Show me the money … - technology industry salary survey - includes discussions with employees at the Natl Assn of Securities Dealers, CSX Technology and Siemens Business Communications - Industry Trend or Event

Communications News, May, 1997

She also racks up 11 to 20 hours a week in overtime, partly because she has to work on systems after users have left the office.

Janus says her liberal arts degree from a college in Illinois didn't really prepare her for the job she does now. She picked up the knowledge she needs on the job and by taking additional courses in areas such data processing and COBOL, programming. She is now working on a business information systems degree as well as NT certification.

Janus has been with CSX Corp. for 17 years. She started in the operations department in Sea-Land, worked with data entry, became a supervisor, and moved into the systems area before landing her current job.

She feels change is important in a career: "It's good to keep moving around. Changes help stir things up, keep things from getting stagnant. If you get too comfortable, you start to get into a rut."

Janus says her next job would have to involve "something that would be interesting to learn about," not just a higher salary.

Christine Janus-- Network Manager-CSX Technology Long Beach, Calif.

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Landoline, in his second year at Siemens, develops new business opportunities in voice, data, video and videoconferencing. He looks for products, services, OEM arrangements, joint ventures--any opportunity he thinks might represent a strategic fit with corporate business goals. There's not much time to react; you're often only a few days ahead of your competitors, so you rely on instinct and gut reaction.

Landoline's instincts were honed during challenging assignments at ITT. Fujitsu and AT&T. He holds an MBA in marketing, coupled with a bachelor's degree in economics. He's also worked as an independent consultant and as group director of telecomm research at Dataquest. Happy with his career, he's had five different jobs in the past 10 years. That's not unusual in Silicon Valley.

Landoline notes that it's hard for companies to compete for top talent if they try to curb entrepreneurial spirit and fit employees into a traditional organization chart. Smart companies, like Siemens, don't try.

He thinks he's lucky at Siemens, because he has immediate access to top management. He needs it, though. Product ideas seem literally to be "in the air." Whoever grabs them and makes it to market first, usually wins.

Siemens wants to double his division's revenue by 2000, and it looks to new ventures to achieve its goal. That puts Landoline in the thick of it. He sees his ideas crystallize and come to the Siemens sales organization within six months. Lately he's looking hard at wireless technology.

He doesn't see himself as being "technical," but doesn't worry about it. He notes that some people have a knack for engineering and the isolated component skills that contribute to "under the hood" product differentiation, but it's a relatively rare skill to be able to put a business deal together.

It's a skill Silicon Valley pays dearly for. Landoline's salary approaches six figures, but he sees salary only as a door-opener. Achievement, recognition and the bonuses that follow success are what drive him. "The project work itself is the motivator. The bonus comes with it," he says. He's driven by "the excitement of what you're involved in."