GigZig: Career Paths of Real People

PayScale released a cool new tool today, GigZig. It lets you see the career paths of real people. GigZig is based on a simple question we ask during our salary survey: "what was your job 5 years ago?"

As a data guy, I just love the wealth of information. Together with our data on what a job pays, a person evaluating their current career choice, or investigating a new one, can get a pretty complete picture of both what other people have done in their careers, and what they are paid.

In this post, I will look at a web developer career path, explain a little bit about how GigZig, works, and ponder the Waitress/Waiter in everyone's past.

No matter where you are going in your career, are you being paid what you are worth for where you are now? Find out with the PayScale Salary Survey.

Riding the Web: Web Developer Career Paths

With the rise of the Internet, developing for the Web has become a pretty attractive career path.

I looked at how people get to be Web Developers. Here is one common path through the web space:

• Web Designer salary: $40,234
• Webmaster salary: $43,990
• Web Designer & Developer salary: $45,000
• Senior Web Developer salary: $75,000
• Senior Software Engineer: $90,800
• Software Architect: $102,000

Of course, not every Web Designer becomes a Software Architect. Many perfect their craft, and are compensated at higher rates for their design skills.

This sequence is one of thousands; use GigZig to see more.

GigZig Features

Note a few features about how GigZig works:

• GigZig only shows previous jobs. For entry level jobs, people will often have been students 5 years earlier, but we do not show this.
• GigZig does not show the standard case: the most common job 5 years before is the current job. Accountants were Accountants five years ago.
• The "Individuals Reporting" counts at the bottom of the list of job titles under both "5 Years Ago" and "5 Years From Now" give a feeling for whether a job is entry level (few have done another job before) or terminal (few do another job after)
• All salaries are US median total annual cash compensation, which includes tips, salary, bonuses, commissions, etc.
• Assumes hourly workers work ~2000 hours a year (full-time)
• Salaries are for all levels of experience in our database

Clearly, there is a wide spread in pay depending on actual experience, skills, location, actual hours, responsibilities, etc. To understand these, use the PayScale salary survey :-)

Waiter/Waitress in Your Past

What were people before they are Web Designers?

They were waiters or waitresses, salary: $17,700 :-)

Wait staff is a job in the past for every job. While the GigZig dataset has only ~30 waiters or waitresses that did a different job before, it has more than 1000 employees, doing other jobs, who were wait staff 5 years earlier.

Of course, the same can be said for other entry level jobs, like:

• Food Service Worker, salary: $18,200 ($9 per hour; not usually full-time)
• Babysitter, salary: $16,640 ($8 per hour)
• Cashier, salary: $16,286 ($8 per hour)

I did all three of these jobs, but PayScale doesn't have any data on my favorite entry level job: pickle factory worker. :-) Director of Quantitative Analysis is a future job for at least one former pickle factory worker.

Please give GigZig  (http://www.payscale.com/gigzig.aspx) a spin, and let me know what you think.

If you are interested in more than career paths, please check out the PayScale salary survey to investigate both what you should be earning now, and detailed information about what other people are paid to do what they do.

Cheers,

Al Lee

• Curious about salaries? Email Dr. Salary
• Compare your salary: Get a free Salary Report
• How To Choose A Career Path - Expert Tips on Choosing a Career Path

Comments

[Teno]

What do you think about http://fivq.com/ , is it good place for web developers?

[jObs]

I see some really good tips of seo linking and i am going to use some of them for my site. :)

[Idris]

Where do I begin if I want to become Data Management Engineer or DBA (DataBase Admin.)

[Fawad]

Dear Dr.,
I am a Telecommunication Engineer and have a 1 year experience.
and now i would like to study further, i would like to do MBA instead of MS,.
but some guys are telling do Ms.
kindly tell me what should i do ?
MBA OR MS(telecom)

whose pay is more, whose job security is more ??

[Syed]

Dear Idris,
Do not do anything these days just stick to your job and forget about MS or MBA. You'll just waste your money for another two years and will not find any job after you come out of MS/MBA program. Just work hard and spent as much as you can for next couple of years so that when economy gets better you can think about education at that time.

[Vasim]

Sir,
I am in the first Year of the course Beng(Hons) Electronic and Communications in London Metropolitan University. What are the carrer opportunities for that above course and which field of this course will be in demand after i graduate with respect to places like London? Do reply

[Todd]

I have a telecom. degree and have been working help desk for a couple of years. I would like to go more onto the business side of IT. I have been thinking about a CISA cert., but I am not sure if that would be enough without experience.

I know I dont want to be an systems admin. and have no programming experence if anyone have any suggestions on how to do this please post.

[Nabil]

Dear Dr, this is nabil from india..i had completed BSC BIOCHEMISTRY...im now working as medical transcriptionist ...but i would like to work as biochemist in the research field. as i could get the job in the biochemistry field im working as medical transcriptionist as time being any way i want work in research field particularly in australia..plz tell me how to get the job in austrialia..i have write any exam for going to australia or i have to do higher education for getting the job in the biochemistry research field...

[Tiffany]

Dear Dr.,

My name is Tiffany and I am a 26 year old student who has made the conscious decision to finish my studies. I would like to become an elementary school teacher. Is there any advice you can give me?

[Cass]

Hi, I am finishing up my bachelors degree in psychology. I am currently trying to decide what masters program to go for. Either masters of Human services with a specialization in marriage and family or masters in professional counseling. Which will I have more job options?Which could I make more with?
Thanks!

[Janine Rupp]

Hi, I am in the middle of my bachelors degree in psychology. I am currently trying to decide what masters program to go for. Either masters of Human services with a specialization in marriage and family, and child therapy, or masters in professional counseling. Which will I have more job options? Which could I make more with?
Thanks!

[preeta]

Hi,
i got 3 phd offers- chemistry in Wisconsin-Madison, chemical engineering in NCSU and another in MaxPlanck Germany. Which one do you think i should take up? i did my Masters in Chemical Engineering From India.

[Dan Jeppson]

Dr.
I am a personal banker (with securities licenses) at a large bank and would like to use my licenses for something other than a financial advisor. I would like to work for an international institution such as franklin templeton. I am also considering getting my masters in finance or an mba. What advice can you give me? i'm sick of selling bank products but i love helping people and many aspects of the financial field

[K. Fadal]

Dr.
My name is Khadar Fadal, I am 20-year old student in Somalia, I have just finished my secondary school. I have a problem in choosing my career, so please could you give me some advise on how to choose my career. I am good at sciences and ICT. I have got 6A* 1A 1B in my IGCSE results.

[Shreyas]

Hi
I have completed my masters in biotechnology and recently completed my MBA in Marketing as well. Please help me as to how do I go about...My interest lies in business and not research in laboratories...

[isaac boye]

i need info on a career path in IT that can lead me to a six figure salary. I mean specific programs to take that would lead me to my set goals.
thank you

[arshad]

.
My name is arshad khan, I am 21-year old student in india, I have just finished my mca (master of computer application). I have a problem in choosing my career, so please could you give me some advise on how to choose my career. i want to chose oracle and programm tell me what is good oracle dba and programmer