In-house to MSP opinion

Hello all,

I know this has been talked about before but figured I'd throw it out there.

Currently an in-house network engineer with an opportunity for a network engineer position at an MSP. I've always worked in-house and am a little nervous about accepting the position for the reasons I typically hear about MSP's.

The pros and cons to accepting offer:

Pros:
more than 30% increase in pay
1 extra week vacation

Cons:
Travel- 90% within a hour of home
unpredictable hours
Have a family with a wife that works- she will have to give up some hours as she works a couple nights a week
Give up a pretty low paying but good in-house gig with lots of good projects
The whole billable hours thing

Anyway, just hoping to hear some opinions.

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Comments

paul78

I don't have any opinion but it's always great to read about people that are moving upwards in their careers. Congratulations on the new job offer.

I've never worked at an MSP but I imagine that an MSP will give you a wider exposure to different situations and business requirements. That's not always a bad thing.

Good luck!

pevangel

I enjoy working for MSPs. They are fast paced and you can gain a ton of experience in a short amount of time. The 90% travel would be a huge con for me though. What are your responsibilities now compared to the MSP role?

What exactly about the whole billable hours thing is a con?

dark3d

What is their expectation for your utilization? If you're expected to bill out 6 hours per day then you can expect to work at least 9. There is time overhead and depending on how big of a shop they are, you may be expected to cover other engineers' customers from time to time.

If you want to stand in front of the learning firehose of IT, a MSP is a great place to do that. If your wife is understanding and is behind the transition then I would jump on the %30 bump. MSP work is similar to helpdesk type work in that you will probably plateau after a while. If you find that you don't like it after a year, advance on to another role. (for another pay bump!) You will make many great contacts in businesses working for a MSP, so your job options should be great.

InfoTech92

dark3d wrote: »

What is their expectation for your utilization? If you're expected to bill out 6 hours per day then you can expect to work at least 9. There is time overhead and depending on how big of a shop they are, you may be expected to cover other engineers' customers from time to time.

If you want to stand in front of the learning firehose of IT, a MSP is a great place to do that. If your wife is understanding and is behind the transition then I would jump on the %30 bump. MSP work is similar to helpdesk type work in that you will probably plateau after a while. If you find that you don't like it after a year, advance on to another role. (for another pay bump!) You will make many great contacts in businesses working for a MSP, so your job options should be great.

I'm curious what MSPs you've worked for that it's "similar to helpdesk type work". At my MSP we have a project department, sysadmin department, cyber security department, SOC, NOC, and a Linux department. If you plateau here, you're not working hard enough.