Living in Kansas I was surprised that I'm in the Northwest. It looks like the center of the US is somewhere on Atlantic coast because all of the regions are "west" of there. (What ever happened to the eastern and central United States?) Funny.
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RE: IT Salaries
A real eye-opener. Parts Depot, Inc. in Rke, VA doesn't pay crap for any of their IT staff!
Be glad you have a job and
Be glad you have a job and yes they do pay enough just ask B.W., D.R. or B.R.
Willi or Rollie might
Willi or Rollie might disagree.
This data is skewed to make it look better than it is
The thing that kills me every time one of these salary surveys is listed is how it lumps salaries by broad geographic regions. What is the source of the data? Is it random user participation, or is the data collected from any official sources?
The problem with lumping the entire southeast together ("south atlantic") is that it doesn't show the reality of the vast disparity among states within the region. Hotlanta and Raleigh may have top-paying jobs, but Old Charleston certainly does NOT, and the difference is night and day.
I am sure that the states who would otherwise be embarassed and labeled as technology voids will appreciate the ambiguity of this survey, while those of us stuck in them continue to suffer from the denial of our employers.
RE: Skewed Data By Region
"Anonymous" makes a very valid point - in that some of the areas are far to broad to be lumped together - "Hotlanta" and it's regions are very technology based - and it's not always a good thing....
Out in the West... Sorry the PACIFIC region, lumping Washington, Oregon and California together also gives a very skewed view of things... While California is a hot-bed of technology - remember NorCal is home to The Silicon Valley - and SoCal has quite a lot of aerospace and related companies - the Northern Neighbors (Oregon and Washington) have far less of a technological impact on the world... While Oregon can claim to be home of nike and Washington claims Starbucks, what kinds of technology to these companies offer....?
Additionally as had been mentioned in another post - the groupings are ALL wrong... What they consider "the West" should really be divided amongst the Mid-West and The West.. Kansas and it's near neighbors are the West...? Surely not. The Rockies will make a much better divider for that...
And yes, Texas and Oklahoma are decidedly Southwest (along with Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico). But some of the other states in the Southwest are decidedly Mid-West to be sure.
I think a better breakdown would have been more of a regional thing - even splitting California between the Southwest and Northwest - as salaries in the Silicon Valley are vastly different than the salaries in Southern California.
"Starbucks" is not the only
"Starbucks" is not the only large company based in Washington. We also have a technology firm... a software company that happens to be run by a guy named Bill...
RE: IT salaries
My issue is that everyone is also "lumped" into one big IT basket, my background is Security, it asks nothing about what certs I have, or professional education, but that's what the job is based on...whether you get the job or not...right?
Almost a complete waste of time and effort
The extremely broad "Regions" make this survey a joke at best. Washington, DC has a completely different salary profile from any area in it's "region" except maybe Atlanta and thus throws off the numbers for the rest. I don't even think I have to point out that the San Francisco area should really not even be included with any place else as it will skew the numbers too.
Honestly, I have to wonder why the editors think this is useful information and question the intelligence of NetworkWorld in-general for using such a shoddy product. I guess it's a cheap and dirty way to attract attention since I am sure anything marked "Salary Survey" will attract eyeballs. However this thing is so bad that the eyeballs it attracts will probably turn away, as they should.
Regions are not the whole survey
I have to disagree with your opinion on the value of this data. It seems as if you have looked at one chart, one slice, the regional data -- out of dozens published with this survey and then jumped to broad conclusions about the whole survey. Yes, regional data is difficult to get because in order to get some kind of microscopic city-by-city view, the data sample would need to include enough respondents in every job title in every city. Still, we had a very large sample which gives an accurate view of IT salaries in a wide variety of job titles, plus bonuses, perks, etc. These statistics are not based strictly on regions -- regional info is only one element of the bigger survey results.