(man, yahoo email is sucking lately ... I have to manually reformat .... ) Aleksey Tsalolikhin <atsaloli.t...@gmail.com> wrote: > 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?
IMO, the differentiators at the top of the wage spectrum are rarely a difference in technical prowess. I see comments on here about generalist versus specialist, and value of specific skills, and I'm going to have respectfully disagree that this is the main factor at the top 10% of our tribe's compensation spectrum. On a specific tech skills note, I disagree that either network admin or C programming is required (and frankly some of those comments hint of resentment, e.g., "real sysadmins can code"). IMO, these skills help make you a more skillful sysadmin to be sure, but they are not necessary skills. My simple and possibly obvious theme is that employers are willing to pay more the harder it is to find someone who fills the particular shoes they need to fill. All go into specifics from real world experience besides the ones that folks like Doug Hughes have already posted.. Alexsey: I'm going to assume that what you *really* want to do is make *and* keep more money, i.e., the real goal is to boost your post expense net compensation, not just claim a high wage job for the bragging rights. In addition to what has already been written (e.g., management roles, turning around difficult projects, etc), here are some other ideas for you to consider, heavy on the relocation theme. Non-US folks, translate to your local circumstances as needed: 1. Relocation, part 1 - be on a team that needs to do work offsite, and you are one of the few who can go: If relocation or travel is part of a new assignment, it tends to come with more sugar. We're an aging population and more of us have families and/or SOs that may resist relocation. That makes it harder to find qualified candidates. 2. Relocation, part 2 - Out of Country relocation and tax codes: I can only speak about my US centric experience, but I suspect other countries may have similar clauses. In 1983, I relocated overseas for a temporary assignment doing on site acceptance tests. The US tax code said that if I lived 331 successive days out of country, and did not maintain a US residence, the first $80K of my wages would not be subject to Federal Income Tax. Do the math - it's a 5 figure difference. 3. Non-Wage compensation In temporary duty relocation, sometimes housing is paid for, and a per diem is offered. In my 1983 relocation, I lived off the per diem but it took me 6 months before I realized that I had not written a single check out of my bank account for 6 months. How much would zero outflow from your bank account for a year mean to you in today's dollars? 4. Relocation, part 3 - quirky locations: In a previous role, I've been on projects with opportunities to relocate to Utica, Kwajelein Atoll, Israel, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Paris. There was no sweetening of the pot necessary for one of those - can you guess which? I turned down Saudi despite significant wage bumps, housing, paid vacation travel, and other bennies. I also turned down Kwajelein Atoll work, despite a bump up to a $75K salary in 1989 (translate that to 2010 wages), and similar paid housing, travel, etc. And one of the lowest crime rates on Earth. And this was before teh Internets and Satellite TV. In a large diverse company, there may be other such hard to fill jobs, like freezing your butt off at a research station in Antarctica or acceptance tests in the bowels of the Amazon. 5. Travel, part 3 - danger bonus: If work involves travel to a State Department declared combat zone, there are typically significant bonuses applied. Hint: the list is small - don't assume that car bombs, armed conflict, or anti-American demonstrations every Friday mean the location is on the State Department list. Bottom line: It's a supply and demand world. Salaries go as high as they need to when the pool of qualified candidates is low. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lopsa.org http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
