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Old 03-04-2013, 11:37 PM
 
1,502 posts, read 2,668,579 times
Reputation: 641

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Posting this here because I am willing to bet that NOVA folks know IT pay/scenarios better than the folks in the employment forum based on the unique situation that we have here.

Since I generally hate IT, but chose to work it to pay the bills I figure I might as well see how much I can actually make in this area?

I have 15 years of IT experience on the Server, Desktop, Application Packaging side of the house.

I hold or have held:

Clearances: Active DOD TS (I am not SCI eligible very easily due to wife being a Permanent Resident from an extremely non hostile country but no one is ever willing to wait long enough to allow me to get it)(Was easier getting a TS I swear).

Inactive DHS EOD x 2

4 public trusts or so

Education:

Associate of Science in IT + 2 years of technical school (Not having a Bachelor's degree outright has never been a hinderence until about a year ago. Now I see it being a hinderance every blue moon as the economy worsens..but definitely see a trend.) This has been an issue maybe 2 out of every 100 interactions. Only once was it ever preclusive.

Certifications:

MCSA 2012 (one test away from MCSE 2012)
MCSA 2008 (Desktop Side)
MCITP Desktop Enterprise Administrator
MCTS x 5
MCP
Security + CE
A+ CE
Network+ CE

Things that I'd like to do:

Forensics or Certified Ethical Hacking....but from what I can see most if not all of these types of jobs require SCI or higher.

Since I don't really like IT, I might as well get paid. How much can I make? What should I do next?

Thoughts?

Again purple people, I love you all very much!

Thank you
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Old 03-05-2013, 01:32 AM
 
Location: Everywhere and Nowhere
14,129 posts, read 31,253,676 times
Reputation: 6920
You can go to one of the salary calculator sites, type in your desired job title and location and it will give you a median and range. You could also talk to some of the recruiting firms in the area.
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Old 03-05-2013, 01:44 AM
 
1,502 posts, read 2,668,579 times
Reputation: 641
Not a bad idea....have done it and saw some of the medians. I am above the median though and want to see what the market will bear. I checked indeed (which I really like) and I didn't see anything besides median data.

I believe that a typical average ceiling for my background with TS is about 120k. Have heard from some recruiters that it isn't really worth going Full Scope Poly to get an extra 15-20k because taxes will eat you alive. Not sure if that is completely valid, but it has to be partially valid.



Quote:
Originally Posted by CAVA1990 View Post
You can go to one of the salary calculator sites, type in your desired job title and location and it will give you a median and range. You could also talk to some of the recruiting firms in the area.
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Old 03-05-2013, 10:05 PM
 
Location: St Pete
554 posts, read 977,400 times
Reputation: 682
I would think a lot of also depends on whether you are working a contract with decent benefits vs a contract with little to no benefits or a salary position. I am a project server / sharepoint guy with a current secret. When I was working in Nova, I was usually between 60 and 80 an hour depending on what if any benefits I also received. That was about average for the people in my niche. I ended up leaving Nova for a perm position. The pay is a lot lower now but the cost of living in Fl is also a lot lower so it all works out about the same.
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Old 03-06-2013, 07:52 AM
 
Location: New-Dentist Colony
5,759 posts, read 10,725,241 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by va_lucky View Post
I am not SCI eligible very easily due to wife being a Permanent Resident from an extremely non hostile country but no one is ever willing to wait long enough to allow me to get it)(Was easier getting a TS I swear).
I can tell you with 100% certainty that this is not the issue. I know a naturalized citizen (and not from one of the major US allies) who has an SCI and works on sensitive NS stuff. It's probably more the cost involved for the agency.
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Old 03-08-2013, 10:50 PM
 
1,502 posts, read 2,668,579 times
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Heh, I left Florida to come here....Sharepoint is a nice nitch. I am trying to remain a generalist in case I lose my job...employers are so fussy and expect you to know everything. Very solid issue. The part of Florida that I came from had an equal cost of living and no jobs. Fort Lauderdale, Miami, WPB area. I bet you moved to Tampa Bay, Orlando, or North of that. I'd like to hear about this!

Quote:
Originally Posted by sportsterjohn View Post
I would think a lot of also depends on whether you are working a contract with decent benefits vs a contract with little to no benefits or a salary position. I am a project server / sharepoint guy with a current secret. When I was working in Nova, I was usually between 60 and 80 an hour depending on what if any benefits I also received. That was about average for the people in my niche. I ended up leaving Nova for a perm position. The pay is a lot lower now but the cost of living in Fl is also a lot lower so it all works out about the same.
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Old 03-08-2013, 10:51 PM
 
1,502 posts, read 2,668,579 times
Reputation: 641
Could be what happened behind the scenes. Who knows....thanks for that insight.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carlingtonian View Post
I can tell you with 100% certainty that this is not the issue. I know a naturalized citizen (and not from one of the major US allies) who has an SCI and works on sensitive NS stuff. It's probably more the cost involved for the agency.
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Old 03-09-2013, 12:08 AM
 
939 posts, read 1,893,168 times
Reputation: 646
It all depends on what type of IT you're in. I've run the gamut from Data Analysis, DBA, Systems Admin, Network to various Network Security fields, and they all have a completely different payscale. The only thing I've never done (professionally) is development, and surprisingly, it seems to pay fairly low considering the skill required. I would suggest asking peers within your individual industry. There are probably forums that have many more people in your profession where a certain percentage live around here and would be willing to clue you in via PM.
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Old 03-09-2013, 02:26 AM
 
1,502 posts, read 2,668,579 times
Reputation: 641
Appreciate it!

Quote:
Originally Posted by GustavoFring View Post
It all depends on what type of IT you're in. I've run the gamut from Data Analysis, DBA, Systems Admin, Network to various Network Security fields, and they all have a completely different payscale. The only thing I've never done (professionally) is development, and surprisingly, it seems to pay fairly low considering the skill required. I would suggest asking peers within your individual industry. There are probably forums that have many more people in your profession where a certain percentage live around here and would be willing to clue you in via PM.
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Old 03-09-2013, 03:16 PM
 
Location: St Pete
554 posts, read 977,400 times
Reputation: 682
Quote:
Originally Posted by va_lucky View Post
Heh, I left Florida to come here....Sharepoint is a nice nitch. I am trying to remain a generalist in case I lose my job...employers are so fussy and expect you to know everything. Very solid issue. The part of Florida that I came from had an equal cost of living and no jobs. Fort Lauderdale, Miami, WPB area. I bet you moved to Tampa Bay, Orlando, or North of that. I'd like to hear about this!
I went to St. Pete to take what was promised to be a long term temp to hire position at American Express. I was supposed to be the Project Server admin. They had a reorg and axed the PMO office 3 weeks after I moved here so I became a Sharepoint Admin. SharePoint wasn't really my strong point. I know a moderate amount due to the fact that project server runs on top of it. I couldn't find another project server gig in St. Pete ( paying over 70k) so I ended up at an old company I worked for in the past, HP. unfortunetly, the new HP ceo doesn't like remote work so I have to move to Atlanta ( where I used to live). The COL is similar to Tampa / St. Pete and this is an employee situation directly with HP, so no contracting bs to deal with. The new MSCE is SharePoint required a Windows server MCSA as a prereq so I have 6 books to to through to get the 2012 cert. For Giggles, I am also going to take the 2010 tests as I never had a need to take them before. I had taken the Project / Project server 2010 series of tests about 2 yrs ago.

NOVA wasn't too bad to me, I was able to get some good stuff on my resume and get my rate higher than before I moved there but 2yrs up there was long enough
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