I’m an 8 year data center network engineer who recently broke 100k for the first time. When I got asked my salary requirements I actually only asked for 90k as my highest previous salary was 80k with lots of travel, then I found out they gave me 100k because it was the minimum they could pay someone in my position. I’ve read before about people making crazy salary increases (150%-300%) and am wondering if I played it incorrectly and how I could play it in the future. I plan to stay with my company for the next few years and upskilling heavily and am eyeing a promotion in my first year as I’ve already delivered big projects by contributing very early. I’ve progressed from call center/help desk/engineer etc (no degree, just certs) so my progression has been pretty linear, are people who are seeing massive jumps in pay just overselling their competency and failing forward? Or are there other fields in IT like programming/etc that are more likely to have higher progression scales?
was making 125k. Got laid off. Interviewed at another company and asked for 200k. Ended up with 185k. Got laid off again and still haven’t been able to find a job. Ups and downs :/
I played a negotiation game of spending two weeks of research to explain to my company that I should be paid $165k, based on roles similar to me.
They said, “Well those are in expensive cities.” And I said, “They’re all remote jobs. And they’re all hiring.”
They came to the table with 155k, which was 30k more than a month prior. The scary part was a few months later, fucking Musk fired a bunch of Twitter people, and triggered the layoffs. So now I can’t do that negotiation again.
So now I can’t do that negotiation again.
You can and you should. Musk’s layoffs and the ones that followed are a coordinated press campaign. The total impact on unfilled jobs for IT professional programmers was a tenth of one percent.
But according to the news cycles, without Musk’s microservices there’s plenty of us to go around now. /s
Yes. Companies are hiring slower right now because there’s less venture capital money sloshing around, but they’re accumulating company-ending-event technology debt while they do it.
Mark my words they will be desperate for your talents and paying accordingly soon. I predict another big hike in base pay as the game of chicken ends in a mad scramble. We will also see more companies paying long term consulting rates instead of staff rates for IT solutions.
Source: As a developer who hires developers, I’m watching this trainwreck from both sides of the track.
I’ve heard from some friends/family that are trying to break into entry level cybersecurity or programming roles and it’s extremely difficult right now, why do you think there seems to be such a high demand for skilled workers but seemingly no demand for entry level?
That is correct. It’s really always been like that.
There’s far fewer IT organizations that can safely hire rookies than there are rookies in the field. The correct solution for employers is to get better at their setup so that they can hire rookies, but that’s a genuinely difficult challenge that many organizations simply don’t have the leadership will or savy to solve.
I’m still incredibly thankful to my first boss for taking a risk giving me a chance to break into the field.
Entry level jobs have ALWAYS been difficult for new engineers.
Name a year from 2005-2023, and I can find you a news article that says that it’s difficult for entry level.
Talk to any dev and they’ll explain how challenging it was to get into the industry, and they’ll give you tips.
When someone asks what you were paid or what your salary expectations are, ask them what the budget is for the role. They have one. They will not want to tell you, and you shouldn’t tell them your expectations
Yeah, exactly. People upvoted this take that won’t work for 99.9999% of people lol
It’s a negotiation. Unless you have a lot of knowledge about the industry you’re working in and what market salaries are, you’re at a disadvantage. You don’t have to say a number. They do - they’re offering you a job. If they refuse to offer you the job until you tell them your salary desire, they are trying to low ball you and you likely don’t want to work there.
I have never been an interviewer or interviewee where you are not supposed to give a number.
Of course they try to low ball you. You counter act by giving a number that allows you to haggle. That is how negotiation works.
As a manager that contest would be ended instantly and I’d tell you to give me a number or get out
Why not be pushy? Why not be willing to walk away? Everyone’s situation differs but a server tech is not going to be lacking for work opportunities. If it’s calculated individually, you say “ok what would it be in my case?”
If they say “it depends on what you’re paid now” that’s a HUGE red flag and you should walk
this is a conversation you usually have before the technical stuff. you’re making sure your ideal pay and their band is in sync.
being pushy early in the process is terrible advice.
even then, a position may not be for a certain level so they’re can be a fairly wide band of pay depending on how the interview goes.
i think most folks vastly overthink it. just ask for the money you want to make. either it’s in the ballpark or it’s not. all this “don’t say a number first” stuff is bullshit imo.
you definitely do want to know if your desired pay matches their range though. that’s very important.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT86J7mpN/
That was basically how the meeting went lol
The NDA bit got me ngl
Truth is this is an antagonistic negotiation oftentimes. You want to be paid more, they want to pay you as little as possible. There’s unfortunately no playbook, just advice and experience.
FWIW if they were that evasive I’d just say “look I’m not going to name an initial number, I’d like you to name a range.” But I’m at a somewhat senior level so I have a different experience than others might
I usually follow it up with a salary range and they end up matching the lower bound.
A range gives you flexibility. I hope for the high end, sure, but I know they’ll go for the low end so I throw a range where I’d be happy with the low.
Since it’s a range, it’s easy to say No way I’d work for you for less than [low end].
If you give a fixed value they’ll low ball it and you’ll generally end up in.between theirs and yours, so you’ll have to aim high.
You just learned a valuable lesson. Always add like at least 25% to what you think you can get. Unless you are very aware of what the salary range should be. They’ll almost always make a counter offer if you’ve gone over. It’s hard to walk it back if you lowball yourself though.
Hell yeah this is the way. Negotiate for 25% more, and expect to land at 10-15% more.
I like the tip someone said where if they want you to name a number, you reply with, “Im currently in the middle of interviews with positions whose salary range from (range 1 to range 2)”.
140-150 is pretty average for a senior DevOps/AWS person. Coding and terrorism/AWS will pay more then networking in general.
Did you maybe mean to say Terraform, or am I missing a key aspect of my job role?
