this year I'll likely hit the $140K range. You're right on the delivery side, you'll cap a little over this amount. I can be customer facing, it's just not my ideal constant work environment to be in. Especially, with a sales cap on. Though sales guys in my experience are able to make $250K plus and some of the sales guys with tons of experience are easily hitting $1M+ year after year.
I really wanted to wait till I hit my 40s to go full on into sales, but I do feel at this stage in the my career $200K is pretty doable. I say $200K is doable when accessing how much revenue I generate. Professional services has a very large margin. Since gaining some experience on some niche Data Center hardware I've seen my bill rate double in the last few years. So if VARS are billing clients upwards of $250.00 an hour for my time. I see no reason why I shouldn't be close to my salary goals. Obviously, there's overhead like my medical, dental, 401K, etc...and well it is about capitalism and profit at the end of the day.
Edward Snowden did not have a college degree--in fact he was a high school dropout. The dude was real sharp with computers and network programming stuff though. After a stint at the CIA; Booz, Allen, Hamilton (BAH) offered him an IT analyst position and the guy was making close to $200,000 in salary and incentives in the Hawaii office. Not bad for a single guy under 30 years of age with no college education.
But Mr. Snowden was not happy in his job.
Quote:
Originally Posted by swested
Maybe I'm just wildly off the mark, but I find it insane that anyone could be dissatisfied with a stable 40 hour work week, taking in $120k single income...all without even having a college degree.
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