Relocating and trying to compare IT payrates in Seattle area (university, salary)

[nicofthyme]

I am considering a move to the Seattle area as I really like the area, climate, etc. but am curious about the pay rate difference between Seattle and the east coast. I know the cost of living is MUCH higher and want to find out if the pay is comparable. I work in IT networking/technical/security. Can anyone tell me what (in general) the pay is for an IT professional in that area. I have several certifications but do NOT have a college degree and will probably be looking at applying for either a senior technical or lower management position. I understand that the rates will vary greatly by company but am just looking for generalities at this point to see if it is worth my time to start seriously looking. Thanks in advance!

[Verio]

Originally Posted by nicofthyme

I am considering a move to the Seattle area as I really like the area, climate, etc. but am curious about the pay rate difference between Seattle and the east coast. I know the cost of living is MUCH higher and want to find out if the pay is comparable. I work in IT networking/technical/security. Can anyone tell me what (in general) the pay is for an IT professional in that area. I have several certifications but do NOT have a college degree and will probably be looking at applying for either a senior technical or lower management position. I understand that the rates will vary greatly by company but am just looking for generalities at this point to see if it is worth my time to start seriously looking. Thanks in advance!

The Cost Of Living comparison is really dependent where you're from. DC and Boston are the same if not higher than Seattle.

[nicofthyme]

I guess I mis quoted our location a bit. We are not literally east COAST but eastern U.S. (Pennsylvania). I'm more wondering what would be a good starting number to put on my salary requirement of my resume so that I don't wind up "shooting myself in the foot" by taking a job that will be too low for the cost of living difference. I was thinking somewhere between $50,000 - $60,000 annually but am not sure if that is high or low considering this line of work out there. Thanks again for any help in this area!

[Hemlock140]

Salary of $50-60,000 here in Seattle area is just enough for one person to live on, if you have a family it would be pretty tight with our cost of living.
Naturally the kind of IT job and the place you work will make a difference.

Where I work we have one systems engineer opening "Will generally work in a fast-paced office environment. The technology environment consists of 2000+ PCs, with wide-area network and Cisco, Microsoft 2000, TCP/IP, HP UNIX, LINUX, MS SQL Server, Sybase, and MS Office." that pays $68,000-$85,000.

We also have a Senior Network Engineer opening that pays just a bit less.

[nicofthyme]

Thanks bisjoe. Are the Network Engineer jobs you are referring to "college grad" jobs? I have the years experience (and as stated earlier some of the cert's) but do NOT have a degree. That is sort of what I'm worried about is how many of the IT jobs are going to REQUIRE a degree vs. looking at yrs. experience vs. degree. Much appreciate the advice!

[Hemlock140]

Yes, they both require degrees and experience, and are probably at the low end of pay for this area as it's a public agency. Not many jobs here without degrees that pay over $50,000, too many graduates coming out of the University of Washington and other colleges here.

Here are the requirements for the two jobs I mentioned:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related discipline; three to five years of experience in systems administration, networking and programing; or a relevant combination of education and experience.

Bachelor's degree in a related field (will consider equivalent education/experience). Minimum of five to seven years of general networking experience which includes system/network administration, system/network troubleshooting, programming, and working with large multi site layer 2 and layer 3 network architecture.

[Jalhop]

Originally Posted by nicofthyme

Thanks bisjoe. Are the Network Engineer jobs you are referring to "college grad" jobs? I have the years experience (and as stated earlier some of the cert's) but do NOT have a degree. That is sort of what I'm worried about is how many of the IT jobs are going to REQUIRE a degree vs. looking at yrs. experience vs. degree. Much appreciate the advice!

Apply for any job requiring a degree, with your resume having no education section. If you have the skills I bet your education or lack thereof won't even be mentioned. The requirement is often de facto by HR when the hiring manager doesn't care.

[Jalhop]

Originally Posted by nicofthyme

I'm more wondering what would be a good starting number to put on my salary requirement of my resume so that I don't wind up "shooting myself in the foot" by taking a job that will be too low for the cost of living difference.

Your resume shouldn't include a salary requirement. That should be done verbally / email to start. You should seek $70K minimum (it's expensive here). Let the employer throw out the first number, then try to negotiate a bit higher after getting an offer.

[nicofthyme]

Thanks Jalhop! Great pointers. Much appreciated.

[Xanathos]

I'm the Senior Network Security Architect for one of the larger companies in the Seattle area. My annual is a base $235,000 a year, with up to 15% a year in bonuses based on personal metrics and 5% a year based on overall company objectives, along with some other considerations. But I'm a CCIE, CISSP, PMP, and CIW (amongst others), so this is kind of the top end of the range for the area.

Incidentally, anyone here who tells you that you have to have a degree to apply, or get, one of these ops positions is full of crap/doesn't understand the industry. Sorry, but it's true. In this industry, degrees are about worthless because the technology evolves so quickly. Every posting you see will say "degree OR relevant experience". If you've got 5 years in a senior role, nobody is going to care if you went to college or not. When you get into more of a management role, it becomes somewhat more important, but even that is easily overridden.

My advice to you from a professional perspective is to pick a specialization (seems like security for you) and stick to that. Taking one of these jobs where you are expected to know networking and systems and databases and SAN administration and every other thing under the sun is a great way to pigeonhole yourself as a generalist making 80 grand a year as a jack of all trades master of none. Besides the fact you'll be making less money this way, you're also going to have to keep current on an enormous amount of different disciplines on a shallow basis instead of being able to deep dive one discipline really well. And run away from any job in this area looking for a senior, trying to pay 65k a year, or as a post earlier alluded to, "slightly less than that". For one, network pays more than systems, so right there that says their pricing standards are out of whack. For another, that's clearly a company trying to take advantage of what they perceive as a bad economy by offering 60 cents on the dollars. Ops hasn't been affected by the recession. Hell, a buddy of mine just took a gig at one of the local health providers in the area for 145, and he's not even a CCNP yet, just had a lot of years at Microsoft under his belt. Anybody offering less than 85k for a mid-range professional is trying to rip you off.