Career in Network Infrastructure Engineer

[Peter Nguyen]

How is your career in Network Engineer?

According to payscale.com, for a Computer/Electrical/Network Engineer starting median salary is $61,000, and for the mid-career median salary is $105,000 (in 2009.)  Mid-career means 10 plus year on the job.
http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/degrees.asp

I am living in the Midwest, Kansas City area.  I do not see these numbers add up.  In Kansas City, mid-career or senior network infrastructure engineers’ salary is 70-80K.

What do you think?  Does Senior Nortel Network Infrastructure Engineer worth $100K.  It is no way I can find this salary in the Midwest. 

Peter.

[Michael McNamara]

Hi Peter,

It's no secret that salaries in the Information Technology sector have taken a beating the last 2-3 years.

The site you've linked to is reporting the median salary based on college degree not actual position/title.

In any event here in the Northeast (Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore) a network engineer with 10+ years of experience can certainly earn between $80,000 and $100,000. There are also positions beyond network engineer that include network architect, technical consultant, technical architect, network manager, director, etc. that can earn upwards of $500,000 depending on the size of the organization.

I know network engineers that make $60,000 and manage around 3,000 ports. I also know network engineers that make $90,000 but manage around 32,000 ports and are responsible for much more than just network switching and routing.

Have a look at the SANS Salary Survey for 2008; http://www.sans.org/security-resources/salary_survey_2008.pdf

You also need to think about the cost of living for that specific geographic region... it's probably much more expensive to live in New York City and Washington, DC and then live in Kansas City... I'm just guessing here I actually don't know that.

Ultimately you need to move beyond just being a network engineer assuming you have the ambition.

You also need to acknowledge that other factors, including the economy and (10%) unemployment are going to conspire to drive down salaries. As the economy recovers and unemployment numbers better we'll hopefully see a recovery within the Information Technology sector.

Cheers!

[Michael McNamara]

The TechRepublic / Global Knowledge salary survey for 2010 just hit the street;

http://images.globalknowledge.com/wwwimages/pdfs/2010_SalaryReport.pdf

Cheers!

[Peter Nguyen]

Michael,

Thanks for the clarification.

Is that true Nortel gears are popular in the Northeast area?   In this Midwest region, I found very few colleagues who support Nortel network. 

Last time we had a problem with ISP, they had a hard time to diagnose the problem because the unpopular Nortel 8600 that only a few folks in town use it. 

[Michael McNamara]

Hi Peter,

It would seem that Avaya/Nortel has made inroads in several verticals... healthcare is one vertical here in the Philadelphia area where Avaya/Nortel has quite a few customers. Looking at overall market share there's no arguing that Avaya/Nortel only has a small piece of the pie compared with Cisco and even HP so it's only reasonable that a smaller number of engineers have experience with Avaya/Nortel solutions.

Thankfully, given the Internet and the "world" economy you don't need to be confined to geographic borders when looking for product support or consulting assistance. I've personally assisted folks from Ireland and Europe in troubleshooting issues and problems. The only real issue we had was the 5 hour time delay... with the Internet I was able to host a video conference call and then troubleshoot the issue with them.

[modestgeek]

Here is another recent survey that allows you to search the job, experience and regions.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/salary-survey/tool/2010

Also, don't forget to include other benefits. The base salary is not all you should be looking for. You want to also look at the vacation, retirement programs, health care, short/long term disability, education reimbursement, misc. other perks. What good is $100K if you only have 1 week of vacation, have to pay health care out of pocket and have no retirement plan?

I think you should also *love* your job. Money won't buy happiness. I know many people who went into IT to make big bucks but hate their jobs and are miserable. I went into IT because I love technology. It just so happens that I get paid well for what I do. I'd be doing the same thing at home as a hobby if I didn't work in IT but I'd be broke from buying all my own gear!

I'm also on the east coast but would be considered South Atlantic. Most of the people I know in IT make between 60-120K. Now, that ranges from people in support to admins to developers. It has been my experience that if you can do it all and work for a smaller company, you can get more than the median for your experience levels and education. Not to mention that you're always playing with something new (which is a plus in my opinion). I think this is because you can do the job of multiple people and have experience doing a little bit of everything. It has also been my experience that after a certain point, experience trumps education. Education might get your foot in the door. Experience will keep it there.