total compensation upgrades, what is the path post Sys Admin?
I am a long time member of this sub, I lurk, take very long breaks, but do occasionally post. I decided to post something here after reading [This thread about $200k Salary](https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/x9xlyh/is_it_really_that_common_to_be_making_200k_a_year/).
So, you can make $200k a year pretty easily if you have the right skills. Trust me when i say this as someone who has to go through resumes and pass/fail candidates for job posting on my teams across a few jobs now. I typically pass on over 95% of resumes from applicants, because they just don't have the skills we are looking for. There is a spot for entry level folks into the engineering side for sure, but any time I take on an entry level person I almost always try to promote from with in versus hiring outside. So, that is why I pass on the majority of the resumes. So if you had the skills and applied for a job at my org you would already be in the top 5% of resumes we keep from applicants.
These jobs have titles like SRE (site reliability engineer), DevOps Engineer, CPE (client platform engineer), platforms engineer, System Engineers, etc but you get the gist of it. The word Engineer is in the title, not System Administrator. You will also see things like staff, principal and maybe even distinguished engineers as well. All of these are different levels with different pay grades. To me though, all of these jobs blend together at some point like in some twisted venn diagram in reality and never are fully what they advertise. Each org is different so YMMV.
How do you get to $200k+ in total comp in an IT/Ops like role?
Really you gotta start with the market and industry you are wanting to work in. Tech and Fintech typically pay pretty high, healthcare I find to pay really crappy to be honest, and then you have industries like EDU which sadly pays the least. I cannot list every industry but you can easily research this yourself and you can see that a high tech company will pay double or more than some small manufacturing company as an example. Also, don't work for orgs that are riddled with legacy tech, unless there are other benefits. Sure, a giant F100 org that is riddled with legacy tech is worth it as you can now put that on your resume, but some smaller SMB that is riddled with legacy tech you are going to look like every other person applying for a tech job at other orgs to get that same upgrade. So, figure out what industry you want to target for jobs first. This will effect your compensation certainly.
Professional Networking is the best! Network with folks, go to conferences, speak at conferences, publish a blog, join user groups, local and online communities. If people know who you are, then you are already a leg up on everyone else when applying for a job.
Next, know the skills you need for these jobs. Almost all the sys admin work my team does is automated, but we do have one sys admin on my team. They actually are a multi hat wearing person, they act as our QA engineer, our sys admin, and our liaison to the support orgs. So, even they are doing some engineering work. We also automate almost all the sys admin type of work, that is why you can have one person do all of that because they are rarely doing manual things in admin consoles, and most of it is automated. The skills that are high paying are mostly focused around being able to code, being able to build, knowing security, networking, basics, but also being an expert on systems. This varies from job to job but those are the skills you should be growing. Think about being a builder versus an operator, builders make the money operators do not.
quick skills list:
* OOP languages (Python, Ruby, Go, etc) * data - data tools, SQL, working with data * Cloud - pick Azure, GCP or AWS and go learn as much as you can, some skills are transferable between the big 3 cloud providers, don't even bother with clouds outside the big 3 * Security - this is just important at every job, you should know some security basics * System Expert - you definitely need to have expert level knowledge about systems to do the work, but you do not have to be an expert in every single aspect of systems * Able to work in a dev env * CI/CD * infra as code * VCS * git branches and branch promotion * computer science 101 fundamentals
Know the business is the other big thing that can really get you into that area of salary and comp. Like most tech companies have some sort of level system. A common one is IC (individual contributor) and they have levels, like IC 1 to IC 7 for example. 1 being considered entry level and pays the lowest comp, with 7 being the absolutely highest level that job can go and has the highest comp. Ask about these things in interviews, it can help you gain free money! Maybe you ask for an IC bump during job negotiations versus just more money, and it shows you know what you are talking about. This is more of a negotiation tactic than it is a job skill, but I feel it is important to cover a bit. The reason this is important is that Ops roles that are now doing dev-like-things are now also getting dev-like-pay in their comp structure. A SWE is still gonna make a bit more than a DevOps engineer at times, but the compensation is much more aligned than it was before. This is because these System Engineer type roles are filled with people that have developer like skills.
After you get the skills, experience, and focus in on the industry you want to get into, now you just need to know how total compensation works. Total compensation typically is broke down into a few key things, and they mainly are **salary**, **bonus pay**, **stock options**. Now, some recruiters or orgs may try to say part of your comp is also free food, free parking, or whatever else the company offers. That is NOT compensation, that is a perk everyone gets. Compensation is tied to what you make and what you get, not what everyone else gets. Don't let them jerk ya around on this! Unlimited PTO is a perk, not compensation since everyone at the org gets unlimited PTO
A typical comp structure for say an IC 4 in a high level engineering Ops job would be probably around this structure:
salary = $180k
bonus = 20% quarterly (bout $10k per a quarter, based on what you make in a quarter, and probably about $40k a year)
stock options = most likely getting RSUs (pre IPO startups are much different) in the form of a dollar amount over a 4 year period. It is quite common to get $400k in stock over 4 years. how this works is that you will have what is called a cliff, typically that is a 1 year period, where you are vesting your stock options. If you leave in that one year you forfeit all your stocks(sad face), but if you stay you get 25% of your options at the 1 year mark. The the last 75% are vested at the end of each month. You can then hold or sell your stock during trading windows at the org you work for. RSUs do have tax implications and such so you should talk to a tax pro when dealing with them. The 1 year cliff and 25% vest model is the most common I have seen, but it is not the same at every org.
total comp for the above would be $180k in salary + $40k in bonus + $100k in stock for a total of $320k a year. That is why you see some tech jobs state total comp $320k! In fact I had recruiters use this on me often, where they will open up with like $300-$400k total comp per a year! that means salary + stock + bonus, not $300-$400k cash in my pocket every year. It is slightly misleading but this is how it works.
When negotiating salary at a job as well, if they won't budge on salary you can ask for more bonus or more RSUs and you can get that. I have personally done all of this before, and I have asked for a signing bonus which can come in the form of cash or stock as well. Your total comp is negotiable at each specific compensation point. Obviously a higher salary means you get the money up front and that is most likely the best scenario, bonus pay is maximum taxed and stocks have the largest payouts but take time to vest and sell, and have extra tax implications.
lastly, it is sad that employers do not pay you what you are worth, and yet they pay execs 1000x of what even an IC making $400k a year total comp gets, but the best way to make money in today's market is to get into a job like tech, and get your stock options. I have had employers throw multiple RSU refreshers at me before they raise my salary, because they know I will want that money and stay for the year it takes to vest and then the 3 years after to get all of it. Also, an employer that wants to keep will typically refresh your stock options once you are closing to fully vesting in your current lot. They call this the golden handcuffs.
This is how I view engineering roles at a basic high level in the USA, no matter where you live.
entry level engineering role = $100k a year
Sr Engineering role = $150k a year
These are also just starting points and should scale up depending on org and location. Lastly, if you go to a startup that is Pre IPO and you get what is called ISO stock options, that is a much different game than RSUs. There are also many different taxes involved as you have to buy your ISOs at what is called your strike price, and then you must pay the difference on strike price vs stock cost in taxes even if you do not sell, this is called AMT taxes. if you are in a situation where you are working at a pre IPO startup and they are handing out ISOs, immediately hire a tax professional that is actually knowledgeable about ISOs. I am not giving any financial advice in this post to be clear.