Originally Posted by rhfrommn

I don't trust the salary numbers in that review posted a few messages up. The starting is way too low, the 5 and 10 year may be too high. Depends on where you are working to a great extent, but they aren't accurate for my area (Minneapolis, MN). Finding jobs is fairly easy. Recruiters do call you fairly often once you're established and well-known. I've been laid off 3 times and switched jobs on my own 3 times in 10 years, and never been unemployed more than 8 days. But don't expect a 20% raise every time or to be making six figures by year 5. And totally ignore the guy talking about being an IPO millionaire. That guy is a comedian or an idiot . . . I'm guessing this is fairly old and they are referring to the late 90's tech bubble when things were out of control. Or maybe those comments came from people in silicon valley where you can make $150,000 and still be poor because the cost of living is so high.

Most places I've worked are pretty flexible about hours. They know Unix admins work nights and weekends pretty frequently so usually they aren't very strict about being there 9 to 5 every day. You will definitely be putting in your hours, just not the same hours as everybody else.

Vacations have never been a problem except for one job where I was the only Unix admin. Even there I could take days off but I had to prepare by making sure all necessary work during those days was done ahead of time and I had a backup to cover while I was gone (usually a DBA or programmer). I do not take my pager or laptop on vacation, but in an emergency it is possible they'd call me and that would be ok with me if it truly was important.