Peter put a bunch of research into an article about early IT career salaries, including parsing through the morass of entry-level job titles. I especially like how he put the salary ranges into perspective depending on where you work geographically (at least in the U.S.) and the size of the company.
The typical starting point for a career in IT — especially if you don’t have a lot of experience — is working as an IT technician, a job that typically involves setting up computer hardware and software and troubleshooting tech issues in a help desk support role. But tech job titles can vary widely, even with similar job scopes and responsibilities. On any given job board, you might find entry-level IT positions listed under titles including (but not limited to) the following…
Does what he found map to what you’ve seen in recent starting salaries?
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Slava
(Slava)
2
It also depends when you started…
When I started in IT $30,000 was good $#^T .
I don’t think that would be even enough for a minimum right now.
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glenn-p
(Glenn_P)
3
What do you make when you first start in IT?
A mess (with apologies to anybody who twitches when they see this picture).
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tb33t
(TB33T)
4
I took a pay cut to start in IT, hindsight I really should’ve been a better negotiator, but I’d say somewhere between 30-40k should be the starting point.
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I’m in the UK, our first line guys (who do a bit more than password resets (just)) are on around £27k.
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Back in my day, they paid me $9/hour when I was working at the university and still getting my degree. Once I had my degree, I was paid a salary of $42K.
::pushing walker down the hallway::
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c-t
(C-T)
7
Lol this cracked me up. When I started my IT career I also started around that much and this was within the past 5 years, as a Helpdesk Tech. I have worked my butt off and didn’t stay there for long, but it’s amazing how times have changed.. but also stayed the same.
::still looking for house I can afford::
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I’m an ol’ timer in IT. I started at the Help Desk of TV Guide at $21K then negotiated for $24k
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dmc1981
(DMC1981)
10
I started as a student worker for the state university I was attending and eventually graduated from (not a CS major! :)) As a student worker, I was basically a gopher for the full-time guys. I would help them run and terminate network cables around campus mostly. Sometimes we would grab a helpdesk ticket and do some tier 1 “stuff”. I did that probably for 2 years.
After graduating, my first real job out of college was in a call center and doing dial-up tech support. I started at $10/hr and made it up to Supervisor and $14/hr in about 9 months. I left that gig and went to my first salaried job, as a helpdesk tech and junior systems admin. My first 6 months probation I was @ $38k/yr. After probation I moved up to $45k. I ended up working for that organization for 10 years and when I left, I was around the $75k mark if I recall.
I won’t share where I am now but I’ve been with my current organization for about 9 years, also salaried. I do think the traditional approach of helpdesk to network/systems admin to management, etc. is still the way to go. I’m old school… gotta learn the ropes and “pay your dues” in the lower levels for a while before you progress.
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glenn-p
(Glenn_P)
12
But the problem is that you’ve got everyone from IT training companies to every junior college in the world cranking out people with a handful of certs and no experience that are “ready” to be network admins.
Those graduates have been told that they can demand $50K for starting jobs in IT because they’re “certified”. The lack of experience means that, while you may be certified, you need to be in a help desk or “assistant” network admin role until you have the experience necessary to be handed the reins of my network.
A quote attributed to Mark Twain comes to mind: “Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions.”
@DMC1981 - you are absolutely correct. Working your way up is how you gain valuable experience.
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Twenty-five years ago, I started at $17/hr doing end user/desktop support, which would be about $35K full-time (although I only worked 15 hours a week). We thought this was really good pay at the time (especially for college kids).
My business-savvy friend negotiated the rate for us (we were both working there at the time). I think he knew that they were paying 5x as much whenever they had an MSP come in, so he used that as leverage.
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Legend @Nerf_Herder !
Just reading this post, I can smell the scent of the paper inside TV Guide.
Did the whole office have that scent?
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dmc1981
(DMC1981)
15
Yep but lots of folks get education/certs/training and approach the workforce with a sense of entitlement, which is the wrong way IMO.
Get an entry-level IT helpdesk job and while you’re learning all you can and getting experience, take on extra projects and tasks, be ambitious and humble. Everyone screws up from time to time. Own it, and move forward with humility.
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I started 10 years ago as support tech at $36k year. I think we currently start people in that position at $42k? I probably shouldn’t disclose what I make now…let’s just say that I do very for the rural community that I live and work in.
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That’s the same territory I was in for my first editorial gig. Living in NYC, no less. Thank you, Maruchan and $2 pizza slices.
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I think it depends on the role and the area. I made around $40k in my very first full time IT job nine years ago. I’ve also heard of CS grads making $250k right out of college in the DC area in software development.
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I started on $21,840 per year in 2001 ($10.50 per hour), but I don’t think this helps!
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