Re: Programming
Like I said in my previous post I have been working in the software industry for more than 15 years. The IT market depends on where you are. It has gotten better in Houston in the past year or so. Thats when I saw a jump in getting calls from recruiters. I have moved about 5 cities in the past 12 years. In the past I would have gone to where ever the work was and believe that I have made a good choice to move to Houston since all the major players in the oil and gas field are here.
One thing I have noticed in the IT field in the past 10 years is that no company these days is looking for IT employees with just one skill set. You have to at least be able to work with 3 skill sets or more. That is the one factor that will work in your favor to negotiate your salary with the employers.
All of this is my own opinion and what I have observed in the time that I have put into this field. Just to give readers here some idea on what my last job was. I was performing the whole SDLC myself working with agile methodology and also I was the only application support person for the same enterprise wide application that I was developing along with being the DBA and Server Admin for our windows server. What does that tell you about the IT workings?
I think making 90-100K a year is a lot depending on the person/location but I dont think it tops out as some good friends of mine make more than 150K to 250K a year working on different projects.
Its not just IT that gets paid less. All the other professionals except management get paid less and work more.