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Originally Posted by Claymoore  Some quick options: - Search engine optimization for pr0n sites
- Herbal supplement spam
- Keylogging identity theft
But if you want to take the more challenging route of working hard in a legitimate profession there are still options: Take a job where IT is a profit center not a cost center
If you still like getting your hands dirty and want the opportunity to make six figures, you will probably have to work for a consulting firm. Not many companies can afford (or need) to keep a CCIE on staff. Go to work for a vendor partner who values your skills and needs your certs to meet partner obligations. You will get the opportunity to work with your chosen tech more often and with greater depth. For example, when I worked internal IT, I would get the opportunity to deploy a new Exchange version once every 5 years. Now I get to work maybe 3 large deployments a year. Greater skills = higher bill rates = larger salary. Specialize
A jack-of-all-trades is useful in internal IT and can be a valuable addition to a consulting project team as well, but you'll be a utility player and not a starting all star. Find a tech or product that you like - you'll be working with it every day so make sure you like it - and work to become one of the best at that product. Whether it's a CCIE Voice, Exchange Master, Oracle DB God or SAP Overlord, just try to be the best you can. Move
Move to a larger city with more tech jobs if you can. If you already live in a city, either move close to downtown or the airport. There aren't many high-paying tech jobs in the sticks or the suburbs. Travel
Travelling all the time for projects sucks and people don't like doing it. However, if you are willing to travel you can be compensated well in different ways. I travelled when I was younger and single and I got the opportunity to work on projects and gain skills that I wouldn't have had without travelling. This past summer I turned down an opportunity at a large consulting firm because it was 80% travel. If you had the skills and were willing to travel that job could have been yours, and it probably paid close to six figures. |
All very good points. At my current employer, IT is a "cost center". We're viewed as an "overhead" expense and thus, we're not valued as much as we should be.
I've considered traveling and I'm willing to do so but I'm going to take it up a notch and say that I'd like to work remotely from home as much as possible. Is that asking too much? lol. Ok, maybe not.
I don't think a move is going to be possible although who knows...stranger things have happened. I certainly see that $100k in my area is going to be very hard to come by.
I definitely see the need to specialize. I do many things at my current job but as someone mentioned, I don't deal with those things enough to really increase my skill level.