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IT Security Salaries Expected To Rise In 2011
wiredmikey writes "IT security professionals in the United States can expect starting salaries to increase in 2011, according to a new salary report released today. The guide suggests larger increases in base compensation expected in high-demand segments including information security related positions. According to the report, companies are hiring security professionals to help foil fraud, prevent network breaches and comply with new regulations, to keep confidential information safe and secure."
Time to raise my rates! I'm sure my clients are going to be thrilled, but if they took my advice about security they'd only pay for my advice and not pay me repeatedly to delouse their PC's.
I got a raise a month ago for the first time in two years since I started this Security job and not a token raise either. There is demand there for Security officers from Security Admin jobs to Pen testing jobs and everything inbetween
There is no -1 disagree
And that is why we require degrees around here for all but the sharpest tacks. Too many know-nothing test takes. If you do not know how it really works you probably can't figure it out when it breaks.
Rum and coke? With that higher salary, I would expect some single malt scotch...
Palm trees and 8
Nope, note I said we exclude the sharpest tacks. It just happens to be the normal way for folks who actually know how spanning tree works, or where broadcast domains should be split or how to script their way out of wet paper bag. Sure the test takers can tell you the vendor approved method, but they sure as hell can't tell you what other methods might be better or why the vendors docs are wrong.
Yeah, there's also an increase in demand for physical security, more funding for anti-terror tools/research, etc. The western world is currently more scared of nothing than it's been for decades, and IT security "experts" are the latest in a line of technically mediocre conjurers who manage to charge a lot to turn people from feeling scared to feeling slightly less scared while achieving absolutely nothing.
You know who you are.
Anonymous Coward pretty much answered what a presales engineer does, but didn't explain why it is at the bottom of the list. The list appears to be sorted by salary range or percent increase. Note that presales engineer had the largest percent increase, but the lowest salary range in the list.
Many presales engineers (especially at the big companies) have a compensation plan that is part salary, part commission and part incentive bonus plans, so this table might not be an accurate reflection of what they really take home. There are many people who dislike the road warrior-esque nature of many presales engineering positions, so it is difficult to recruit really good, seasoned staff to this position who have the right mix of technical and sales personas to pull off the role well. The really good ones are pretty much visually indistinguishable from the sales and account execs (ditch the shorts and sandals that are fine when you're coding at the office for coat and tie), engender confidence in the customer when they present the technical solution, and write up the sales proposals from soup to nuts. What usually sets them apart from the pure sales function is they might not necessarily be quite as extroverted as the sales people.
Asking Robert Half if IT salaries are going to go up, is like asking a Century 21 agent if it's a good time to buy a house. The answer is a forgone, agenda driven, conclusion.
These sorts of surveys are always meaningless. Did anybody predict the massive layoffs of IT workers in 2009? How about the total collapse in 2000/2001? Do we ever seen any sorts of warnings about massive offshoring, and/or inshoring, from these industry puff pieces?
The industry propaganda is unwaveringly optimistic of the future for IT workers. But, reality often tells a very different story.
Well, I would say you learn basic IT principles, or how things work, in the first year or year and a half of a university degree. After that, you go into specialization and schools have a tendency to lag behind compared to the industry because things move fast and teachers just aren't available for a technology that is only a few years old. I found that my first years in university were the most interesting ones. After that I started to learn cutting edge stuff by myself because no teachers were available to teach it.
So, you are both right, the actual truth resides in the middle of your respective points.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
On the contrary! You can now help us unload the delivery trucks at Walmart!
THL phish sticks