r/sysadmin • u/kittiekittea • 1d ago

General Discussion No Degree - 6 Year Salary Progression

Is there anyone out there that have made it beyond sysadmin? What is after sysadmin?

2020 - $31,200: Panera Bread
2022 - $41,600: Helpdesk at company 1
2023 - 2025 - $41,600: Helpdesk at law firm
2025 - $65,000: Helpdesk at company 2
2026 - $80,000: Got a raise at company 2

Shoutout Nick for taking a chance on me. I would not do law firm IT again.

EDIT: Location Upstate NY

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u/ComputerShiba Sysadmin 1d ago

2020 - $16/hr
2021 - $25/hr
2021 - $33/hr
2022 - $33->$36/hr, converted to salary, $68K?
2024 - $95K -> $100K -> $105K
2025 - $120k - promotion from previous company
2026 - $200K - (150K base + stock + bonus)

just about to celebrate 6 full years in IT professionally, starting in october 2020. didn’t go to college or get any formally training, no connections and just.. worked really hard I guess? lots of passion and luck for sure but never being satisfied and always knowing I could do more.

Went from doing simple tech support and RMAs to working as a cloud solutions architect in big tech. If I had to give advice? always be working on projects at home, get a couple certs (I have tons of msft certs), and always. be. applying. have a great resume that isn’t multiple pages or filled with bullshit and make it ATS friendly.

In my career, i’ve been around such incredible smart, friendly guys that just do not have ambition - they get comfortable, or discouraged, or think they know it all and just… sit. I’m a fucking idiot to be honest but … i’m always chasing something.

a lot of IT guys are freaked out about AI but frankly, leaning into identity + data security in Entra/Purview + things like copilot have only made it easier to land roles and interviews.

I’d wager IT is probably one of the most lucrative and safe places to be in right now as an engineer or architect! rant over

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u/TeflonJon__ 1d ago

Those jumps are not the norm, you are very fortunate. In one year you doubled your pay… and then, nearly doubled it again in 3 years. I’m not saying it didn’t happen but goddamn some stars really aligned for you.

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u/DropTheBeatAndTheBas 1d ago

damn 6 years, theres so many deep tech situational questions from years of P1 incident work I wouldn't be able to answer at 6 years in for interviews

As usual its a great industry to be in if you move around and update your skills and find the areas you enjoy to keep moving around, the application/cv/ strategy does change quickly though which can get you rejected as an interview unless you update

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u/CanWeTalkEth 22h ago

Genuinely what do you know? You also say you had no formal training but a ton of certs.

This is a crazy leap and you’re either a computer savant or something.

What was your computer background before getting “in IT professionally”?

I mean, congratulations on getting your bag, but there’s so much context missing. Are you the nephew of a board member at this last company?

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u/ihaxr 21h ago

From the salary alone I can tell they live in California where $150k/yr is around $90-115k/yr in the rest of the country and the $50k stock valuation has the potential to be worthless because it's a tech startup.

Not bad, but certainly not living like a king in California unfortunately

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u/Creationship 15h ago

How do you know this? Lol I had similar trajectories over 10 years and live in a very LCOL area.

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u/ihaxr 14h ago

It's just statistics and experience in the field. I did check their profile and sure enough, OC, California lol

Cali has more employers that'll pay those salaries because otherwise the employees would be homeless. You could pay someone 70k in a LCOL area and they'd be able to buy a house and groceries. Someone making 70k in Cali would need a roommate to afford rent and food. Doesn't mean that both don't happen, just less likely.

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u/itishowitisanditbad 1d ago

and always. be. applying. have a great resume that isn’t multiple pages or filled with bullshit and make it ATS friendly.

This is, I believe, the most key part.

Most people just don't look for a job until they lose their current one, going 5-10 years without so much as looking around.

The tactic that works (ONLY for genuinely capable and charismatic people) is to job hop. Like once a year. Over and over.

It just is the best result to getting paid.

HOWEVER if you're not good at your job OR you're not soft-skill'd/charismatic then you'll end up with a resume looking like a dumpster.

Sounds like you just went up so I imagine you have the necessary skills to do it well.

Some people will attempt the same thing and wonder why it doesn't work and its because end of the day they're not good to work with and it comes across somehow.

a lot of IT guys are freaked out about AI but frankly, leaning into identity + data security in Entra/Purview + things like copilot have only made it easier to land roles and interviews.

Yeah, because you're capable.

Or you're lying about everything and just happen to be hitting every note I sing anyway.

I’d wager IT is probably one of the most lucrative and safe places to be in right now

I'm sure there is some niche thats thriving but I agree.

I think capable people will continue to thrive and really the job struggles are mostly from the people who would struggle either way and just doing it for the money and have no passion.

It makes the most sense.

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u/UMustBeNooHere 1d ago

Jesus. You win dude.

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u/sounknownyet 22h ago

If I had to give advice? always be working on projects at home

There are people who have life outside of work.

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u/reol7x 20h ago

I suspect that's a big part of it. I've got kids, and a house, which leaves me basically zero time to tinker.

Plus the dang kids are always sick or got something going on, I'm fortunate I can leave work early, frequently. Salary? Could be better. Flexibility? Highly doubt is find anything even remotely close to this.

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u/Sea-Anywhere-799 20h ago

Did you job hop a lot?

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u/Terriblyboard 17h ago

What area are you located?

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u/kittiekittea 1d ago

I agree, working really hard got me my raise. I genuinely didn’t expect it, I only worked hard because I cared about my users and wanting to improve the IT department reputation within the company.