One of the reasons I chose to be a DBA was the money. I almost hate to admit it, but as a young person starting their career in the early '90s, I met a DBA that made almost $100,000 at a time that I was making $22k. I had already enjoyed writing database applications and working with SQL Server, and I decided to move into this field. 

I ran across a piece this week that talks about a few of the IT positions that are paying six figures, and in the list of six, three may be of interest to data professionals. They are data security analyst, BI analyst, and information architect, all of which have a midpoint of their range near, or over, the 100k mark. If you contrast this with the US median for DBAs at $77k, you can see there's quite a bit of room to grow your salary. These are gross averages, and you might be doing better already, but if you aren't at the median, take a hard look at your own career and determine why.

It's not worth choosing a job for the money, at least not for the money as the top reason. You ought to enjoy the work, and choose a career that you won't mind spending the majority of your life working in and learning about. I assume that you like working with data if you are getting this newsletter. If not, maybe you should think about moving into another field.

However if you do like BI work, or security work, perhaps you ought to think about learning more about those areas. Investigate what's involved with those positions, look for opportunities in your company or area, and think about improving your skills. You might find a new career that you really enjoy, and which pays you a bit more.

Steve Jones