DC metro area - District computers
reppgoa
Member Posts: 151
Hey all,
Need some advice, heres my situation. I am leaving my current job working as a federal contractor at NIH (thank god) and my last day is december 7th. I have been speaking with a guy named Steve Hall who runs a company called district computers. He has a position open in downtown silver spring, about 3 minutes form my house by bike, so clutch commute. It pays decently, 50k a year hourly (whatever that means, still not sure). The original title was going to be Network Administrator. Thats the position I interviewed for on the 17th of November. The interview was a little bit unorthodox as he was on the phone with citrix almost the whole time and it kind of seemed haphazard. I am fine with that, I hate typical interviews anyway, but it did strike me as slightly disorganized, whatever. So we finally get to actually talking about my resume and he seems pretty happy with it. He says that I would be supporting a law firm in downtown silver spring with about 70 users local and 30 users in washington state. I am fine with this, as I want the experience and I think it would be a good job. He tells me about his company, District Computers. He is doing a complete reorganization of the company, which consists of about 10-15 people total. Its mainly consultants for small business's in the area. He tells me he ran into an issue where people weren't showing up, not doing their job, etc etc. so he needs to get some new talent. So he verbally tells me 50k would be what he would be looking to offer me, starting the 12th or 19th of december. The benefits aren't clearly outlined, I think its something like the employees get an amount of money to go get their own insurance. Not really sure as I havent received and official offer letter yet (more on this later). So on my way home, I am obviously pumped, this would be a great opportunity for me.
Over the next week, I send my followup emails thanking him for the interview, yadda yadda yadda. Now keep in mind, hes never really been super responsive via email. Sometimes taking 2-3 emails to get a response. OK, hes the CEO of his company doing the hiring as well, I definitely get that he is probably pretty busy. So the week of thanksgiving, he tells me that he sent the offer letter, but I never recieved it. I checked and quadruple checked my spam folders and anywhere else it could be, I even submitted a ticket to google, no dice, never got it. I let him know, and he says he will resend it. I wait for a few days, nothing. So on the friday after thanksgiving, I email him and he responds with "I will send it by 1pm". I am stoked!. Well, I get an email saying this
"My name,
I enjoyed meeting with you on Thursday, and at this point I’d like to offer you the temp-to-hire position of “Network Engineer” on Team District Computers.
In this role, your duties will include, but shall not be limited to, the following:
· client technical support specialist
· client technical liaison
· cloud messaging specialist (Office 365 – will require training)
· Level 1-2 help desk support
· *Security Analyst
We shall extend and official offer letter to you via email next week, and we’d like you to begin as early as 12/12, or as soon as you are available to begin working in a part or full-time capacity."
I am like...this isnt an offer letter. There is supposed to be legalese and all that and salary and benefits listed. And then I get to thinking, why do you need another week to send me something that you supposedly already sent me a week ago. Go to your sent, hit forward, done. Makes me feel like he never sent it in the first place, and he told me he did. I dont like that.
I will admit that the fact that hes offering me network engineer as a title its quite enticing. He also told me about a contact he might get in which I would be a "perfect fit" and it would double what hes currently offering me. I am just not sure what to make of all this. On one hand it sounds like a great deal if it comes through, but on the other, it seems as if the company is disorganized and thats scary to me.
What are your opinions on the whole thing? Any advice? Anyone have any dealings with Steve Hall or District Computers? Should I stick it out, or just move on?
If you need more info, let me know.
Thanks in advance for reading my wall of text!
Need some advice, heres my situation. I am leaving my current job working as a federal contractor at NIH (thank god) and my last day is december 7th. I have been speaking with a guy named Steve Hall who runs a company called district computers. He has a position open in downtown silver spring, about 3 minutes form my house by bike, so clutch commute. It pays decently, 50k a year hourly (whatever that means, still not sure). The original title was going to be Network Administrator. Thats the position I interviewed for on the 17th of November. The interview was a little bit unorthodox as he was on the phone with citrix almost the whole time and it kind of seemed haphazard. I am fine with that, I hate typical interviews anyway, but it did strike me as slightly disorganized, whatever. So we finally get to actually talking about my resume and he seems pretty happy with it. He says that I would be supporting a law firm in downtown silver spring with about 70 users local and 30 users in washington state. I am fine with this, as I want the experience and I think it would be a good job. He tells me about his company, District Computers. He is doing a complete reorganization of the company, which consists of about 10-15 people total. Its mainly consultants for small business's in the area. He tells me he ran into an issue where people weren't showing up, not doing their job, etc etc. so he needs to get some new talent. So he verbally tells me 50k would be what he would be looking to offer me, starting the 12th or 19th of december. The benefits aren't clearly outlined, I think its something like the employees get an amount of money to go get their own insurance. Not really sure as I havent received and official offer letter yet (more on this later). So on my way home, I am obviously pumped, this would be a great opportunity for me.
Over the next week, I send my followup emails thanking him for the interview, yadda yadda yadda. Now keep in mind, hes never really been super responsive via email. Sometimes taking 2-3 emails to get a response. OK, hes the CEO of his company doing the hiring as well, I definitely get that he is probably pretty busy. So the week of thanksgiving, he tells me that he sent the offer letter, but I never recieved it. I checked and quadruple checked my spam folders and anywhere else it could be, I even submitted a ticket to google, no dice, never got it. I let him know, and he says he will resend it. I wait for a few days, nothing. So on the friday after thanksgiving, I email him and he responds with "I will send it by 1pm". I am stoked!. Well, I get an email saying this
"My name,
I enjoyed meeting with you on Thursday, and at this point I’d like to offer you the temp-to-hire position of “Network Engineer” on Team District Computers.
In this role, your duties will include, but shall not be limited to, the following:
· client technical support specialist
· client technical liaison
· cloud messaging specialist (Office 365 – will require training)
· Level 1-2 help desk support
· *Security Analyst
We shall extend and official offer letter to you via email next week, and we’d like you to begin as early as 12/12, or as soon as you are available to begin working in a part or full-time capacity."
I am like...this isnt an offer letter. There is supposed to be legalese and all that and salary and benefits listed. And then I get to thinking, why do you need another week to send me something that you supposedly already sent me a week ago. Go to your sent, hit forward, done. Makes me feel like he never sent it in the first place, and he told me he did. I dont like that.
I will admit that the fact that hes offering me network engineer as a title its quite enticing. He also told me about a contact he might get in which I would be a "perfect fit" and it would double what hes currently offering me. I am just not sure what to make of all this. On one hand it sounds like a great deal if it comes through, but on the other, it seems as if the company is disorganized and thats scary to me.
What are your opinions on the whole thing? Any advice? Anyone have any dealings with Steve Hall or District Computers? Should I stick it out, or just move on?
If you need more info, let me know.
Thanks in advance for reading my wall of text!
Comments
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reppgoa
Member Posts: 151
here are my resumes btw, my security oriented resume and my net/sys admin resume just for reference.
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tpatt100
Member Posts: 2,991 ■■■■■■■■■□
Uh my spidey sense is tingling with this one. I have accepted verbal offers and then would receive an email with PDF documents or FedEx documents which I sign and return. The email/Fed Ex offer letters always came the day or so after a verbal offer is accepted. -
skinsFan202
Member Posts: 87 ■■■□□□□□□□
I know things happen in life so you might not always get back to someone or send something right away because of a last-minute meeting or outage, etc. but this guy sounds extremely disorganized. The way I look at it is this. If he's shown a pattern of being this disorganized when it comes to business communication, there's no telling what other areas of business he may also be disorganized in. worst of all could be things like getting paid on time.
The whole on the phone with Citrix thing during the interview sounds unprofessional too. The thing is though, you're giving him your undivided attention as should he for an interview. He might be a genuinely good guy and just so busy trying to handle multiple aspects of his business, but professionally speaking that's no excuse.
I always ask why the position is available when I interview. Reasons are usually someone moved on/promoted or growth expansion. Him saying guys don't show up or not doing their job doesn't give me a good feeling either.
If I were you I would move on, but if you really think this could be a good job, then make sure you're at least interviewing at other places while you stick it out. You never know you might come across something better (pay & skillwise) 50k is real low for the DC area imo especially to be at a law firm. Don't ever put all your eggs into one basket. -
Heny '06
Member Posts: 107
reppgoa, I work in DC and work for a law firm. First that pay is low, for our area and for being in a legal services. Im not a big fan for temp to hire. Send me a private message I can send you some legal recruiters if your interested in getting in IT for law firm.
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cyberguypr
Mod Posts: 6,928 Mod
Agree with tpatt100. Too many red flags.
- generally disorganized
- on the phone while interviewing; extremely disrespectful. I would've excused myself
- sent email and you never got it: I'll give him the benefit of the doubt
- did not resend for a few days (see point #my first point)
- "network engineer" title - textbook sales tactic
- people "not doing the job, not showing up" - sounds to me like they bailed and he's sugarcoating it
- his website's last press release is from 2009 - again, he seems too busy
I worked for a similar company early in my career. It was OK because I was young and I didn't know better. If you ask for my opinion I would say the guy is having a hard time keeping up with all the intricacies of running a small business. What he offers may or may not materialize. If you have that clear and have absolutely nothing else lined up, you could give it a shot and see how it pans out. -
reppgoa
Member Posts: 151
sigh, I figured as much. Well, I will see what happens. I dont NEED to work right now as I have the GI bill, but I want to work. I will keep looking and see what happens with him. I guess I should have read the writing on the wall. Thanks for the honesty guys, thats why I love these forums.
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SteveLord
Member Posts: 1,717
He is featured in quite a few YouTube videos.WGU B.S.IT - 9/1/2015 >>> ??? -
Zartanasaurus
Member Posts: 2,008 ■■■■■■■■■□
"They wanna get to their resumes folder which takes all day".He is featured in quite a few YouTube videos.
Is this guy serious?Currently reading:
IPSec VPN Design 44%
Mastering VMWare vSphere 5 42.8% -
fredmoogie
Member Posts: 80 ■■□□□□□□□□
reppgoa, I work in DC and work for a law firm. First that pay is low, for our area and for being in a legal services. Im not a big fan for temp to hire. Send me a private message I can send you some legal recruiters if your interested in getting in IT for law firm.
Henry, I'm not able to PM you. Can you pm me with some law firm recruiters. Appreciate your assistance.
