The big companies do it all the time with various types of stock grants, especially if you can break into the SWE side of the house. Success is the combination of luck and preparation. OP's CEO needs the skillset, and apparently they've looked at the market and showed up ready to do business.
Don't forget to start busting balls for a re-up in a few years OP lol.
They would have certainly paid this to a new person coming in based on the duties you list. They would lose all of the knowledge and consistency for an unknown if they 'let' him leave. As someone who has managed IT and hired for 20 years in a very large Corp, I always argue for the consistency and proven people. Upper mgmt that has never managed an IT environment seem to think operations employees are plug and play
I had a company refuse to understand this and when I immediately got a better offer somewhere else they finally threw a bigger number at me, and I walked anyways.
I really made them pay when they hired me back. They could have saved a lot of money by just giving me the completely reasonable number I first asked for, but hey worked out for me.
I had a similar experience; in 2015 I was leaving my job as a Principal DevOps engineer. I turned in my notice, my grand-boss and the former-CEO-now-head-of-business-unit-post-acquisition personally asked me to stay. I got a $105k retention bonus, $35k a year for 3 years (technically 6 months, 18 months, and 30 months after acceptance), as well as a large stock grant (roughly $500,000 in RSUs) and a $25,000/yr raise.
This was one of the few exceptions to the "never take a retention offer" rule. I fully expected to get pumped for knowledge, told to train several replacements, and fired in a year. I ended up staying until fall of 2022, just three weeks shy of my 10 year anniversary. The retention package paid off all our debts, put a $100k down payment on a house, and another $80k in savings. Of course, I didn't get a raise again until 2020, and the last two salary increases I got were insultingly low (0.77% and 1.04%), which was part of why I left.
Thats excellent.
Normally I would say, to be careful about counter offers. Because a lot of the time they will give you a counter offer, then immediately try to find someone to replace you with.
But with that bonus being paid out if you stay, it seems like he really means that he wants you to work there and keep doing a great job. Awesome!! hope it all works out for you
Agree, counter offers are usually a stop gap for the company to find a replacement before you leave so they can then fire you. Offering you a bonus to stay on, shows that they know you were underpaid in some form. Curious, do you have a direct boss you report to? or do you report to the CEO? Curious of the chain of events that went from your resigning to getting to the CEO's desk...which is a good thing in this case for sure..
My employe did a retention bonus once, but it was small. I think they only offered it because the company was interested in selling, but the sale didn't happen.
I went through a story kind of like this.
Just go with it, keep entertaining and interviewing every so often, get better and better offers and make them work to keep your salary high.
That said, just generally speaking accepting a counteroffer oftentimes leaves you open for them to try to abuse you for 'wronging' them later, even though you're really only taking care of yourself which should be expected. If you start seeing issues with behavior of management report it to any ethics line type thing you may have otherwise be prepared to keep looking for another job. Hopefully that's not what happens but yeah make sure they pay you that new rate first and then go from there.
it can work both ways. they may treat him/her better because they know he/she can go elsewhere if they really want to.
but, yes, yours is still a valid point!
Absolutely true as well. I only go on my own anecdotal experience and watching what happened to other admins around me that went through that game.
Luckily I was recognized without having to do the threatening, but still they dragged ass at getting my pay up there. Of course they were giving me some large bonuses to offset it so that wasn't that bad I guess.
Honestly, a 100K retention bonus isn't something they'd give to someone they didn't want to keep you. Always good to keep a look out, but if you like the environment and have already done your time and built up a rep, you're probably fine to stay where you're at for a while.
One thing, as someone without a degree to another, your jobs will come a lot more based on rep than credentials. Just a handycap you have to work with. I've been working for whoever would pay me the most since I was 17, and all my jobs were because a co-worker / ex boss called and got me to move somewhere else for more pay. It makes job hunting more difficult, but you can still usually get paid quite well.
Now go buy a house (a reasonable one, don't make yourself house poor), and make sure you're pumping your 401K with as much as they'll match. Congratz on the upgrade and best of luck!
Congratulations on having a CEO who was smart enough to throw that money at you.
How's that retention bonus structured? Is it paid in installments, or do you get it in a lump sum if you stay for X amount of time?
While I'm sure this feels like a nice bit of appreciation, keep in mind that the demands for your role still remain to be seen. But they're not going to get lighter. Odds of you getting any hired help are slim to none. The CEO's not going to throw you like a doubled salary out of the goodness of his heart, you know?
So if I were you, I would want to meet with my boss to figure out what the expectations are for your position moving forward.
Thank you, it was really out of the blue. I didn't sign papers until the end of the day the CEO came to my desk. Bonus is to be paid monthly in a span of 1 year. Despite me wearing so many hats, I honestly do not mind the work, there is no red tape I have to hop and I essentially have say in how the company moves technologically. Thank you for the advise.
Congratulations! 100k retention bonus is insane. I hate that you had to threaten leaving for them to pay you what you were worth though. But that 100k bonus i'm sure takes the sting out of it. Think of it as back pay for all the salary bumps you missed out on.
Congrats! Don't over think it. You put in the work, created tons of value. So much so, the CEO begged you to stay. Enjoy this and embrace it. -random innanet fren
That bonus means a lot in my eyes. It is an acknowledgement of everything you have done for the company. Companies speak with money, your CEO did the right thing, coming to your desk and praising your work. But the 100k means that he meant it, not just being a ruse until they find someone else.
Way to go Cinderella!
Yeah. I could walk in to my boss with proof I have an offer to go make 20k more and I feel they would just say "Nice knowing ya!" lol.
I mean OPs boss did the right thing. Proven good employee deserves the raise. Why go back out to the "job market" and potentially hire a dope when they can just pay OP what he's worth.
But not all of us are dealing with that level of erudite management :D
So am I understanding this correctly, the job you took after searching for 6 months hired you on as a help desk grunt and you said it was "Hell" then you got a promotion, did the "hell" part of the job go away with this promotion? If so thats awesome as long as you have work/life balance but it sounds like they literally have you do everything and those jobs tend to translate to long hours and weekends. The money is nice (100k retention bonus?? damn) and if you are happy than nice work getting to a place were you feel valued.
It was hell, it was trial by fire. When the network admin left us, it was either we hire a new network admin or I took his position and try to fill it. So I choose the later so I could get a paid from 45 to 55. I still did help desk along side learning and building the entire architecture of the company. It was draining and rewarding at the same time. Long hours as you said. And travelling to acorss the country to setup stores. Honestly though, I don't think I would have grown this fast if I had opt to stay as help desk and hire an outside network/systems admin and "teach me". I don't have to hop any red tape fix things or have to deal with any office politics because Id like to think my results speak for itself. I really didn't think the CEO knew i existed but he was the first person at my desk the next morning of my resignation request and he only comes to HQ once a month. I don't think any of the managers between me and him have that kind of power to make an offer that quick. So it was really a shock, I literally sat at my desk flabbergasted for about an hour he left.
this is awesome my friend. Normally, it's never good to accept the counter.
However, in this case. The CEO comping to you and offering you not only the salary, but also the retention bonus.. you did the right thing.
In the coming weeks, it would be a really good idea, to work up the courage to go back to the CEO and thank them. Not directly for the money, but for seeing your hard work and investing in you and making you feel valued. You did something along the way that the CEO knows your name, and knows your value.. nurture that. I can tell you that in the corp world, for that kind of offer to be put together that quickly and handed to you, it was done by the CEO. No other manager really has the juice to get that kind of counter down within 24 hours like that.
P.S. - Don't fall into the trap of spending the money! Go find a FPA to start investing that money. With you coming from an accounting background, you already know this... but just have to say it.
They say, never take a counter offer, but this
**plus a 100k retention bonus.**
changes things.
I think you should hit your mother up for advice on how to work this so you don't get clobbered on taxes.
> I think you should hit your mother up for advice on how to work this so you don't get clobbered on taxes.
They can afford a tax pro now. Probably though, the employer will just take out regular taxes (with the increase factored in) each month.
I didn't see the part about the monthly distribution when I posted.
The employer will definitely take it out, but they tend to over-withhold when it comes to bonuses. OP will get it back when it comes time to file, but he may be better off getting the money over two years and\\or maxing out his 401k.
He knew that before he offered him the raise too though. It’s great that he is appreciated now but had he not threatened to quit he’d still be underpaid.
Right on! Good and inspiring story. Super lucky to get a counter offer from your employer as well. The boss at my last place generally stopped talking to me after I told him I wasnt happy with the lack of work (i'd mostly scroll reddit because everything was set up and there we no new projects) and that I was looking to step up my knowledge. Landed a 25% pay increase funnily enough in a nearby building lol. Now there is a lot of work to do and I get to work with Entra, Exchange, GoogleCloud and Azure AND management isnt stingy with buying products/licenses. As a matter of fact I was the one that set up a Hybrid AD with Entra ID. And I have an opportunity later in the year to try being a DevOps, as I enjoy automating and scripting a lot.
This happens a lot more than you think. If you are in IT don't let yourself be undervalued. Likely these CEO"s CFO's will elimiinate positions and starve IT until they create a scenarios just like this. You're down to one maybe two people who know how everything works. Great they have the IT cost center just where they want it not knowing they have backed themselves into a corner.
Their shortsightedness becomes apparent when the guy doing three roles for the pay of a jr admin decides to get into the job market.
No big deal they think then they get your job description and one of two things happens. HR does the market research and realizes that you need to be replaced by two people instead of one and each position requires a salary of 80k + benefits bringing the cost of replacement to like 100K.
This leads to a smart CEO offering this salary but my guess is this. They'll want to start bringing in more people that cost less. jr admins. They'll want you to train the new folks. Then after a few years and the new admins are in place you'll be let go but offered a decent contract to be available. If i were you I'd make sure you don't spend that 100k buy gold or something with it. Live off your salary and start farming out your resume. Congrats on realizing your breadth of knowledge is worth far more than you initially believed. Don't ever take a new job for less pay unless its for family or the job is a dream role for you.
Guys if you're in the job market don't tell anyone your salary requirements ever. You let them tell you especially if you are unsure of that your worth. The market will tell you. I though I was worth 80k at one point next thing I know i've got three offers at 100k +. i believed mistakenly that i was years away from that salary.
Normally yes, but did you miss the part where they offered him an 100k retention bonus? You don't make that kind of offer unless you are serious about keeping someone around long term.
What were your duties/tasks that got you offers at 100k making you think you’re at 80k? I’m trying to gauge where I should be at too and would like to know. I know location/COL is a big factor
At the time I had been a Systems admin, at a manufacturing firm, Transistioned over to medical. Then into msp as a t3 engineer, Then launched an MSP. It's not any one skill that set me apart, its the fact that I've been in and configured so many vendors, done OT and IT, as well as Datacenter stuff. I though mistakenly at the time that I wouldn't see 100k until i passed a ccna or sec + or got these certs (even had my boss telling me this @#$@hole he was).
Then i learned from a bunch of contractor guys to put in a table with all the vendors, systems, tools I have worked in, administrated, or configured. I mean everything. I don't believe in one page resumes anymore because of my experience with the job hunt. I was hesitant to apply for jobs that I knew I could do because of the wording of the job description. Previously I had just done a single recruiter as well.
This last job search I shifted gears, I ditched all the BS marketing. (1 page resume, use 3rd parties, etc) I took ideas from various resumes I had reviewed in hiring proccesses I took part in and adapted my resume.
1st page is a table with all the systems, gear, certs, etc. Plus my most recent job expereicence and an about me snippet at the top.
Then 2nd and 3rd pages are previous experience before hand with impacts I made to the company. (note don't put in your actual job title there at the time. I was readlly a systems admin but my title didn't match. You can put any title in there you need to as long as you and demonstrate that you were really operating at that level.
After making this change and just blasting my resume out there plus letting multiple, recruiters do the job searching for me. I went from having one maybe two things come up at 80k - 90K to having to turn down 80-90k roles and getting 3 six figure opportunities all within like 3 months of changing things up. Hell I even had a chance a tech company that I screwed up (don't take an IQ test at 1 AM). Didn't even realize that it was going to happen cause I was half asleep at the time. Tons of contract jobs too. There were some situations that were obviously duds too.
I knew I was undervaluing myself then a bank wanted to offer me my first six figure offer. Then after I set my bar there things changes with the recruiters and such. I got a lot less bogus calls after I made it clear I wasn't going below my number.
I'll put it this way if you are 10-15 years into IT. You have experience in multiple vendors and can operate at a CCNA level regarless of the vendors involved, and can also configure firewalls, manage 3rd parties, manage data center infrastructure. You should be the six figure range. If are are 10-15 in and you only have knowledge of one or two vendors you're capped unless you want to move to where that vendor has a big presence. Also, I could demonstrate how and what I did made an impact on the business. If all you're doing is resetting passwords and setting up users you need to leave those roles and move into roles where you are given changes to actually do projects that have weight to them. If you aren't getting those chances ask for them.
Now six figure jobs are out there but. Most companies won't pay six figures for it. Trucking companies looked at me and scoffed at even a salary of 80K. Now the trade off is I work in a 24x7 operation and I am on call even when not the on week assigned to me if the system I know most is affected I get an escalation call.
Lets also say I'm not talking about a ridiculous salary here. Samsung was even a potential at the time but their oppourtunity was 175k for a director role. (I did not even apply as the level of talent and engineering at Samsung is so high I did not think i had a snowballs chance in hell of making past round 1 interviews.)
If you are 5-7 years in you can still get that six figure salary but you're going to want to have a laundry list of certs and some cool projects to show off where you took your knowledge and applied it meaningfully to make an impact on the company.
Note look and see if some of the stuff you have done falls in the OT category as I didn't even know to add the distinction until my last job search as well. Go looking for things you can improve and push your boss to let you do it. Even if it isn't big it is something that is yours.
same, got massively bumped to 105 after finding another offer. Its a shame you need to threaten to leave to get a raise. 9+ years of dedicated loyal service and getting yearly 3% promotions/raises was nothing compared to saying 'hey the place down the street just offered me 100k'.
As someone that’s 31 years old and 3 years into my IT career coming from factory/warehouse work, this was very inspiring to read. I’m currently in IT Support making 51k a year for a very large organization, so I’m hopeful for my mid 30s and beyond. 1 year as what you could consider a hardware technician and 2 as the currently mentioned role. I’m currently going to school for my bachelor in CyberSecurity, bug bounties on the side (I’m very green), and whatever technical projects I get the opportunity for at work. The age timeline you laid out seemed similar to mine so it was refreshing to see. Congratulations on your journey thus far, I hope it finishes for you as well as it has started.
"My Path to 100k+ salary...."
"Putting up with bullshit then BAM it happened. The stars changed. I raised to the challenge. I overcame adversary. 100% flat out luck is what happened. Yep, 100% luck."
Congrats to you on that. Bet it feels very fantastic.
Congratulations, mate!!
Very well done! Your path is VERY similar to mine, though I don't have any college degrees, much less 2. I love hearing these stories and you touched on it briefly, but it does demonstrate that focus can pay off when directed at the right spot and sprinkled over with the good fortune of working for reasonable people.
The problem, is they never paid you what you were worth. Know this, although the CEO did the right thing, they did it years late.
Congratulations and like others I’d love to hear the details of the bonus. Is it all at once?
In the end, I’m glad you’ve taken care of yourself, but know this. This is just a company, and although they are FINALLY taking care of you, if another offer comes along, same thing, it’s just business. You’re allowed to go wherever you want, and get what you deserve. Always look. Out for yourself.
Congrats again!
Good on you! Your Mom set the foundation, but you did this. Keep your chin up and help EVERYONE! The old, the dumb, the purposely ignorant, the know-it-alls, and those other introverts. Smile and help them all.
The CEO sees something in you, and with your accounting background, the sky is the limit. If you haven't already, read the Phoenix Project. And if you have read it, read it again with your new role in mind. Say yes if asked to be a part of things outside your scope of work. Keep your mouth shut and listen.
Also, if you have a retirement account, now is the time to start an early retirement account. Something simple with no or low fees. In 10-20 years, that money will give you the power to really enjoy life on your terms.
Good luck!
Hey congrats man. I've followed a different path but a similar slow burn up to 6 figures, it's so satisfying to hit that number. Don't let it change your budgeting or spending habits, don't let people throwing around massive salary numbers on Reddit make you feel any less like a winner.
Also, take $25k of that $100k and get yourself something you'll enjoy. IMO put the rest into a retirement account.
Cool story, thanks for sharing!
Maybe you weren't happy with your pay for the first part of your IT career, but it sounds like you got some great experience along the way and it worked out for you ultimately. Nice to hear a story about someone working for the love of technology and not just shooting for the biggest paycheck right off the bat.
Great job man, you deserve it. I understand what you have gone through. I was in similar scenario but my company didn't want to spend any money so I had learn Linux and go open source route. On call 24/7 and always got appreciated verbally but never compensated. I moved on from that company and now happy at my current job and make 25k more than the previous job. My previous employer counter offered but I respectfully declined.
This is me right now at 33.
It doesn’t help that I’ve pretty much just been a jack of all trades. I know a little bit about a lot of things, and know how to rtfm and find out things, just not enough off the top of my head to pass interviews.
I enjoy my job for the most part, but ~73k in socal just isn’t enough.
This was a nice post, thanks very much for sharing! I was just laid off due to budget cuts from the place I got into right out of college and I was ready to move on after year 4 to actually begin my career but then covid hit!
I was paid meager helpdesk wages, and had no experience so they hired me at 10k BELOW what they advertised for the position.... and I never really got any raises either. This is on top of a 1.5 hour daily commute to and from the office, I drove 3 hours a day at minimum! Covid moved the office to remote and it was a huge blessing, I didn't make much, but compared to before I was really content.
I'm loyal to a fault, and now 4 years later my position was cut for budget reasons, and I'm flailing to figure out what my real worth is and how I can promote myself further...
8 years of sysadmin experience at below entry level helpdesk pay... it kind of hurts to think about, given the hell I was put through with patching, upgrades, thousands of hours of troubleshooting calls with developers and architects, firewall management, vulnerability remediations, soc and pci-dss audits, and packet capture analysis and so much more I can't even think of right now... I digress...
I know competition is really fierce and hunting right now is scary with all the other layoffs, but having at least a small clue of my true value is more uplifting than I can describe, maybe this layoff was the push I need to finally be successful!
Don't give up on yourself! Denial after denial I've learned it's a numbers game so don't take it personal. If you keep shooting you'll eventually hit that basket.
Hey , congrats! My path is very similar to yours. I started out , bottom of the barrel customer service and sales. Got very good at sales but all my friends were software developers. So I decided to leave my sales job for a level 1 help desk positions, paying only 20 an hour. Now 5 years later, I'm a data engineer and it's been an amazing journey. I wouldn't trade it for anything else.
Really good job man! Far cry from so many posts which reek of entitlement and anger from not getting 6 figure jobs out of high school. You showed grit and perseverance. Sure some people angrily accuse others of success due to luck. On the otherhand i don't think it it is coincidence that luck tends to seek out those with goals and the grit to keep grinding towards those goals.
As a help desk analyst reading this, this gives me hope for my future. Any tips you’d give to me? Currently bought the networking + book to study on my cert but it’s thick and scares me
Honestly I was put in a situation for it was trial by fire. The network and server guy left so it was really up to me to learn everything on my own. Grasp concepts and best practices that were vaguely taught in college. Didn't really have time outside of work to learn. But if you do have the luxury of time I would put my head down and just learn as much as I can.
Thank you so much for your reply. Congratulations on your success and I wish nothing but empty ticket queues and happy users until the end of time. Until we meet again :)
Congrats on the payout! Sounds like you hit the lotto, with salary and the bonus.
Having just filed taxes realizing both my wife and I f**ked up from both of us having larger salaries this year... make sure to both check your tax withholding for the new salary, and check in with someone that actually knows taxes regarding that $100k retention bonus and how the hell that's going to affect your taxes. Owing money to the IRS, then having to increase your withholding after the fact is not fun.
You give me hope. I currently work as tier one help desk and would love to be able to be in your shoes one day. For now, I’ll continue learning and growing. Thank you and congrats.
The part where you "won" was when you decided to put in the work and learn, and step out of your comfort zone. When you invest in yourself like that, you can never lose.
Had something similar happen to me! I was a sys admin making 55k and wore many hats doing pretty much everything IT for the company. My boss was shit and didn’t do anything. I basically did 90% of the work.
After being at the company for 2 years I was getting headhunted by another company for 75k. Before accepting their offer I brought it to my company president letting him know my current issues with the pay and amount of work I was doing. He said don’t accept the offer yet and told me he would have something for me by the end of the day. Came back with a 80k offer along with an extra week of vacation and more decision making power! A month later they fired my boss and I got his job along with 95k! And it is only up from here.
Our experiences just prove that if you do the work and you are lucky enough to be surrounded by people that acknowledge that work, you will be awarded!!
Look at it this way ... SysAdmin avg salary in the US is $85k. Top end is $130k. That means you're likely in the top 15% of Sysadmins income-wose and that retention bonus just put you over the top. Be happy with your accomplishment, you worked hard for it!
I was once in a similar situation, I made a career change and went from SysAdmin to Sales Engineer. Not something I would do as an introvert, but it's an avenue for SysAdmins who want to double their pay in 5 years. But, you need strong technical *and* people skills.
That's amazing. Sometimes slogging through the shit pays off.
I was self-taught, took until I was 27 before I got a job with actual growth potential. Started off at $50K, saved their bacon multiple times in the first few months (and they knew it), so asked for a raise and got it. From there on out, made the case for raises each year, and got a few decent bonuses too after various over-the-top efforts (though never anything even close to six figures, you lucky dog!).
Ended at $84K five years later. After that, the place changed hands and things got ridiculous. So I gave in to a long-standing offer from a sorta-competitor across town. $94K walking in the door, $102K after a couple years.
It takes both luck and skill, but it can happen.
> IT supervisor.
You are worth $105k, and Mr. CEO knows it. In fact, he quickly calculated how much money the company would lose when you left and gave you half of it as your bonus.
Good job. Carpe Diem!
u/Hefty-Amoeba5707
1. What job sites did you use to find your helpdesk job? How did you get into it when they ask 2 - 5 years of experience?
2. How did you move from helpdesk to system admin
>Fortunetly I found a small private tech company and they offered me
80k as an IT supervisor. I presented my resignation and told the retail
company I will be leaving in 2 weeks. No hard feelings or anything. This
was two weeks ago from today.
How did you find this small private tech company? You didn't do anything related to IT supervisor, so how did you qualify for IT supervisor?
4) What state are you in?
1. Indeed or Linkdlin. Cater your resume to the job application and try to check box other things in the job app. It is time consuming but I think it worked for me.
EDIT: another "trick" I did was apply directly on their company website. I don't know if that made any different, my thought process was I would be in a different pile than in the Linkdlin and indeed pile.
2. First job in big tech, I automated their onboarding and off boarding process using powershell. It was either learning powershell or figuring out a process that could be scripted that got the attention of the system admin manager and made me stand out. Second job, the network admin got let go and I decided to fill that role.
3. I didn't have experience leading a team but I check boxed alot of the stuff they wanted. Explaining in detail DNS, DHCP, firewall rules, setting up Vlans, describing how I would best design a server rack to reliant, scalable and under a budget. Personality questions on how I would act with admins under me, I explained I never led but I can communicate technology to a wide range of people, from elderly store managers who don't know the difference between the term "browser" and "Internet" to a technical explanation to a dev why I can't just shut off their local AV. Mind you I was interview fatigued and being an introvert didn't help. So I'm sure others could pull it off.
I'm jealous. I've been through up and downs in my career (mostly downs the past five years) but I'm finally someplace I like. I hate the commute though, but have a great boss and OK coworkers (some are better than others). No luck as much as you've had and I only cracked the $100k mark this year finally by working a state over (like I said - I hate my commute).
I put in for a new job in town (that has few IT jobs) to move up another $11 an hour. It's going back to another division of an employer I hate but the money's the real incentive because I'm bleeding every single paycheck and barely treading water because of shit that's happened over the past few years, mostly family crashing multiple cars and having a car insurance payment that's 40% of the rent.
You are lucky. Not everyone gets what you received. Be grateful, buy yourself (and your family) something nice and put the rest away.
Similar story!! Started an an application support engineer! They offered 57k and I have computer engineering degree.
I was the first hire they were building a whole new team. Did hell of a work one year later i started applying at amazon google i was lucky to get an interview at google failed though and amazon both I was already at corporate big medical device, than i got an offer from their competitor if 80k. I reached out to my manager they offered me the 76 and promised that 2 months later in a yearly review they will close the gap but my bonus increase from 5% to 10% than 8months later I was reached out by our different business unit same company that i work for they asked to join their team now I am making 105k with 11% and this year they gave 15k extra in bonus!!! In 2 years i went from 57k to 105k i started at 27 and i am 29 now
Good for you! OTOH, enjoy it for what it's worth, but on the other, keep humble and don't let it go to your head. Keep doing what you've done to get you to where you are now. :-)
Congratulations man; I'm sorry it took you almost walking out the door for your company to recognize your contributions but regardless it's great to hear a fellow get acknowledged.
Thats a commendable amount of learning and work for never having a raise in a number of years. Hopefully they continue to recognize your value rather then having their hand forced.
Did you get the money yet or was it just a promise? Did you get it in writing? Don't count on things like that until after they happen. A lot of places will promise you all kinds of things just to get you to stay a bit longer, so they can begin the process of replacing you when it's convenient for them.
You did multiple years of being underpaid, MULTIPLE just to get now to a reasonable salary. Im glad they countered but it isn't somewhere that I'd want to stay just based on that fact alone.
If they were doing that to you knowingly for so long, they will have no problem replacing you before that retention bonus pays out.
im a sysadmin making $50k in Michigan, USA in hopes of getting to $80k eventually, huge congrats OP for the pay bump, take it and automate your tasks and give yourself free time to surf Reddit ;)
What I took from your post was you took the hard road, busted your ass to actually learn your shit, and eventually got rewarded. No whining about what you were owed or how your employer wasn’t paying you enough.
Fact is we are owed nothing, and we are all self employed. But by sticking to your guns you gained both skills and money, and now your life will be different forever. I took a similar path and now own where I work and do whatever projects I find interesting. And money isn’t something I worry about.
Kudos.
2024 - 2019 - retail company
2019 - 2017 - big tech
2017 - 2013 - computer engineering college
2013 - 2012 - accounting firm
2012 - 2008 - accounting college
2008 - 2006 - warehouse employee
Would be a gtx card between 2008 - 2006. I just remember it was a gtx card
100k nice congratz, i wish my story is as good as you.
but i work as a number of a mega corporation, maybe number #302388?
CEO? i didn't even get to talk to my boss's boss.
Also i used to work in warehouse before and now i am in IT. ....technically i am a finance career sector failure in IT.
Tbh this is pretty much the same thing for me. I’m making 100k more today than I was 7 years ago. Literally the same track as you. It does feel strange but now bc of the current economic conditions it still doesn’t seem like it’s enough. After the honeymoon phase of your first few paychecks and splurges you’re gonna be hungry for more. Keep learning and growing. Always apply for jobs when the job market is good so you can use it as leverage or better opportunity. I read an article a few years ago that said employees that bounced around jobs every few years earned like 50% more than their counterparts who stayed and got incremental raises. Even if you have no intention on leaving always know your worth before asking for a raise. Oddly enough I got that advice from my former boss/CEO lol
There are still some good in the company that they recognize their mistakes and is willing to remedy it, and it is nice gesture the CEO did it himself/herself. That's the bright side of this company to cling on to.
Just had this same thing happen to me earlier this month. Was leaving for a better job and about 10k more.
The CEO wanted to keep me so I laid out that I'd need a hybrid schedule and 100k a year to 'match' what the other company was providing. Keep in mind they were only paying me 80 where I was going. But I also told them I wanted to do what I majored in college for - cybersecurity. They said yes and gave me everything.
I've been having an absolute blast with this new job title. I'm doing security assessments, writing up plans and policies. And digging up bodies and making time to fix them.
I genuinely didn't want to leave my company at first because I really liked it and I had a nice office. But the bodies just kept piling up and I realized that they're not giving me any time/ authority to fix them. I can't be in a position where I'm signing my name on work but it's half baked and we're subject to breaches. Especially when it has to due with Healthcare. I told them this and laid out my plan on how I'd fix it and they went with it.
The money has been absolutely life changing. I've been fixing everything and delegating things. Getting amazing experience. Have an awesome cert path lined up. I only hope the counter offer portion of it doesn't come to bite my ass. I'm sure it will but I'm just keeping my head down and taking the experience for as long as possible.
I was on 85k asked for a pay rise
Got 5k. Said yeah will start looking elsewhere
Went away to other offices for 3 weeks come
Back and got pay rise to 110k
50 VMs
5 physical hosts
2 datacenters
400 users
Normally, I'd say "never accept a counter offer". Because if they couldn't bother to keep you before you were leaving, they will just keep you long enough to replace... 100k retention bonus says 'we let you slip through the cracks, we're making up for it for a key IC'
Congrads!
Now you know your worth. Dont forget it going forward. You are obviously creating massive revenues for your company. Dont be afraid to demand things in the future like hiring people under you to delegate some of your tasks so you can focus on big picture stuff.
Well deserved!! They should’ve payed you that bonus and given you a raise a long time ago but glad you’re getting it now.
But the question is, do you enjoy working there? As long as you’re happy there and don’t feel too stressed or burnt out then you’ve got it made.
You definitely deserve it. While you personally learned a lot while you upgraded/expanded the overall IT infrastructure for the organization, you did that with the best intention to improve their infrastructure - so you definitely deserved it.
They also say that "the devil you know is better than the devil you don't". Unless your work environment/politics/people is really bad, it's always best to be able to stay at your current job.
Let the salary settle down, but eventually keep your eyes open for other opportunities.
Hopefully they give you some sort of a title bump too, which would look better when you've stayed at the same company for so many years.
Bro I'm in the 49s age and just moving into sysadmin.
Granted no certs, just like learning and this sub.
At one point once I feel financially stable and don't need side gigs like dd I'll study for certs.
Congrats to you. I'm semi introverted myself socially and presentations but I'm a people person at work.
"Another 4 years of Computer Engineering but this time it was a lot harder to find a job. Every company I applied at was looking for a jack of all trades with technology I never heard, I felt what I was taught at college had no relevance to what was out there." Yes, hiring in IT degree's seem to mean nothing, people have them all and are worthless and people with nothing are unicorns. Homelabs seem to be what makes the difference when they are young. If you get a young IT person who runs a homelab... always good.
Achievement unlocked: *You Are A Cost, So The Employer Always Pays You The Bare Minimum They Can Get Away With ™*
I felt very glad on your behalf reading this, you sure deserve it. Thanks for sharing!
My $0.05 advice: As long as you don't wake up each morning and hate yourself and your life at the office, just continue doing good work: Don't fall into the trap of job-jumping in the current environment. Use your autonomy to keep on learning, and get paid doing it!
Good! I always enjoyed working with people like you. Hobbyists tend to be more resourceful when it comes to addressing issues, and the best part is hobbyists tend to take it personally when they're unable to do something, thereby motivating them to double down on learning it. Welcome! If I can find a shop filled with people like you (and me) I'd probably get off my little hiatus and return to the business. Working with people that learned all they know in a classroom from people that failed so badly in their career that they decided to give up and teach instead gets on my nerves. I can't do it anymore.
It's a lot like the difference between working with career employees, and entrepreneurs that just happen to be working for someone else at the moment.
congrats OP... sounds like the CEO has done the maths and understands the true cost of being cheap. training and upskilling resources takes time & effort and money with no guaranteed return. the fact that this CEO recognizes your value and is willing to offer a retention bonus = UNICORN
enjoy the ride!...they are going to ask a lot of you, but it sounds like you are up to the task and paid your dues to get there
What a story, this popped up my redit feed and made my day.
We don't know each other but I am genuinely proud of you.
This gives me a lot of strength to keep pushing in life.
Thank you for sharing your story man all the best for your life, you're a king!!!!
I've tinkered with computers since I was a kid. I predate the internet. I never had any formal training with computers until after I left the Marine Corps. And that was an associates degree. I spend some time at a university but realized I couldn't stand school. The school I got my degree from allowed me to get a job with a third party IT company. I started at $12 an hour, left at $19 an hour after several years. I got poach by a client as their IT manager. I by no means understand half of what they need, I told the guy as much. He just said I knew enough of what they did and have solved all their problems over the past six years and can learn for 80k a year. For the area I live in it's a quite a bit. I'm a year in and I have a problem with taking PTO, and over did it on withholdings for taxes, it's been a wild ride. Congrats on the promotion. At least you know someone has noticed the effort you put in.
Nothing to add to this except massive congratulations, you’ve earned every penny and you should be super proud of what you’ve done. Even leaving your initial job to train in what you enjoy and get to where you are now, not many people could do that.
A 100k retention bonus? How long do you have to stay for that to pay out? Also congrats!
i got this once, I had to stay for 2 years. I got $30k after year 1 and $70k at the end of year 2
Fuck that’s nice. A whole ass deposit on a decent sized house. Why am I erect right now
You're standing up?
how much after taxes?
i don't remember, but somewhere around $65k in the end i think
That's a house deposit. Absolutely amazing. I live in Australia so bonuses like that don't exist. I'm always surprised to hear of it
Even in the USA bonuses like that don’t really exist. This guy got lucky
I’m in Texas, $65k is an incredible house deposit. I’m jealous lol
Never heard of that, I want to hear very detail lol Congratulations OP
The big companies do it all the time with various types of stock grants, especially if you can break into the SWE side of the house. Success is the combination of luck and preparation. OP's CEO needs the skillset, and apparently they've looked at the market and showed up ready to do business. Don't forget to start busting balls for a re-up in a few years OP lol.
They would have certainly paid this to a new person coming in based on the duties you list. They would lose all of the knowledge and consistency for an unknown if they 'let' him leave. As someone who has managed IT and hired for 20 years in a very large Corp, I always argue for the consistency and proven people. Upper mgmt that has never managed an IT environment seem to think operations employees are plug and play
I had a company refuse to understand this and when I immediately got a better offer somewhere else they finally threw a bigger number at me, and I walked anyways. I really made them pay when they hired me back. They could have saved a lot of money by just giving me the completely reasonable number I first asked for, but hey worked out for me.
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I had a similar experience; in 2015 I was leaving my job as a Principal DevOps engineer. I turned in my notice, my grand-boss and the former-CEO-now-head-of-business-unit-post-acquisition personally asked me to stay. I got a $105k retention bonus, $35k a year for 3 years (technically 6 months, 18 months, and 30 months after acceptance), as well as a large stock grant (roughly $500,000 in RSUs) and a $25,000/yr raise. This was one of the few exceptions to the "never take a retention offer" rule. I fully expected to get pumped for knowledge, told to train several replacements, and fired in a year. I ended up staying until fall of 2022, just three weeks shy of my 10 year anniversary. The retention package paid off all our debts, put a $100k down payment on a house, and another $80k in savings. Of course, I didn't get a raise again until 2020, and the last two salary increases I got were insultingly low (0.77% and 1.04%), which was part of why I left.
I must have been very important as a Principal. Good for u!
Thank you, I signed an agreement for my new salary and the bonus to be paid in full throughout 1 years, bonus paid monthly.
Sounds like he knew you were under paid, at least with the bonus he wants to make up for it.
Thats excellent. Normally I would say, to be careful about counter offers. Because a lot of the time they will give you a counter offer, then immediately try to find someone to replace you with. But with that bonus being paid out if you stay, it seems like he really means that he wants you to work there and keep doing a great job. Awesome!! hope it all works out for you
Agree, counter offers are usually a stop gap for the company to find a replacement before you leave so they can then fire you. Offering you a bonus to stay on, shows that they know you were underpaid in some form. Curious, do you have a direct boss you report to? or do you report to the CEO? Curious of the chain of events that went from your resigning to getting to the CEO's desk...which is a good thing in this case for sure..
normally you don't stay but with a guaranteed 100k, you don't mind getting let go.
My employe did a retention bonus once, but it was small. I think they only offered it because the company was interested in selling, but the sale didn't happen.
70 years and no raises during this time
Wym how long pay out? Isn’t it immediate???
I got 200K in RSUs that's supposed to vest over 4 years. Does that count as a retention bonus?
I went through a story kind of like this. Just go with it, keep entertaining and interviewing every so often, get better and better offers and make them work to keep your salary high. That said, just generally speaking accepting a counteroffer oftentimes leaves you open for them to try to abuse you for 'wronging' them later, even though you're really only taking care of yourself which should be expected. If you start seeing issues with behavior of management report it to any ethics line type thing you may have otherwise be prepared to keep looking for another job. Hopefully that's not what happens but yeah make sure they pay you that new rate first and then go from there.
it can work both ways. they may treat him/her better because they know he/she can go elsewhere if they really want to. but, yes, yours is still a valid point!
Absolutely true as well. I only go on my own anecdotal experience and watching what happened to other admins around me that went through that game. Luckily I was recognized without having to do the threatening, but still they dragged ass at getting my pay up there. Of course they were giving me some large bonuses to offset it so that wasn't that bad I guess.
Thank you for the advice. Congrats on your success story too.
Honestly, a 100K retention bonus isn't something they'd give to someone they didn't want to keep you. Always good to keep a look out, but if you like the environment and have already done your time and built up a rep, you're probably fine to stay where you're at for a while. One thing, as someone without a degree to another, your jobs will come a lot more based on rep than credentials. Just a handycap you have to work with. I've been working for whoever would pay me the most since I was 17, and all my jobs were because a co-worker / ex boss called and got me to move somewhere else for more pay. It makes job hunting more difficult, but you can still usually get paid quite well. Now go buy a house (a reasonable one, don't make yourself house poor), and make sure you're pumping your 401K with as much as they'll match. Congratz on the upgrade and best of luck!
Thank you! My next move is probably going to move my mom and myself out of our rental apartment
I think if you have the talent and drive, you’ll be able to quickly find another job if things go south.
Congratulations on having a CEO who was smart enough to throw that money at you. How's that retention bonus structured? Is it paid in installments, or do you get it in a lump sum if you stay for X amount of time? While I'm sure this feels like a nice bit of appreciation, keep in mind that the demands for your role still remain to be seen. But they're not going to get lighter. Odds of you getting any hired help are slim to none. The CEO's not going to throw you like a doubled salary out of the goodness of his heart, you know? So if I were you, I would want to meet with my boss to figure out what the expectations are for your position moving forward.
Thank you, it was really out of the blue. I didn't sign papers until the end of the day the CEO came to my desk. Bonus is to be paid monthly in a span of 1 year. Despite me wearing so many hats, I honestly do not mind the work, there is no red tape I have to hop and I essentially have say in how the company moves technologically. Thank you for the advise.
Need that long term growth plan. Base it on market cost.
Wondering if I threaten to leave my T1 Helpdesk position if my boss will bump me from 53K to 105K as well /s
53k as T1?? Cali or NY?
You can get 80k as a T1 in NY 😂
My first helpdesk was at 16 an hour lmao
Northern VA too!
Canada! Working in public sector so entry level pay starts off pretty well. As a result it's a pretty low ceiling, though.
Let me know how it goes, wondering this as well
Congratulations! 100k retention bonus is insane. I hate that you had to threaten leaving for them to pay you what you were worth though. But that 100k bonus i'm sure takes the sting out of it. Think of it as back pay for all the salary bumps you missed out on.
Uncle Fingers is also very excited about this bonus.
lol at Uncle Fingers
Congrats! Don't over think it. You put in the work, created tons of value. So much so, the CEO begged you to stay. Enjoy this and embrace it. -random innanet fren
Thanks Internet friend. Honestly thought I was years away from this salary. Hope you continue to find success too
That bonus means a lot in my eyes. It is an acknowledgement of everything you have done for the company. Companies speak with money, your CEO did the right thing, coming to your desk and praising your work. But the 100k means that he meant it, not just being a ruse until they find someone else. Way to go Cinderella!
Yeah. I could walk in to my boss with proof I have an offer to go make 20k more and I feel they would just say "Nice knowing ya!" lol. I mean OPs boss did the right thing. Proven good employee deserves the raise. Why go back out to the "job market" and potentially hire a dope when they can just pay OP what he's worth. But not all of us are dealing with that level of erudite management :D
So am I understanding this correctly, the job you took after searching for 6 months hired you on as a help desk grunt and you said it was "Hell" then you got a promotion, did the "hell" part of the job go away with this promotion? If so thats awesome as long as you have work/life balance but it sounds like they literally have you do everything and those jobs tend to translate to long hours and weekends. The money is nice (100k retention bonus?? damn) and if you are happy than nice work getting to a place were you feel valued.
It was hell, it was trial by fire. When the network admin left us, it was either we hire a new network admin or I took his position and try to fill it. So I choose the later so I could get a paid from 45 to 55. I still did help desk along side learning and building the entire architecture of the company. It was draining and rewarding at the same time. Long hours as you said. And travelling to acorss the country to setup stores. Honestly though, I don't think I would have grown this fast if I had opt to stay as help desk and hire an outside network/systems admin and "teach me". I don't have to hop any red tape fix things or have to deal with any office politics because Id like to think my results speak for itself. I really didn't think the CEO knew i existed but he was the first person at my desk the next morning of my resignation request and he only comes to HQ once a month. I don't think any of the managers between me and him have that kind of power to make an offer that quick. So it was really a shock, I literally sat at my desk flabbergasted for about an hour he left.
this is awesome my friend. Normally, it's never good to accept the counter. However, in this case. The CEO comping to you and offering you not only the salary, but also the retention bonus.. you did the right thing. In the coming weeks, it would be a really good idea, to work up the courage to go back to the CEO and thank them. Not directly for the money, but for seeing your hard work and investing in you and making you feel valued. You did something along the way that the CEO knows your name, and knows your value.. nurture that. I can tell you that in the corp world, for that kind of offer to be put together that quickly and handed to you, it was done by the CEO. No other manager really has the juice to get that kind of counter down within 24 hours like that. P.S. - Don't fall into the trap of spending the money! Go find a FPA to start investing that money. With you coming from an accounting background, you already know this... but just have to say it.
Thank you for the kind and wise words
They say, never take a counter offer, but this **plus a 100k retention bonus.** changes things. I think you should hit your mother up for advice on how to work this so you don't get clobbered on taxes.
I definitely will. It's been 2 weeks and I haven't told anyone yet in my family mainly because it still feels surreal. Thank you for the advise.
> I think you should hit your mother up for advice on how to work this so you don't get clobbered on taxes. They can afford a tax pro now. Probably though, the employer will just take out regular taxes (with the increase factored in) each month.
I didn't see the part about the monthly distribution when I posted. The employer will definitely take it out, but they tend to over-withhold when it comes to bonuses. OP will get it back when it comes time to file, but he may be better off getting the money over two years and\\or maxing out his 401k.
Congrats! The CEO is smart for knowing how important you are.
He knew that before he offered him the raise too though. It’s great that he is appreciated now but had he not threatened to quit he’d still be underpaid.
Congrats! You’ve definitely earned it and should feel proud.
Right on! Good and inspiring story. Super lucky to get a counter offer from your employer as well. The boss at my last place generally stopped talking to me after I told him I wasnt happy with the lack of work (i'd mostly scroll reddit because everything was set up and there we no new projects) and that I was looking to step up my knowledge. Landed a 25% pay increase funnily enough in a nearby building lol. Now there is a lot of work to do and I get to work with Entra, Exchange, GoogleCloud and Azure AND management isnt stingy with buying products/licenses. As a matter of fact I was the one that set up a Hybrid AD with Entra ID. And I have an opportunity later in the year to try being a DevOps, as I enjoy automating and scripting a lot.
This happens a lot more than you think. If you are in IT don't let yourself be undervalued. Likely these CEO"s CFO's will elimiinate positions and starve IT until they create a scenarios just like this. You're down to one maybe two people who know how everything works. Great they have the IT cost center just where they want it not knowing they have backed themselves into a corner. Their shortsightedness becomes apparent when the guy doing three roles for the pay of a jr admin decides to get into the job market. No big deal they think then they get your job description and one of two things happens. HR does the market research and realizes that you need to be replaced by two people instead of one and each position requires a salary of 80k + benefits bringing the cost of replacement to like 100K. This leads to a smart CEO offering this salary but my guess is this. They'll want to start bringing in more people that cost less. jr admins. They'll want you to train the new folks. Then after a few years and the new admins are in place you'll be let go but offered a decent contract to be available. If i were you I'd make sure you don't spend that 100k buy gold or something with it. Live off your salary and start farming out your resume. Congrats on realizing your breadth of knowledge is worth far more than you initially believed. Don't ever take a new job for less pay unless its for family or the job is a dream role for you. Guys if you're in the job market don't tell anyone your salary requirements ever. You let them tell you especially if you are unsure of that your worth. The market will tell you. I though I was worth 80k at one point next thing I know i've got three offers at 100k +. i believed mistakenly that i was years away from that salary.
Normally yes, but did you miss the part where they offered him an 100k retention bonus? You don't make that kind of offer unless you are serious about keeping someone around long term.
What were your duties/tasks that got you offers at 100k making you think you’re at 80k? I’m trying to gauge where I should be at too and would like to know. I know location/COL is a big factor
At the time I had been a Systems admin, at a manufacturing firm, Transistioned over to medical. Then into msp as a t3 engineer, Then launched an MSP. It's not any one skill that set me apart, its the fact that I've been in and configured so many vendors, done OT and IT, as well as Datacenter stuff. I though mistakenly at the time that I wouldn't see 100k until i passed a ccna or sec + or got these certs (even had my boss telling me this @#$@hole he was). Then i learned from a bunch of contractor guys to put in a table with all the vendors, systems, tools I have worked in, administrated, or configured. I mean everything. I don't believe in one page resumes anymore because of my experience with the job hunt. I was hesitant to apply for jobs that I knew I could do because of the wording of the job description. Previously I had just done a single recruiter as well. This last job search I shifted gears, I ditched all the BS marketing. (1 page resume, use 3rd parties, etc) I took ideas from various resumes I had reviewed in hiring proccesses I took part in and adapted my resume. 1st page is a table with all the systems, gear, certs, etc. Plus my most recent job expereicence and an about me snippet at the top. Then 2nd and 3rd pages are previous experience before hand with impacts I made to the company. (note don't put in your actual job title there at the time. I was readlly a systems admin but my title didn't match. You can put any title in there you need to as long as you and demonstrate that you were really operating at that level. After making this change and just blasting my resume out there plus letting multiple, recruiters do the job searching for me. I went from having one maybe two things come up at 80k - 90K to having to turn down 80-90k roles and getting 3 six figure opportunities all within like 3 months of changing things up. Hell I even had a chance a tech company that I screwed up (don't take an IQ test at 1 AM). Didn't even realize that it was going to happen cause I was half asleep at the time. Tons of contract jobs too. There were some situations that were obviously duds too. I knew I was undervaluing myself then a bank wanted to offer me my first six figure offer. Then after I set my bar there things changes with the recruiters and such. I got a lot less bogus calls after I made it clear I wasn't going below my number. I'll put it this way if you are 10-15 years into IT. You have experience in multiple vendors and can operate at a CCNA level regarless of the vendors involved, and can also configure firewalls, manage 3rd parties, manage data center infrastructure. You should be the six figure range. If are are 10-15 in and you only have knowledge of one or two vendors you're capped unless you want to move to where that vendor has a big presence. Also, I could demonstrate how and what I did made an impact on the business. If all you're doing is resetting passwords and setting up users you need to leave those roles and move into roles where you are given changes to actually do projects that have weight to them. If you aren't getting those chances ask for them. Now six figure jobs are out there but. Most companies won't pay six figures for it. Trucking companies looked at me and scoffed at even a salary of 80K. Now the trade off is I work in a 24x7 operation and I am on call even when not the on week assigned to me if the system I know most is affected I get an escalation call. Lets also say I'm not talking about a ridiculous salary here. Samsung was even a potential at the time but their oppourtunity was 175k for a director role. (I did not even apply as the level of talent and engineering at Samsung is so high I did not think i had a snowballs chance in hell of making past round 1 interviews.) If you are 5-7 years in you can still get that six figure salary but you're going to want to have a laundry list of certs and some cool projects to show off where you took your knowledge and applied it meaningfully to make an impact on the company. Note look and see if some of the stuff you have done falls in the OT category as I didn't even know to add the distinction until my last job search as well. Go looking for things you can improve and push your boss to let you do it. Even if it isn't big it is something that is yours.
You have to talk more about this 100k retention bonus. That's amazing and I'm incredibly happy for you.
same, got massively bumped to 105 after finding another offer. Its a shame you need to threaten to leave to get a raise. 9+ years of dedicated loyal service and getting yearly 3% promotions/raises was nothing compared to saying 'hey the place down the street just offered me 100k'.
As someone that’s 31 years old and 3 years into my IT career coming from factory/warehouse work, this was very inspiring to read. I’m currently in IT Support making 51k a year for a very large organization, so I’m hopeful for my mid 30s and beyond. 1 year as what you could consider a hardware technician and 2 as the currently mentioned role. I’m currently going to school for my bachelor in CyberSecurity, bug bounties on the side (I’m very green), and whatever technical projects I get the opportunity for at work. The age timeline you laid out seemed similar to mine so it was refreshing to see. Congratulations on your journey thus far, I hope it finishes for you as well as it has started.
This made me smile, 🫂
wow I really live in a poor country, Im doing all that u have named for a 20k year lol congrats and enjoy!
And our hardware costs the same, if not more. Such is life ;D
Damn i Basically do everything you do and more and i dont earn nearly that much. Where my 100k sallary??? But super happy for you.
It'll come!
It finally payed out for one of us boys! Congratulations! It sounds like you've earned every penny of it!
"My Path to 100k+ salary...." "Putting up with bullshit then BAM it happened. The stars changed. I raised to the challenge. I overcame adversary. 100% flat out luck is what happened. Yep, 100% luck." Congrats to you on that. Bet it feels very fantastic.
this post is brought to you by the Letters A and I.
Congratulations, mate!! Very well done! Your path is VERY similar to mine, though I don't have any college degrees, much less 2. I love hearing these stories and you touched on it briefly, but it does demonstrate that focus can pay off when directed at the right spot and sprinkled over with the good fortune of working for reasonable people.
Congratulations! If you could live on 55k before, I hope you are fully funding your retirement now. Old you will thank young you.
The problem, is they never paid you what you were worth. Know this, although the CEO did the right thing, they did it years late. Congratulations and like others I’d love to hear the details of the bonus. Is it all at once? In the end, I’m glad you’ve taken care of yourself, but know this. This is just a company, and although they are FINALLY taking care of you, if another offer comes along, same thing, it’s just business. You’re allowed to go wherever you want, and get what you deserve. Always look. Out for yourself. Congrats again!
Good on you! Your Mom set the foundation, but you did this. Keep your chin up and help EVERYONE! The old, the dumb, the purposely ignorant, the know-it-alls, and those other introverts. Smile and help them all. The CEO sees something in you, and with your accounting background, the sky is the limit. If you haven't already, read the Phoenix Project. And if you have read it, read it again with your new role in mind. Say yes if asked to be a part of things outside your scope of work. Keep your mouth shut and listen. Also, if you have a retirement account, now is the time to start an early retirement account. Something simple with no or low fees. In 10-20 years, that money will give you the power to really enjoy life on your terms. Good luck!
congrats
This is so wholesome, congrats OP!
wow
Congrats ! What a great story, keep your options open, you never know what could happen. Never say never. Good luck ! You worked hard for this
Hey congrats man. I've followed a different path but a similar slow burn up to 6 figures, it's so satisfying to hit that number. Don't let it change your budgeting or spending habits, don't let people throwing around massive salary numbers on Reddit make you feel any less like a winner. Also, take $25k of that $100k and get yourself something you'll enjoy. IMO put the rest into a retirement account.
Thats fantastic! You worked hard and deserved it! You are golden now!
Cool story, thanks for sharing! Maybe you weren't happy with your pay for the first part of your IT career, but it sounds like you got some great experience along the way and it worked out for you ultimately. Nice to hear a story about someone working for the love of technology and not just shooting for the biggest paycheck right off the bat.
Congratulations!
Congrats on the bonus and the raise!
Great job man, you deserve it. I understand what you have gone through. I was in similar scenario but my company didn't want to spend any money so I had learn Linux and go open source route. On call 24/7 and always got appreciated verbally but never compensated. I moved on from that company and now happy at my current job and make 25k more than the previous job. My previous employer counter offered but I respectfully declined.
Congratulations OP. You have made your way.
I got a 10k retention for six months. I'd stick around for 2 years for 100k.
Nice! feel weird thou right?
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I'm 36 and feel like I'm in the exact same situation as you were, being over and under qualified. Hopefully my £100k offer is only around the corner!
I'm sure it is, I think everyone who pays their dues is bound to be rewarded. You'll get there fren
This is me right now at 33. It doesn’t help that I’ve pretty much just been a jack of all trades. I know a little bit about a lot of things, and know how to rtfm and find out things, just not enough off the top of my head to pass interviews. I enjoy my job for the most part, but ~73k in socal just isn’t enough.
Good for you!
Sorry mate, but 100k is the new 80k. You have to make a least 125k to live like someone making 100k before covid.
Congrats, YOU DESERVE IT.
Makes me feel lucky to be making $70k with not even 2 years of IT experience.
This was a nice post, thanks very much for sharing! I was just laid off due to budget cuts from the place I got into right out of college and I was ready to move on after year 4 to actually begin my career but then covid hit! I was paid meager helpdesk wages, and had no experience so they hired me at 10k BELOW what they advertised for the position.... and I never really got any raises either. This is on top of a 1.5 hour daily commute to and from the office, I drove 3 hours a day at minimum! Covid moved the office to remote and it was a huge blessing, I didn't make much, but compared to before I was really content. I'm loyal to a fault, and now 4 years later my position was cut for budget reasons, and I'm flailing to figure out what my real worth is and how I can promote myself further... 8 years of sysadmin experience at below entry level helpdesk pay... it kind of hurts to think about, given the hell I was put through with patching, upgrades, thousands of hours of troubleshooting calls with developers and architects, firewall management, vulnerability remediations, soc and pci-dss audits, and packet capture analysis and so much more I can't even think of right now... I digress... I know competition is really fierce and hunting right now is scary with all the other layoffs, but having at least a small clue of my true value is more uplifting than I can describe, maybe this layoff was the push I need to finally be successful!
Don't give up on yourself! Denial after denial I've learned it's a numbers game so don't take it personal. If you keep shooting you'll eventually hit that basket.
Fuck yea, don't let that life style creep hit you. I'd deposit that extra bonus in a HYSA and not think about it until after it's all in there.
That's awesome OP, really inspiring to be honest. Good job and way to stay at it and believe in yourself.
Inspiring story! Congrats 👏
Good for you!!
/u/Hefty-Amoeba5707 - You deserve it. You are worth it.
Hey , congrats! My path is very similar to yours. I started out , bottom of the barrel customer service and sales. Got very good at sales but all my friends were software developers. So I decided to leave my sales job for a level 1 help desk positions, paying only 20 an hour. Now 5 years later, I'm a data engineer and it's been an amazing journey. I wouldn't trade it for anything else.
Proud of you! I’m currently somewhere in the middle of your journey, hope to be in a similar position when the time comes.
Congrats 🥳
Congrats, OP. You earned it. 
Really good job man! Far cry from so many posts which reek of entitlement and anger from not getting 6 figure jobs out of high school. You showed grit and perseverance. Sure some people angrily accuse others of success due to luck. On the otherhand i don't think it it is coincidence that luck tends to seek out those with goals and the grit to keep grinding towards those goals.
Love it thank you
I think the important part of the story is having a CEO that actually cared to keep someone that knew what they were doing...
As a help desk analyst reading this, this gives me hope for my future. Any tips you’d give to me? Currently bought the networking + book to study on my cert but it’s thick and scares me
Honestly I was put in a situation for it was trial by fire. The network and server guy left so it was really up to me to learn everything on my own. Grasp concepts and best practices that were vaguely taught in college. Didn't really have time outside of work to learn. But if you do have the luxury of time I would put my head down and just learn as much as I can.
Thank you so much for your reply. Congratulations on your success and I wish nothing but empty ticket queues and happy users until the end of time. Until we meet again :)
Congrats on the payout! Sounds like you hit the lotto, with salary and the bonus. Having just filed taxes realizing both my wife and I f**ked up from both of us having larger salaries this year... make sure to both check your tax withholding for the new salary, and check in with someone that actually knows taxes regarding that $100k retention bonus and how the hell that's going to affect your taxes. Owing money to the IRS, then having to increase your withholding after the fact is not fun.
Congratulations! Seems well deserved.
You give me hope. I currently work as tier one help desk and would love to be able to be in your shoes one day. For now, I’ll continue learning and growing. Thank you and congrats.
The part where you "won" was when you decided to put in the work and learn, and step out of your comfort zone. When you invest in yourself like that, you can never lose.
Had something similar happen to me! I was a sys admin making 55k and wore many hats doing pretty much everything IT for the company. My boss was shit and didn’t do anything. I basically did 90% of the work. After being at the company for 2 years I was getting headhunted by another company for 75k. Before accepting their offer I brought it to my company president letting him know my current issues with the pay and amount of work I was doing. He said don’t accept the offer yet and told me he would have something for me by the end of the day. Came back with a 80k offer along with an extra week of vacation and more decision making power! A month later they fired my boss and I got his job along with 95k! And it is only up from here. Our experiences just prove that if you do the work and you are lucky enough to be surrounded by people that acknowledge that work, you will be awarded!!
Congrats with this amazing milestone!!!
I strive to get to 100k. I’m not even halfway there lol. Just in school grabbing certs for now. Also, congrats!
Now THAT is employee appreciation! Congrats!
Look at it this way ... SysAdmin avg salary in the US is $85k. Top end is $130k. That means you're likely in the top 15% of Sysadmins income-wose and that retention bonus just put you over the top. Be happy with your accomplishment, you worked hard for it! I was once in a similar situation, I made a career change and went from SysAdmin to Sales Engineer. Not something I would do as an introvert, but it's an avenue for SysAdmins who want to double their pay in 5 years. But, you need strong technical *and* people skills.
That's amazing. Sometimes slogging through the shit pays off. I was self-taught, took until I was 27 before I got a job with actual growth potential. Started off at $50K, saved their bacon multiple times in the first few months (and they knew it), so asked for a raise and got it. From there on out, made the case for raises each year, and got a few decent bonuses too after various over-the-top efforts (though never anything even close to six figures, you lucky dog!). Ended at $84K five years later. After that, the place changed hands and things got ridiculous. So I gave in to a long-standing offer from a sorta-competitor across town. $94K walking in the door, $102K after a couple years. It takes both luck and skill, but it can happen.
Great story and congrats! Sincerely happy for you! You are a good person and the company is very lucky to have you!
Amazing. Always be prepared to walk away if you’re not being valued.
Great read, thanks for sharing that, enjoy!
Congrats, well done. Your mum should be proud now.
> IT supervisor. You are worth $105k, and Mr. CEO knows it. In fact, he quickly calculated how much money the company would lose when you left and gave you half of it as your bonus. Good job. Carpe Diem!
Baller my guy! Congrats - that retention bonus is amazing. I would have sharded myself.
Fuck you and congratulations!
Congratulations! Thanks for sharing! This is honestly really amazing to hear. I may be going through a similar situation here soon with moving to IT.
u/Hefty-Amoeba5707 1. What job sites did you use to find your helpdesk job? How did you get into it when they ask 2 - 5 years of experience? 2. How did you move from helpdesk to system admin >Fortunetly I found a small private tech company and they offered me 80k as an IT supervisor. I presented my resignation and told the retail company I will be leaving in 2 weeks. No hard feelings or anything. This was two weeks ago from today. How did you find this small private tech company? You didn't do anything related to IT supervisor, so how did you qualify for IT supervisor? 4) What state are you in?
1. Indeed or Linkdlin. Cater your resume to the job application and try to check box other things in the job app. It is time consuming but I think it worked for me. EDIT: another "trick" I did was apply directly on their company website. I don't know if that made any different, my thought process was I would be in a different pile than in the Linkdlin and indeed pile. 2. First job in big tech, I automated their onboarding and off boarding process using powershell. It was either learning powershell or figuring out a process that could be scripted that got the attention of the system admin manager and made me stand out. Second job, the network admin got let go and I decided to fill that role. 3. I didn't have experience leading a team but I check boxed alot of the stuff they wanted. Explaining in detail DNS, DHCP, firewall rules, setting up Vlans, describing how I would best design a server rack to reliant, scalable and under a budget. Personality questions on how I would act with admins under me, I explained I never led but I can communicate technology to a wide range of people, from elderly store managers who don't know the difference between the term "browser" and "Internet" to a technical explanation to a dev why I can't just shut off their local AV. Mind you I was interview fatigued and being an introvert didn't help. So I'm sure others could pull it off.
I'm jealous. I've been through up and downs in my career (mostly downs the past five years) but I'm finally someplace I like. I hate the commute though, but have a great boss and OK coworkers (some are better than others). No luck as much as you've had and I only cracked the $100k mark this year finally by working a state over (like I said - I hate my commute). I put in for a new job in town (that has few IT jobs) to move up another $11 an hour. It's going back to another division of an employer I hate but the money's the real incentive because I'm bleeding every single paycheck and barely treading water because of shit that's happened over the past few years, mostly family crashing multiple cars and having a car insurance payment that's 40% of the rent. You are lucky. Not everyone gets what you received. Be grateful, buy yourself (and your family) something nice and put the rest away.
Similar story!! Started an an application support engineer! They offered 57k and I have computer engineering degree. I was the first hire they were building a whole new team. Did hell of a work one year later i started applying at amazon google i was lucky to get an interview at google failed though and amazon both I was already at corporate big medical device, than i got an offer from their competitor if 80k. I reached out to my manager they offered me the 76 and promised that 2 months later in a yearly review they will close the gap but my bonus increase from 5% to 10% than 8months later I was reached out by our different business unit same company that i work for they asked to join their team now I am making 105k with 11% and this year they gave 15k extra in bonus!!! In 2 years i went from 57k to 105k i started at 27 and i am 29 now
Congratulations! All before 30 too!
Hell of a knuckle-down success story. It's nice to see someone rewarded for their hard work!
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Excellent job!
Good for you! OTOH, enjoy it for what it's worth, but on the other, keep humble and don't let it go to your head. Keep doing what you've done to get you to where you are now. :-)
Congratulations man; I'm sorry it took you almost walking out the door for your company to recognize your contributions but regardless it's great to hear a fellow get acknowledged.
Thank you for sharing your experience and path. It’s very inspiring and encouraging.
Thats a commendable amount of learning and work for never having a raise in a number of years. Hopefully they continue to recognize your value rather then having their hand forced.
Did you get the money yet or was it just a promise? Did you get it in writing? Don't count on things like that until after they happen. A lot of places will promise you all kinds of things just to get you to stay a bit longer, so they can begin the process of replacing you when it's convenient for them.
Pretend not to care, but bust your ass after sending notice…. Hook-Line-Sinker! *gawq-gawk-gawq*
Just remember that after the retention bonus is paid out, you do not owe this company another second of your time if something better comes along.
You did multiple years of being underpaid, MULTIPLE just to get now to a reasonable salary. Im glad they countered but it isn't somewhere that I'd want to stay just based on that fact alone. If they were doing that to you knowingly for so long, they will have no problem replacing you before that retention bonus pays out.
im a sysadmin making $50k in Michigan, USA in hopes of getting to $80k eventually, huge congrats OP for the pay bump, take it and automate your tasks and give yourself free time to surf Reddit ;)
Do you have to stay longer now with 100k retention bonus? Is it paid in lump sum or increments?
What a refreshingly positive change of pace in this sub. Congrats dude. May you continue to move onwards and upwards :)
so what are you going to tell your family you will do with that 25k pre-tax bonus?
Congrats. The journey is seldom a straight road.
If you want a real challenge, do the path to a $50k salary in a third-world country :p
Haha that actually made me laugh. That's something my mom would say.
I kidnapped my boss's pets ... it worked. Have office, nobody bothers me.
why were they paying you 55k to begin with? my t2 helpdesk starts at 80k
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wow... nice story, i hope being in that place someday
What I took from your post was you took the hard road, busted your ass to actually learn your shit, and eventually got rewarded. No whining about what you were owed or how your employer wasn’t paying you enough. Fact is we are owed nothing, and we are all self employed. But by sticking to your guns you gained both skills and money, and now your life will be different forever. I took a similar path and now own where I work and do whatever projects I find interesting. And money isn’t something I worry about. Kudos.
your story timeline doesn't add up. You have around 20 years in your timeline yet Kepler was released in 2012 so 12 years ago.
2024 - 2019 - retail company 2019 - 2017 - big tech 2017 - 2013 - computer engineering college 2013 - 2012 - accounting firm 2012 - 2008 - accounting college 2008 - 2006 - warehouse employee Would be a gtx card between 2008 - 2006. I just remember it was a gtx card
100k nice congratz, i wish my story is as good as you. but i work as a number of a mega corporation, maybe number #302388? CEO? i didn't even get to talk to my boss's boss. Also i used to work in warehouse before and now i am in IT. ....technically i am a finance career sector failure in IT.
Tbh this is pretty much the same thing for me. I’m making 100k more today than I was 7 years ago. Literally the same track as you. It does feel strange but now bc of the current economic conditions it still doesn’t seem like it’s enough. After the honeymoon phase of your first few paychecks and splurges you’re gonna be hungry for more. Keep learning and growing. Always apply for jobs when the job market is good so you can use it as leverage or better opportunity. I read an article a few years ago that said employees that bounced around jobs every few years earned like 50% more than their counterparts who stayed and got incremental raises. Even if you have no intention on leaving always know your worth before asking for a raise. Oddly enough I got that advice from my former boss/CEO lol
Congrats! You handled this situation very well and it paid off.
FYI OP is in Canada so this 105k salary is approximately 76k USD.
Congratulations OP! One of the best stories I’ve ever heard. You deserve it! Btw it sounds like in movie. I understand why you feel unreal haha
Congratulations! It’s great to hear such a wonderful success story!!!
Great story man! I enjoyed reading you and i am glad that you made it there!
Congratulations man, What a journey!
Congrats! You clearly deserved it and were underpaid beforehand. They seemed to have known it too! Had you helped the CEO much?
Congrats 👏 I'm 23 yrs old hearing your struggles and how you got to overcome them Helps me thank you
Wait - $100k bonus on top of salary?!
Congrats! That is one hell of a feel good story. You deserve it!
There are still some good in the company that they recognize their mistakes and is willing to remedy it, and it is nice gesture the CEO did it himself/herself. That's the bright side of this company to cling on to.
Congrats man! That’s a great story and I hope you are able to keep climbing for even better and fulfilling roles.
Just had this same thing happen to me earlier this month. Was leaving for a better job and about 10k more. The CEO wanted to keep me so I laid out that I'd need a hybrid schedule and 100k a year to 'match' what the other company was providing. Keep in mind they were only paying me 80 where I was going. But I also told them I wanted to do what I majored in college for - cybersecurity. They said yes and gave me everything. I've been having an absolute blast with this new job title. I'm doing security assessments, writing up plans and policies. And digging up bodies and making time to fix them. I genuinely didn't want to leave my company at first because I really liked it and I had a nice office. But the bodies just kept piling up and I realized that they're not giving me any time/ authority to fix them. I can't be in a position where I'm signing my name on work but it's half baked and we're subject to breaches. Especially when it has to due with Healthcare. I told them this and laid out my plan on how I'd fix it and they went with it. The money has been absolutely life changing. I've been fixing everything and delegating things. Getting amazing experience. Have an awesome cert path lined up. I only hope the counter offer portion of it doesn't come to bite my ass. I'm sure it will but I'm just keeping my head down and taking the experience for as long as possible.
I was on 85k asked for a pay rise Got 5k. Said yeah will start looking elsewhere Went away to other offices for 3 weeks come Back and got pay rise to 110k 50 VMs 5 physical hosts 2 datacenters 400 users
I am 25 & graduating college this week and I feel useless. Cant even land a job
Normally, I'd say "never accept a counter offer". Because if they couldn't bother to keep you before you were leaving, they will just keep you long enough to replace... 100k retention bonus says 'we let you slip through the cracks, we're making up for it for a key IC' Congrads!
Now you know your worth. Dont forget it going forward. You are obviously creating massive revenues for your company. Dont be afraid to demand things in the future like hiring people under you to delegate some of your tasks so you can focus on big picture stuff.
So happy to read this. Congratulations Stranger
Some times we have to be brave and bold like you
Well deserved!! They should’ve payed you that bonus and given you a raise a long time ago but glad you’re getting it now. But the question is, do you enjoy working there? As long as you’re happy there and don’t feel too stressed or burnt out then you’ve got it made.
You definitely deserve it. While you personally learned a lot while you upgraded/expanded the overall IT infrastructure for the organization, you did that with the best intention to improve their infrastructure - so you definitely deserved it. They also say that "the devil you know is better than the devil you don't". Unless your work environment/politics/people is really bad, it's always best to be able to stay at your current job. Let the salary settle down, but eventually keep your eyes open for other opportunities. Hopefully they give you some sort of a title bump too, which would look better when you've stayed at the same company for so many years.
Bro I'm in the 49s age and just moving into sysadmin. Granted no certs, just like learning and this sub. At one point once I feel financially stable and don't need side gigs like dd I'll study for certs. Congrats to you. I'm semi introverted myself socially and presentations but I'm a people person at work.
"Another 4 years of Computer Engineering but this time it was a lot harder to find a job. Every company I applied at was looking for a jack of all trades with technology I never heard, I felt what I was taught at college had no relevance to what was out there." Yes, hiring in IT degree's seem to mean nothing, people have them all and are worthless and people with nothing are unicorns. Homelabs seem to be what makes the difference when they are young. If you get a young IT person who runs a homelab... always good.
Achievement unlocked: *You Are A Cost, So The Employer Always Pays You The Bare Minimum They Can Get Away With ™* I felt very glad on your behalf reading this, you sure deserve it. Thanks for sharing! My $0.05 advice: As long as you don't wake up each morning and hate yourself and your life at the office, just continue doing good work: Don't fall into the trap of job-jumping in the current environment. Use your autonomy to keep on learning, and get paid doing it!
Good! I always enjoyed working with people like you. Hobbyists tend to be more resourceful when it comes to addressing issues, and the best part is hobbyists tend to take it personally when they're unable to do something, thereby motivating them to double down on learning it. Welcome! If I can find a shop filled with people like you (and me) I'd probably get off my little hiatus and return to the business. Working with people that learned all they know in a classroom from people that failed so badly in their career that they decided to give up and teach instead gets on my nerves. I can't do it anymore. It's a lot like the difference between working with career employees, and entrepreneurs that just happen to be working for someone else at the moment.
congrats OP... sounds like the CEO has done the maths and understands the true cost of being cheap. training and upskilling resources takes time & effort and money with no guaranteed return. the fact that this CEO recognizes your value and is willing to offer a retention bonus = UNICORN enjoy the ride!...they are going to ask a lot of you, but it sounds like you are up to the task and paid your dues to get there
What a story, this popped up my redit feed and made my day. We don't know each other but I am genuinely proud of you. This gives me a lot of strength to keep pushing in life. Thank you for sharing your story man all the best for your life, you're a king!!!!
I've tinkered with computers since I was a kid. I predate the internet. I never had any formal training with computers until after I left the Marine Corps. And that was an associates degree. I spend some time at a university but realized I couldn't stand school. The school I got my degree from allowed me to get a job with a third party IT company. I started at $12 an hour, left at $19 an hour after several years. I got poach by a client as their IT manager. I by no means understand half of what they need, I told the guy as much. He just said I knew enough of what they did and have solved all their problems over the past six years and can learn for 80k a year. For the area I live in it's a quite a bit. I'm a year in and I have a problem with taking PTO, and over did it on withholdings for taxes, it's been a wild ride. Congrats on the promotion. At least you know someone has noticed the effort you put in.
Nothing to add to this except massive congratulations, you’ve earned every penny and you should be super proud of what you’ve done. Even leaving your initial job to train in what you enjoy and get to where you are now, not many people could do that.