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 1997 IS/Network Manager Salary Survey By Patricia S chnaidt Does this sound like you? You're a 41-year-old male earning $57,690 a year, and you find the challenge of your work so compelling and your labor so satisfying that despite the long hours and the stress, you go back for more. In fact, you've toiled at your present job for five years and sweated in this business for 11. If these statistics describe you, then you are a typical network/IS manager, according to Network Computing's second annual network/IS managers' salary and job satisfaction survey. E-mail comments and questions to Patricia Schnaidt at pschnaidt@nwc.com.
Paid What You're Worth
Network/IS managers are evenly divided on whether they're fairly paid, and they have a good grasp on whether they are. Forty-four percent think they are fairly compensated, 42.3 percent think they're not fairly compensated, and 13.7 percent aren't sure. Interestingly, the mean salary for the group who thinks they are fairly paid is $64,400, which is above the mean salary of $57,690. The mean salary for those who think they're not fairly compensated is $50,980, which is below the mean. The mean salary for the group who is unsure lands pennies above the overall mean-at $57,860.
Job function and areas of expertise are the two most critical factors for the pay scale. Veeps get paid more than managers, managers get paid more than their staff. It's the pecking order even if organizations have flattened out. Figure 3 shows the b reakout of average salaries for each job title. Scoring above the mean are the following job functions: centralized IS management (with a mean salary of $62,500), departmental or division IS management ($65,000), application development ($57,080), data/telecom manager ($59,290), executive management ($85,770), and Web management ($105,000).
 When asked their specific areas of expertise, 24 percent of the audience identified themselves as jacks-of-all-trades. Another 15.6 percent said they are NOS specialists, in NetWare, NT or Unix, for example; 11.4 percent said they are network, systems or desktop management experts; 9.1 are application development specialists; 8.4 percent said they are most responsible for the network infrastructure, including routers, hubs and switches.; 6.8 percent claim proficiency in desktop OSes and desktop applications; 6.2 percent of the respondents said their primary skill is midrange systems such as Unix, AS/400 and RS/600; and 4.5 percent are database and data warehousing gurus.
Get a specialty. It pays. Hot new specialties like Web site and intranet design and management add glory to your resume as well as dollars to your bank account. Both skills pay well above the mean. Tried-and-true specialties-such as application development, enterprise resource planning software, groupware and messaging, and telecom-are also high-paying. Figure 4 shows the average salaries for each of these skill areas.
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The mean salary for a
network/IS manager in 1996 was $57,690, and that salary averages in a variety of titles and responsibilities. (The median, or midpoint, salary for 1996 is $55,260.) We asked this same group what they made in 1995, and we found that their salaries rose an average of 6.8 percent over last year. In 1995, their mean salary was $53,790 and the median salary was $51,220. When you compare this year's survey with last year's, the average salary rose five percent from 1995 to 1996. In last year's survey (which represents a different group of respondents), the mean salary for 1995 was $54,810. Figure 1 shows the respondents' average compensation for 1996 and Figure 2 shows the same group's 1995 salary data.
Most network/IS managers receive some type of company-contributed compensation in addition to their base salaries. Half have 401k programs, 35.8 percent have pension programs, 34.9 percent get bonuses or other inc
entives, 19.5 get stock options, 12.7 percent get overtime pay and 4.9 get some other unspecified type of compensation. 17.3 percent don't get any additional compensation.
