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April 26, 1999

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Salary Survey: Pay Up

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Still, the temptation is there. More than two-thirds of IT professionals said they've been contacted by a headhunter in the past 12 months--an average of three times each in just the past six months. Chris Jennewein, VP of technology and operations for newspaper publisher Knight Ridder's new media division in San Jose, says he gets at least one call a week from headhunters. "In general, the calls I get are for VP of technology for heavily focused technology companies," he says. Fortunately for Knight Ridder, Jennewein prefers working in new media. "A lot of what I do is at the intersection of technology and content, which is more interesting to me," he says.

ABN Amro's Gal tries to address the pressure of a sellers' market by offering incentives for IT staff to stay with the company. "People need to feel that the company takes care of them," he says. To this end, ABN Amro offers IT staff incentive bonuses that are directly related to company performance.

Many other companies have the same idea. The InformationWeek Research survey found that 43% of IT professionals earn bonuses, 55% get tuition reimbursement, and 66% get paid education and/or training.

"People move around for a couple of reasons," says Elf Atochem's Rubin. "For the most part, people aren't getting a sense of identification within the company, because too frequently IT employees are treated as if they're just contractors, even when they're full-time staff. That's a fatal mistake that many companies make."

Both managers and staff say that the challenge of their job or its responsibility matter more than the amount of money they're paid. Still, managers seem more aligned with their company's philosophy. Managers are far more likely than staff members to place importance on seeing how their jobs help achieve their company's goals and enhance the prestige of their company, as well as on understanding their company's business strategy and corporate culture. IT staffers are more likely to say that educational or training opportunities, a flexible work schedule, and casual attire are important, according to the survey.
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"As a whole, staff isn't usually as satisfied as management, because management is where staff wants to be," says BridgeGate's Brown. "That's why education and training tend to take more of a spotlight for staff."

It's the ability to directly affect the organization that's most rewarding in IT management, says Public Service's Nance. "When you're a CIO, you have more visibility and you're more capable of contributing to critical business decisions, and that's very satisfying," she says.

Staying Put
Once in the IT field, people tend to stay. The average IT manager has been in the profession for 14 years, while the average IT staff member has 11 years, say survey participants. Those working on data center management and year 2000 tasks have the most seniority. Those working in Internet functions are the newest to IT.

However, the data center is apparently not one of IT's hottest areas, at least on the management side. While data center managers are still making better salaries than networking, telecommunications, and help-desk managers, they reported only a 7.8% increase in their annual base pay. The result: "The better data center managers are moving into networking," says Christian & Timbers' Lewis. "The people who don't stay current with evolving networking technologies and remain stuck in the mainframe environment are the rust-belt factory workers of the 1990s. They won't go much further."

The need to stay current with--indeed, a step ahead of--evolving technologies is apparent from the results of InformationWeek's National IT Salary Survey. Also apparent: It's a good time to be an IT worker.

--with additional reporting by Tom Davey

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