-  Scour the job ads and draw a line of best fit
-  Be best friends with a recruitment consultant (though take everything THEY say with a pinch of salt)
-  Hack into payroll/go through people’s bins

OK, so maybe not the last one…  Besides, online news sites are covering a new salary survey today which gives a national view of 2009 salaries from the board-level IT execs right through to managers, admins, analysts and engineers.

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/itmanagement/0,1000000308,39703954,00.htm

Among the interesting stats that get thrown up are the differences between CIOs (anything up to £100k) and helpdesk workers (around £25k).  Why the gap?  Surely it’s because CIOs are held accountable for identifying innovation opportunities for IT to increase the competitiveness and long-term development of the business/organisation.    Everybody in the IT department (and that often includes managers) meanwhile subsist on a diet of ‘coping’ with ongoing operations; averting disasters, responding to user requirements and occasionally getting to ‘add value’.

If ‘adding value’, ‘identifying innovation opportunities’ and ‘being strategic’ are keys to supporting the business (and of course getting paid more) then start Automating IT!  The more you automate operation, the more you can liberate innovation!

Most of you will know what a sysadmin does; the range of challenging and thankless tasks they undertake… But many of you will be wondering – sysadwhat?!

It’s not just users who should show their appreciation of sysadmins, it’s their IT colleagues too. For starters, we could all make them more effective, more appreciated and more rewarded by reducing the amount of onerous, outmoded practices thay we unecessarily subject them to; instead liberating their time to have a better crack at a working day that isn’t 100% spent fire-fighting and rushing their way through repetitive processes.

Sysadmins everywhere – Automated IT salutes you!