Should I leave?

[danielson81]

Hi there,

I am apologise if this is the wrong place to post, but wonder if anyone can offer me any advice.

On Wednesday I have an interview (assessment day, yuk!) for a particular company that provides IT Support to home and businesses across London and is now expanding to where I live . The job would basically be visiting peoples homes and businesses and repairing their PCs/setting up wireless networks etc.

At the moment I am a ICT Technician for four primary schools. I manage and run the networks at these schools, I do not have any other people assisting me. Although I have phone support and monthly visits from LEA technicians.

The salary I am currently on is £19k pro rata, which works out at £17k for 44 weeks. If I was offered this job I would be on £20k per annum with up to £25k with commission and overtime.

Obviously this new job will pay more, however I will probably miss things like long holidays, being my own boss, pay rises each year and all other benefits of working in a school/public sector.

However I don't see any promotion opportunities for me at the moment and have had zero training since I have startred! I have a degree in Information Systems and have been doing this job for nearly two years now. It was my first job after uni.

If I was offered the job should I take it? I am worried I won't be able to handle the culture change from public sector to private sector?

Of course I could just shut up and go for it!

Any comments appreciated!

[witch]

Sorry mate, but the sort of company you are talking about, around here at least,, are really tough to work for - they expect miracles in half the time and you end up running around madly being expected to perform them. How do you get the commission?
Is there any training?
I can't see the prospects for the future being a lot better than where you are now, to be honest.
How about doing a bit of training yourself and then going for a network managers job in a big school?

[ctbjs]

Clearly the first thing you need to sort out is whether you want the holidays and associated time off you get with education vs the corporate lifestyle where you are likely to have more promotion opportunities and higher salary but this is at a price of extended hours, not being your own boss and of course the holidays are shorter.

What is the company like, is it a large company, it seems to be growing according to your post, are they growing too fast for a small company will they be able to cope with the expansion or are they living the dream...look what happened to my football team for doing that!!!

If you are looking for promotion then the corporate sector is probably a better avenue, if you are looking for a wage rise, try looking for a new job in education.

I did this a year ago now, was on 20k as a Network Manager, I looked around and found another job as Network Manager at a slightly larger school and now earn £28K so you can effectively promote your salary without the promoting the postion, yes you will get increased responsibiliy but then that comes with the territory.

In the end nobody can tell you what to do with this but have a long think about things, do you have a wife and children then maybe moving to a coroprate might not be for you, are you single then yes it could be for you because you have no other dependencies. Think hard then make your choice and good luck with it.

[apeo]

Sounds like a service engineer position so you will also want to consider the amount of time you will be spending travelling.

[broc]

Think very carefully; will you be expected to provide out of hours support? Are all of your travelling costs covered, including wear & tear costs if using your own transport? Your job security is probably better (for the moment at least) working for your schools, until BSF kicks in when it may have an impact on the primary schools too.

I think WITCH makes some important points, particularly about looking at training (self-study) and trying to find career progression in bigger schools. I would add to this the alternative of seeking employment in larger corporate organisations with in-house IT support. You will find greater diversity of opportunity and better prospects for advancement and training, more than you will get providing front-line field support for very small customers with quite often unrealistic demands and expectations. Small customers expect PC repair time to be on a par with washing machine repairs & quite often don't appreciate the complexities of debugging PC problems, particularly software. That's why the standard response from most PC manufacturers when dealing with software problems starts with "find your recovery CD......"

[mattx]

To me [ and correct me if I am wrong ] but just asking other people the question to me states you don't really want the job.
I agree with Witch and apeo.

FYI I went for a IT managers job the other week - got down to the last two - luckery for me they offered it to the other person. It was a new school, nice IT, nice setup - shame it didn't work properly, [ They had a tons of problems ] there was NO documentation and quite frankly it sounded like too much hassle for me. I was in a dilema just in case it was offered until the wife said what I am saying to you !!

[Grommit]

If you are looking for promotion then the corporate sector is probably a better avenue, if you are looking for a wage rise, try looking for a new job in education.

I did this a year ago now, was on 20k as a Network Manager, I looked around and found another job as Network Manager at a slightly larger school and now earn £28K so you can effectively promote your salary without the promoting the postion, yes you will get increased responsibiliy but then that comes with the territory.
.

It has to be you decision.. but my point of view is that there is no future promotion in ICT in the Education Sector..

Under the BSF which is refurbishing all the schools in the country ICT Managers are being wiped out and there will only be TUPED Technicians (password/toner changers) left in the schools.

Where as If you get out of the Education sector now and go into the Private sector you can still have a career in ICT and work up to an ICT Manager or ICT Director position which do not exist under the BSF / BECTA plans for schools.

[zag]

School holidays are nice, but if you have little chance of promotion(or future pay increases) I would move on. Maybe not to the company you describe as it seems they are not offering too much more money but you could look for a network managers job.

[plexer]

Plus if you actually want to go away for a holiday it's damn expensive in school holidays you'd be better off in a job where you can take proper holiday.

The BSF program is one thing to keep and eye on certainly as it the alignment of job descriptions and pay scales that is underway in some lea's.

Ben

[danielson81]

Thanks for all your replies!

The company in question sounds similar to a Squad of Geeks.

I think I will attend the assessment day and find out what progression opportunities there are and how they work. Unless its amazing I doub't I will leave my current job.

However I will look around for more jobs. Thanks once again.