$10 and hour for a computer repair job?

I received this email and thought to myself, I was making 12 to 15 an hour ten years ago at Micro Center. Have things really got that bad?

05/19/2010

Hello my name is Andrew BXXXXXX and I am a technical recruiter with XXXXXXXXX.

Title: Field Technician

Pay Rate: $10/hr

This would be for driving territory of Brooklyn, Queens and secondary support in Nassau, Suffolk and Manhattan.

Need A+ certified hardware break-fix technician for Client warranty repairs. Ability to remove and replace components on laptops and desktops. Dependable transportation required.

Candidate will be traveling in a car around the worksite for about 200 miles per week. Expenses for mileage, tolls and parking will be paid.

Under close supervision, applies guided scripts to perform routine field activities associated with installing, maintaining and servicing electronic products at customer sites. May include audio/visual systems in addition to multi-vendor systems, hardware, software and operating systems. Usually handles basic, non-complex products and/or problems, referring more complex problems to higher level technicians.

MUST BE ABLE TO PASS DRUG AND BACKGROUND CHECK

I’d like to speak with you at your earliest convenience and can be reached at 1-800-555-5555. If you prefer to contact me via email my address is . If you’d like, please also visit our website, . It will be very helpful in having you learn more about us. If you are not qualified for this position, please accept my sincere apologies. However, if you know someone who is qualified and would be interested in this position, please pass this message along; I would be very grateful for the referral. I look forward to speaking with you soon.

Sincerely,
Andrew

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Comments

rsutton

Might be a good opportunity for someone trying to break in to the field. If the only pre-req is A+ certified I think the pay is about right.

goforthbmerry

"Ability to remove and replace components on laptops and desktops."

This sounds very basic and entry level. I agree that this might be a good starting job but it isn't very skilled.

ipconfig.all

It is an entry level position and it does not ask for much experience, so I guess the pay is right.

jtoast

I disagree.

A job that requires 200 miles/week travel is worth more than $10/hr +mileage. Also the fact that you are working on laptops increases the required skillset. Your average A+ certified pizza tech has usually never cracked a laptop open.

I would think that, even with close supervision, this should be worth $12-15/hour. My guess is that the recruiter is lowballing.

ipconfig.all

jtoast wrote: »

I disagree.

A job that requires 200 miles/week travel is worth more than $10/hr +mileage. Also the fact that you are working on laptops increases the required skillset. Your average A+ certified pizza tech has usually never cracked a laptop open.

I would think that, even with close supervision, this should be worth $12-15/hour. My guess is that the recruiter is lowballing.

well jtoast they said that they will pay for the petrol and extra expenses for traveling and also remember there is a recession out there the economy is still down.

chmorin

jtoast wrote: »

I disagree.

A job that requires 200 miles/week travel is worth more than $10/hr +mileage. Also the fact that you are working on laptops increases the required skillset. Your average A+ certified pizza tech has usually never cracked a laptop open.

I would think that, even with close supervision, this should be worth $12-15/hour. My guess is that the recruiter is lowballing.

$10 + Mileage seems like a fair rate to me for an entry level position for individuals who need experience. There are worse gigs out there, and if someone needs a job they will take it.

If I had no experience under my belt and only an A+, I would take that. Anything more than that and the job is not being targeted at you.

jtoast

I'm not saying that if I needed a job I would turn down the money. What I'm saying is that any tech that's even remotely qualified will realize within the first 90 days that they are underpaid.
Unless the employer gives a decent raise at say the 3-6 month mark, they won't keep anyone they hire for more than say 6 months to a year.

Michael.J.Palmer

Definitely entry level, of course if you want more money you could apply at Geek Squad and get about 12/hr on average and do basically the same work.

jtoast

Don't forget that this is also most likely a no-benefit contract position. They may even try to sign you up as an independant contractor which would make it even worse.

earweed

Have to agree. It's definitely entry level and someones not likely to stay long.
Is changing out a laptop screen covered on the A+ now? I've done it before and it's more complicated than replacing a HD or RAM.

EmpoweredBizTech

That won't last long $10 an hour to drive all of the city and then some. You can make more as a pizza delivery boy. It's sounds like a crazy recruiter looking to make a little too much margin\commission he be brought down to earth quickly. $10 an hour may be far in many cities but no where near that for New York City.

ipconfig.all

If he advertises that advertisement in a job website I am 100 percently sure that 100s people will love to take it. Remember the economy isn't that great at the moment so you got to do what ever you have to do to get your foot in the door. When I was first starting out in I.T I gave out alot of free labor to build up some experience and it has worked so far but I still haven't gotten my big break

hex_omega

SOunds like exploitation to me. Happens to nearly all of us starting out, I guess.

Devilsbane

Prior to the job I got about 2 months ago, I would have taken it. It would have been a raise over where I was and got me my first IT job. I believe I'm more than that, but really all I needed was some experience on the resume.

erpadmin

This is a position for Dell/HP/etc for onsite technicians. That $200 extra you pay for a 3-4 year onsite techs is essentially for the $10/hr guy. No shame, but that's what it is. I wanted to do something like that on a weekend basis, but they weren't having it...

As someone in the NYC-metro area, that sounds about right. Yeah, you can't get lunch for that in Manhattan, but in the other boros....you can get a snack.

MeanDrunkR2D2

I just did a gig at a major laptop manufacturers repair center and I only made $12.50 an hour... And I was one of the highest paid people there since I had a degree, A+, etc. Yes, the pay is low. The work gets old fast, but it's a good way to get hardware experience that I didn't get doing help desk and software/database support at my previous job.

But after 5months of toiling in that junk I was able to land a great desktop support job that will turn into a Sys Admin position down the road and pay that is above and beyond what I have ever made before. (Basically doubled my pay and have benefits now)

subl1m1nal

Recruiter is low balling. You can get $10 flipping burgers here in Iowa. The cost of living in New York is a lot more than Iowa.

However the economy is down. Jobs are scarce. If I were in college, I'd consider it.

chmorin

EmpoweredBizTech wrote: »

That won't last long $10 an hour to drive all of the city and then some. You can make more as a pizza delivery boy. It's sounds like a crazy recruiter looking to make a little too much margin\commission he be brought down to earth quickly. $10 an hour may be far in many cities but no where near that for New York City.

Coming from pizza delivery myself, no you cant. Haha. At least not in my area. It is more dangerous than IT work too.

Oh right it is in New York... that sucks.

tpatt100

I made 14.50 per hour doing helpdesk with full benefits at my first job.

It's a depressed economy as has been said already.

If your out of work or starting out an ambitious and smart
person would jump on it and get from it what you can and hopefully move on when they can

Paul Boz

You guys need to stop saying "it's the economy." It's not the economy. It's the glut of IT professionals in the market now. If the economy was still in the tank but IT professionals were hard to come by the job offers out there would be much higher. The rarity of a position is what drives the market value. As you get into higher level jobs the economics of salary almost become moot.

We're not living / working in 1995, where having laptop hardware experience was considered advanced. Little kids can crack open a laptop and explain the components now. Heck, how many of you built your first computer by the time you were 15? I'm sure that in a city like New York there are so many people with the skillset required by that add that they could probably sell it for $9/hour and get tons of hits.

Think about it this way: Nearly everyone in our society has at least basic exposure to computer systems. Be it using them for work, school, or even as a hobbyist, nearly anyone can do basic computer support now. Why would a college student who builds his own computers want to deliver pizzas when he can be the IT guy for a local business? A lot of people wind up doing tech support / entry level jobs as a means to get by but wind up staying in the field. That's what happened to me. When I was 18 I started in IT doing technical support for an ISP making $9.17/hr (which is why this thread makes me laugh). All I wanted to do was fund my living expenses while I was in college. I now test, audit, and design bank security. I went from $9.17/hr 6.5 years ago to living comfortably now. I never intended to wind up in IT but the path opened up for me and I followed it. Because most of our society has experience with computers, when someone sees an ad like that and they're doing a menial job like bussing tables (or not working at all) they think "hey, I've got computer skills, why not?"

Zartanasaurus

Is it even possible to live in NY on $10/hour?

Zartanasaurus

Paul Boz wrote: »

You guys need to stop saying "it's the economy." It's not the economy. It's the glut of IT professionals in the market now.

Supply and demand isn't the economy anymore?

dynamik

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

Supply and demand isn't the economy anymore?

He was obviously referring to the downturn that resulted from the housing/banking problems...

laloosh

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

Supply and demand isn't the economy anymore?

Technically, supply and demand is economics but not specifically the economy.

But Paul Boz, isn't the glut of IT professionals in the market right now directly related to high unemployment, which is directly related to companies letting people go because of the struggling ... wait for it ... economy?

And I don't know who you're hanging out with, but I strongly disagree with your statement that "nearly anyone can do basic computer support now."

I spent the past 10 years working for Internet/technology-based companies, and the majority of my co-workers didn't have any idea how to troubleshoot their own computers, let alone somebody else's.

tpatt100

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

Supply and demand isn't the economy anymore?

And how much of the IT glut is the result of companies downsizing/going out of business. I know looking for work in the past couple of years I am seeing what used to be the work requirements of 3-4 people being required of just one person. Plus technology is advancing and I know companies got smarter and realized its more economical to outsource your occasional IT call rather than have a full time person.

erpadmin

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

Is it even possible to live in NY on $10/hour?

You would need more than that to live in the less-gentrified places of NYC, let alone anywhere else in Manhattan alone or anywhere in the City.

BTW, NY State is completely different than NY City. Upstate NY (anywhere in NY that isn't Long Island, Westchester or of course NYC) you can totally live on $10 an hour...cost of living is pretty low. Those places that aren't Upstate, you better have some money.

erpadmin

laloosh wrote: »

Technically, supply and demand is economics but not specifically the economy.

But Paul Boz, isn't the glut of IT professionals in the market right now directly related to high unemployment, which is directly related to companies letting people go because of the struggling ... wait for it ... economy?

And I don't know who you're hanging out with, but I strongly disagree with your statement that "nearly anyone can do basic computer support now."

I spent the past 10 years working for Internet/technology-based companies, and the majority of my co-workers didn't have any idea how to troubleshoot their own computers, let alone somebody else's.

I have Ph.Ds going to our help desk to fix their personal PCs on the side! Every day I see this. These are people who, supposedly, are smarter than you and I put together. Of course, they're not, but that whole "nearly anyone can do basic computer support now" is a fallacy. Mind you, it's a lot easier to do it today than it was 10 years ago. But as someone at work recently said in an e-mail...people don't read (what she really meant is that people don't want to read to learn how to do whatever).

earweed

As far as anyone doing PC support. Last month I went to help a friend who couldn't get on the net. Couldn't figure what was wrong, could ping modem , rebooted it and everything. Called the ISP and the support guy didn't know what I meant by ping..lol. I figured out the problem when I asked my friend what email and everything they had for the ISP and it turned out their password filling tool had "somehow" changed the login for the modem. Noticed it being green while I checked it and that it was wrong.
That guy was probably being paid about $14/hr from our area and could do nothing more than read from a script.

Paul Boz

Jesus christ people. I'm not saying that all 309,000,000 Americans are qualified to be help desk. What I'm saying is that probably 50% of the college-aged pizza delivery drivers out there do qualify. Sure there are people in the market that are there because they've been downsized but you'd be a fool to ignore the fact that quite frankly, entry level computer work is just one step above fast food now. IT support is a required service that requires little skill. Every major tech support job in my area starts around $10/hour and tops out at $14-$15/hour. The Mcdonalds up the street starts people at $7.50. Anyone can flip burgers. A marginally smaller number of people can read scripts on the screen or turn a screw driver.

Middle and high schools are now strongly pushing computer-based education because its a field you can get into without a degree. PC repair / A+ class is what shop class has become. If you didn't have intentions of college and maybe wanted to go to a trade school you took shop to learn marketable skills. Many kids these days chose IT tracks because it can be an alternative to traditional education / careers. I'm sure that a number of you will think I'm bagging on IT and entry level positions, but I started at the bottom and have my own experiences to confirm my thoughts. Any time you take the college degree out of the equation you DRAMATICALLY expand the possible workforce in that field.

earweed

True, my daughter is being taught stuff in the 8th grade that used to be college level as far as using computers. They're teaching basic computer skills now in elementary classes and it's going to make it where a degree will be necessary pretty soon for helpdesk entry level and then it'll be up to the individual to advance. I've already seen a lot of helpdesk ads in my area where they require a degree.