Best Paid IT job in Calgary

[riceboi]

IT beyonders, lets hear it....

What's the best paid technical/non-managerials IT job in Calgary ? (full time salary employees only not contractors)??

My take:

1. Enterprise Architect
2. Sr. Oracle DBA
3. ERP speciatlists (SAP, Oracle,Peoplesoft)
4. Sr. Cisco Network Admin
5. Sr. Unix Admin
6. Oracle Developers
7. Sr .NET Developers
8. Windows Sys admin
9. Application Support
10. Desktop support

[modded46]

Sr. Cisco Admins make more than any other professional other than ERP specialists...

They are VERY hard to come by and the certifications must be renewed every year which puts them in high demand.

You should also include network administrators.. Firewall/VPN/WAN/network design etc.. I would say they would fit somewhere in the middle above unix admins.

[forced14]

Originally posted by modded46
Sr. Cisco Admins make more than any other professional other than ERP specialists...

They are VERY hard to come by and the certifications must be renewed every year which puts them in high demand.

You should also include network administrators.. Firewall/VPN/WAN/network design etc.. I would say they would fit somewhere in the middle above unix admins.

I dont know of any Cisco certification that has to be renewed every year. The CCIE only has to be renewed every 2nd year, CCNP / CCDP every 3rd (Which you only have to rewrite one or two of the four exams). Its the work experience on very large networks that can take some time to get.

[modded46]

Yes you are correct.. I got that confused with people who let their certification expire..


If your CCIE recertification requirements are not completed on or before the certification's expiration date, your CCIE certification will be suspended for one year. Candidates have one year to recertify their CCIE certification by passing the required written exam. If a candidate does not recertify prior to the one year suspension period, all CCIE certification requirements must be completed again to obtain the certification (pass both the written exam and the lab exam.)

That's still pretty brutal not to mention the cost of the lab exams..

[gpomp]

rage2 makes like $2 million a year

[sputnik]

What about network security specialists or network architects?

[Mibz]

Originally posted by modded46
Sr. Cisco Admins make more than any other professional other than ERP specialists...

This quote makes me so happy with my choice of education.

[riceboi]

Originally posted by Mibz
This quote makes me so happy with my choice of education.

But remember in IT experience comes first. For consulting/contracting, experience + certification is a plus. Companies normally don't give you an automatic promotion if you completed a certification. You can have 3-5 difference type of certifications but w/o experienlce you still start as a jr. guy and move up that way.

I would say IT Security guys are getting paid similar to the windows sys admin in Calgary, I don't think they get top notch pay like those tech magazines advertised.

[modded46]

Originally posted by riceboi


But remember in IT experience comes first. For consulting/contracting, experience + certification is a plus. Companies normally don't give you an automatic promotion if you completed a certification. You can have 3-5 difference type of certifications but w/o experienlce you still start as a jr. guy and move up that way.

I would say IT Security guys are getting paid similar to the windows sys admin in Calgary, I don't think they get top notch pay like those tech magazines advertised.

This is a very good point and very accurate.. I think more than any profession, experience is key because you really need both technical and people skills.. Some people learn that over time, others are really good at it naturally.. Some people never learn it and then go to work for Telus..

[Euro838]

Originally posted by gpomp
rage2 makes like $2 million a year

But isn't that managerial?

[Mibz]

Originally posted by riceboi


But remember in IT experience comes first. For consulting/contracting, experience + certification is a plus. Companies normally don't give you an automatic promotion if you completed a certification. You can have 3-5 difference type of certifications but w/o experienlce you still start as a jr. guy and move up that way.

I would say IT Security guys are getting paid similar to the windows sys admin in Calgary, I don't think they get top notch pay like those tech magazines advertised.

I absolutely agree, I've had friends learn the hard way that you can't get 4 certs straight out of post secondary and walk into a job interview with a poor attitude expecting wads of cash.

Professionalism is my #1 priority right now, certs are 2nd.

[cityhunter2501]

out of curiosity, was talking with my instructor about this but how many guys here are CIPS member and is it a good thing to be one?
still a student right now but curious about it.

[riceboi]

Originally posted by cityhunter2501
out of curiosity, was talking with my instructor about this but how many guys here are CIPS member and is it a good thing to be one?
still a student right now but curious about it.

This is my opinion only, CIPS is not equivalent to P.Eng or CA or CFA or any professional designation. I don't think it has the same prestige, not even close.

Most of the IT jobs in Calgary that I have seen do not require CIPS designation as a part of job qualification (except City of Calgary where you need CIPS designation if you don't have a diploma or degree under your belt). The IT industry is still in high demand for "experienced" workers so it really doesn't matter if you have it or not. Hopefully in the future, CIPS will be respected like other professional designations. I think that day will be a long long time from now.

[black_2.5RS]

CIPS is not a very strong certification. Just look at the requirements to get one....it's essentially just a degree + work experience. There isn't a knowledge / exam component which is really kinda laughable - so as an employer, it's hard to tell what type of employee i'm getting.

Honestly, if you want to see if a certification is in demand, go to monster and / or workopolis and type in CIPS (or any other cert you're thinking of) and see how many hits come up.