Anyone is in IT? How is the market in DC area?

[Anonymous]

Looking to relocate to DC and DH is in IT. How are the salaries in DC area for team leads and project managers as well as people with highly specialized tech skills? How is the private sector vs. government contracts? Is this not a good time to move given the cuts in Fed? We are moving for family reasons primarily from another very expensive area, so cost of housing is not an issue, it will be even exchange.

[Anonymous]

We moved from NYC to DC about 2 years ago. Before then we were in the Bay Area. My husband is a software developer and he works in the private sector. Salaries are definitely lower here for his field - maybe 20% less than he was getting in NY. I work in the marketing side of tech but haven't been in the work force here because I am home with the kids - but I am guessing it is about the same. Bay Area was better than NYC for pay, and then NYC better than here.

[Anonymous]

Lots of IT job are for defense contractors or other fed contracts. I would wait a few months and see what happens.

[Anonymous]

If you are good you can get a decent salary especially with a clearance or are clear-able.

The problem is that there are quite a few average and terrible cleared IT workers and very few that are cleared and good.

Example I saw that commerical IT manager jobs were about 120-130k

Senior Developer / Architect jobs are about 120k

With a clearance you can add 30-40k to the above (If you are good )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are good you can get a decent salary especially with a clearance or are clear-able.

The problem is that there are quite a few average and terrible cleared IT workers and very few that are cleared and good.

Example I saw that commerical IT manager jobs were about 120-130k

Senior Developer / Architect jobs are about 120k

With a clearance you can add 30-40k to the above (If you are good )

If you have Cybersecurity knowledge you can easily make 130-160k with a clearance.

[Anonymous]

If you're looking for private industry and smaller companies, go to the monthly DC Tech meetup or any other meetups. At most of them, at the start of if, they have people stand up and announce if they're hiring and who's looking. The people hiring vastly outnumber the people looking. Good place to find job leads if you're new to the area.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your advice. DH is US Citizen and was born here, but he has no security clearance, he worked in the private sector all his life. But unless he gets security clearance it would be a pay cut for him, how long does this take? Do you get it while you already have a job and then you must jump ship to get higher salary with already obtained security clearance, or does your salary adjust once you obtain it?

[Anonymous]

Try independent contracting. If you are very good and have connections, you can make a lot more. Salaries are rip off. But if you are just a management type, they are dime a dozen and competition is very hard, you need to be specialized and have lots of experience, references and real skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for your advice. DH is US Citizen and was born here, but he has no security clearance, he worked in the private sector all his life. But unless he gets security clearance it would be a pay cut for him, how long does this take? Do you get it while you already have a job and then you must jump ship to get higher salary with already obtained security clearance, or does your salary adjust once you obtain it?

Depends on the job - some will require that you already hold a certain level of clearance.
For lower-level clearances (not nec lower-level jobs, just clearance) many times they will hire you provisionally, with the understanding that your clearance really needs to go through. If it doesn't, they reserve the right to terminate. You can't get a clearance without need, ie a job requiring it, so you can't really get it in advance.
This happened to me. I was hired with the provision above and they granted me a temp clearance until the "real" one came though 6 mos later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for your advice. DH is US Citizen and was born here, but he has no security clearance, he worked in the private sector all his life. But unless he gets security clearance it would be a pay cut for him, how long does this take? Do you get it while you already have a job and then you must jump ship to get higher salary with already obtained security clearance, or does your salary adjust once you obtain it?

Depends on the job - some will require that you already hold a certain level of clearance.
For lower-level clearances (not nec lower-level jobs, just clearance) many times they will hire you provisionally, with the understanding that your clearance really needs to go through. If it doesn't, they reserve the right to terminate. You can't get a clearance without need, ie a job requiring it, so you can't really get it in advance.
This happened to me. I was hired with the provision above and they granted me a temp clearance until the "real" one came though 6 mos later.

Did they hire you with the higher salary commensurate with the fact that you will have clearance? DC is just such an expensive area, that I am having a hard time understanding why there would be such a pay cut to come work here. We are in NJ and sounds like our lives in DC metro will be tougher, prices are crazy for housing, but salaries are lower?

[Anonymous]

If your DH has a clean record - no drug use, criminal record, financial troubles, or extensive travel outside of US in past 7 years - he can get an interim Secret clearance in a matter of days if he is hired.

Most job listings I see differentiate between wanting someone who is "clearable" versus wanting someone who has an active clearance.

I write position descriptions when I need to staff up my team and these days we usually indicate we need someone who is already cleared.