[Gllug] hourly/daily rate for linux systems admins?

[JLMS]

On 14 November 2010 10:27, Oliver Howe <ojhowe at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Hi,
>
> What is the going hourly/daily rate for Linux Systems Administration?
> The work involves mostly remote admin, but a few onsite visits are also
> required per month.
> This is not a job advert, I am renegotiating my current arrangement with my
> employer.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Oliver

I used my almost 3 year old last salary as a permie to calculate
contracting rates using both methods explained earlier by other
members and the rates obtained are way too high, there is no chance I
would get the rates those back of the napkin calculations are
suggesting, and judging by the noises I hear from friends and former
colleagues my appreciation seems to be correct.

And no wonder: lots of systems admins are jobless due to the recession
and is going to get worse (lots of techies working for the government
or contracting for the government will see that source of income dry
out, add to that the pressures of outsourcing and teleworking and that
explains why the numbers obtained by those calculations are too
optimistic).

I would say that a very good rate is £350 or more per day. A normal
rate must be £200-300 per day. Bad rates is anything under £200.

But this has a couple of massive caveats: experience and industry.

If you have little experience a rate of £100 may be sufficient, at the
very least to get a foot in the door. That for somebody with 10 or
more years experience would be a very bad state of affairs.

And the industry. The financial industry (banks, hedge funds, etc)
tend to pay most, because htey have the most to lose if their systems
are crap.

"Internet" companies (I am talking big names) still believe that you
can get all for nothing, but given the current state of the economy
they can get away with it. Mostly.

At the end the rate is what the market is willing to bear. Not in a
hurry to work? Aim high, but know how much your client can actually
pay.In a hurry? You may want to lower your rates, life is too short to
waste your time in the Jobplus centre....
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