Unix Admin Salaries

[Scott]

Greetings:

I just ran a San Diego-based, salary report for Unix Administrators on
[url]www.salary.com[/url] and it reported that the low salary average is 62K and
the high salary average is 85K. According to salary.com, they get all
of their data from HR departments, so I would suspect these numbers
are close.

Here is my question: I make 54K and I am curious if I am underpaid
given my California location.

Here is my mini-resume...

2 years PERL and shell scripting
2 years general UNIX System Admin experience
5 years Windows System Admin
Bachelor's of Science in CIS, 2003.
7 years Military HR

Tell me what you think.

swcmeng

[DJ]

"Scott" <swcmeng@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:169bb2e3.0307291119.c9f34e4@posting.google.co m...

> Greetings:
>
> I just ran a San Diego-based, salary report for Unix Administrators on
> [url]www.salary.com[/url] and it reported that the low salary average is 62K and
> the high salary average is 85K. According to salary.com, they get all
> of their data from HR departments, so I would suspect these numbers
> are close.
>
> Here is my question: I make 54K and I am curious if I am underpaid
> given my California location.
>
> Here is my mini-resume...
>
> 2 years PERL and shell scripting
> 2 years general UNIX System Admin experience
> 5 years Windows System Admin
> Bachelor's of Science in CIS, 2003.
> 7 years Military HR
>
> Tell me what you think.
>
> swcmeng

whats that got to do with Solaris?

[GreyCloud]

Scott wrote:

>
> Greetings:
>
> I just ran a San Diego-based, salary report for Unix Administrators on
> [url]www.salary.com[/url] and it reported that the low salary average is 62K and
> the high salary average is 85K. According to salary.com, they get all
> of their data from HR departments, so I would suspect these numbers
> are close.
>
> Here is my question: I make 54K and I am curious if I am underpaid
> given my California location.
>
> Here is my mini-resume...
>
> 2 years PERL and shell scripting
> 2 years general UNIX System Admin experience
> 5 years Windows System Admin
> Bachelor's of Science in CIS, 2003.
> 7 years Military HR
>
> Tell me what you think.
>

Depends. Which flavors of UNIX did you administer? That
may have a bearing on the salary.

[Luca Miselli]

I should move to San Diego then...

Italian university doesn't really pay a tiny fraction of what you are
getting (about 15K if U R lucky) I get about 30k as IT free lancer.

[sharona]

[email]swcmeng@yahoo.com[/email] (Scott) wrote in message news:<169bb2e3.0307291119.c9f34e4@posting.google.c om>...

> Greetings:
>
> I just ran a San Diego-based, salary report for Unix Administrators on
> [url]www.salary.com[/url] and it reported that the low salary average is 62K and
> the high salary average is 85K. According to salary.com, they get all
> of their data from HR departments, so I would suspect these numbers
> are close.
>
> Here is my question: I make 54K and I am curious if I am underpaid
> given my California location.
>
> Here is my mini-resume...
>
> 2 years PERL and shell scripting
> 2 years general UNIX System Admin experience
> 5 years Windows System Admin
> Bachelor's of Science in CIS, 2003.
> 7 years Military HR
>
> Tell me what you think.
>
> swcmeng

Looks like you are still pretty green in the Unix System Admin area.
I live in Mass. Which is also one of the most expensive states to
live in. After 15 years experience with Unix system admin (all
flavors, HP-UX, AIX, Ultrix, then Digital Unix, Sun OS, Solaris, Irix
) I was making $77k per year. So, I would say that after 2 years, 54k
is pretty good.

Just my thoughts,

Sharona

[Scott]

GreyCloud <cumulus@mist.com> wrote in message news:<3F270029.EE93CB3@mist.com>...

> Scott wrote:

> >
> > Greetings:
> >
> > I just ran a San Diego-based, salary report for Unix Administrators on
> > [url]www.salary.com[/url] and it reported that the low salary average is 62K and
> > the high salary average is 85K. According to salary.com, they get all
> > of their data from HR departments, so I would suspect these numbers
> > are close.
> >
> > Here is my question: I make 54K and I am curious if I am underpaid
> > given my California location.
> >
> > Here is my mini-resume...
> >
> > 2 years PERL and shell scripting
> > 2 years general UNIX System Admin experience
> > 5 years Windows System Admin
> > Bachelor's of Science in CIS, 2003.
> > 7 years Military HR
> >
> > Tell me what you think.
> >

>
> Depends. Which flavors of UNIX did you administer? That
> may have a bearing on the salary.

Solaris my friend.

[Scott]

Anthony Mandic <pf@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<3F291BAE.CA609DCB@hotmail.com>...

> Scott wrote:
>

> > I just ran a San Diego-based, salary report for Unix Administrators on
> > [url]www.salary.com[/url] and it reported that the low salary average is 62K and
> > the high salary average is 85K. According to salary.com, they get all
> > of their data from HR departments, so I would suspect these numbers
> > are close.

>
> That's pretty low - by my standards anyway. Was that just Solaris
> admins or Unix ones in general?

Unix in general

>

> > Here is my question: I make 54K and I am curious if I am underpaid
> > given my California location.

>
> Hard to say, what's the average for California? Does it vary by
> city? I understand San Francisco is an expensive place to live.
> So, wouldn't the salaries be higher there to compensate?

The report I ran was specific to San Diego--my city.

>

> > Here is my mini-resume...
> >
> > 2 years PERL and shell scripting
> > 2 years general UNIX System Admin experience
> > 5 years Windows System Admin
> > Bachelor's of Science in CIS, 2003.
> > 7 years Military HR
> >
> > Tell me what you think.

>
> You don't say how much Solaris admin experience. Which parts of
> this overlap?

I have two years. I am at the level where I could almost walk in and
take the SCSA exam and pass it. This should give you an idea.

>
> -am © 2003

[dfdashk@unix.com]

Luca Miselli <lucam72@hotmail.com> wrote:

> I should move to San Diego then...
> Italian university doesn't really pay a tiny fraction of what you are
> getting (about 15K if U R lucky) I get about 30k as IT free lancer.

It all depends on where you live, how you wrote your resume
and god knows what else vodoo. Most Sr. Unix Engineers in
Chicago make between $70K-$110K.

Then again, we have some "consultants" here at $150 an hour
to do veritas clustering. They've been here 3 months and
are only setting up one cluster with two heart beats.

Bah! BAH I SAY! There is always someone else doing less for
more in corporate america.

[Scott]

[email]dfdashk@unix.com[/email] wrote in message news:<bgke68$lvc$1@bob.news.rcn.net>...

> Luca Miselli <lucam72@hotmail.com> wrote:

> > I should move to San Diego then...
> > Italian university doesn't really pay a tiny fraction of what you are
> > getting (about 15K if U R lucky) I get about 30k as IT free lancer.

>
> It all depends on where you live, how you wrote your resume
> and god knows what else vodoo. Most Sr. Unix Engineers in
> Chicago make between $70K-$110K.
>
> Then again, we have some "consultants" here at $150 an hour
> to do veritas clustering. They've been here 3 months and
> are only setting up one cluster with two heart beats.
>
> Bah! BAH I SAY! There is always someone else doing less for
> more in corporate america.

Thanks Luca. How do you define Sr-level? Better yet, to make 85K in
Chicago, what would a person's mini-resume look like?

[dfdashk@unix.com]

Scott <swcmeng@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Thanks Luca. How do you define Sr-level? Better yet, to make 85K in
> Chicago, what would a person's mini-resume look like?

Sr ='s whatever the hell someone makes it to be IMO.

But the salary game is just that, it's a game. Some of the most
talented, hard workign guys I know make the least money. So many
of the variables that go into it that are utter BS.

Only real concrete advice I can give you is to emphasize the
following in your resume:

- you can handle big enterprise wide projects w/o problem
- you have lead/spear headed projects that were innovative
and resulted in cost savings
- SANs & HA

"Don't hate the player, hate the game!"

[Ghazan Haider]

Skill alone does not directly map onto the salary. I'm curious if
these figures all assume a college degree. By how much would you
decrease these values if you dont have a college degree like me? 50%?

I've worked 6+ years with Linux and 2+ with Solaris mostly as a
freelancer installing and upgrading servers for smaller firms. My
supposedly full time job up here in Canada, where I babysit FreeBSD,
RedHat, Solaris and Windows2000 servers pays very close to the minimum
wage.

Cant afford a degree yet, so I've embarked on a blitz of certs, will
get the CCIE, SCSA/SCNA RHCE and AIX sys admin certs in the next 6
months. Certs are far less than degrees but better than nothing.

[Scott]

Anthony Mandic <rh@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<3F2FB7A5.2065611A@hotmail.com>...

> Scott wrote:
>

> > > That's pretty low - by my standards anyway. Was that just Solaris
> > > admins or Unix ones in general?

> >
> > Unix in general

>
> OK.
>

> > > > Here is my question: I make 54K and I am curious if I am underpaid
> > > > given my California location.
> > >
> > > Hard to say, what's the average for California? Does it vary by
> > > city? I understand San Francisco is an expensive place to live.
> > > So, wouldn't the salaries be higher there to compensate?

> >
> > The report I ran was specific to San Diego--my city.

>
> Nice town (been there a few times) but it seems to have a rather
> small CBD. That could affect things. I have a friend in NY who
> makes $150 per hour and he's only a database programmer.
>

> > > You don't say how much Solaris admin experience. Which parts of
> > > this overlap?

> >
> > I have two years. I am at the level where I could almost walk in and
> > take the SCSA exam and pass it. This should give you an idea.

>
> If the certification is valuable to you then take it. If not,
> then don't bother with it. I'd suggest building up the experience
> and diversifying. Employers seem to want more for less nowadays
> so knowing another OS or some applications won't hurt.
>
> -am © 2003

I hear ya. Well, I do have two golden nuggents. I have Software
Configuration Management (SCM) experience with ClearCase tools and I
am charge of our entire enterprise backups using Veritas NetBackup.
These are my two main application contributions.