In a message dated Tue, 4 May 2010, Aleksey Tsalolikhin writes:
Hi. The SAGE Sysadmin Salary Survey reports for 2006 and 2005 state,
in "Statistical Exclusions":
The few respondents who cited salaries greater than
US$200,000 are excluded from most of the analyses
throughout this document.
Can anybody shed light on what it takes to get to that level?
Doing something that could be reasonably called "system administration"
(specifically, mainly technical work) with compensation that could
reasonably be called "salary"?
a) Work in one of the high-income geographies, e.g. New York, London, San
Francisco
b) Work in one of the high-income sectors (finance, consulting) or at one
of the very few other high-flight companies where ordinary employee
participation can amount to something at senior technical levels
c) Be "senior", meaning "ten years minimum of hard and
accomplished technical work".
d) Be able to do more than just keyboard work. Be able to take a project
from conception to completion and not blink when the job requires project
management, budgeting, or hiring skills. (Hiring technologists is *not*
just a managerial skill, any more than budgeting is.)
e) Be good and know how to market yourself and negotiate.
f) Be in a company which has performance-related compensation that the
responders to the survey were counting as salary, during a time when the
company is doing well. (In other words, I doubt that periodic paycheck
times pay periods of many sysadmins are adding up to $200K per
annum--responders were probably substituting "total compensation" for
"salary". In fact, if I recall correctly I think the survey actually
asked responders to treat compensation that way.)
Nearly all of the above, I'd wager, must apply for a "system
administrator" to top $200K in salary, where I'm defining "salary" a bit
loosely as guaranteed pay for satisfactory (not extraordinary) service.
I'd be surprised if there are more than a thousand people total in the
world in such circumstances. But it absolutely *is* doable, and I've
counseled people on interviewing and negotiating who are making fixed
compensation at that level.
(Be a consultant, or go into middle or upper management, or work out a
very bonus- or participation-heavy compensation package carrying a lot of
risk of downside, or do something extraordinary for your company, and the
above doesn't apply.)
--
Trey Ethan Harris (/t͡ʃreɪ ˈiːθən ˈhɛrəs/) http://www.lopsa.org/
President, LOPSA -- The League of Professional System Administrators
Opinions expressed above are not necessarily those of LOPSA._______________________________________________
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