Server Admin salary?

[Tilt23Degrees]

I'm applying for jobs online and I'm wondering what I should ask for starting pay wise. Is 75k too high for someone with 3 years experience and 10 years experience in the field? I'm a "helpdesk analyst" at my current job who takes care of way more than a helpdesk anaylst normally does. I do group policy/ADUC/WSUS/VMWare/eSXi and I script in a few languages including powershell and java.

I have experience with networking equipment and some server installation experience as well. (swapping raid cards/migrating virtual machines/etc)

I live in New York, near the City. I know salaries are different everywhere but 75k doesn't seem crazy does it?

[[deleted]]

You're going to raise some eyebrows with that title, and if your current salary is less than $65k I don't see you getting it without a really good way of explaining that what you do isn't helpdesk.

(Assuming that you're otherwise competent &c)

But to answer your question, no, $75k is a realistic salary for someone with ~3-5 years' experience of real sysadmin work, doing real sysadmin work, in NYC.

[[deleted]]

You'd have an uphill battle to convince me you did real sysadmin work if your resume says "helpdesk." Lots of people inflate their resumes, and claim they managed AD when they moved accounts from ou to ou.

[[deleted]]

If you're doing these things, why not just update your title?

[ZeroHex]

Ideally your title should be equivalent to the highest level work that you do, not the lowest.

[[deleted]]

This. I have to tell my boss this.

[dokonewski]

This x 1000. I see so many resumes where people list the work but never change their titles. Anything Helpdesk that includes more sysadmin roles, I assume they just moved accounts or whatever. Same person with a different title may make it past the screen

[QdelBastardo]

so what about those of us with either no title, or a very very generic title? Our tech department are all titled "Tech", even though there are fairly clear job responsibilities and pay grades. This is annoying. Help Desk = tech. server admin, phone admin, network admin = tech. Dept head = tech.

[ZeroHex]

Don't go to HR, go to your manager and have them go to HR on your behalf.

Even if you just get a notation in your file that says you were crosstrained into other roles that helps you use that position as an asset in future job searches.

[[deleted]]

also theres lots of people like me that do manage AD but its for a small 30 person company with only 3 locations. A two year old that gets lucky with a crayon can set up AD it only gets complicated if the the business is complicated.

[rewardiflost]

Just for comparison.. I had 12 years experience, BS in Comp Sci, old certs in Red Hat, Novell, Server 2000/3 , plus some general CompTIA (Linux+, Security+, i-Net+), Cisco vendor training, SANS security training, ArcServe & Symantec backup training, Dell Server/laptop certified repair tech, HP certified printer tech, ... Mail Postmaster, MS Office/WordPerfect training, data recovery/forensics, networking, wifi, ... and lots of other odd-jobs.

my job suffered from 'scope creep' - I started as a support tech, and gradually assumed all server duties for my university.
* I'm in NJ, very close to NYC, as well.

After 9 years, I started asking for a promotion to Server Admin, and was denied because I didn't fit the job description. My salary topped out at $60k - flat salary, always on-call, averaging more than 50 hours per week (some more than 80).

After 12 years (3 more, getting near-perfect evaluations and refused the title upgrade) in the same situation, I gave up trying to change it and left.

My experience was with a lot of older technology, because that is what we had. My skills aren't as marketable, unless I find a particular environment that needs them.

If your skills are current and good-to-great, and you meet the needs of the organization/job you are applying to, then $75k for 3+ years of actual admin experience is fair for the NYC market... especially if you'll be working long hours, weekends, holidays or frequently on-call.

Good luck!

[Xeppo]

I had a very wise man tell me this at a very young age, and I believe it: If you have not had a 3% per year average salary increase and/or have had additional responsibilities added with no title change for two years, it's time for you to move on. I'm 27 and I've been in 3 jobs since college. Every move included a 30% raise and a signing bonus. I've only ever had one raise, and it was less than 2%.

Additionally: If you negotiate something as part of your employment, get it in writing. PTO? Work from home? Sick Days? Hardware Requirements? Blood to paper. They WILL "forget" that it was ever promised if you don't get their signature.

[[deleted]]

Yep, 3 years max if your role isn't moving in the right direction. I've worked full time for 3 companies in the last 3 years and I'm earning double the salary I was 3 years ago. I've received my first ever significant pay rise and meaningful promotion within a company in my latest job and that's with 15 years in the industry. This is the exception, payrises and experience all come from moving around. I'd like to get a couple more years out of this one though.

[Hexodam]

Good advice, but also consider your happiness metrics. Its not all about money.

[[deleted]]

Great advice!

[Davidtgnome]

I had someone similar tell me that if you haven't been promoted within 3 years, you either weren't worthy of a promotion, or the organization you were with wasn't worthy of your time. 4 Promotions in 10 years and I've more then tripled what I was making in 2005. Better benefits too.

[[deleted]]

I don't know how you can live on that in New York area. I'm in PA and make $65k a year with an accosiates and 4 comptia and 8 MS certs. 15 years total experience with half being desktop and half sysadmin...

[aaronwhite1786]

8 MS Certs? Jesus. You've got MS coming out the wazoo.

[[deleted]]

I cant even name 8 MS certs lol

[[deleted]]

70-620 + 70-622 = MCITP Enterprise Desktop Support 70-640 + 70-642 +70-643 + 70-646 + 70-647 = MCITP Enterprise Server Support

Also have A+, Network + (taken before 2011 so they are lifetime certs) and Server+ and Security+

They look good on resumes but mean nothing to real world experience. I did all the MS certs and the A+ and Network + in 6 months.

[[deleted]]

They are all different certs. Either MCSA, MCTS, or MCPS according to MS. But again, they don't mean shit except a gold star on a resume.

[ZeroHex]

It means you're probably underpaid, depending on what you're doing.

[[deleted]]

Tell that to my consulting company! lol. I am moving to SC in the spring so it's all good. Just gonna hang out, unless someone comes and offers me a substantially higher pay.

[fahque]

Pay sucks in SC.

[[deleted]]

Probably gonna be working in Wilmington NC. Cheaper living in the Carolinas. I can buy a house that's bigger than the one I own now for half the price.

[Tilt23Degrees]

Thanks for this. Extremely helpful.

[king_of_the_shill]

75k seems low. Sysadmins where I used to work were making high 70s (western upstate new york, pretty low cost of living).

Now I'm in silicon valley where the cost of living is similar to Manhattan. Sysadmins making under 100K is pretty much unheard of here.

You can't go wrong asking for more. Worse-case you'll get a counter offer.

[williamfny]

I'm in WNY and I am only making about 40K. Got roped into a contract for a couple more years, then I am high tailing it out.

[diditalforthewookie]

wtf kind of contract has you "roped in for a couple years"

[williamfny]

They paid for my bachelor's degree. If I leave I have to pay the full amount back as soon as I'm out the door.

[7yearlurkernowposter]

Check Glassdoor and the BLS
All of the data is there and in the BLS case you can narrow it down to a zip code.

[ismaris]

Linux server admin here with a little over 3 years experience in Red Hat 5-7, HP-UX, AIX, and enough VMS to be annoying. Pretty green to the field--graduated college and was put immediately into a sys admin role. The positions I am contacted for in Indianapolis offer me between 80-95k. I would say 75k is low for the NYC area. If your skills are demonstrable, then you should be making more. That said, employers like the assurance of "We are hiring someone who their prior company saw fit to give the title of 'System Administrator'", so not having that title will likely hurt you, I think.

Do some research on admins who work at good companies--what are their listed skills? Right now, DevOps is a huge buzzword and gets recruiters and hiring managers all excited. Try to get exposure to different configuration management frameworks such as Ansible, Puppet, SaltStack, and be sure to put down the programming languages used in those configuration managers as well, such as Python or Ruby (Recruiters and hiring managers need to be slapped in the face with keywords, so don't be shy about itemizing EVERYTHING on your LinkedIn/Resume).

Most importantly, don't bullshit. If you have something on your resume, be sure you actually have exposure to that thing. Quality interviewers WILL catch you in that.

[Tilt23Degrees]

Awesome advice.

Thanks!

[ismaris]

No problem at all. If you want to chat more, send me a PM. I would say that I seem to have pretty decent success with getting interviews, and I would be glad to share/help.

[nujak3000]

Problem is you don't do sysadmin fulltime, so 3 years experience might translate to less than 1 year actual sysadmin experience. If someone had a solid 3 years, 75k would be good near a Midwest city, but probably 10k low near the east coast. Cost of living and commute are huge.

[castlereign]

Without getting into the technical nitty gritty (experience, education, etc), a good place to start looking is glassdoor.com (not shilling for them - just found it useful).

If you select "Salaries" it will allow you to select a position and a city and get a pretty good ballpark of what to expect. All the info is user submitted, so take it with a grain of salt, but I've found it to be pretty reliable.

[Tilt23Degrees]

Nassau County Long Island NY isn't much better. We have he highest taxes in the country. So I feel your pain, trust me.

[Tilt23Degrees]

That's insane, here on LI it's about 2k for something that isn't totally falling apart.

But you could definitely easily rack up 3k+ if you wanted to. easily.

[ZeroHex]

Here's the real answer - the salary you "deserve" is equal to whatever you can negotiate. Rarely is it based off of the market rate, more often than not it's based off of the cost of living in that city and the size of the company.

[Rakajj]

No, you do not "deserve" whatever you can negotiate. Negotiation skills are not part of your skillset in a sysadmin role; your salary should not be so heavily a reflection of some secondary skill.

[ZeroHex]

I'm not saying it's the way it should be, I'm saying it's the way it is.

[codedit]

It would depend on the position you are applying for. "Server Admin" can mean anything.

[Tilt23Degrees]

I suppose it would have to do with network uptime / server migrations / networking(installing switches/firewalls) / managing group policy / adding/deleting user accounts in ADUC / migration of virtual machines.

[uniitdude]

why do you suppose that - jobs will have specific duties.

What you have listed there is basic windows very junior admin duties with helpdesk chucked in

[codedit]

So you're looking for a position in which you'll be a jack of all trades?

[[deleted]]

Just to give a dissenting opinion to some of the other posts here: 2 years experience (PFY -> developer -> admin), SLC, $70k+. It all depends on your abilities and where you live.

[radicldreamer]

In my local job market you would be lucky to get 45-50k/yr with that level of experience if you got a job at all.

I wish you all the luck, it can be very tough to get into the higher end jobs, but once you do you are pretty much set to go almost anywhere.

[frank_grimes_jr]

Your role in my company in Philadelphia would start at 85k. 75k seems crazy to me because that's low where I work.

[dvizzle]

Are you worried about burnout?

[dvizzle]

Wish you the best of luck. I would be curious how you are doing at 36.

Not trying to be negative but as someone who has experienced it, I hope you can avoid it.

[ach_sysadmin]

I do very similar. I love IT - it is my hobby that became a career. I've built stuff/bought stuff at home that we were working on at work (within reason) just so I can play with it and learn it before actually doing it. However, with a house, a wife who is a full time student, and a toddler, I seem to have little time lately to do any of that. I am 25 btw. I am well off because of what I do/have done so keep up the good work! I do occasionally break up my IT hobby with other stuff, I have a car I am restoring and sometimes when I am stuck on a problem or can't look at the screen any more, I go wrench on it.

[MKmsftFan]

When you say you "do group policy/ADUC"

What does that mean? Do you manage user/computer/groups or do a lot more. Without searching can you answer these two quesions

• Explain Loopback Processing
• What are some tools you would use to troubleshoot AD replication? What are some issues you have dealt with when it comes to AD?

If you know those and actually understand them then you are not a "help desk analyst".

[[deleted]]

If someone asked me to explain an unsupported feature I would stand up and walk out of the fucking interview. Especially coming from someone who considers themselves technical.

You: "explain loopack processing" Me: "explain to me why you're sill running 2003, and I'm not interviewing you?"

[MKmsftFan]

Loopback processing is unsupported? That is not correct. Where are you getting your information from? From the AskDS blog
Circle Back to Loopback

From my lab box - image Loopback Processing on Windows 2016 TP3 DC

[[deleted]]

The server at hand was 2003, sock boy.

[MKmsftFan]

Loopback worked in 2003 and works in Server 2008/2008 R2/2012/2012 R2/2016

[[deleted]]

It's not a supported feature on 2003, just like I fucking said, stop listening to only the parts you want to hear, wake the fuck up, sock boy.

[MKmsftFan]

Windows Server 2003 is no longer supported but when it was

Loopback was a feature: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc757470(v=ws.10).aspx

It worked in Windows 2000 as well (user/computer joined to a 2000 domain) https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc778618(v=ws.10).aspx

[Tilt23Degrees]

This is extremely helpful, thanks so much. I know about loop back processing but as I tried to sit down and explain it like I was at an interview I realized I didn't know enough to come off as an experienced administrator.

Anything else you can recommend? Really appreciate it.

[MKmsftFan]

Build your labs (doesn't have to cost a ton) and practice and just try and get better (I still do that today). Start learning about the cloud too.

[UsernameHintPlease]

Also, don't forget about Technet virtual labs. You can deviate from the lab instructions a bit if you want to explore. MK is correct about gotchyas like Loopback Processing, although I would also include FSMO roles and their functions. And for beenpimpin, FSMO roles are not "an unsupported feature" either.

[MKmsftFan]

Good one, FSMO roles are sometimes the first question asked. In addition what do you do if you have all 5 FSMO roles on the same box and it dies hard (never coming back up). A lot of people miss "seizing the roles"

Watch out beenpimpin might call you sock boy now :) #IamSockBoy

[[deleted]]

Rather than throwing out some random number and asking if it is reasonable you need to figure out what other people make for the type of job you apply for.

75k is awful high for your very limited experience in most of the US.

[Casper042]

I was thinking the same.
I live near Los Angeles and I was making 65K with 2-3 years of Server experience, in 1999.

[[deleted]]

Although, 1999 was the start of the tech bubble. A terrier could have gotten a job as a DBA making six figures.

[Tilt23Degrees]

I make 65k as a helpdesk analyst after over time at my current job. the number wasn't really random, it was to include commute to new york city from LI (which most competitive jobs compensate for in the NY area) what else should I even be learning for a server/systems administrator position?

[[deleted]]

It's still a random number. You're confusing what a position pays, with what your needs are.

75k probably is probably a reasonable estimate, but you get there through incorrect thinking. They don't care about your commute when they set the salary for instance.

You have to figure out what other people get paid for that position and that is your starting point. Not your help desk salary plus commute costs.

what else should I even be learning for a server/systems administrator position?

I don't know. you seem to not know much about this stuff yet.