Senior switch technician vs senior system administrator

The differences between senior switch technicians and senior system administrators can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a senior switch technician and a senior system administrator. Additionally, a senior system administrator has an average salary of $98,146, which is higher than the $91,510 average annual salary of a senior switch technician.

The top three skills for a senior switch technician include switches, test equipment and RF. The most important skills for a senior system administrator are linux, windows server, and troubleshoot.

Senior switch technician vs senior system administrator overview

	Senior Switch Technician	Senior System Administrator
Yearly salary	$91,510	$98,146
Hourly rate	$44.00	$47.19
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	13,113	100,873
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 38%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Average age	43	43
Years of experience	2	2

Senior switch technician vs senior system administrator salary

Senior switch technicians and senior system administrators have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Senior Switch Technician	Senior System Administrator
Average salary	$91,510	$98,146
Salary range	Between $66,000 And $125,000	Between $75,000 And $126,000
Highest paying City	-	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	-	California
Best paying company	-	Cambridge Associates
Best paying industry	-	Finance

Differences between senior switch technician and senior system administrator education

There are a few differences between a senior switch technician and a senior system administrator in terms of educational background:

	Senior Switch Technician	Senior System Administrator
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 38%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Most common major	Electrical Engineering	Computer Science
Most common college	Stanford University	Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Senior switch technician vs senior system administrator demographics

Here are the differences between senior switch technicians' and senior system administrators' demographics:

	Senior Switch Technician	Senior System Administrator
Average age	43	43
Gender ratio	Male, 91.8% Female, 8.2%	Male, 89.0% Female, 11.0%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 8.8% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.5% Asian, 8.8% White, 64.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%	Black or African American, 8.9% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.6% Asian, 11.8% White, 61.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between senior switch technician and senior system administrator duties and responsibilities

Senior switch technician example responsibilities.

Assist in managing CDMA network, Voice/EVDO circuit's layouts, CDM circuit inventory and roll over's for cell sites.
Test, turn-up, and performance monitoring of transport circuits including Ethernet, OC-N, T1, and T3.
Work extensively with Tellabs and Alcatel 5500 , 1630 , 1631, CS1L , 532 and Tadiran DACS.
Install, test, provision and turn up DS1, E1, DS3, E3, OC3 and OC12 circuits.
Participate in a role on Ericsson's LTE eNODE-B integrations.
Turn up DS3 and DS1 circuits - perform hot cuts during maintenance window.

Senior system administrator example responsibilities.

Manage and optimize the design and delivery of project associate with AIX arena.
Manage all installs and setup of new servers, and server upgrades to server 2008 R2.
Implement IIS servers for both the internal and external web servers and managing security on all web servers.
Design, implement, and manage a network and domain extension in a remote location via a secure VPN link.
Manage Cisco network equipment including firewalls and switches.
Administer and manage daily backups via Symantec NetBackup.

Senior switch technician vs senior system administrator skills

Common senior switch technician skills

Switches, 16%
Test Equipment, 9%
RF, 7%
T1, 6%
AC, 6%
DS3, 3%

Common senior system administrator skills

Linux, 7%
Windows Server, 6%
Troubleshoot, 5%
System Administration, 4%
PowerShell, 4%
SAN, 4%

Senior Switch Technician vs. similar jobs

Senior Switch Technician related careers

Senior Switch Technician related jobs

What similar roles do

Zippia Careers
Computer and Mathematical Industry
Senior Switch Technician
Senior Switch Technician vs Senior System Administrator

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse computer and mathematical jobs