Lateral JOb move?-Advice needed

falcon101

So I found a position of a Network Admin literally across from my house.

I was shocked to see the a company this close is hiring but I also noticed that the pay was $10K less than what I make now as an IT Manager and its a small firm.

At my current position, I am an IT Manager but the daily commute is 70miles (round trip) in Socal traffic *shiver*. The current company is mid-size Real Estate, and just ok with NO benefits!! (My fam gets medical from the wife). The bosses are bi-polar and their planning and vision is out of whack. I am having a tough time managing 800 users, 12 sites with no incentive and growth insight.

The new company unfortunately does not seem a company where I can grow but the pay is $10K less also. The goddamn place is about a 5 min drive for me.

What's your opinion?

Mojo_666

Depends what you want, every choice I makes comes down to skills used, technology used, how much I get and how desperate I am for work/the current job market. Working 5 mins for your front door to me has massive appeal but what else has it got? anything that floats your boat? and gets you interested? good tech? ok budget? do they WANT you? etc etc

msteinhilber

I'm in a similar situation myself, working for a real estate firm which has experienced growth from a handful of offices to almost 50 offices to support and the IT department hasn't received any additional help.

I'm keeping my eyes open for new opportunities as they come along as well. I would prefer upward movement but under the right circumstances I would consider a lateral move. In your situation I would have to probably advice against the move. Having to transition from IT Manager to Network Admin is a bit of a blow to the resume IMO, and the mention of growth at this new company being unlikely sort of seal the deal as a no thank you in my opinion.

How is the environment at your current job as far a perceived job security goes? With the market hitting new record lows fairly often lately, one of my concerns with my job is hour cuts and salary reductions once again as they did back toward the end of 2008. The market is doing worse now than it was then, with no end in sight so that's one thing to consider. If the boat was rocky in my current role and I suspected with good reason that cuts may be made that might affect me - it would certainly factor into any decision I made to transition to a different job.

falcon101

Except the fact that I will have considerably shorter commute and full benefits, there is no other incentive at the new place.

The new position has all the tech that i have worked with MS Server, desktops, SQL, Exchange but they do have Cisco stuff that I am would love to get my hands on. You are correct about the resume "shock" going from IT Man to Net admin. That alone is also deterring me to take this step. BTW the pay cut will be $5000/year less since we recently got hit by salary reductions at our place.

I hear ya about the Real Estate and IT. Salaries and budgets have shrunk and benefits have been diminished. I am the ONLY sole IT person that does ALL IT related duties and have been for 2 years. Before i had help of about 3 techs. I do have access to operations techs and a consultant once in a while but overall its just me.

I'm still contemplating about this but probably will stick with what I have for now.

blargoe

Having more time at home would be a HUGE benefit for me personally. Other than "title", is there anything else about this potential job that would be a "step down"? I wouldn't doubt if, they were seriously interested, that you could get $5K more to at least get up to the salary you'd be leaving at the current company.

f everything else was equal, the lure of not having the commuting hassle, and having a lot more time to spend at home with the family, might would pull me in the other direction. But the dynamics of my home life is a lot more complicated than most others' here.

GAngel

No harm in asking for more money companies accomodate good workers. Seems more like a step down than sideways to me but your circumstances may make it worth your while. Keep looking in the mean time regardless fo what you may decide.