Job offer
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Alright, I’ve been quiet about this but I got the official offer tonight but I’m hesitant. The reason(s) are below-
A tech recruiter reached out about a local travel agency (bought out by a global travel agency) is looking for a contract/temp to hire : job duties are imaging ~500 PC to migrate from the current domain to the new setup - local users working through VPN. Once that project finishes up, move to help desk for the remainder of the contract. Guaranteed 40 hours/week.
The tech recruiting company will pay 25/hour , no paid days off, add me to their insurance (which looks to be roughly the same as I got now) for 6 months. After the 6 months, if not sooner, the company I’d be temping for would hire me into the help desk. I’d start from help desk, and as I progressed through help desk could land me a Sys admin position within the company.
My thinking is :
Cons-
contract to hire ( nothing says that once I’m done, they will hire me)
There is no security for the temp when going into these jobs, from what I’ve noticed / heard.
Working help desk - no phone calls emails only.
No paid time off or sick time (important when you have a child and your on your own on the weeks you have him. )
No overtime- they won’t pay me over time. After 40 im done for the week.
I’ve officially moved into the Admin role for the Brink PoS - the other guy officially retired
If it doesn’t work out, im screwed. I feel like it’s a gamble especially with it being temporary.Pros-
Gets me away from the current job.
Gives me more industry based skills / experiences.
No on call.
+~$6.00 an hour.
No urgent requests that require immediate attention (at least during the imaging process)
Closer to home and sons school.
More industry based knowledge- VPN, 2- factor auto setup, Soft phone setup (on PCs) , email management exposure, actually doing things the right way.I guess this is more of a post to see the opinion of the community. Ideas, opinions, thoughts?
No decision has been made yet. -
One extremely important thing to me is the industry of the company. Certain industries tend to be more IT friendly and have more robust infrastructure with more needs. For example, the best industries for stability and pay tend to be important ones like financial, Healthcare, government/defense, and a few others.
Other industries like retail, manufacturing, etc don't care about IT or data safety as much as they purely do for profits (right now). I'd gotta say travel agency is probably one of the worst industries to be involved with IMO.
- the obvious reasons why it's bad during a pandemic, but also 2) it's just a middle man and completely unnecessary industry.
Now that we've looked at the industry of the employer let move onto the other obvious cons.
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you're a temp for an entry level position after having what 3-4 years experience? This is the kind of position you might take if you walked off the street with zero experience.
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you might be making more money without the benefits, but you've just basically told everyone that I'm ok being an entry level for another 2-3 years of my life.
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what's a potential employer gonna think a year from now when they see a guy with 4-5 years entry level experience with two lateral entry level jobs?
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the job sounds like it sucks.
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I'll preface this with saying merely that IT jobs aren't what they used to be ten and twenty years ago. And with the scope of things in the world right now,. they aren't even what they used to be pre-Covid.
I am not a fan of Temp/Contract to hire,... and yet here I sit in one. After working as a contractor for the State. I don't like the 'stigma' and the limitations associated with being a Contract to Hire / Contractor.
Simply put this way: My last job at (Contract Company) and my current job (Contract Company) are a means to an end. They did a few things: got me out of a situation I didn't like or got me closer to home with more benefits.
Without knowing more - and honestly that doesn't really matter - it is difficult to make the choice you are trying to make... But maybe strip it down to just one thing:
Make it about the numbers: Is it more per hour/year, closer to home, more/less days off, any PTO,.. in short - what check boxes does it hit. I may be willing to put up with a bit more for an additional $6.00 per hour, but then what are my options for time off and holidays? I mean - for me,.. I have four kids and a grand-daughter.... a grand-daughter I have yet to hold as I'm in a different state.
Having insurance for me is a key item as I carry the kids,.. Contract and Contract to hire are never a guarantee - being hired on full time doesn't either. being there 2-10 years doesn't guarantee anything either.
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Having insurance for me is a key item as I carry the kids,.. Contract and Contract to hire are never a guarantee - being hired on full time doesn't either. being there 2-10 years doesn't guarantee anything either.
Yes, does it really makes a difference if you're a contractor or employee? You don't have any safe income either way.
The only safety you can have as a white collar worker is having skills and experience that are valuable and sought-after.
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One extremely important thing to me is the industry of the company. Certain industries tend to be more IT friendly and have more robust infrastructure with more needs. For example, the best industries for stability and pay tend to be important ones like financial, Healthcare, government/defense, and a few others.
Other industries like retail, manufacturing, etc don't care about IT or data safety as much as they purely do for profits (right now). I'd gotta say travel agency is probably one of the worst industries to be involved with IMO.
- the obvious reasons why it's bad during a pandemic, but also 2) it's just a middle man and completely unnecessary industry.
Now that we've looked at the industry of the employer let move onto the other obvious cons.
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you're a temp for an entry level position after having what 3-4 years experience? This is the kind of position you might take if you walked off the street with zero experience.
-
you might be making more money without the benefits, but you've just basically told everyone that I'm ok being an entry level for another 2-3 years of my life.
-
what's a potential employer gonna think a year from now when they see a guy with 4-5 years entry level experience with two lateral entry level jobs?
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the job sounds like it sucks.
Good points!
From a career perspective the offer sounds like a down grade. If you not moving up, your moving down.
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The new job sounds more like bench work as Scott would call it and not IT work. The IT work might come once you transition to the help desk. Deploying images is something you could learn in an afternoon, as for the VPN - I'm guessing you'd do little more than install/setup the VPN client - the hard part is something you'll likely never see or touch (the VPN server).
Personally - I don't know anyone who's made the jump from help desk to IT job. Not saying it doesn't happen, Just that those that I know that worked help desk jobs have generally either stayed there for near ever, or went a completely different direction.
You'd be even when it comes to the health coverage. But the money - is it really a pay raise? I believe you told me you get 10+ hours of OT a week on average. Sure it's more time on the clock, but would likely make the take home equal about the same as the $5/hr increase. But, and to me personally this is a huge but - to paid time off. You have to go 6+ months with zero paid time off. As you already mentioned - you have a child and it's extremely likely that you will have to miss work on a day or more during that six months. To keep yourself above water - you should then be putting nearly all of that extra $5/hr into an emergency savings account and only pulling from it for - gasp - emergencies - i.e. your kid is sick - you have to makeup that day's pay. When you consider that - it ends up being equal or a paycut to take the job.
Others around here have mentioned that they do contract work all the time - there are huge advantages and disadvantages to it. Think of is like your mother's traveling job. If you have the skills - you'll likely always find the next contract, though you likely will have to move for it.
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One extremely important thing to me is the industry of the company. Certain industries tend to be more IT friendly and have more robust infrastructure with more needs. For example, the best industries for stability and pay tend to be important ones like financial, Healthcare, government/defense, and a few others.
Other industries like retail, manufacturing, etc don't care about IT or data safety as much as they purely do for profits (right now). I'd gotta say travel agency is probably one of the worst industries to be involved with IMO.
- the obvious reasons why it's bad during a pandemic, but also 2) it's just a middle man and completely unnecessary industry.
I didn't event think about the industry when looking at the job -- Thanks for pointing that out.
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I'll preface this with saying merely that IT jobs aren't what they used to be ten and twenty years ago. And with the scope of things in the world right now,. they aren't even what they used to be pre-Covid.
You can substitute IT with end user support. End user support is becoming less and less valuable vs infrastructure support. We've seen the gap widen as infrastructure as become more advanced. Now that most companies are leveraging automation for tasks this gap is widening even more.
For example if you have a couple years experience with AWS or Azure today you could have a remote 6 figure job at the drop of a hat.
If you have experience in end user support, it becomes much more difficult, more common for SMB. However, at the same time the common role is much less valuable because in general its a shrinking field as infrastructure side figures out automation and troubleshooting goes the way of the dodo bird.
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I'll preface this with saying merely that IT jobs aren't what they used to be ten and twenty years ago. And with the scope of things in the world right now,. they aren't even what they used to be pre-Covid.
I am not a fan of Temp/Contract to hire,... and yet here I sit in one. After working as a contractor for the State. I don't like the 'stigma' and the limitations associated with being a Contract to Hire / Contractor.
Simply put this way: My last job at (Contract Company) and my current job (Contract Company) are a means to an end. They did a few things: got me out of a situation I didn't like or got me closer to home with more benefits.
Without knowing more - and honestly that doesn't really matter - it is difficult to make the choice you are trying to make... But maybe strip it down to just one thing:
Make it about the numbers: Is it more per hour/year, closer to home, more/less days off, any PTO,.. in short - what check boxes does it hit. I may be willing to put up with a bit more for an additional $6.00 per hour, but then what are my options for time off and holidays? I mean - for me,.. I have four kids and a grand-daughter.... a grand-daughter I have yet to hold as I'm in a different state.
Having insurance for me is a key item as I carry the kids,.. Contract and Contract to hire are never a guarantee - being hired on full time doesn't either. being there 2-10 years doesn't guarantee anything either.
When I think about it this way - It doesn't really hit the mark I suppose - missing a few key boxes (PTO /Sick time - etc.)
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@pete-s said in Job offer:
One extremely important thing to me is the industry of the company. Certain industries tend to be more IT friendly and have more robust infrastructure with more needs. For example, the best industries for stability and pay tend to be important ones like financial, Healthcare, government/defense, and a few others.
Other industries like retail, manufacturing, etc don't care about IT or data safety as much as they purely do for profits (right now). I'd gotta say travel agency is probably one of the worst industries to be involved with IMO.
- the obvious reasons why it's bad during a pandemic, but also 2) it's just a middle man and completely unnecessary industry.
Now that we've looked at the industry of the employer let move onto the other obvious cons.
-
you're a temp for an entry level position after having what 3-4 years experience? This is the kind of position you might take if you walked off the street with zero experience.
-
you might be making more money without the benefits, but you've just basically told everyone that I'm ok being an entry level for another 2-3 years of my life.
-
what's a potential employer gonna think a year from now when they see a guy with 4-5 years entry level experience with two lateral entry level jobs?
-
the job sounds like it sucks.
Good points!
From a career perspective the offer sounds like a down grade. If you not moving up, your moving down.
I guess my idea was getting the foot in the door to do something more industry specific - I didn't see it as a downgrade but that makes sense.
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@dashrender said in Job offer:
Others around here have mentioned that they do contract work all the time - there are huge advantages and disadvantages to it. Think of is like your mother's traveling job. If you have the skills - you'll likely always find the next contract, though you likely will have to move for it.
That's a good basic take on it. To expand on this a bit more, it comes down to the value of the employee, and almost solely on the value of the employee. In order to determine the value of the employee, it comes down to factors you'd expect such as experience, technical expertise, work ethic, documentation, and presentation. Now take that last sentence I wrote and work backwards to determine value of contract employee. Presentation, documentation, work ethic, technical expertise, and experience.
In most fortune 500s, I've seen contractors run the show. Alot of companies can become hostage to contractors. It's actually wild how often contractors are offered FTE and turn it down. It's several times a year, generally.
FTE is great when you have a family, and you want to be a little less aggressive in your career. In general though if you are brought into a contract to hire situation, and you have the above values you have nothing to worry about. I've been in CTH situations 4 times in my career and got offered FTE everytime without any worry.
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@dashrender said in Job offer:
The new job sounds more like bench work as Scott would call it and not IT work. The IT work might come once you transition to the help desk. Deploying images is something you could learn in an afternoon, as for the VPN - I'm guessing you'd do little more than install/setup the VPN client - the hard part is something you'll likely never see or touch (the VPN server).
I've been deploying images for Desktops/Servers/Terminal PC's for about 4 years now. thats part of my current role.
VPNs are a new thing for me, but the need to learn it hasn't came up for me in my current role - no one uses a VPN for the POS.Personally - I don't know anyone who's made the jump from help desk to IT job. Not saying it doesn't happen, Just that those that I know that worked help desk jobs have generally either stayed there for near ever, or went a completely different direction.
You'd be even when it comes to the health coverage. But the money - is it really a pay raise? I believe you told me you get 10+ hours of OT a week on average. Sure it's more time on the clock, but would likely make the take home equal about the same as the $5/hr increase. But, and to me personally this is a huge but - to paid time off. You have to go 6+ months with zero paid time off. As you already mentioned - you have a child and it's extremely likely that you will have to miss work on a day or more during that six months. To keep yourself above water - you should then be putting nearly all of that extra $5/hr into an emergency savings account and only pulling from it for - gasp - emergencies - i.e. your kid is sick - you have to makeup that day's pay. When you consider that - it ends up being equal or a paycut to take the job.
On average I get anywhere from 5-10 a pay period for on call - with Sales man taking the GM position for one our customers - We aren't busy - I mean we werent' busy when he was here anyway but at least we had the Hope for more sales going out.
Others around here have mentioned that they do contract work all the time - there are huge advantages and disadvantages to it. Think of is like your mother's traveling job. If you have the skills - you'll likely always find the next contract, though you likely will have to move for it.
Never done Contract work, So not sure How to feel about that. The unknown is concerning.
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@dashrender said in Job offer:
Personally - I don't know anyone who's made the jump from help desk to IT job. Not saying it doesn't happen, Just that those that I know that worked help desk jobs have generally either stayed there for near ever, or went a completely different direction.
I wanted to upvote your post because it was pretty good, but I can't disagree with this statement more.
I worked Helpdesk nearly 16 years ago, and I've had it come up in interviews and been praised for it every single time except one occasion (I'll expand on that later). Most of the time senior level people will say I started in Helpdesk, too! This happens with c levels like CTO or CISO.
The only guy who had a snide remark was at five below and just recently promoted to help desk manager. He was part of a panel interviewing me and he brought up if I'm so skilled why would I ever accept working at Helpdesk. My response was some people learn by fire and some learn from universities. If rather have a general that knows how to fight in the trenches vs one that doesn't.
But as for @WrCombs it's too late to go to Helpdesk. That would have been a better option from day one, but you're not a rookie anymore. It's gonna look bad on your resume.
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It's actually wild how often contractors are offered FTE and turn it down.
Yes, job offers are always flattering but often respectfully declined.
If you're a successful contractor, becoming an employee is a usually a down grade in almost every aspect. But it's not for everyone.
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@dashrender said in Job offer:
Personally - I don't know anyone who's made the jump from help desk to IT job. Not saying it doesn't happen, Just that those that I know that worked help desk jobs have generally either stayed there for near ever, or went a completely different direction.
I wanted to upvote your post because it was pretty good, but I can't disagree with this statement more.
I worked Helpdesk nearly 16 years ago, and I've had it come up in interviews and been praised for it every single time except one occasion (I'll expand on that later). Most of the time senior level people will say I started in Helpdesk, too! This happens with c levels like CTO or CISO.
The only guy who had a snide remark was at five below and just recently promoted to help desk manager. He was part of a panel interviewing me and he brought up if I'm so skilled why would I ever accept working at Helpdesk. My response was some people learn by fire and some learn from universities. If rather have a general that knows how to fight in the trenches vs one that doesn't.
But as for @WrCombs it's too late to go to Helpdesk. That would have been a better option from day one, but you're not a rookie anymore. It's gonna look bad on your resume.
I suppose my own story might be considered a rise from helpdesk - you tell me.
I was a telemarketer who got pulled into a department called Tech Services (TS) - we took care of end user issues, running cables, moving equipment (mostly end user stuff) and the like. We didn't have a ticket system - people called a number - someone answered took a message and then someone was dispatched.
Eventually that company did get a helpdesk and ticket system - all new hires. They took the calls, logged them - then we in TS worked the tickets.The helpdesk in that case didn't work to resolve any issues, they simply took messages for TS to work issues.
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So - taking everything that's been said here ; and my own thoughts/feelings about it - I'm thinking I'll just decline the offer and hold out for something a little more suitable. I can stay at my current place until I find the right job.
Appreciate everyone's thoughts on this; pointed out some things I over looked.
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So - taking everything that's been said here ; and my own thoughts/feelings about it - I'm thinking I'll just decline the offer and hold out for something a little more suitable. I can stay at my current place until I find the right job.
Appreciate everyone's thoughts on this; pointed out some things I over looked.
Before you decline it - there is the option to counter offer.
I will say this though,.. it's a sliding scale,.. you are getting higher pay at the loss of PTO,.. you may get PTO - at the loss of higher pay...
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So - taking everything that's been said here ; and my own thoughts/feelings about it - I'm thinking I'll just decline the offer and hold out for something a little more suitable. I can stay at my current place until I find the right job.
Appreciate everyone's thoughts on this; pointed out some things I over looked.
Before you decline it - there is the option to counter offer.
I will say this though,.. it's a sliding scale,.. you are getting higher pay at the loss of PTO,.. you may get PTO - at the loss of higher pay...
One of my moves had me go from 5 weeks of PTO to 2 - I told them I wanted 3, they countered with - we can't give you 3, so we'll buy that third week for a weeks wage...
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@dashrender said in Job offer:
So - taking everything that's been said here ; and my own thoughts/feelings about it - I'm thinking I'll just decline the offer and hold out for something a little more suitable. I can stay at my current place until I find the right job.
Appreciate everyone's thoughts on this; pointed out some things I over looked.
Before you decline it - there is the option to counter offer.
I will say this though,.. it's a sliding scale,.. you are getting higher pay at the loss of PTO,.. you may get PTO - at the loss of higher pay...
One of my moves had me go from 5 weeks of PTO to 2 - I told them I wanted 3, they countered with - we can't give you 3, so we'll buy that third week for a weeks wage...
I brought up PTO last night during the call when it was offered - and he said it's not available for Hourly Employees. But That I can work my own schedule basically as long as I get 40 hours.
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@dashrender said in Job offer:
So - taking everything that's been said here ; and my own thoughts/feelings about it - I'm thinking I'll just decline the offer and hold out for something a little more suitable. I can stay at my current place until I find the right job.
Appreciate everyone's thoughts on this; pointed out some things I over looked.
Before you decline it - there is the option to counter offer.
I will say this though,.. it's a sliding scale,.. you are getting higher pay at the loss of PTO,.. you may get PTO - at the loss of higher pay...
One of my moves had me go from 5 weeks of PTO to 2 - I told them I wanted 3, they countered with - we can't give you 3, so we'll buy that third week for a weeks wage...
I brought up PTO last night during the call when it was offered - and he said it's not available for Hourly Employees. But That I can work my own schedule basically as long as I get 40 hours.
Now that's pretty awesome - knocking out 40ish in 3 - 3.5 days is awesome!!
