What sort of renumeration?

[Firefly86]

Hi guys,

Amazing how I come to Ocuk for questions like these haha xD
Well here goes =)

Im a Systems Administrator at a large Travel company. At the moment my salary is 16200 =( Main tasks include maintenance of our Windows 2003 servers, exchange 2003, sql 2000, Veritas Backup Exec, Neverfail etc, as well as the desktop support for around 50 users. I've been working for this company for 2 years now and I am currently 21 years old. I have 4 years in corporate experience though in other companies as a sys admin.

Not trying to gloat now but trying to be honest, I have been commended on my performance and contribution to the company on many occasions and have been told that I will be rewarded in the next annual review (coming up in October!!!)

Now heres where I need the advice. Negotiations have never really been my strong suit.

My qualifications atm are just MCP, MCSA and MCSE. I'm half way through completeing my OU degree.

Big question I guess is, what sort of figure would you guys imagine I could ask for in this situation? I just dont want to go into this review with the wrong frame of mind.

Secondly, and this is just out of curiosity, how many of you guys get payed for being On-Call and what rates do you get for this?

I ask because for the past 2 years I have not been payed for On-call or overtime fees.

Hope some of you can shed some light =)

 

[RDM]

Without know exactly what you do and what level of experience you really have a similar role in the company I work for (support analyst) starts on 20K. That is a grade with both overtime and on call payments.

The next role up would be infrastructure analyst which would be if your skills also allow you to design solutions and that starts at 27K.

These are in the North of England too so no London weighting.

 

[Scrutinize]

The best thing you can do, is to have a look on Monster, Totaljobs, Jobsite etc and see what roles at your level are offering. (i.e. your job in another company)

That way you know the current market value of yourself and can always take this to your employers in the review.

Infact if you upload your current CV and it is good enough you should get the IT recruitment consultants calling you up offering work/interview opportunities.

No harm in doing it if you are feeling undervalued etc.

 

[JollyGreen]

I think you could quite easily add 10k onto your salary if your skills are as good as they sound and you can back up your quals with relevant experience (which it sounds like).

 

[Squink]

If it's anything like the "negotiations" I've encountered where you feel like you're massively undervalued, expect to have less leeway than you hoped. You might go in armed with data about comparable positions in other companies, but the people giving you a pay rise will almost certainly have a figure in mind that is rather more modest. Companies don't normally give away pay rises higher than inflation without a good reason or a hard fight.

 

[Firefly86]

thanks for the replies people xD what about on call rates...can any1 offer any details on that?

 

[Toryglen-boy]

most Network Admin posts are salaried, as its the nature of the job. People have said i do nothing when they walk into the office, and we are sitting there feet up, having a laugh, what they dont know is that, migrations, and updates, and general maintenance is done after office hours, and i am expected to do this withouth extra pay. its swings and roundabouts, sometimes i do nothing all week, and sometimes i get no sleep for two night is a 'mission critical' job is being done, i remember when we removed IPX and Netware ... all in a single session .... goodbye Console One !!

personally, i wouldnt do an network admin job for anything less than around 23K ish ...

 

[Bobster]

thanks for the replies people xD what about on call rates...can any1 offer any details on that?

With regards to on call rates, either agree overtime payments, time off in lieu or to help with salary negotiations see if you can use this as ammunition to get your annual wage boosted.

For what you do at the moment you are underpaid.

 

[Firefly86]

yea I was pretty sure I was quite underpaid but its nice to hear others agree...im hoping to get 21k + atleast and get another boost with OT or Oncall.

SEeing as how its a travel company, there is a large shipping department within the premises that work 24/7 and at the moment, if there are any emergencies im expected to have my phone on at all times and come down if need be, and i do this with no compensation...i see this as wrong

Another of the problems I have, as the 'powers that be' have already mentioned to me..is that although they're happy ive obtained the MCSE, they do not really understand its worth as theyre not IT literate, and i cant really argue with them there in that they are unsure about what to do. I dont really know what sort of facts to present him with :S

 

[Toryglen-boy]

yea I was pretty sure I was quite underpaid but its nice to hear others agree...im hoping to get 21k + atleast and get another boost with OT or Oncall.

Another of the problems I have, as the 'powers that be' have already mentioned to me..is that although they're happy ive obtained the MCSE, they do not really understand its worth as theyre not IT literate, and i cant really argue with them there in that they are unsure about what to do. I dont really know what sort of facts to present him with :S

i am not MSCE or cisco certified, and to be honest, i find it doesnt mean much !!

i am old school,and a lot of employers are starting to realise there is big difference between learnin about all these great initials like DNS, DHCP, LDAP, AD and wierd and wonderful things and troubleshooting. its not uncommon now for emplyers to technically test you. i remember one interview where i had to build a 4 server Citrix Farm !!

i have found words are cheap, and they dont cost a lot, and while i have done a lot of MS accredited courses, its more what i can show i can do, not what i say i can do, and also, that i have used these skills in a working environment

 

[Arcade Fire]

Before you fire off an email to your bosses in disgust, I'd get your language straight - it's 'remuneration'.

 

[stoofa]

i am not MSCE or cisco certified, and to be honest, i find it doesnt mean much !!

i am old school,and a lot of employers are starting to realise there is big difference between learnin about all these great initials like DNS, DHCP, LDAP, AD and wierd and wonderful things and troubleshooting. its not uncommon now for emplyers to technically test you. i remember one interview where i had to build a 4 server Citrix Farm !!

i have found words are cheap, and they dont cost a lot, and while i have done a lot of MS accredited courses, its more what i can show i can do, not what i say i can do, and also, that i have used these skills in a working environment

They aren't just starting to realise - they have done for quite a while now.
When I did my MCSE it was initially based on the old NT4 tree and not wishing to blow my own trumpet, once you had the qualification if did actually mean something.
I upgraded many of the branches of the tree to Windows 2000 but not all of them and eventually lost my official MCSE status as I didn't have enough Windows 2000 exams passed and the NT4 branches were retired.
However by this time the "entensive" courses were available, along with various "cram" sites.
These mean that the Windows 2000/2003 MCSE's devalued a lot and many company's simply see these as paper qualifications.

It really does mainly revolve around experience and not what a piece of paper says these days.

 

[Toryglen-boy]

They aren't just starting to realise - they have done for quite a while now.

i know mate, i meant against graduates who havent held this kinda job before, against those who have 'been around the block'

 

[Firefly86]

Before you fire off an email to your bosses in disgust, I'd get your language straight - it's 'remuneration'.

lol oops xD

 

[Moley]

The way I see it, you are being vastly underpaid and having the mickey taken out of you. However you've let this happen so of course your bosses are going to keep paying you peanuts until you tell them otherwise.

If you have those qualifications and 4+ years on the job experience to back it up you should be pulling in a £24k basic salary.

For out of hours stuff you should get £50 per call.

These are roughly going rates.

 

[paul8811]

1. Had in Notice

2. Move to London (assuming here that you live up norf)

3. Get permie job paying at the very least double or go contracting earning £250+ per day

4. Spend you newly earnt wealth on biatches, fast cars, & drugs

 

[Firefly86]

1. Had in Notice

2. Move to London (assuming here that you live up norf)

3. Get permie job paying at the very least double or go contracting earning £250+ per day

4. Spend you newly earnt wealth on biatches, fast cars, & drugs

Lol Well...im a woman xD so ill spend it on geeky computer toys, my new car and my boyfriend xD

 

[Dave M]

Lol Well...im a woman xD so ill spend it on geeky computer toys, my new car and my boyfriend xD

Your a woman? Oh you should have said - in that case 16k is about right

 

[Firefly86]

lol xD I was just waiting for a reply like that haha xD

 

[AthlonTom]

You should ask for 24K base minimum. If you left and they wanted to replce you it would cost them more than that - plus they like you AND your already familiar with the systems within the business.