How "good" is my current Jr. Sys Admin position? Should I stick with it?

ck86

So, I recently started my first civilian IT job. I did 5 years in the Army as a Signal Support Specialist, and after leaving did some hunting and landed my first IT job. I was originally hired for a lower end tech position "for a six month project" and the plan was then to move into a Jr. Sys Admin role. Well, after about a month of working for them and on the project, things basically fell through due to constant halts and hoops management had to jump through to make execs happy. My boss at the time ended up quitting and basically telling his boss (the IT director) that he thinks I should be moved into the Jr. Sys Admin role permanently and when the project gets everything worked out just hire a new guy for the role I was originally supposed to fill. Since then I have been working as one of the 3 sys admins (one sys admin, two juniors.. sys admin lead job currently being interviewed for).

I was originally just told to start handling tickets that I could (which wasn't many) as they would basically pass some of the more basic tasks onto me to troubleshoot. I was quickly handed the responsibilities of managing the print server.. simple adding of printers to the print server and changing group policy for our citrix servers. This job led to more and more troubleshooting until basically realizing that our entire print farm setup through citrix was a mess, poorly managed and that the majority of our clients (80+ medical practices//300+ printers to 3000+ systems) were very unhappy. Instead of slapping band aids on each little issue I took it upon myself to try to find the root of the issues. I've spent many nights working late and discovered/applied multiple changes to 40+ citrix servers and basically built the print server from the ground up. Things aren't 100% still and I'm looking to the IT director for approval to have the company pay for some third party software solutions for this situation.. but I have greatly improved what was in place before. It's been an extremely stressful month and at times I felt VERY overwhelmed being a fresh jr sys admin dealing with some major printing issues without anyone higher to turn to really. The upside is I've learned a lot of AD, citrix xenapp, server 2008, and general print management stuff.

So, here are some questions I have...

I was originally hired and took the first salary I was offered. Should I be considering re-negotiating, or is it too soon? I'm making a decent salary right now, but cost of living is high and I do have a security clearance that is worth a bit if I work elsewhere.

The company I'm working for seems to be somewhat of a revolving door.. within my time of being there.. my boss quit, two sys admins moved on to greener pastures, and we had a help desk director start and quit 2 weeks later. All of those guys that moved on say they're much happier and don't miss the stress. I intend to move out of my apartment when my lease is up in 4 months.. should I be looking at other jobs?

Another thing I'm not really sure about.. how common is it to have the opportunity to learn multiple aspects of IT at a company? We are pretty understaffed for what we have on our sys admin plate and the "senior" of the three of us is basically handing us whatever we want to handle. Once printing is working fine.. I have the opportunity to basically take over network admin responsibilities and learn lots of firewall (Watchguard & Juniper) stuff as well as basic network management. I could also take over the backup responsibilities and learn Symantec BackupExec. So.. staying at this company would be great for building my resume. Is it rare to have the option to learn many different things like this?


Sorry, long post I know.. but any input from you experts would be great. Just kind of curious where I stand and the best route to take at this point. I do like the people I work with, but the company does have some weak points. Though, that may change when our 6 current openings in the department fill up.

Thanks.

powerfool

Congrats on your current role and success.

I think you are in a good spot if you are able to essentially take on responsibilities and gain experience and new skills. It will probably be one of those jobs that you will always think back to.

On the salary front... renegotiating isn't really an option... you have to be willing to move on, which is where you will likely find your biggest opportunities to increase your salary. That being said, my performance has motivated my past (and present) employers to give me either out-of-cycle raises, or raises that are well beyond standard percentages on a few occasions.

If you are still gaining lots of good knowledge, I would say that you should stick it out until you have been there for two years. However, keep your eyes open for other opportunities and develop a network of peers and recruiters. You will eventually need them, but maybe they will come to you when an opportunity comes up. If you do decide to make a leap, I would aim for a 20% increase... I see people pull down 30% and I see people jump for less than 10%. It depends on your situation and needs, but also try and make sure you are not offering yourself up for too little money. If you interview for a job and it seems like they are essentially ready to hire you on the spot, throw out 30% above what you are making... it may not work, but they may not be as likely to just pass on you...

It's all about career management.