[Antec-User]

I've been looking through annual salaries for hardware technicians and Network IT Techs, and it seems that the norm is about $40k/yr... I was making $36/yr when I was active duty a little over a year ago. That's not exactly middle class in today's standards.

I would really like to do server maintenance... Those big rack servers. But if it's not going to pay, I'll adjust my goals a bit.

What really pays with the computer careers?

[Lexluethar]

Server admins (what you are talking about) make dollar. It isn't as much of the hardware side as it is configuring active directory and setting up large companies domain structure. There is definately hardware involved, but that is only a small fraction of what they do.

As with everything and every post we put in this section, it all depends on experience, location, company, industry, etc. But on average server administrators make one of the highest salaries in the computer field. I know with a little experience and if you know what you are doing you could make around 100k doing that. Think MCSE.

[Antec-User]

Oh cool... And yes, I do understand that experience is a good chunk of the equation. I've been hunting around here to see if any local computer places need any part time help, just to get SOMETHING going on my resume.. Seeing as I'm a full time student, I'm not asking for much as far as pay.. .$5/hr for small help would be fine.

I was active duty Military for 6 years, and it TOOK me 6 years to get to that pay range.. I was looking into the HW tech positions and there was not a lot of evidence to suggest a significant pay raise over time. Even a 20 year average pay was around $50k/yr.. If I can START at $30-$35k/yr I'd be happy.. I'd like to make around $60k/yr after about 6 years or so..

[Lexluethar]

Yes, hardware techs don't make a lot on average. I would say the average starting pay would be between 10 and 15, and you aren't going to make much more than 40k a year unless you are in some type of management / admin position for hardware.

The money is in configuration with servers. People fixing computers for local shops or even large companies don't make much money usually.

[SapperX]

Well if all you care about is the salary, and don't mind programming, learn COBOL and JCL. You will be pretty much guaranteed a 75,000+ salary right out. Unfortunately, two or three universities in the entire United States teach these languages (I happen to go to one, so I learned them both). The languages really are dead beyond fortune 500 companies, so I hope you don't mind cubicles and working for gigantic IT shops.

As far as more realistic careers go, server maintenance is a great choice. Another good one hardware side would be network admins. Both of these pay very well and are always high in demand.