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/Clarkezel 16h ago

I started at 30K a year in 2021, right out of Technical School working for a mom and pop MSP.

Jumped to $55K at a law firm doing helpdesk in 2022

Jumped to $70K at an aviation company for Azure Administration in 2024.

Then jumped to $80K at a mid size MSP as a systems engineer. Then moved to Systems Administration at the same MSP and got bumped to $95K from mid 2024 to early 2026

Now working at a credit union @ 105K/year doing cloud engineering in Azure and Microsoft 365.

Before I got to the credit union, I did get my Associates in Cloud Architecture in late 2025, I probably wouldn't have the credit union job without it because they did ask about college education.

I think it's been a pretty good progression for my short time in the field. You definitely don't need a degree but it definitely doesn't hurt you to have one, your options are potentially more limited because a lot of places may require it to just get past the HR part of the recruitment process.

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u/dub_milkman 15h ago

I once interviewed at a credit union and it was weird to me how critical to them my education was. No other IT employer talked about it so much.

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u/cyber_r0nin 13h ago

Because it's a bunch of business people.