Is it possible to negociate higher salary if you are underpay?

So right now i am being payed $28,000 salary. My job title is "Help desk engineer"; my duties include:

1) Over the phone computer troubleshooting
2) Setting up user accounts, share drives and printers in active directory.
3) Creating e-mail accounts for clients in Microsoft Exchnage.
4) Setting up clients BlackBerry, Android, iPhone/iPad device with corporate e-mail.
5) Administer BES server.
6) A LOT of Outlook setup and troubleshoot.

Now my question is how likely would i get $40,000 if i ask for that salary?

P.S. I have a degree, 4 year experience and cisco cert if that matters.

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Comments

martaw

Do you mean you wish to ask for more money from your current employer or look for another job for that amount of money?

pinkydapimp

that is a big jump to make with your current employer. However, i have heard of people approaching HR for a salary adjustment if they have strong evidence they are being significantly under paid. It would likely be easier to switch employers to get that kind of pay raise though.

sizeon

martaw wrote: »

Do you mean you wish to ask for more money from your current employer or look for another job for that amount of money?

current employer. They have me as an "Temp". Maybe if i get permanent i can get more money?>

truckfit

_{Bro.

You have 4 years of experience and certs and a degree

and you are getting paid under 30k.

That is just wrong, maybe thats how much that role is worth.

Just look else where.}

Ismaeljrp

How long have you been there? And why not go for Microsoft Certs since you have so much MS experience, that could definately help also. Especially if you switch employers.

ajs1976

You're a temp and you want to ask for a 43% pay raise? You may get a bump when switching to permanent, but not sure if it will be that much.

sizeon

Ismaeljrp wrote: »

How long have you been there? And why not go for Microsoft Certs since you have so much MS experience, that could definately help also. Especially if you switch employers.

Been here for 5 months now. I am planning to get MCITP but i really like networking. That is why i got CCNA. For some reason i can't get a good paying job. Is there a good way to know how much you are worth?

skinsFan202

yikes a 4-year degree + certs + 4 years of experience and you're being paid under 30k? Temp or no temp that is beyond highway robbery. What area do you live in?

skinsFan202

sizeon wrote: »

Been here for 5 months now. I am planning to get MCITP but i really like networking. That is why i got CCNA. For some reason i can't get a good paying job. Is there a good way to know how much you are worth?

Check out www.glassdoor.com. While it will be tough to accurately determine "how much you are worth", you can at least see samples of the salaries of other engineers in your area

ptilsen

Something has to be wrong with your interviewing skills or your resume. You can make that much with an A+ and no experience.

You might as well try to negotiate a pay raise. That or get another job. There's just no reason to stay where you are now. There's no region in the United States, including all territories and protectorates, in which you're not at least a little underpaid relative to your qualifications. Getting that fixed is up to you to present yourself right in applications, resumes, and interviews.

UniqueAgEnT

Yeah I agree there has to be something wrong here. Is your prior experience related? Post up your resume so we can have a better understanding of your earning potential, and your region.

DoubleNNs

If you like networking, try to look for a job in networking. A lot of companies take students fresh out of 4-yr college and CCNA.
Also, maybe get started on your CCNP.

However, I definitely agree w/ everyone else. You're underpaid. And while you might get a raise moving from temp to permanent, it may or may not be that high. The best decision would probably be to switch position or employer.

sizeon

So lets say if you guys are HR from my company. How much would you pay me? I live in NY

pinkydapimp

sizeon wrote: »

So lets say if you guys are HR from my company. How much would you pay me? I live in NY

post your resume and folks can probably give a better estimate. And where in NY? upstate or NYC? that makes a huge difference.

ptilsen

Your known qualifications are not the only part of the picture. However, you would easily make over $30,000 in the Minneapolis area, probably over $40K or $50K. Your actual skills matter more, so even those numbers are not limits. If you're anywhere in the NYC metro it's hard to imagine anything below $50K. Upstate is different and will vary more, but is probably more comparable to my metro. I still think $28K is too low, and $40K is a better minimum to shoot for. I can't imagine you couldn't go and get something for $35K in a heartbeat.

sizeon

Here is a sample of my resume. I work in the tribeca area of NYC

IT Specialist resume.pdf

pinkydapimp

sizeon wrote: »

Here is a sample of my resume. I work in the tribeca area of NYC

a few questions. you said you have a degree but it says you are still at NYU. what degree do you have?

Your resume needs LOTS of work.

You list the first desktop support job as supporting Windows 7 from 2007 to may 2009 and include Windows 7. Was Windows 7 even out then?

Also what were you getting paid at these previous jobs?

Based on the resume if you improved the resume a great deal, as long as your experience is for real, you should be able to land a job paying much more than what you are making now. Especially in NYC. Something seems off about your situation.

sizeon

pinkydapimp wrote: »

a few questions. you said you have a degree but it says you are still at NYU. what degree do you have?

Your resume needs LOTS of work.

You list the first desktop support job as supporting Windows 7 from 2007 to may 2009 and include Windows 7. Was Windows 7 even out then?

Also what were you getting paid at these previous jobs?

Based on the resume if you improved the resume a great deal, as long as your experience is for real, you should be able to land a job paying much more than what you are making now. Especially in NYC. Something seems off about your situation.

I just edit that resume on the spot and forgot to include my degree. Also i was getting paid $18 at my last job.

Akaricloud

From an HR perspective, there is no way I would approve a 40+% raise for a TEMP employee that has been there for well under a year. You're in a very entry level job and they have no reason to ever pay you much unless you're able to move to a higher position. You could be easily replaced by anyone looking to get into IT for what you're currently getting paid.

Forget about trying to make more where you're at and focus on moving to a higher position.

Iristheangel

Thoughts on your resume:

Trim it down to 1 page since you have less than 10 years of experience
Combine certifications and education since you only have one certification at the moment
Include your major under your degree
Get rid of the "Software & Technologies" bold header. It's redundant of the whole "Technical skills" header. Then create sub-headers for software, hardware, etc and list those specifics under each instead of under one header
Under experience, tell me a story for what you did for each job.

sizeon

Iristheangel wrote: »

Thoughts on your resume:

Trim it down to 1 page since you have less than 10 years of experience
Combine certifications and education since you only have one certification at the moment
Include your major under your degree
Get rid of the "Software & Technologies" bold header. It's redundant of the whole "Technical skills" header. Then create sub-headers for software, hardware, etc and list those specifics under each instead of under one header
Under experience, tell me a story for what you did for each job.

In the summary under experience is it better to write a short paragraph of what you did, or list it with bullets?

Iristheangel

I would say a list with bullets but the description needs work. My boss always says that he prefers experience to tell him a story. Of course some of that includes listing duties but also explain what you did there and how important you were to the company.

kurosaki00

I don't have much experience
but, I wouldn't pay you more than that
Its the position, not you.

By what you describe, its hard to pay you 48k
if you do have relevant 4 years of experience and certs, get the knowledge of this work and when you feel ok with it, WHILE you work at it just browse the market and search for a new gig
and move up

I work as a sysadmin but I also work in a NOC as help desk
help desk doesnt pay much, but I cant make them pay me like a sys admin doing help desk stuff
I took the job because I wanted more experience in networks, so far its pretty fun

MiikeB

This may sound a bit harsh but it is the god honest trust in an effort to help you - As someone who has hired and interviewed a lot of System Administrators and Tier 3 support people seeing you call yourself Help Desk Engineer, even if it is your formal job title, would make me laugh at your resume. Especially since none of the duties you listed for the role sound like any type of engineering. Consider changing it to Help Desk Support Specialist or something like that.

kgb

MiikeB wrote: »

This may sound a bit harsh but it is the god honest trust in an effort to help you - As someone who has hired and interviewed a lot of System Administrators and Tier 3 support people seeing you call yourself Help Desk Engineer, even if it is your formal job title, would make me laugh at your resume. Especially since none of the duties you listed for the role sound like any type of engineering. Consider changing it to Help Desk Support Specialist or something like that.

Interesting. My take is, if that is his official title and he goes and changes it and a prospective employer calls to verify employment and the titles don't match, that could very well cost him the job, especially if it's just an HR lackey doing the verification.

I understand your view though and it makes sense...but when it comes to HR practices I think you have to throw out common sense a lot of times

Iristheangel

I've seen the job title "help desk engineer" before. My old company called their help desk staff that. I don't think using that job title is going to hurt him on his resume as long as he's being honest about his job title

J_86

MiikeB wrote: »

This may sound a bit harsh but it is the god honest trust in an effort to help you - As someone who has hired and interviewed a lot of System Administrators and Tier 3 support people seeing you call yourself Help Desk Engineer, even if it is your formal job title, would make me laugh at your resume. Especially since none of the duties you listed for the role sound like any type of engineering. Consider changing it to Help Desk Support Specialist or something like that.

So you are going to "laugh" at someones resume for putting down the title he was given? He has no control over what his title is. And actually, like Iris said, I have seen this title a few times. The title of a position can be drastically different from organization to organization. You can tell what a person has done in a position from reading their resume and interview them. If you are in a position of hiring people, you should understand this.

powerfool

I didn't read the entire thread, as it seemed to just drag on...

Anyhow, what you are being paid for the responsibilities you listed... they may be slightly low, but not far off. You certainly are not making use of your degree (if it is IT-related); that type of pay is what I would expect for someone without experience and a degree, for those responsibilities. You need to chart out what you want to do and start figuring out how to get there. Pick something... Network or Systems, then a focus there... build up at least some mid-level certifications that are relevant and make sure you are building experience in that area (by asking to take on additional responsibilities in that area). I wouldn't wait too long after that, however... maybe six months, then look for another job.

WiseWun

Job titles don't really mean much in some environments. I've change my titles in the past to reflect actual duties and I think this is whats important. My supervisors and managers are less concerned about my title as long as I don't go overboard. I really thought the word "engineer" was something big until it was thrown around easily, especially in IT. It doesn't bother me and no I wouldn't laugh at it.