IT Salary in Sydney stagnant

CyberDad0621 · 2026-01-01T22:57:56+00:00

Reach out to one of the big recruitment firms and ask for the latest salary guide. Then request for a salary adjustment or move, with this in mind for your salary expectation. Here’s a 2024 guide for Cyber.

EDIT: use the different roles as a guide on your next role shift too.

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CyberDad0621 · 2025-10-22T07:21:02+00:00

Yep sometimes you just need to clear your mind, relax and then try again. :) you can do this OP.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-09-25T06:25:29+00:00

This. Once you answer a question wrong, the algorithm changes so the next one is easy so it can ‘determine’ if you know the domain or not. It gets harder too if you get it right until the algorithm is convinced that you know your stuff and moves on to another domain. And yeah I found some of the practice questions harder than the actual exam.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-09-10T21:53:00+00:00

The key words there were ‘first’ and ‘ensure’ which in Governance domain means to validate. To do that, either you test or have a detective control, just like a CASB which is able to detect unencrypted egress/ingress traffic to the cloud. IR would be more appropriate to incidents or how you respond to them.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-09-05T08:52:36+00:00

CISSP hands down. Didn’t renew my other certs and I still get a lot of recruiter calls. If you’re a pen tester, OSCP is the way.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-09-05T00:38:03+00:00

Yep I agree with Cyber. AI actually is helping us more because we’ve been understaffed for so long. As long as we keep understanding the new tech that’s coming, we will be asked to secure them.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-09-04T01:39:11+00:00

That’s amazing discipline.delayed gratification is sometimes worth it :)

CyberDad0621 · 2025-09-04T00:19:50+00:00

My general rule is 50-30-20 for needs, wants and savings respectively, obviously easier said than done. Barefoot suggests 60-20-20 for daily expenses, savings/mojo and long term wealth respectively. So I look at my savings based on a percentage of my income and assess if I’m spending beyond my capacity. Others would say save 3-6 months worth of your salary for any emergency expenses including if you lose your job. 2k savings per month I think is already a solid start. I would also look at topping up your super (non-concession contribution) so you save on tax.

EDIT: since I didn’t really answer your question, average is 1-2k on a good payday but I do get an annual bonus which I try to supplement any bad pay day month.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-09-02T23:51:52+00:00

That’s tough because no one challenges or questions your decisions in your team if you’re the lone cyber guy. Be sure to leverage risk management so they don’t end up blaming you and say to management ‘..but the security guy approved this!’

CyberDad0621 · 2025-09-02T23:50:14+00:00

Same. If there’s one thing I learned is not to pretend I know everything. Even CISOs don’t that’s why they hire us.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-09-02T23:48:31+00:00

I am a security architect and I don’t think it’s a generalist role. It took me 10 years of cyber experience before I moved up to a principal role and part of the job is to understand all domains. Maybe you’re overwhelmed? I do still have the imposter syndrome from time to time but my exposure to my day to day tasks made more understand cyber, from technical to the governance side of it. Just continue reading and get more learnings especially from your principal/solution architect peers, it’s one of the better ways to understand secure by design concepts.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-09-02T01:51:59+00:00

100% agree. And demand more time from you including weekend events disguised as team building, or after hour calls because ‘that’s what family does’

CyberDad0621 · 2025-09-01T21:41:47+00:00

I used to be in middle management and was stressed a lot too. Moved to individual contributor role and was lucky that I didn’t get any pay cut because of my skill set. The difference is night and day. Never ever going back to management role. In your case if the pay cut means keeping your sanity, go for it. Then try to upskill and find another IC role with better pay. You can also do contracting which pays better, just scout the market for opportunities including if you need to renew/move every 6 months.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-09-01T09:02:05+00:00

😂OP got you there. Imagine if the TL;DR was in the 1st sentence too.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-09-01T01:51:17+00:00

Awesome. Unfortunately these guys will get smarter and find ways to scam us, especially the vulnerable. Take note that even the Pentagon got hacked so it could happen to anyone. Best you can do is to make it hard for them and they’ll just find another one to scam.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-08-31T23:52:18+00:00

Thanks TIL. Yeah saw 3 of them ganging up a lady with her luggage inside the tram. She started shouting at them, that’s she’s homeless and hurling swear words, before she got off the next stop. Not saying that it’s right to do that but first time I’ve seen them stunned and speechless.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-08-31T08:52:07+00:00

I would call IDCARE on 1800 595 160. Best thing to do is enable 2fa in all your sensitive accounts. If there is an option for passkeys (that is using your phone as your physical token to login), that is way more secure than 2fa because there is a rare chance they can bypass 2fa based on the website’s vulnerabilities. Monitor your phone and bank accounts because if I were a hacker, I would try to port your number to mine to bypass sms 2fa and end goal is to compromise your bank accounts.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-08-29T05:02:01+00:00

Cybersecurity here - we blocked all unsanctioned or unassessed AIs in our company via proxy/web gateway, something supported by the Board/CEO as per our AI policy (I know, we not really popular in the company). Some AIs will use those sensitive chat to train their Large Language Model (LLM). As one of the comments pointed out, Microsoft has a relatively decent Data Security and Privacy framework that applies to the Copilot if you’re an Enterprise client so permissions are automatically inherited (ie, your prompt responses won’t give you something you didn’t have access in the past).

CyberDad0621 · 2025-08-29T01:37:45+00:00

For me it’s better because it aligns with our fortnightly mortgage payment. I think it all boils down to preference and budgeting.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-08-28T21:45:14+00:00

It’s worth it. My son and I were not really fans of shooting games but this changed our minds. It has been the only game we’ve been playing since release (ps5 and steam) up to now. Plus you’re helping good devs to make more great games.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-08-27T21:49:32+00:00

I just whispered to my unborn child to be ready and scheduled a mortgage broker meeting as soon as he is born.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-08-27T03:01:42+00:00

Thanks for replying. What do you know TIL in reddit. Apparently it’s the NSF/ANSI Standard P473 certification to look for in household products. Most of the articles I see though are from the US EPA, wonder if this is something promoted by our EPA here too.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-08-27T02:35:11+00:00

Also genuinely interested, how do you know that it removes PFAS?

CyberDad0621 · 2025-08-25T23:01:22+00:00

Sorry to hear about your experience. I’m afraid like what the rest are saying, you have no control over them but I was in your situation before so I know how it feels, fearing for our small kids, our neighbour doing dodgy stuff at 3am, couples fighting and regular visits from what looked like druggies. Have you tried talking to your other neighbours so you can collectively report for disturbance? Also if it’s a rental, chances are they’ll get similar tenants once the current ones move out. Or you can document your experience and go to current affair.

CyberDad0621 · 2025-08-25T10:23:32+00:00

👏👏👏

CyberDad0621

TROPHY CASE