Sliver Of The Pie

The salary pinch is affecting even the highest-level IT managers. VPs receive the highest base salaries among IT managers, at a median of $114,000, more than the median of $110,000 reported by CIOs. (Larger companies tend to offer more VP-level positions than smaller companies, which explains the difference in pay ranges.) With bonuses included, the gap between the VPs and CIOs widens. VPs will receive a median total cash compensation of $128,000, compared with $119,000 for CIOs, $96,000 for CTOs, and $69,000 for supervisors at the bottom of the pay scale.

Despite salaries creeping along, less than 10% of managers and staffers are actively pounding the pavement looking for jobs. But about one-third describe themselves as "somewhat" looking for a job.

Senior technical analyst Carlos Vargas faces a job situation many business technologists can relate to. He hasn't gotten a raise or a bonus for 12 months at the multibillion-dollar industrial tools company that employs him, though he does have good health-care and other benefits. Vargas, whose responsibilities include network security and training, figures if he doesn't get a raise this year, he'll look for another job. "I saved the company $32,000 last year in the training I provided administrators, yet I wasn't rewarded," he says. He's confident he'll be able to find work, particularly since he's willing to relocate outside the New Jersey/New York region.

The most common reasons people are looking for new jobs remain the same as last year: higher pay, more interesting work, or a dislike for their managers or companies. But a new one has jumped up on the list: stability. About one-third of people looking for work cite that as a reason, up from just 18% a year ago. And one reason has all but disappeared: A mere 3% cite "job market opportunities are too good to pass up," whereas almost one-fifth of job seekers cited that two years ago.

Job satisfaction is a complicated mix of factors, which managers and staffers prioritize in the same order: challenge, stability, flexibility, and base pay.

Long days aren't new to business-technology professionals, and that hasn't changed: managers are still working 50-hour weeks, staffers 45. But it looks like there has been a bit of relief in the number of hours on call, which fell from 20 hours a week to 10 for staffers, and from 24 to 15 for managers. Bob Rose, a senior EDI analyst at Bowater Inc., a Greenville, S.C., paper manufacturer, doesn't do much to lower the average on-call hours, since he almost always carries a pager in case there's a system outage. But he works eight- or nine-hour days and thinks the company's culture all but forces employees to balance their life and work. "I could work 24 hours a day and still never get caught up," Rose says. "Our company is pretty adamant about going home to spend time with your family."

All the critical factors affecting satisfaction--challenge, stability, pay--have been under siege in some way during the past year. From tight IT budgets limiting the number of exciting new projects to layoffs resulting from offshore outsourcing, many in the profession worry about the prospects for the future.

Cathy Bressie hopes the industry has room for more stories like hers, where the right skills, training, and attitude can still launch a career. After 20 years as a waitress, the then 41-year-old spent $11,000 for NT certification after a girlfriend talked about taking the classes. "It was a fluke. But after the first class, I knew I loved it," she says.

She moved north to Deerfield, Ill., where she's now director of IT--or, as she says, "the IT person"--at Kiferbaum Construction Corp. Her $50,000 salary is about the same as she made as a waitress at a pancake restaurant ("The place was really busy"), but the challenge and opportunity are much greater supporting 50 employees, backing up all data, and maintaining the project-management and financial software. Her employer is paying for any additional IT training she needs. Bressie says she's lucky to have changed her career path just before the economy soured. "This job is a godsend," she says. Perhaps a mere economic recovery--rather than divine intervention--is all it will take to pump up business-technology salaries and career prospects again.

Photo of slice in dish by Pete McArthur
Photos of Janis and Bressie by Bob Stefko

This is the third part of a three-part series about the I.T. workplace. You can read the other two parts of the series here: