What salary can I ask for in my situation?

Hi everyone,

Here's my situation:

I started working in my company in late 2008. I was hired as contractor and stayed working in the same department until January of this year. I was being paid $20/hr and worked as a Desktop Support Technician. Whenever my contract was set to expire it was always renewed but when I asked for full time employment I was always turned down. In January I applied for a full time job in the same corporation but in a different IT department and was hired.

The first department I've worked at is a central IT department, and the department that hired me full time is a much smaller team supporting much fewer number of end users. Here my title is Computer Support Technician but I do more than just that desktop support. It's more of an administrative role and I feel that I perform more admin tasks such as managing PC images and finding ways to improve technology performance in general as well as assisting other technicians in resolving issues. For 3 months I've worked double shift working 13 hours a day, and worked with System Administrators who had taught quite few things. I'm being paid around 43K right now.

Recently I learned from my ex-supervisor that a new position will be opened at the central IT department and even before they posted the ad for it they wanted to inform me and ask if I was interested in coming back to them and work full time doing Desktop Support work. I did really enjoy working with them previously and I like the team as well as the supervisor. I've always been told that I'm good worker and they like my work ethic.

My question is, if I decided to come back to central IT what would be a good salary for me to ask for. I guess I should note that they're approaching me with this offer first and I wasn't applying.

I really hope to hear back from you guys about what you think.
Thanks!

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Comments

apr911

Hello Loss4words,

From the description you gave, it sounds to me like this is a lateral career move or even a step down from where you are now and not a promotion.

Is that correct?

If it is, you probably wont be able to get much more out of the position pay-wise, at least initially, in fact, you may even get paid a little less.

From the sounds of things, you are currently on a small team which usually is great for learning but not so great for career growth. Moving back to the central IT department might open more doors more quickly for you to step up and fill a needed position in a higher pay bracket especially as it sounds as though you are well liked given the fact they are actively recruiting you from another department.

So with this position you need to evaluate the career path not just what you will get up front. In the short term it will probably pay about the same, maybe a little more/less but in the long term you may have a better chance of getting promoted to a different position and getting paid more.

Keep that in mind before turning it down or accepting it based solely on pay. Although in my experience it is not usually the case and I dont know enough about your company to say for sure but maybe the small team you are on will have the better career growth path.

Even if it doesnt, weigh whether the long term learning gains of being on the small team are worth short term wage losses of staying in your current position. As later on down the road, you can par your knowledge for higher pay.

For example, if you take this position and it pays 5k/yr more and you stay there for say 2 years, youve made 96k in the 2 years. That is 10k more than you would make in your current position but consider this... If you stay at your current position for 1 more year gaining additional knowledge and can then par that knowledge into a job that pays 10k/yr more, in 2 years youve made the same money but the intangible benefits (your knowledge-base) is much greater.

Over time that gap grows too.
2 yrs = 96 k (48 * 2) vs 96k (43+53)
3 yrs = 144 k (48 * 2) vs 149 k (43 + 53*2)

erpadmin

This does sound like a lateral move. Here's the difference from what I see. You probably have a lot less interaction with users than you did when you were in the first team, am I right? You probably did more break-fix on PCs then anything, and connect a printer or two. Whereas now, you have less interaction with users, but you primarily create/update standard images using Ghost or whatever and putting them on PCs/laptops to be farmed out to the environment? (That's what it sounds like to me based on your post).

In all honesty, it depends on what you enjoy doing and what your 5 year plan is. If you want to get into more of a sys admin role, I would stay where your at for a year or so and gain some server experience. If you enjoy Level 2 work, then go back to your department. I also don't know what part of the country you're from but ~$45k for Desktop Support sounds about right in the NYC area. I doubt you will get much more than that unless it's a Senior-Level position, in which case ~$50 seems reasonable, but again depending on the org and depending on your area.

In this case, the ball really is in your court. I couldn't advise on what you should do, unless I knew what you wanted to do in your career. Some folks like Desktop Support and think of it as a career choice all on it's own (I don't, but I most certainly respect those who do). It really is about what you want to do.

loss4words

Hi guys. Thank you very much for replying to my post. I really appreciate it.

This does sound like a lateral move. Here's the difference from what I see. You probably have a lot less interaction with users than you did when you were in the first team, am I right? You probably did more break-fix on PCs then anything, and connect a printer or two. Whereas now, you have less interaction with users, but you primarily create/update standard images using Ghost or whatever and putting them on PCs/laptops to be farmed out to the environment? (That's what it sounds like to me based on your post).

You've exactly right. In my previous job I didn't spend much time in the office and was always out troubleshooting/fixing someone's tech problems due to a large numbers of users we supported. Now I don't get to get out much and have much interaction with end users and just work on projects (i.e creating/updating images). I really miss what I used to do before, and I have really enjoyed going out to see end users and helping them solve their problems.

In all honesty, it depends on what you enjoy doing and what your 5 year plan is. If you want to get into more of a sys admin role, I would stay where your at for a year or so and gain some server experience. If you enjoy Level 2 work, then go back to your department. I also don't know what part of the country you're from but ~$45k for Desktop Support sounds about right in the NYC area. I doubt you will get much more than that unless it's a Senior-Level position, in which case ~$50 seems reasonable, but again depending on the org and depending on your area.

The thing here is that the period where I worked with Sys Admins was only temporary (it was only supposed to be for 1 month, and ended up being 3 months). I was getting tired and couldn't handle long day shifts and the supervisors decided to end the double shift deal. My goal for the future is to become a System Administrator, but the department where I work at right just hired a new Sys Admin and I don't think they're looking for another person anytime soon.

One thing that I didn't mention, and probably is very important but I'm just too much of a newb and don't know the difference, is that at my current position I'm covered by the Union contact. The central IT department has only non-union workers. Should this fact sway me towards one position rather than other? Sorry for the dumb question.

it_consultant

Your a unionized IT person? I didn't know this was even possible! I don't see much of a reason for an IT person to be in a union. They take your fees but unions are not set up for IT issues so I don't think you will see much of a benefit from being in one.

You were making great money as a desktop support guy. You wont make much more money though if you don't expand your skill-set dramatically.

garv221

it_consultant wrote: »

Your a unionized IT person? I didn't know this was even possible! I don't see much of a reason for an IT person to be in a union. They take your fees but unions are not set up for IT issues so I don't think you will see much of a benefit from being in one.

You were making great money as a desktop support guy. You wont make much more money though if you don't expand your skill-set dramatically.

My guess would be he works for a University. Everyone is union there.

loss4words

it_consultant wrote: »

Your a unionized IT person? I didn't know this was even possible! I don't see much of a reason for an IT person to be in a union. They take your fees but unions are not set up for IT issues so I don't think you will see much of a benefit from being in one.

You were making great money as a desktop support guy. You wont make much more money though if you don't expand your skill-set dramatically.

I'm sorry for the stupid question...Doesn't the Union protect you from being let go and there's no such thing as downsizing within the company if you are protected? Sorry for being such a newbie.

it_consultant

Don't think for a second that the union protects your job. The company you work for is always able to cut you. What a union does is help you with benefits.

For example, Ford lays off its entire workforce for a couple of weeks to retool their machines. During this time the employees are literally out of work but subject to recall. The UAW pays their salaries during that time. If you are not a member of the union then you have to take vacation or you don't get paid.

Think to yourself, will you ever be laid off and subject for recall. If the answer is no, then the 30% of your salary that goes to union dues is probably not worth it.

erpadmin

loss4words wrote: »

Hi guys. Thank you very much for replying to my post. I really appreciate it.

You've exactly right. In my previous job I didn't spend much time in the office and was always out troubleshooting/fixing someone's tech problems due to a large numbers of users we supported. Now I don't get to get out much and have much interaction with end users and just work on projects (i.e creating/updating images). I really miss what I used to do before, and I have really enjoyed going out to see end users and helping them solve their problems.

The thing here is that the period where I worked with Sys Admins was only temporary (it was only supposed to be for 1 month, and ended up being 3 months). I was getting tired and couldn't handle long day shifts and the supervisors decided to end the double shift deal. My goal for the future is to become a System Administrator, but the department where I work at right just hired a new Sys Admin and I don't think they're looking for another person anytime soon.

One thing that I didn't mention, and probably is very important but I'm just too much of a newb and don't know the difference, is that at my current position I'm covered by the Union contact. The central IT department has only non-union workers. Should this fact sway me towards one position rather than other? Sorry for the dumb question.

All that means is that those Central IT guys aren't subject to "collective bargaining" (hint: google that!). They don't have to pay union dues, but they also have to put up with more crap (longer hours, etc.)

To be fair, I'm a union guy but I'm subject to a LOT of hours due to the nature of my job. It is frowned upon to look at the clock and "leave." There are tradeoffs I have with my superiors, so I never need to run and cry to Union Boss. (In other words, we have an understanding.)

But to get back into your original question, if you want to get into sys admin work, you might as well stay where you're at. Much of what you are doing can be parlayed into sys admin work. Realize though, that depending on the organization, it is NOT typical for sys admins to interact with users, like the help desk level 2 guys do. You will pretty much be setting up servers, and/or enterprise application maintenance from the backend. MAYBE you will do some router work, but that's depending on the size of the shop and if you will double up as a network admin.

I understand the appeal of hanging with users...and every now and then there are the hot babes you get to look at when you're out on the field. But in the end, I still wouldn't trade the backoffice for the field...unless of course, I could make the same.