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JOBS in Information Technology
PC Technician - Jobs for the Information Technology field
Well, I feel pretty lucky to have been around when mainframe computers first appeared on the scene. I happened to be working for a basic research lab at a university when they got their first computer, an IBM 7094. So I learned FORTRAN and was able to write programs to analyze my data. After my stint with the university, I moved on to a military industrial company and continued to develop my FORTRAN skills. This work involved the real time simulation of a ship board missle system. About a year and a half later i got a position with an major oil company. I worked here for about 22 years as a programmer. I picked up a few other languages (Cobol, PL1, a litle bit of APL, JCL, Focus, DB2 and SQL). But I used Fortan as my primary language. Since I got in on the ground floor of computing it was relatively easy to jump from job to job for a better salary. Since there wasn't apple and PC computers, then obviously the competition was non-exsistent. When the microcomputers hit the market then everybody and his brother became programmers and in a sense data processing managers. Today I am already retired but I can see how difficult it must be to break into the IT field. So let's look at salaries to see if this a career you wish to pursue. |
Table of Salaries by Job Description | |
JOB TITLE | SALARIES |
Tech Management
(ceo,cio,cto,etc> |
$137,000 |
System Architect | $135,000 |
Product Manager | $119,000 |
Tech Management
(strategist,architect) |
$118,000 |
Project Manager | $114,000 |
Software Engineer | $105,000 |
Database Administrator | $103,000 |
Developer: Applications | $98,000 |
Developer: Database | $97,000 |
QA Engineer | $92,000 |
Business Analyst | $91,000 |
Network Engineer | $86,000 |
Programmer Analyst | $84,000 |
Systems Administrator | $83,000 |
QA Analyst | $76,000 |
Web Developer/Programmer | $74,000 |
QA Tester | $72,000 |
Technical Support | $56,000 |
Desktop Support Specialist | $52,000 |
Help Desk | $43,000 |
You may want to consider more than job titles when pursuing a job in the IT field. For example, the 3 states with the highest salaries (over $100,000) are Mass., Calif., and New York. The lowest state looks like South Dakota with a salary of $51,000. You may want to consider being a consultant whose base rate is about $72/hour. And last but not least - experience. People with more than 15 years make about $112,000, not bad but you will not be considered wealty. Since I have some experience with people making big bucks, you may want to consider a job with a major oil company working in the "supply and distribution" department. Most guys I met stayed with the company and after a few years (learning the business) left the company and formed their own company. These guys (only after a few years) went on to become millionaires. Sure, you can become an actor and become super rich but do not count on it - not too many people can become Johnny Depp, or Leo DeCaprio. So if you are dead set on pursuing a job in IT, just remember there are serious alternatives out there. |
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