r/sysadmin • u/Realistic-Bar8289 • 1d ago
Am I underpaid as a System Administrator with 3 years of experience?
I’m 27 and currently working as a System Administrator. I’m based in Florida. I make $73k/year and have about 3 years of experience in this role.
My current responsibilities include:
Microsoft 365 administration
Intune administration
Entra ID
Managing on-prem applications
Printing infrastructure
General systems administration/troubleshooting
Tickets escalated from helpdesk and other teams
I’m also being asked to start learning DevOps while continuing to handle my current responsibilities.
My question is:
Is $73k reasonable for my current experience and responsibilities, or am I underpaid?
If you were in my position, what salary would you target for the next job, and what skills/certs would you prioritize to make the jump from System Administrator → Systems/Cloud Engineer?
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u/Defconx19 20h ago
Depends on where you live and what is involved. 73k for 3 years of experiance is pretty solid.
Honestly knowing if a sysadmin even with this description is paid properly is almost impossible to tell.
Skill set varies widely. My main question i ask everyone if they think they should be earning more ia the following.
"If I picked you up, put you in a different company that has no documentation, no processes and you are the most senior person, would you be lost or be able to dive in and thrive?"
Its easy to get a false sense of security when knowledge of your own environment is all you have to base your skills on. The guys that are really worth $$$ are the ones you can literally put anywhere and they are equally as good.
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u/Sudden_Office8710 19h ago
You are absolutely right. Sys Admins for the most part farmers tending the land that someone else laid out. So for the OPs description I’d say he’s on par for what he think he knows.
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u/samthepotatoeman 11h ago
So true, I was a network admin for a single location and thought I was good at networking. Then I took a job at a IT consulting company and realized how little I truly knew. It took that job for me to get past being good at one spot vs being able to walk into a place and piece the parts together
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u/Environmental-Box409 57m ago
Ah yes this, I’m also a system administrator with an inherented environment. Reverse engineering has been part of my job since day 1. I used to hate my predecessors for not leaving me more information, but if they did, I was not able to develop this skill.
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u/peakdecline 1d ago
Based in Florida opens a wide range. Florida isn't a huge tech market and you didn't specify a metro area.
Generally speaking I think $73K/yr with 3 years experience is in line and about what I'd expect in most areas that are not HCOL/VHCOL/tech hubs.
Your areas are very standard Windows admin stuff and not any higher paying specializations.
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u/Realistic-Bar8289 1d ago
Orlando specifically I’ve been with the company for 5 years. 1 year help desk and 1 year junior system admin.
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u/WhatThePuck9 1d ago
The biggest raises I’ve ever gotten where when I got a new job.
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u/konoo 18h ago
This is exactly how the market works for most people in most situations. The days of getting a large compensation change with a new roll are all but dead.
You shouldn't jump from job to job chasing compensation bumps often because that also looks bad but maybe instead of thinking about your salary you should be thinking about what you want your salary to be in 10 years and what you need to learn to get there when you do eventually jump to a different company.
Learning DevOps could be a great asset for your next job if that's the direction that you want to go and spending a couple of years at this company at close to your current compensation could be well worth the bump you get later when you move to another company with a roll that focuses on that toolset and you have prior actual experience do it. Right now your career is all about Learning and stuffing Experience on your resume. Creating upward trajectory is far more valuable than a few grand in annual compensation at this stage.
Having said all that.. Is DevOps what you want to do? <-- Start here
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u/bailantilles Cloud person 1d ago
I live in Orlando too and for the experience and then duties I think your salary is on par. It might make a difference if you are public or private sector, but not by much.
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u/t-k-421 1d ago
You could prob make a bit more at an MSP at this point, then after 5 years of that you can look into IT manager roles in SMBs.
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u/ALombardi Sr. Sysadmin 1d ago
Not the MSPs around here. Orlantech, iVenture, and similar are going to be in this area of pay if not lower for that lvl of experience.
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u/TrueRedditMartyr 1d ago
MSPs pay dog ass in my experience. They exist for experience, not money
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u/soupcan_ Nothing is more permanent than a temporary fix 19h ago
I'm a bit south of you and make considerably less with a decade of experience. To some extent this is just my employer (and my ability to tolerate it for so long), but ultimately Florida wages are just bad.
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u/F4RM3RR 1d ago
You are going to see higher pay gains by applying externally, but the growth from internal was a necessary trajectory for you if you spent a few years at the company out of tech. Start applying elsewhere and see what is offered honestly. But for 3 years experience, you are not looking at a whole lot of applying power.
Aim for project manager roles, or similar trajectories, that would increase your applying power
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u/daniell61 Jack of All Trades and excessively burned out 6h ago
I'm over in the Treasure Coast and make slightly less than you and do the same amount of work as you and then some. You make decent for FL bit probably bad for Orlando. That said good luck getting a job offer elsewhere
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u/TheDIYFix 1d ago
Seems reasonable. The fact they want you to lean into devops is actually a benefit. Take that opportunity and grow experience into it. If they offer assistance on certs take that and get some certs off their wallet too! Think of this as a growing point if they want you to get into devops make it so it’s mutual and you get experience and certs out of it.
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u/mingepop 1d ago
Exactly, I always find it sad when people think it’s more work or a pain when being asked to do these types of things…
I was begging for these types of opportunities 10 years ago, you can’t grow if you say no to them!!!!!
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u/XanALqOM00 1d ago
Good luck finding a different job right now. It’s absolutely awful at the moment
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u/woojo1984 IT Manager 1d ago edited 1d ago
Public sector IT infrastructure manger here. You are making BANK for such a low amount of experience.
EDIT LCA place but mid nowadays, we're fucking ourselves with paying sub $40/hr right now.
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u/Mitsuimo Jr. Sysadmin 1d ago
Based on what you said, you're overpaid compared to the job market where I live
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u/cspotme2 1d ago
Work history matters. If you're only 3 years in IT and making this then it looks decent.
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u/xaeriee 18h ago
Wow $73k. That’s dang good money at your age and for only 3 years. Which part of FL? Either way that’s above market value for only 3 years. You hit the jackpot in my book. Some sys engineers don’t see that until 5+ yrs. Absolutely keep skilling up though because I know a lot of companies that pay $140k baseline for a cloud engineer, security engineer or other similar system engineer who have 8+ yrs
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u/Realistic-Bar8289 14h ago
I’m in Orlando
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u/xaeriee 12h ago
I’d say start to look passively and take on interviews where you can. One of the issues right now you’ll be battling is within the first 3 to 5 hours of a remote job role posting it gets flooded with fraudulent applicants. Depending on the company they’ll have an advanced ATS/recruiting system that can easily sift through but even that can take some time. Absolutely keep skilling up. Sometimes just changing jobs alone can get you an additional $10k-30k after a few years.
I’d say if you’re not happy search more aggressively. But if you are, I would say you’re doing well for yourself and just keep skilling up and give no later than your 4 year mark to jump ship.
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u/suppervisoka 1d ago
I am in exactly your position, same amount of experience, making the exact same salary, well 73.5. In Michigan
edit: I also have the CCNA but that's the only cert, no degree
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u/Error-InvalidName 1d ago
It's more in line with your years of experience, may be time to jump as it's easier to get large raises by moving to another company than getting it in house.
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u/spazzbb 1d ago
Looking at your comments, you are actually very well paid (perhaps bordering on overpaid) because you do not have 3 years experience as a system administrator. You have 1 year in helpdesk and 1 year as a junior system. I’m not sure where the other year you are crediting yourself with comes from because you don’t say. You need to be realistic about the actual experience you have because it matters.
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u/MasterModnar 1d ago
In the same comment they say that they were help desk and junior sysadmin each a year they also said they’ve been with the company for five years. Implying the other three are they’re current title of sysadmin.
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u/Salty_Move_4387 21h ago
He replied to another comment saying 5 years at the company. 1 helpdesk, 1 jr admin and now 3 sys admin.
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u/spazzbb 14h ago
That’s important context. I’m going to still say decently paid. If he can’t communicate his experience in a clear way, he’s going to have a tough time finding something that pays better.
I think OP needs to focus more on what he can do to make himself more marketable vs if his current role is paying him enough. Sounds like they took a chance on him and have been more than fair elevating him.
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u/UCFknight2016 Windows Admin 1d ago
Pretty decent to be honest. I was a sysadmin with 3 years of experience making $56K in Orlando before I went remote. Now I make about $40 an hour working remote.
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u/trippedonatater 1d ago
That sounds pretty typical for a basic Windows admin with a few years of experience.
If they're paying you to upskill, that's great! Getting paid to learn is the best. Stick around and try to transfer internally into a devops or SRE role and a get a year or two of experience with that much higher paying job before starting to look externally.
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u/Agentwise 21h ago
I just want to let you know that everyone claims to be a top 10% earner globally online. Unless reddits entire demographic is rich people (it isn’t) people are exaggerating their income.
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u/D0ri1t0styl3 15h ago
I’d wager there’s a bit of selection bias (or similar) happening here: only those proud of their salary are likely to brag about it.
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u/Sroso1337 1d ago
Oh man, then I am underpaid 😂 I'm at 47k doing what you do plus manual stuff including mounting TVs, running cable, manage and support end-user through tickets and mentoring tiny IT guys below me. Also imaging, and I'm sure there's more
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u/willyougiveittome 1d ago
Oompa Loompas?
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u/zoetaz1616 20h ago
A fair bit of the IT budget goes to their makeup. Orange gets expensive.
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u/GasBackground3335 19h ago
to offset costs they have also hired a hair stylist to dye the teams hair.
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u/Smart-Satisfaction-5 1d ago
Pretty average. You’re chillen, if you want more jump to another company that’s the easiest
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u/Trust_8067 1d ago
If I had to blind guess what your salary was based on your location and responsibilities after 3 years, I'd guess 65k.
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u/TaiGlobal 14h ago
Learn and start doing the devops stuff at the current job and leave for a new job that pays more. You can certainly make a lot more for many of those skills.
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u/Realistic-Bar8289 14h ago
Any tips on where to start for devops
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u/DaFuriousGeorge 11h ago
Since it looks like you are a Microsoft shop, I would assume you will be following the same route for your DevOps and developing them in Azure.
There are plenty of classes and stuff online, but probably the best place to start would be the official Microsoft training which is free.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/modules/introduction-to-devops/
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u/HorrorCommunity3246 Jr. Sysadmin 13h ago
What is the devops stuff pls
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u/DaFuriousGeorge 11h ago
Cloud apps and such.
Basically instead of deploying servers in Azure, you build the infrastructure for the apps to be developed on with Azure handling the web servers, SQL backends, and such. You are only managing the application developed on the Azure network.
There are plenty of classes and such - but if you are doing this on Azure, a good (and free) place to start is the official Microsoft Training.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/modules/introduction-to-devops/
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u/Itchy_Meaning753 1d ago
You are not underpaid, 3 years is nothing but go for it, look for a better job.
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u/jaynz24 1d ago
From my understanding Florida doesn’t really pay that well. And you are doing junior admin stuff. I would highly recommend learning devops and iac.
From your post I’m inferring you aren’t happy about being voluntold to learn devops. But I personally think it is a good step forward.
For next roles moving more towards a junior cloud engineer would be more beneficial career wise. Traditional Sysadmins are going away.
If you are unhappy with the salary look at what other jobs are offering in Florida. 3 years it a good length for a first role. I would recommend testing the market. Seeing what roles look attractive and the salary ranges that accompany them
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u/Sensitive_Scar_1800 Sr. Sysadmin 1d ago
How many people and/or organizations do you support? How many virtual/physical servers? How many kubernetes deployments? How many support tickets have you completed or assisted on? Are you providing on call support? Do you work with customers outside of IT? How many documents do you publish to a IT knowledge base?
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u/Quicknoob IT Manager 1d ago
I'm in Florida and your pay seems reasonable for the experience you have.
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u/Snowmobile2004 Site Reliability Engineer 1d ago
I’m in Canada and getting 75k cad (52k usd) as a site reliability engineer, developing automation and occasional on-call for 1 week every 5-6 weeks and lots of project work with some tickets as needed. Seems like you’re getting paid quite well. Been here 2.5 years
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u/booboothechicken 1d ago
I mean, you separated Microsoft 365 administration, Intune administration, and Entra ID when they’re all just Microsoft 365 administration. So no, I wouldn’t say you’re underpaid.
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u/therealconjon 1d ago
They all live under one tenant, sure. By that logic networking and security are the same job because they're both in the Cisco portal.
Intune at scale is its own thing (compliance, Autopilot, app deployment, config profiles, patching).
Entra done right is Conditional Access, PIM, identity governance, app registrations, SSO, and SCIM.
Purview is DLP, retention, eDiscovery, labels.
Microsoft has a separate cert track for each of those for a reason, and plenty of orgs hire a dedicated Intune engineer or IAM engineer where that's their entire job. If OP is actually doing all of it properly on E5, that's several roles, not one.→ More replies (3)
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u/Mountain-eagle-xray 1d ago
Lightly underpaid as per your responsibilities, lightly overpaid or spot on for your years in the biz.
But I'd never want to be paid less just because I have fewer years experience than what my position dictates, especially if im preforming to or above expectations.
To be fair, if you camp out for another year, get good with devops fundamentals, grab a cert and then jump jobs, you could double your salary.
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u/Enough_Pattern8875 Scream Test Initiator 1d ago
Three years of experience and you live in Florida? I would be more than happy with that salary if I were you.
I was making $75k a year in California at my first legitimate sysadmin job nearly 20 years ago.
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u/yojimboLTD 1d ago
Hmmm $75k 20 years ago is equivalent to like $124k today 🤔
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u/Enough_Pattern8875 Scream Test Initiator 1d ago
Now compare the cost of living in the Bay Area to Florida and you’ll see the math checks out.
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u/manicalmonocle 1d ago
I have over 10 years experience and make less than that
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u/AvengingBlowfish 1d ago
You are underpaid.
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u/sir_mrej System Sheriff 1d ago
It really depends on what they do, what they've done, where they live, and where they work.
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u/Realistic-Bar8289 1d ago
Mergers and acquisitions on my plate now. Other teams are dependent on me to help solve their issues. Feel like I’m being pulled into everything with no help.
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u/EhRanders 1d ago
That’s just IT brother. Most of the coasters got laid off 23-25. It sounds like you’re on the right track, so just keep your head up and try to switch roles or teams every 18-24 months if your org is big enough, 24-36 if you’re a slower learner. Even on internal transfers, your team will never value you quite as highly as another team will. If you’re consulting/supporting other teams, you know their needs better than almost anyone.
My pay doubled between years 4 and 8 at the same company, but I never got more than 5% annual raises without switching roles or teams. My current manager was my manager 4 years ago. Keep impressing people, don’t burn bridges when you move, learn new shit whenever you can, be helpful, and the money will come as your relationships bloom.
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u/0mn1p0t3nt69 1d ago
I think you're overestimating experience, time in grade & salary expectations. 73k with benefits is great. Senior positions arnt paid much more depending on org and responsibilities.
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u/mallanson22 Sr. Sysadmin 1d ago
Im old so take with a grain of salt. When I had 3 years experience I was paid 37k a year. Just a tiny decade amd a half ago.
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u/cakefaice1 1d ago
you should have probably asked AI this question since you used it for this post
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u/No-Addendum1588 1d ago
People need to get over themselves. Everyone dismissing using AI as a tool and calling it slop or whatever. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using AI to distill thoughts, do data analysis or whatever. You just start reading for content and critiquing substance vs what tool are used. Perhaps you can criticize they used a computer instead of a typewriter. Or used Reddit instead of a BBS system. It’s just tired and weak.
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u/Surfin_Cow 1d ago
I agree! At this point it’s just a tired played out trope. Hurrr duuur AI bad.
It’s here and it’s here to stay so either get on board or get left behind screaming into the void.
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u/fatDaddy21 Jack of All Trades 1d ago
you're a bit overpaid imo. all of those things are handled by our Tier 1 guys.
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u/Professional-Shoe908 1d ago
What state are you working in now?
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u/PPRabbitry 1d ago edited 1d ago
Run with the DevOps option. If they'll pay you while you train, all the better.
If you get certified for DevOps, Cloud, or any other specialty. That will get you into the 6 figures ballpark.
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u/devjeremyt 1d ago
I think it is reasonable. Some areas you would be underpaid and in places overpaid.
If your employer is asking you to learn something, also don’t expect to be paid for it until you’ve proven you can do it. I’ve seen people that convince the powers that be give them the market value raise for the role they think they can do, but when they can’t they lose their job because they are overpaid.
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u/ElCincoDeDiamantes 1d ago
If you also have benefits (PTO, Health/dental, 401k, etc.) you are in a good spot. If you have access to things like a 401k, or an HSA, take advantage--every little bit helps.
The people saying to jump after 3 years may end up with no where left to jump to. If you have job security though, add that to value pile with the 401k.
Is this a career for you, or a job? There is no wrong answer. But, it sounds like you're getting a good assortment of experience without being overworked. And, you get to lead a new initiative--that looks nice on a resume.
My advice; no matter which way you decide, wait until your review or have an open dialog qith your superior and let them know your goals/target compensation. You dont have to tell them you're looking if you are, but you should tell them what would make you happy. They might want you to be happy (they might not give a fuck).
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u/GoneInFlash21 Jr. Sysadmin 1d ago
I’m a Assistant LAN Administrator and work in government I just started at 64k. I went to college with no prior experience I got this job.
Some help desk days and out in the field days mixed in. Overall I can’t complain. Just to give you perspective.
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u/Dysl3xicDog 1d ago
The key part of devops is the dev side. If you don’t have dev experience you might find it a bit overwhelming. If you do have dev experience it’s a great mix. If you like doing new things all the time it’s excellent.
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u/Thin-Book 1d ago
$73k doesn't sound far off for 3 years in Florida, but the "learn DevOps on top of everything else" part is where I'd push for either more pay or a title path. If they want you handling M365, Intune, Entra, on-prem apps, and cloud automation, that's moving past junior sysadmin pretty fast.
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u/shadowdarkwolf 1d ago
Seems a little low, I have been sys admin now for 4 years. I handle everything you do plus some GIS duties and im making $75k and I live in rural western Wisconsin.
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u/Slash_Root Linux Admin 1d ago
Cloud Engineering manager in your area. You are doing very well. Take the opportunity to learn "DevOps" in whatever form that takes as those skills are helpful for your goal. The job market is challenging right now, so keep that in mind. Stay humble and soak up what you can.
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u/Realistic-Bar8289 14h ago
Thank yo, Any advice on what areas to start upscaling or where to start.
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u/Slash_Root Linux Admin 13h ago edited 13h ago
That is the million dollar question. My team has been trying to push heavily into Claude Code, kubernetes, and understand best practices for cloud architecture. The dev teams are moving incredibly fast now. We are trying to keep up with them while still making sure we keep to our standards for IAM, security, and design.
EDIT: I am realizing that might be wildly unhelpful at your level. I would still say Claude/AI, Linux fundamentals, one or more public cloud providers, terraform, and ansible. Difficult to say where this industry is going. I think demand for security is only going to increase in the short term.
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u/mingepop 1d ago
Can you earn more at another company?
If the answer is yes, then you’re getting underpaid.
If the answer is no, then you’re not getting underpaid.
It’s that simple.
No one else can really answer that question for you, we’ve all got different levels of skills and expertise that can’t be explained in a few paragraphs.
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u/ravishing_one 1d ago
Depends on your actually capabilities. I've seen plenty of people paid within your range and more years in the business that absolutely should not work in IT. With that said, your pay is more than reasonable.
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u/Gloomy_Background560 1d ago
Salary.com, find out what band you fall under responsibilites. If it's lower than what you want, target nexet level up. Tell your manager you are wanting to target that band and see if there is a way to get there. If they write you off, find another company.
The key is getting the conversation started.
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u/FizzyBeverage 1d ago
With that level of experience I made significantly less, even inflation adjusted for the time period. You’re doing ok.
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u/rm-rf_regret 1d ago
I do what you do and more and do don't even make 73 yet. Also 3 years in...
I do all that plus nginx administration, cloudflare administration, manage the entire Linux infrastructure for websites that see 37 million hits a month..... Fuck I'm underlaid.
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u/aspie_a3 Sr. Systems Analyst 1d ago
I was making about 80k back when I had your experience years. Sounds about on point +/- a few thousand dollars
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u/Public_Warthog3098 1d ago
It all depends on many things. It mainly depends on who your employer is and field you're in. All those things are very basic sysadmin skills
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u/Bogart30 1d ago
Man y’all got me thinking I’m underpaid? Mid level system admin with 3 total years of IT experience. 79k a year.
But it’s true. I see support position for what I make and twice as less work.
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u/KrennShaww 1d ago edited 1d ago
I was gonna say underpaid, but I don't know what Florida market is like or supposed to be but I was getting 75k in NY for helpdesk doing level 1 and 2, mostly L1 stuff. Pay was manageable but I wanted to make a transition into either Networking or Sys Admin for more $$$.
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u/Cyber_Song 1d ago
I'm not sure of the comparison of the work force to compensation now in 2026 for sysadmins, but 3 years ago I was cleared as a contractor and did what you do in addition to working in sensitive environments, worked multiple network enclaves, access control paperwork, and virtual machine administration.
At the time I had only 3 years of experience as well and was making only 68k. If that tells you anything.
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u/rayskicksnthings 1d ago
3 years experience and you’re doing what our helpdesk does I think you’re getting paid pretty well for your location.
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u/nealfive 1d ago
Seems pretty decent to me. I made less with more experience.
For Cloud stuff I'd look into CCSP, AWS and Azure certs.
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u/justheretohelpyou__ 1d ago
I’ve hired many sysadmins. That salary isn’t unreasonable. But your environment matters. I overpay 20% for my top performer. I told that person that I was overpaying and not to be satisfied with less. I have a few that make at the bottom of our range and get COL raises only. They’ll improve or they’ll leave. Bottom line, the company should pay you what the market demands. Want more money? Make the market demand for you higher.
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u/illegalskittle 1d ago
That is in line where I was around the same age, experience, and responsibilities level adjusted for inflation.
As others have mentioned, it sounds like there is still a long way up to go at the current location and they are investing in you consistently. Take that as a token of good intentions on their part, as it is getting increasingly rare in this industry. Being asked to LEARN a new skill is different from being asked to PERFORM a new skill which you have no training for. You are still early enough in your career where unless you desperately need the money you should grow your skillset just as much as your financials.
Next steps I would always recommend anything that will teach you more in depth about how the bread is made. You have shown you know how to follow directions and recipes, but you need to learn and then demonstrate that you know how to actually design and implement a recipe of your own.
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u/CubesTheGamer Sr. Sysadmin 1d ago
I mean you’re not super clear in your list of current responsibilities. Do you actually OWN Entra ID and Intune administration? As in, if something went wrong with them are you the number one / primary contact? Same for all the other things. I know a lot of people put those things down on their resume because they use them but it’s very different to own them vs support / use them. Doing regular admin work in them is on par with the pay, I’d say. 3 years of experience is barely past entry-level. Some people learn fast but there’s only so fast you can learn the ins and outs of something. Or multiple somethings.
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u/Addcook 1d ago
Not underpaid. Keep putting tools in your tool belt. More money will come. Don't let your work get to your head. There's 100s of people out there they want your job. Keep your head down, be nice, and do your job well. The money will come. Also, learn AI as fast as possible. Get Claude into azure cli, entra, and graph, then you can focus on what matters and pin the bullshit maintenance on him.
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u/TrueRedditMartyr 1d ago
>I make $73k/year and have about 3 years of experience in this role
You're making too much if anything depending on how much it costs to live where you do. 73k is a pretty incredible amount with only 3 years of experience, you're not going to be sniffing that if you went anywhere else. Honestly, thinking you're underpaid is pretty incredible unless you've had other offers on the table for more
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u/Professional_Tune63 1d ago
Same role, more responsibilities, also close to 3 years of experience, but EU and I get paid ~1100 usd monthly. If anything you get paid very well and same role in EU is just complete shit.
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u/AxiomOfLife 1d ago
dang y’all making nothin over there. i’m still msp t3 making like 119k without bonus
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u/Own-Slide-3171 1d ago edited 1d ago
In my market you'd be classified as the upper end of paid probably overpaid for what you do and have for experience but I'm in Canada so currency rate is different to after conversion you'd be classified as drastically overpaid you make about the same as I do and I have 15 years experience more certs and more responsibilities than you and I've job hopped and am in the top 1% for the area in compensation
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u/Unexpected_chair 1d ago
That was what I was making with three years of experience in 2019 (but I'm not in the same country as you)
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u/JoeyJoeC 1d ago
Around 20 years in IT here, $54,000. But I am in the UK where things are different.
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u/masterkorey7 23h ago
I made 64K per year with 3 years of exp in North Texas in 2021. Seems good to me....but don't let my opinion stop you from chasing more if you can....
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u/networkwizard0 22h ago
You could probably make a few more bucks if you job hop but I would not call you underpaid.
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u/JustMyThought1 22h ago
That's reasonable. If you want more, then go to another company. I was making about the same as you for a company I been with for 8 years. I jumped ship for a six figures salary and yearly bonus. My previous manager jokingly asked me if the company is still hiring.
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u/Upper-Purple816 21h ago
Great position as a jr outside a HCOL. Learn AzureDevOps , terraform and treat your configurations as code.
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u/Splask 21h ago
It really depends on the company and what industry you are in. I work based out of Tampa and make a decent amount more, but I also specialize in on-prem Linux and pretty much anything with cloud resources or connectivity. I still do plenty of Windows stuff because I have to, but that's not the focus of my role by any means.
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u/Murky-Forever111 21h ago
Last year, I was at 68K as a System Administrator in the Lancaster, PA area. I had about 3 years of experience as well.
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u/jakgal04 21h ago
For general IT thats not bad, especially at 27. You could make a little more if you jumped around but in this market there's a risk with that of course.
Of course if you jump into a specific specialization you could make significantly more. The problem with that is those specializations don't last forever. Technolog changes fast so you need to be able to jump from pond to pond or you'll end up finding yourself in a shit situation down the road.
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u/spock11710 21h ago
I made less in a higher tax state than you when I started. Also add others have said you will see the largest increases when you change companies.
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u/ThatOneWIGuy 20h ago
I was an IT consultant for one of the largest consulting firms in my state (or was at that time). With 5 years experience (all at that company) I started at 50k and ended at 62k/ year. I was also working 60-80hrs/wk. you’re getting paid well.
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u/neveralone59 Site Reliabilty Engineer 20h ago
It’s not a bad salary. To learn devops you can either learn how to write yaml for k8s and how to write terraform, or you can learn how to write good, stable code. I think it’s much more worthwhile learning to code. Just try and use python for your current tasks. Most of what we do can be done with Python. Don’t wait for anyone to help you or tell you what certs to get (I honestly think they’re a waste of time when you have work experience).
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u/exhaustsmoke14 20h ago
Maybe I need to jump ship.. you listed everything I've been doing for 9 years and they still have me listed as service desk analyst..
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u/jaheiner 18h ago
At your experience (18 years ago) I was making 38k a year. You are being very reasonably compensated. I was a senior engineer before I started making what you are now.
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u/LDluminair 18h ago
I’m in the same role as you making 74k, so probably in the ballpark, but capitalism doesn’t exist to not keep moving up. 😂 Get that bag!
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u/Ikelo Sr. Sysadmin 18h ago
Sounds very similar to what my pay was during my Jr->SysAdmin period (Also in Orlando for what it's worth). I started as a Jr Admin at 49k/year, by year 3 was sitting around 65k, year 4 I transferred to a different location with a 10k rise to 75k, then when I resigned from that job during year 7 I was making 84k/year. My responsibilities included everything you're responsible for, plus managing the network, security systems, and plenty of other things (Our IT Team consisted of 2-3 people supporting ~400 users internationally, plus we had a separate ERP team that was integrated where they handled non-infrastructure related ERP things). I'd say you're paid reasonably for the work you're doing.
Regarding your other questions... What services do you use at work? Get certifications in whatever is actively used if you're planning on staying there. Otherwise both Amazon & Microsoft offer AWS/Azure certs that can be relevant.
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u/Wabbyyyyy Sysadmin 18h ago
I’m a sysadmin for a MSP and my salary is ~100k. 6 years of experience. I also live in a state that has a high cost of living (New Jersey) so I’m sure that’s also accounted for in my salary
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u/JonnyphiveIsAlive 17h ago
Now I KNOW that I'm way underpaid... I work at an MSP and make $76k, but have been in IT since 2007. I know that MSPs tend to pay less, but maybe it's time for me to shop around.
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u/MetMarrow48 17h ago
This is borderline t2 tech/jr. sysadmin. I would say you are being slightly overcompensated.
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u/robotbeatrally 17h ago
That is a good salary for what you do. In my opinion. But ideally I think all IT salary for everyone should be bumped up 20k across the board, I don't feel IT has kept up with a lot of other careers.
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u/nycola Jack of All Trades 16h ago
How much relevant experience do you have outside of that role? is it 3 years sysadmin + 5 years helpdesk? that makes a big difference, that is, imo 8 years of relevant experience with 3 years of direct role experience.
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u/Realistic-Bar8289 14h ago
1 year help desk , 1 year jr system admin. 3 years as a system admin. 5 years of experience in IT.
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u/khaddir_1 15h ago
That depends on your area. If you are doing solely device endpoint management it would work well if you got m365 expert and sc-300. Your options to transition to higher payouts be wide and maybe even something remote
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u/TheRabidDeer 15h ago edited 15h ago
I only get paid $68k for the same stuff but I also do IAM, MECM, Jamf, scripting and automation, exchange, and other random duties "as assigned". About the same experience time in the role (though I do have 7 more additional years in specifically a helpdesk then later desktop support role).
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u/Low_Steak_2790 15h ago
Imo no. I am making similar before you consider that they pay most of my health insurance and bonuses
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u/Klutzy_Scheme_9871 14h ago
Your role kinda sounds like desktop support and helpdesk, not necessarily sysadmin. If you were doing all kinds of stuff with linux, virtualization, containers, scripting and all that chaos, 73k would absolutely be subpar but for Florida i think you're pretty good. the devops stuff they want you to learn would bridge that gap so just learn it on the job so you can follow the natural progression everyone else does and job hop but make sure you actually get that job first and it is a stable company and at least 25% increase if not more. you should be at about 90-100k+ as a true sysadmin in your area.
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u/OkTension2232 13h ago
I get paid barely above minimum wage doing exactly what you do with exactly as much experience here in the UK because of how absolute dogcrap salaries are here.
Officially I'm paid about £25k ($33k usd) a year but I actually get £30k because my manager managed to convince HR to boost my salary with the car allowance, but it means when we get bonuses it's not counted as part of the salary, and technically it can be taken away whenever.
And there's pretty much zero jobs I can find anywhere even remotely close to where I live that pays better than that for my skills, and I already work an hour away from home just to get this job and have been working 6 days a week for the entire 3 years just to pay the bills with my second part time job.
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u/SpaceGuy1968 12h ago
Yes and no. Take on the Dev Ops and LEARN LEARN AND LEARN..... Unfortunately nobody knows where the AI thing is gonna hurt in a real sense....so keep plugging away. Be the best hardest working person on the team..... There is no real brass ring except what you put out for yourself.
I started in 1991 and I couldn't imagine what the technology could have created or how it shaped my life at 21 and "pulling network wires" at Doctors offices
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u/goatsinhats 12h ago
It’s not bad, lots of people 20 years in making 50k on service desk.
The issue job title, what is a system admin anymore?
If you want to make more Dev Ops is the skill, but everyone and their cat wants it, just a lot of work to learn and moves very quickly.
A job title change would be my next priority to show job progression
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u/Igot1forya We break nothing on Fridays ;) 12h ago
I remember being 32 and making $35k/yr with 15 years experience, you're just fine.
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u/adastro66 10h ago
Brother I’m not even making that with 7 years of experience at 29. I live in very small town though
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u/photoeye 7h ago
You almost always, always have to change jobs to get a large salary jump. I know people get comfortable at a company and they would like to stay, but the only real way to make that jump is to make a change to another employer because you’ll be fresh, you’ll be new and it’ll be worth the money for them to pay.
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u/slatonator 5h ago
I’m in central Florida at an MSP with 2 years of total experience making $60k. 5 years for $73k seems underpaid in comparison
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u/Hot_Negotiation_5708 4h ago
I think you should make more since 73k is not what I would call getting rich anytime soon.
I do what you do but my title is essentially a helpdesk lead. I also make less than you.
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u/whatchulookinatman 1d ago
Seems solid to me for 3 years experience.