10/09/2026
IT career paths broken down by skills and pay
IT is way easier to navigate when you think of it as 4 different ladders, not one ladder.
Support / IT Help Desk is the classic entry point. Skills are troubleshooting, Windows/Mac, Active Directory, ticketing systems, customer communication, and now basic MDM and Google Workspace. Pay starts lower but it's fast to get into - in the US around $42k to $65k, in Bangladesh around 25k-60k BDT per month for junior roles - and it feeds directly into everything else. Most people do 1-2 years here then specialize.
Cloud and Infrastructure is the biggest pay jump right now for 2026. Skills are AWS or Azure or GCP, Linux, networking, Terraform / Infrastructure as Code, Docker and Kubernetes, and monitoring. Junior cloud support is around $75k-$90k, mid-level Cloud Engineer / SysAdmin is $95k-$130k, Senior / DevOps is $130k-$160k+ in the US. In Dhaka the range is growing fast too, roughly 80k-200k+ BDT for mid to senior cloud roles.
Cybersecurity pays well because demand is higher than supply. Skills are security fundamentals, SIEM like Splunk, SOC monitoring, vulnerability assessment, ethical hacking, plus certs like Security+, CySA+, CISSP. SOC Analyst L1 starts around $70k-$85k, Cybersecurity Engineer $95k-$135k, and senior / pentester / security architect $140k-$170k+. The path usually comes from networking or support plus certs.
Data roles are the other high-growth track. Skills are SQL, Python, Excel/Sheets, data warehousing, Power BI / Tableau, and for data engineering, Spark and ETL pipelines. Data Analyst starts around $70k-$95k, Data Engineer $90k-$135k, Data Scientist $110k-$150k+. Entry is often through analyst work even without a CS degree if your SQL and visualization are strong.
If you want quick entry: Support -> get A+ / Network+ and start applying. If you want best pay-to-time-invested in 2026: Cloud certs like AWS Solutions Architect Associate or Azure AZ-104. If you like puzzle-solving under pressure: Cybersecurity. If you like numbers and storytelling: Data.
What background are you coming from - are you looking for your first IT job or switching from another field?
