Need advice regarding salaries for job

Hey guys,

I'm applying for a dual-role position as a systems administrator / web programmer here in Toronto, Canada. Here is the job posting:

You will be responsible for a 40-workstation Mac and Windows network, numerous servers and services, troubleshooting and full IT support via phone and email. You will also be responsible for developing great web-based applications in PHP within an Apache-MySQL-PHP environment. You will also from time to time be required to produce content with or use the following applications or technologies:

* QuarkXpress

* Photoshop

* Dreamweaver

* Flash

* Applescript

* Javascript

* PERL

* ActionScript

You should be experienced with:

* Apache (both administration, configuration and security)

* Postfix (and Cyrus is a plus)

* Linux iptables (and network security in general)

* Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server, Windows XP and more

The company has asked for salary expectations. Does anyone have ideas about how much such a position should pay or any sites with salaries for similar positions? Take a look at my resume too. Any help would be great.

#305483

Remove the heavy metal reference from your resume, be more detailed about the software you've used, and ask for about $35+ yr USD. It depends on where you live. That's really a $40+ job depending on where you are and how saturated your area is with people in your field.

#305517

try using salary.com..... find the most similar job description to the one you're applying to and it gives you a salary range for your area...

not sure if they have canadian areas, though, but you can get an idea if you for e.g. put in NYC.

just off the top of my head, you'd be giving yourself away if you asked $35K, given those responsibilities... i'm thinking you could easily get $60K+

#305533

that type of job goes for around 40k here in VA Beach,

#305536

but you have to remember, cost of living is lower in a place like VA beach... i would guess ny or chicago would be comparable to toronto

and also, it's actually 2 jobs in one... more $$$

#305719

The company I work for pays between $50k and $104k per year for that kind of work. It depends on your actual work experience and work location. Granted these are also large scale work locations... we're talking thousands of desktops and a boatload of support infrastructure.

Also, the whole cost of living thing is BS in todays IT market... we look at industry averages when determining a positions salary range. Only 3 cities in the US even qualify for any type of location based salary increase.

They are New York, Chicago and LA. All the rest are averaged out. So depending on where you live could be a good thing.

Back to the topic at hand...

Based on your resume, you would fall into the lower end of the scale.

I do not mean that in any disrespectful way. Your resume clearly shows you have not been in the business for a long period of time. The only cure for this is time itself... it sucks, but it's a fact of life.

You also have not worked in a medium or large scale environment, but then a 40 workstation shop is considered small by industry standards, so you should be ok on that one.

I would shoot for around $30k to $35k (US) starting range. Unfortunately your resume does not support you asking anything higher. Also, you need to research the company you're applying to. You need to see if they can even support that type of a salary request.

And like Meat said... ditch the metal reference.

#305755

Wow - either the cost of living in Dubai is very low or something is very wrong here...

A job like this would not earn the equivalent to 40K a year unless it was something very big (a la what Rjohnstone mentioned) and you had senior experience. Then again, with 25k a year you can live very well here.

Agree with the metal reference needed to be scrapped out.

#305791

Also, the whole cost of living thing is BS in todays IT market... we look at industry averages when determining a positions salary range. Only 3 cities in the US even qualify for any type of location based salary increase.

They are New York, Chicago and LA. All the rest are averaged out. So depending on where you live could be a good thing.

i guess i am biased since i do live in NYC...

#305843

Yep... if I lived in NYC, I would get a 20% increase in pay to offset housing expenses.

#305880

Seph, yeah, cost of living in the US is WAY higher than Dubai :-P you have to make more than 25K a year in most US cities just to have a small apartment to yourself w/o killing yourself worrying about paying your bare ness bills. most apartments here in a major city are in the 1K-1400 a month area. jacksonville, fl is one of the cheapest places to live in the country, and its still 750 a month for a decent 2 bedroom apartment.

and i also say 30-35K canadian.. i know a couple people that do that same thing, in that area. they have a little more experiance than you, and they make about 40K. and definitely remove the music comment. lol there are lots of companies that wouldn't hire you just for that. :-P

#305889