Company Reviews and Payrise experience?

I currently earn 20$ AUS per hr, ive been with this company for 9 months now.
Since i got this job as a Jnr systems Engineer i have done 3 MS exams and have learned a **** loads of hands on experience. After a couple of months ive always been going out on site independently and completing jobs mostly desktop related and some server tasks aswell. Always get assigned the basic setup user accounts, build laptops, mail pop accounts etc. We have reviews and i feel confident to ask for a raise to at least $25 AUS per hr as i dont feel like a jnr anymore with the tasks im doing. I average about 5 Billable hours a day for the company, which is charged out at a expensive rate to the client. Any feed back on experience with raises, and my expected amount. Also i am 1 exam off MCSA so ive done all company has asked me to.

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

12thlevelwarrior

That's over 20%, I would go for 10%. Keep milking them, while at the same time prepare for a two year jump. If they do not respond to your requests, get your resume ready and look for another job after two years. Look out for number one, but make smart moves, noone likes to see a resume full of 9month long jobs.

btw, which exam you going for next?

kovo

Im going for 293 in about a month then try and get 284 by the end of the year. With the hands on work i am doing and the certs i have got surely $5 per hour is reasonable for a jnr to become a normal engineer. We have 4 engineers in our company and with 1 more exam i will be the most certified in the office. That has to count for something. The moral of getting things finished off must have value. Like finishing what u started in terms of Cert paths and hands on jobs. Ive met every goal put down by my boss since i got the job in terms of gaining certs and becoming an independent engineer.

12thlevelwarrior

dude, i hear you, but that is a jump of over 10k a year. i mean if the corporation hired you and spoke about adjusting your pay when you mature that is one thing, but if they never spoke with you about adjusting upon experience gain, then asking for a 10,000 pay increase after nine months is excessive in my opinion. you know your work better than i do, i am just going off my experience. i also think it is bad to ask for a specific amount. the timing is also something you want to think of. i would bring it up around next raise time, do not bring up a number, just go over everything you have accomplished in the past year and also cover how much you have grown (certs, etc...) how you proceed depends on how you answer this question:

do you want to stay with this company?

yes, then give them some time to respond and see if they meet your expectations.

no, then hit them up now with a number, and start looking if they don't meet your expectations.

if you want to stay and you like the company you have to handle it with tact and patience.

good luck.

blargoe

If this nine months is your only experience as a systems engineer, then yes, you are still a junior and will be for some time. However, typically the salary range for this or any other position should be pretty wide and you should have some room to grow your salary.

Going from $20 to $25 (a 25% increase) is very excessive. 5 to 10 percent is more reasonable.

garv221

When an employee works their first or second sys admin job they learn twice as much as they have ever known in the first year on the job and then they expect raises. That employee however lacked experience at the start of the job so argueing a starting salary is out of the question becasue the need of experience. Expecting a $5.00/hr raise after being there less than a year is crazy. That is over 10K/year raise. Less than $2.00 is more like it.

strauchr

I was on $23/hour on my first job doing Help Desk and was on $27/hour by the time left because I kept renegotiating my when my contract was renewed. (And this was in Perth, no certs)

Sometimes if the company think they will lose you they might cough up a bit more cash to keep you as it is cheaper than having to retrain someone from scratch etc. Although for $25 they'll probably counter offer with about $23. With only nine months experience don't expect much more than that unless you can negotiate really well and have a strong proven record at the company.

I think the contract market works differently in Australia than the US judging by some of the responses. Every contract renewal is a time to renogotiate the terms of the contract including pay.

Also, get your MCSA and 2 years worth of experience and you could push $30-$35 p/h especially in Sydney. Before coming to London I was getting some ridiculous offer to move to Sydney based on my old resume which only included an MCP and systems admin/support experience of 4 years. But london had the better pay packet

garv221

strauchr wrote:

I was on $23/hour on my first job doing Help Desk and was on $27/hour by the time left because I kept renegotiating my when my contract was renewed. (And this was in Perth, no certs)

Sometimes if the company think they will lose you they might cough up a bit more cash to keep you as it is cheaper than having to retrain someone from scratch etc. Although for $25 they'll probably counter offer with about $23. With only nine months experience don't expect much more than that unless you can negotiate really well and have a strong proven record at the company.

I think the contract market works differently in Australia than the US judging by some of the responses. Every contract renewal is a time to renogotiate the terms of the contract including pay.

Also, get your MCSA and 2 years worth of experience and you could push $30-$35 p/h especially in Sydney. Before coming to London I was getting some ridiculous offer to move to Sydney based on my old resume which only included an MCP and systems admin/support experience of 4 years. But london had the better pay packet

True. You know the company better than us, if you think you can get that raise push for it. I know I said go for $2.00 but you may have to shoot higher just to get the $2.00. It all depends.

Danman32

Around here, most of my raises were about 3%, though one year I got a combined raise of about 10%. One mid year for a supposed promotion (they intended to promote me to a level I had started with and already had, but let me keep the increase anyway), and another when I actually did get promoted. Was promoted from Sr. Support Tech to Support Engineer. It's just a title really, not much change in job function. However it also commands a change in paygrade.