System Admins... how hard was it to get your 2nd job

[IndyColtsFan]

There's absolutely no way this is true.

I have no doubt that some companies might request it, but probably because some ignorant HR person is making the posting. But we all know that a Master's degree will give ZERO benefit for a technical IT job compard to a few years of experience.

 

[sourceninja]

I would not have fought back the laughter. I would've asked them to outline what benefit a Master's degree would provide to the job. Because I can tell you the benefit -- absolutely none.

I applied for a job 8 or 9 years ago and we kept playing phone tag. I was getting pretty frustrated. Finally, the HR lady caught me at my desk and they wanted to transfer to the manager for a phone interview immediately. I was kind of tired of messing with these guys, so I point blank said: "Before you do that, may I ask about the compensation?" She said "$47K" and I laughed her off the phone and said "No thanks."

Yea, its amazing. Many of these jobs I'm interviewing for recently are going to be more work then what I'm doing now with more responsibility and they want to pay 10-30k less then I make now. To top it off I'm in the bottom end of the salary for my position!

I've told many interviewers that I'm not interested after hearing the description or salary. I can tell right away that if you want one guy who can do networking, desktop support, programming, server support, virtualization, hardware, and web design that you are not going to be in my salary requirements.

Its sad to see places looking for positions with the word senior in them (like senior systems administrator) and then offer you 30k.

 

[mvbighead]

Youch. If I had that much trouble getting to the interview portion and the compensation was $47k, I'd probably just hang up the phone with a "you gotta be kidding me!"

I've browsed around from time to time, but haven't seen much. I'm pretty happy with where I'm at, and will just keep pushing for raises there. Right now I'm a "jack of all trades, master of none" as my boss likes to call it, but I don't like the idea of being pigeon-holed as an Exchange admin or Cisco admin or whatever.

I keep looking, but I think the job market is flooded with young guys who want a shot, so the starting wage is going down and the "requirements" are going up. Pretty sad, but I am sure if I were to look long enough, I'd actually find someone with a legitimate interest.

 

[Pantlegz]

Wait -- you're saying that many want a Master's degree for a Sys Admin position? LOLOLOLOL!

maybe not for sys admin, I was speaking for IT related jobs in general. I've been looking for Network/systems admin and the like. I got a call from a company locally today. They pay 40k for someone with my 'skill set' it's sad that the public sector is paying considerably less than the federal government. I always thought the trade off for government work was: less pay, less work and it's basically impossible to be fired.

 

[classy]

I haven't seen a place that really cares about certs (unless it is a consulting house). Most places that I've seen want a degree and all want experience.

Maybe where you live, but the world is a big place sometimes, here the link for a job at the Philly Credit Union

http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSee....0&job_did=JHQ3SY6P70W2DDZ1Q1J&IPath=ILKGTV0D

•College or technical school degree preferred and/or two years equivalent work experience.

•Microsoft, Citrix and VMware certifications are a plus.

That is a common theme you will see.

Here is the link for 4 pages of Systems Admin jobs, the call for a college degree is not even close to being the norm.


Here is another

http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSee....0&job_did=J3H17F74GZ0760SH9N0&IPath=ILKGTV0L

The ideal Senior Infrastructure Engineer must have a BA/BS Degree or equivalent experience, technical, hands-on proficiency in the following areas:.....

But then you see this at the bottom

MCSE certification preferred, as is VCP certification.

Where you live it may be that way, not here or in the NY city area either. This is just a lookup for Systems Admin jobs, but except for programming, its like this for just about any position in the IT world.

 

[JM Aggie08]

Certs are just as frustrating standardized testing.

"We're going to stick you in this scenario or give you this problem that you must solve, but you are not allowed to use any notes whatsoever. We believe this fully reflects a real-life sitatuation."

 

[Insomniator]

I get job alerts from dice and career builder about temp jobs... $12/hour... no thanks. Why do the sites even ask for my desired salary if they are gonna send those?

 

[trungma]

Its sad to see places looking for positions with the word senior in them (like senior systems administrator) and then offer you 30k.

The word "senior" is used way to loosely nowadays. Seems like anyone with 5 years of experience is call a senior. I guess it makes employees feel important and happy.

 

[rsutoratosu]

You'd be surprised at how often this is happening. I just had a phone interview for a position administering 15 servers, 450 clients, 100 wireless devices, Windows desktops, Mac Desktops, publishing software, and large printing presses. They wanted 5+ years experience, a Degree in computer Science, Masters preferred, but were only paying low $40's (on call for 1 week on, 1 off). I had to fight back the laughter.

I've seen lots of jobs wanting 5+ years for entry level help desk support. Its pretty ridiculous.

It is pretty insane some of the job requirements, I have pass on several interviews because they wanted everything not because they wanted it, they dont know what they want so they list everything.

 

[poopaskoopa]

Scheduling an interview is trickier when you're employed but when you're employed is when you usually have the biggest leverage. It's crazy to only look for a job when you don't already have one.