Wide area network administrator vs linux administrator

The differences between wide area network administrators and linux 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 wide area network administrator and a linux administrator. Additionally, a linux administrator has an average salary of $79,996, which is higher than the $61,805 average annual salary of a wide area network administrator.

The top three skills for a wide area network administrator include switches, PC and tcp ip. The most important skills for a linux administrator are python, windows, and linux servers.

Wide area network administrator vs linux administrator overview

	Wide Area Network Administrator	Linux Administrator
Yearly salary	$61,805	$79,996
Hourly rate	$29.71	$38.46
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	83,700	56,604
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 44%	Bachelor's Degree, 74%
Average age	43	43
Years of experience	2	2

Wide area network administrator vs linux administrator salary

Wide area network administrators and linux administrators have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Wide Area Network Administrator	Linux Administrator
Average salary	$61,805	$79,996
Salary range	Between $42,000 And $90,000	Between $62,000 And $101,000
Highest paying City	-	Palo Alto, CA
Highest paying state	-	Maryland
Best paying company	-	Medline
Best paying industry	-	Technology

Differences between wide area network administrator and linux administrator education

There are a few differences between a wide area network administrator and a linux administrator in terms of educational background:

	Wide Area Network Administrator	Linux Administrator
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 44%	Bachelor's Degree, 74%
Most common major	Business	Computer Science
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Wide area network administrator vs linux administrator demographics

Here are the differences between wide area network administrators' and linux administrators' demographics:

	Wide Area Network Administrator	Linux Administrator
Average age	43	43
Gender ratio	Male, 89.5% Female, 10.5%	Male, 87.3% Female, 12.7%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 5.6% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 9.4% Asian, 9.6% White, 70.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%	Black or African American, 8.0% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.7% Asian, 13.9% White, 61.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between wide area network administrator and linux administrator duties and responsibilities

Wide area network administrator example responsibilities.

Manage and support corporate Linux Production/Development servers.
Coordinate marketing brainstorming meetings, prepare minutes, manage project follow-up, and create summary PowerPoint presentations.
Maintain and update Novell, Microsoft, and Linux servers.
Create a macro driven pc base budget preparation system.
Administer and install Cisco switches, routers, firewalls and VPNs.
Participate in projects requiring installation, configuration and support for network routers and switches, firewalls and effective application load balancing.

Linux administrator example responsibilities.

Manage PGP/GPG encryption in FTP/SFTP scripts.
Manage TCP/IP packets and DHCP servers and resolving TCP/IP network access problems for the clients.
Manage entire network infrastructure, switches, firewalls, servers (configuration/installation), patch management, vendor relations.
Configure and manage splunk forwarders.
Develop bash scripts to automate system/build processing.
Work with Zen virtualization to manage virtual Linux operating systems.

Wide area network administrator vs linux administrator skills

Common wide area network administrator skills

Switches, 42%
PC, 31%
Tcp Ip, 28%

Common linux administrator skills

Python, 7%
Windows, 5%
Linux Servers, 4%
Bash, 4%
Red Hat, 4%
OS, 3%

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Wide Area Network Administrator
Wide Area Network Administrator vs Linux Administrator

Updated January 8, 2025

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