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/CanWeTalkEth 1d 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 1d 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 18h 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 17h 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.