Where's the $?

[ShrewdSpirit]

Where's the $? I read that MIS majors average starting salary is $45-$50k/year. I have a B.A. and a Master's in MIS, 3.9 GPA in grad school, VP of MIS Society, many skills, and 25 certifications, including A+, Network+, Server+, MCP, and MCITP-Server Admin. Yet, I can not find a job in IT in Tampa for 8 months. I previously had a tech support job that paid $14/hr. Where are all the great salaries? What am I doing wrong? I feel I'm missing something...

[cwarn23]

Where's the $? I read that MIS majors average starting salary is $45-$50k/year. I have a B.A. and a Master's in MIS, 3.9 GPA in grad school, VP of MIS Society, many skills, and 25 certifications, including A+, Network+, Server+, MCP, and MCITP-Server Admin. Yet, I can not find a job in IT in Tampa for 8 months. I previously had a tech support job that paid $14/hr. Where are all the great salaries? What am I doing wrong? I feel I'm missing something...

I feel the same. High demands few jobs although I live in a low tech area. For example if you search for a PHP developer then maybe in a years time you will find an ongoing job that will last for at least 6 months. I wonder what happen to the days when people could work as part of a company. My guess is that the recession has hit hard and there for companies are not so keen to employ.

[MosaicFuneral]

The real money is in the pharmaceutical and arms industry, if you're an "engineer" you can swing wherever you want.

[BestJewSinceJC]

On the east coast.?

[mackone]

There are many options you have with an mis background. There's what seems to be a constant back-and-forth in the field between those that think mis should be more management or more technically oriented.

[Narue]

>Where's the $?
Where? Everywhere. You'll find that wherever you work, the salaries have a tendency to correspond to the cost of living. If the salaries are lower, so are the costs of living in that area. As long as you're a top tier IT dude, you'll get top tier salaries.

>I have a B.A. and a Master's in MIS, 3.9 GPA in grad school, VP of MIS
>Society, many skills, and 25 certifications, including A+, Network+,
>Server+, MCP, and MCITP-Server Admin.
Blah blah blah. All of that makes for pretty bullet points on a resume, and might get you past an HR employee doing basic keyword checks, but any competent interviewer will largely ignore education and certifications unless they're absolutely required for the job. And then you have to back them up with real knowledge.

>What am I doing wrong?
Maybe you're applying to the wrong jobs, but the problem is more likely to be that you don't stand out nearly enough compared to your competition. When I interview programmers, I look for diamonds in a pile of polished turds. Examples include (using college grads who lack experience):

• Non-trivial personal projects.
• Taking courses that were interesting but not required for a degree.
• Participating in competitions or extracurricular events/projects.
• Hobbyist behavior, such as frequenting forums or newsgroups.
• Amateur writing about programming and computer science.

All of these can go on a resume, and any one of them goes a long way toward making the candidate really stand out.