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January 18, 1999

Life Good For IT Admins

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In tight labor markets such as Southern California, signing bonuses and raises after a month are all part of a booming sellers' market. "Recruiters besiege companies for this kind of talent," recruiter Simonds says from experience. "It's not uncommon for people to get eight or 10 calls a day."

In a market like this, IT administrators are especially discriminating. For a candidate to even entertain the idea of jumping ship, Simonds says, the recruiting company has to be well-respected, financially successful, and committed to leading-edge technology. Otherwise, it's difficult for her to get a return phone call--even if the salary is better.

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Yet, good as it is, money isn't everything. Kurt Nolker, a database administrator at Penn United Technology, a tool and die maker near Pittsburgh, knows the pay is better elsewhere. But for now, adrenaline-pumping experience is what counts. "A challenging assignment is the primary reason for staying and leaving," he says. "If you're not challenged, you're not really learning."

In his case, the reason to stay is a new employee stock option program he's working on with a cross-functional team from accounting, human resources, and other business units. The project has given him an opportunity to get out of the back office, interact with the rest of the company, and do more programming. He particularly enjoys being involved on a strategic level to develop and implement a solution that helps the company achieve its larger business objectives.

Expertise Vs. Management
Of course, the future doesn't hold unlimited upside for these IT professionals. IT administrators charting a career course may feel pressure to choose between deepening their technical expertise or seeking management experience. Naturally, those who can do both will likely see the greatest career fulfillment.

Hal Miller, a system administrator at the University of Washington in Seattle who has held several jobs in private industry, says the management track is always tricky. Strong technical abilities often leave IT professionals short on people skills. "System administrators, who ordinarily work alone anyway, don't wish to get into the typical promotion track, which is loosely defined under Peter Principle rules as 'technical until good, then management,'" he says.

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While conventional wisdom says management experience will move you along the career track more quickly, many professionals wonder if it's worth the effort. For database administrator Seymour at WinStar, that's an unanswered question. He sees no immediate financial advantage in a management position. Many IS directors and VPs at other companies make about as much money. "It makes me wonder why

I would want the additional headache of management," Seymour says. BRT's Fuqua agrees that management isn't for him right now. In fact, the best part of his job is digging in and working with the technology. The worst part: appeasing end users.

Database Admins Rule
Management experience is one avenue to greater pay and career success, but choosing the right type of IT administration job can accomplish the same goal. Among database, system, and network administrators, it seems that, at least temporarily, database administrators are in the best position.

Database administrators tend to make more money at small and midsize companies than systems and network administrators do, though the pay is similar for all three professions at larger companies. System administrator Miller suspects database administrators get more money at smaller companies because they're more difficult to come by.

When Penn United Technology runs ads for database administrators, the response is usually poor, says Nolker, himself a database administrator. "System administrators are a dime a dozen," he scoffs. Database administrators are in greater demand, he says, because they need to have more technical, as well as business knowledge.

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System administrator Ed Ororke of Citibank agrees there is a growing perception that database administrators are in ascendancy--but he doesn't understand why. In his view, the network administrators in a big organization are the most valuable players on the field. That's because they need to have complete mastery of the entire network. Next in importance on his list are system administrators--with database administrators coming in third. Keeping the systems operational and connected, as far is he's concerned, is more important than working on database applications.

That debate is likely to rage on, but one thing's for sure: IT administrators seem to be in demand for now. "It's the strongest I've seen the job market in recent memory," says recruiter Simonds. "It's unbelievable."