2013 Big Bucks for IT Pros

Posted by DougLautzenheiser
If you are an IT professional, good things may be coming your way.

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If you are an IT professional, good things may be coming your way.

 
Information Management did an article on the Top 10 Hottest IT Jobs and their estimated salary ranges. As we go into 2013, here are the predicted techie winners–all with nice six-digit salaries:
  1. Data Scientist, with an annual salary to upwards of $140,000
  2. Database Administrator at $119,500
  3. Network Administrator at $146,500
  4. Application Developer at $114,500
  5. Business Intelligence Analyst at $132,500
  6. Mobile Application Developer at $133,500
  7. Database Portal Administration at $114,500
  8. Data Security Analyst at $129,750
  9. Software Engineer at $127,750
  10. System Analyst at $103,500 
 
Unfortunately, your current employer is not really going to bump up your salary just because of this market demand for IT professionals. But they will probably have to pay these rates for any new faces coming into the organization.
 
If you really want that bump in salary, one tactic would be to become “the new guy” someplace else. Ask for a twenty percent increase to move, stay for awhile, and then–if you really miss the old place–ask for a twenty percent increase to go back to your previous employer. 
 
Don’t think I’m making this stuff up; I have seen this repeatedly. I know a guy who left a company for five years, only to be hired back for double what this company originally paid him. 
 
Of course, to make a move you must really have hot skills. If you don’t, here is your New Year resolution: turn 2013 into a major learning spree. That way, you will build up the IT skills that are in demand and feel justified getting that salary bump. 
 
Many of these hot tools are open source; you can easily download them and jump right in. For example, consider implementing your own Big Data Hadoop cluster, your own R statistics workshop, or your own data visualization applications with a trial copy of Tableau Desktop. With today’s easy access to technology, there is little holding you back from gaining new skills. 
 
If your current organization offers few opportunities for learning, consider moving into a faster paced one–some innovative company, a consulting firm, or a software vendor–in order to get your hands on hot technologies. 
 
2013 could be a great year for you.