Offered job as a Sr. Wintel/VMware engineer

Deathmage

Today I got offered a job as a Sr. Wintel / VMware engineer. The job is in central CT at a datacenter with over 3500 servers with multiple SR and ASR Replication sites. I'd be in charge of windows servers and once brought up to speed on operations I'd be in charge of a massive 3500 server VMware cluster in this location.


The job is 80/20 remote/on-site with full benefits and 82k a year start.

If anyone remembers a year ago this is the same company I sourced from a friend, CSC, who is now the Operations Manager. They then offered me 70k but now they have followed me online and want me to lead in the wintel team. They have many of the top fortune 500 companies in their cloud. Plus they use Cisco UCS, VMware Enterprise Plus with multiple vCenter deployments in a mixed 2008/2012, UNIX, Linux plaform.

Only kicker is I'm the only one at my current job that knows VMware/Servers so this is a hard decision, but it would be a 20k a year bump.


Take it or consider my role at my current job?

HailHogwash

From some of you previous post regarding current position seems to indicate you were looking to move on since they want you to learn programming. What is your apprehension about the above role/offer? or are you looking for a better role? or are you wanting to strictly do vmware?

techfiend

Which role would you rather perform?

It can be tough but put yourself above the company. Your current position can always be filled.

JustFred

Do not allow your emotions to get in the way. Take the new position.

kohr-ah

Not to put it harshly but it isn't your issue if the company doesn't have someone besides yourself that knows these current technologies. Your job is to take care of you/your family/etc.

If the new job looks better than go for it. I don't think your current company will go up in flames and out of business because you went to a better offer.

TacoRocket

They way I think is family first. On the current employer if anyone has taken basic security certification, job rotation is key. I've had many jobs where you are good at what you do, so the company gets complacent. You become a critical asset (when the equipment should be the key asset).

You need to focus on you. The current employer might be upset at first. I've been told many times "It's going to take me awhile to find your replacement." Not your problem, it's theirs. At the end of the day if you're supporting yourself or a family think of you/them first. That money could go to things. Vacations, amenities at home, pay off debt, etc.

That and if it looks good on your resume, better than where you are at now. Always look good on paper.

Deathmage

HailHogwash wrote: »

From some of you previous post regarding current position seems to indicate you were looking to move on since they want you to learn programming. What is your apprehension about the above role/offer? or are you looking for a better role? or are you wanting to strictly do vmware?

I basically want to stay as a system administrator with wintel, networking, and VMware.

They are looking for a wintel person but since I'm multi-talented they don't find those very often and it will be beneficial to all of the teams at the CSC job. Not many of them know how to bridge the gaps persay, basically the one thing that has been my goal form the start. ...... to know the systems: above, below, and in-between.

TacoRocket wrote: »

They way I think is family first. On the current employer if anyone has taken basic security certification, job rotation is key. I've had many jobs where you are good at what you do, so the company gets complacent. You become a critical asset (when the equipment should be the key asset).

You need to focus on you. The current employer might be upset at first. I've been told many times "It's going to take me awhile to find your replacement." Not your problem, it's theirs. At the end of the day if you're supporting yourself or a family think of you/them first. That money could go to things. Vacations, amenities at home, pay off debt, etc.

That and if it looks good on your resume, better than where you are at now. Always look good on paper.

Yes this has been a thought, me and the wifey had a long talk about it last night. she's 2 years away from her master's so she is tied into that for 2 years, so I got two years to make a solid career move. The more mulla things is very good, I recently just paid off my 1st car, the Pontiac G6 GXP, so now I just got the Z28 so if I could pay that off sooner I'd just have my college debt. I'll be frank I don't want college debt til I'm 90!!!!!

But it would be a big bump on my resume, my endgame goal is someplace like VMware or some large tech company. This CSC company is corporate America though, but they are freaking huge. Cisco love, Microsoft love, VMware love, Storage love, Security love.

I really just love system administration but I think my role should be systems engineer since I like networking, systems, storage, and VMware; so I guess basically infrastructure?

This CSC company would be that, but corporate America seem daunting, anyone here work in corporate America that has some pointers.

JustFred wrote: »

Do not allow your emotions to get in the way. Take the new position.

Seems no matter where I go it always comes down to the human element, does that make me heartless or too caring?

Mitechniq

Just a word of caution CSC is currently in the process of breaking into 2 separate companies. It is a very turmoil time to join the company as HR policies, admin tools (TimeSheet, Procurement, Management) are influx.

JustFred

It makes you human,

I stuck around at a company because i really liked my boss and couldn't deal with the fact that i'd be leaving him, luckily he left and i did as soon as he did.

I learned not to worry about leaving, when something better comes along.

Mooseboost

I have been following you for a while now, and I can say without a doubt you definitely deserve that position. Sometimes it is a hard decision to leave where you are at, but I think it would be for the better. You were looking for something else anyways, right? I think this will be a good move for you.

joelsfood

I'd lean towards taking it. Job itself and pay are a no brainer, only concern is about the CSC breakup mentioned by Mitechniq

Deathmage

Thanks for the pointers on the breakup, just ask my friend the inside scoop. He doesn't know I'm a member of a awesome forum.

One other thing they are looking for is UNIX and Linux guys, something I dabble into so that's nice exposure.

One other thing is they want a person willing to get clearance for military contracts, and that's seems interesting upon itself. I bet that would open up Gov't jobs like a can of worms....

markulous

Sounds like a pretty nice gig. Unless your current job fits more along with your current goals, I don't think I'd say no to a 30% salary increase.

Assuming the Linux/UNIX side is just for CLI on ESXi hosts?

Deathmage

markulous wrote: »

Sounds like a pretty nice gig. Unless your current job fits more along with your current goals, I don't think I'd say no to a 30% salary increase.

Assuming the Linux/UNIX side is just for CLI on ESXi hosts?

Ya the pay increase is pretty nice plus the remote work is nice starting off cause I could find a place in the beginning or weigh out the commute, it's only a 1:30 minute drive. I did that 3 times a week at President Container, hence why the Pontiac has 245,000 miles on it in 3 years. ... but now her transmission is replaced and this one has another 100k warranty on it and I got 16k on it so far. I'd probably use it for the commute because it is modified to the moon and back, comon who doesn't like 4 corner Brembo's for moron drivers on the interstate .... I said it was a Pontiac doesn't means she's not a sleeper.

gespenstern

Nice! The pay is somewhat low for a lead, but I suppose you are seriously younger, plus you have a bump. And working for MSPs and similar is challenging but very rewarding, I would certainly go if I was, say, 25-29.

Deathmage

I'm 30 now ... getting old!!!

hoping to get my MCSA/MCSE this year to validate what I know in that spectrum so right now it's purely experience-driven. Maybe in a years time that could change.

gespenstern

Congrats! I would accept, I love challenge and large environments, that's where my advanced scripting capabilities and automation thinking usually shine. I just left a job this year with 4000+ windows servers on vmware, it was a very nice and rewarding gig. Good luck!

Deathmage

I submitted my dusty resume to them, we shall see. CCNA:R&S 1st attempt is the 31th!

RHEL

Are you perhaps talking about Hartford/Newington/Meriden? UTC? Several friends as well as myself worked for CSC for this contract on the UNIX side. I can provide some insight if you need it.

bgold87

I recently left a cush job that I loved and built most of the infrastructure that they currently have, it was like my baby. I got a huge raise with a larger company and it's the best decision I've made career wise.

Be the hammer, not the nail is my $.02

Deathmage

RHEL wrote: »

Are you perhaps talking about Hartford/Newington/Meriden? UTC? Several friends as well as myself worked for CSC for this contract on the UNIX side. I can provide some insight if you need it.

you probably know my friend then, does Jason ring a bell?

If so it's truly a small world....

TheCudder

Mitechniq wrote: »

Just a word of caution CSC is currently in the process of breaking into 2 separate companies. It is a very turmoil time to join the company as HR policies, admin tools (TimeSheet, Procurement, Management) are influx.

Is that what I've been noticing with the company name DynCorp?

gespenstern wrote: »

Nice! The pay is somewhat low for a lead, but I suppose you are seriously younger, plus you have a bump. And working for MSPs and similar is challenging but very rewarding, I would certainly go if I was, say, 25-29.

I'd have to agree that it seems kind of low for what's labeled as a "senior" position, although I'm in defense contracting, I just took my first Systems Admin role starting at $78K in a lower cost of living area (North Alabama).

dave330i

Pay seems low.

Deathmage

Resume builder in my eyes.

jibbajabba

I used to work for a hosting company where I was the only guy who knew VMware really. The environment was installed with "next next next" and no one really knew how to manage the environment. Every issue was sent to VMware Support .. you get the picture.

Whilst it can be a nice challenge, the problem here is that you end up as a firefighter who is, and always will be, person #1 who will be responsible to put out those fires. As the environment is big, you likely have all sorts of little vFlus popping here and there on daily basis.

So whether or not to accept really depends on your priorities. Long term job where you are happy in or short term where money is motivator #1

You could take the better paid job and use the payraise'd money towards paying bills (car / uni etc.) and just use the job as a fast track to pay off your debt.

I have done both, moved to lower paid jobs because I thought the environment will be a lot better, and I moved on solely for the money. Either company I still ended up hating so I started to look for jobs which give me what I want short term ...

RHEL

82K doesn't sound too awful even though Connecticut CoL is high, as he said it will already be a 20K bump. It should provide some great experience on a global scale as well.

CSC can be an excellent or an awful place to work depending on the contract you're on. If its the contract I'm thinking of, it was always unclear whether or not the contract would be renewed. CSC drastically underbids it, meaning that they're left with very bare bones budget to run the infrastructure. From my memories, it showed. Frequent required furloughs, reductions in force, modest raises. However, the experience you gain could definitely be worth it. They also paid 100% of my masters degree, allowing me to travel on-campus two weeks a year.

If it's the contract I'm thinking of, plan to be busy. Bare bones budget means more work on your shoulders. Expect calls at all hours when you're on-call and some guy from India calling you at 3AM on Christmas day very cheery to tell you that he's locked himself out on a non-production system. Expect lots of politics.

This was actually my first UNIX job out of college. It was an awesome opportunity and even though they only paid me $36K/yr to manage several hundred mission-critical aerospace/defense servers, I did get a lot out of it. Fast forward a few years, I've nearly tripled in salary at different companies utilizing the experience (and resume glitter) I gained at CSC.

hurricane1091

I don't know that the pay is low really. You may be in charge, but you may have a boss. The guy across from me at work is the Sr. Systems Engineer but he reports to the Systems Engineer Manager, and that's the guy that ultimately makes the decisions.

Just as if I were Sr. here, I would definitely be okay with 80k as it would be a 20k bump and I would still report to my boss who again really makes all the decisions. I'd take the job regardless though but I wouldn't drive that far (I work with people who do though - so it gets done more often than you would think).

OTOH though, you might not have a boss set up like we do. My brother doesn't report to a Network Engineer manager like I do where he works and definitely has much more input and free roam. So it really depends I guess.

Deathmage

hurricane1091 wrote: »

I don't know that the pay is low really. You may be in charge, but you may have a boss. The guy across from me at work is the Sr. Systems Engineer but he reports to the Systems Engineer Manager, and that's the guy that ultimately makes the decisions.

Just as if I were Sr. here, I would definitely be okay with 80k as it would be a 20k bump and I would still report to my boss who again really makes all the decisions. I'd take the job regardless though but I wouldn't drive that far (I work with people who do though - so it gets done more often than you would think).

OTOH though, you might not have a boss set up like we do. My brother doesn't report to a Network Engineer manager like I do where he works and definitely has much more input and free roam. So it really depends I guess.

My friend is a family friend of my aunt, He's worked at CSC now for 6 years, he was a system administrator and rose through the ranks and now oversees the entire datacenter. He's the one that is getting me the job, I'd be hired as a wintel guy but they have a need for a for a wintel guy that is VMware centric and knowing networking. They want me to pick up the slack on VMware projects, so overall it will be a very nice experience. Plus it's a massive datacenter, I'll see things a small shop can't.. I want VCDX someday and a small shop won't cut it...long-term...

From our discussion most of the people they ask him questions...system/network/VMware engineers alike.... questions he asks me since he considers me on his playing field now...

I'm sure 82k is lowballing me but that's what the offer is on the job description I'm aiming for 90k and working south. Always aim higher than they off and see where they land, I won't aim lower cause then they won't go higher...

lsud00d

dave330i wrote: »

Pay seems low.

I concur with dave330i here...I've worked with plenty of people who have been through CSC, and like any federal contracting company they typically pay on the lower end of the spectrum BUT you get the opportunity to work in true enterprise environments so I say push for the higher pay (as you're doing) and get a good 1-2 years in before looking for a new job, most likely in private sector.

twodogs62

I was told many years ago.
think about yourself first, secondly the company.
unfortunately in today's world it the rule.
do what is best for you and your family.
but, remember too money is not everything. It helps, but if you work 80 hour weeks or have a bad boss?

SteveLord

That pay is awful. Definitely try for more given your credentials, skillset and the area.