IT Support - are we underselling ourselves?

[LosOjos]

Just pondering this really as I'm noticing more and more often that IT support jobs have what I consider to be extremely low rates of pay given the amount of skill required. Take this job description for example, it's pretty typical for a school IT tech:

 

The job holder will be required to maintain Management Information Systems within the school and the provision of IT services throughout the school. Development of Information Technology as a teaching and learning tool and to provide support for the submission of school data and complex forms. Upkeep of the school web site and its systems would be a requirement of the post. You will be responsible for the general repair and maintenance of all desktop and laptop PC's and Interactive Whiteboard equipment. A forward thinking approach to new technology and learning platforms is a must

 

So, in a nutshell, they want someone to:

• Be knowledgable in the maintenance of an MIS
  
• Contribute to teaching and learning in the school
  
• Complete the school census
  
• Be a web developer
  
• Know how to upgrade and maintain PCs, laptops and IWBs
  

 

So, what are they willing to pay for somebody with such a diverse skill set? Starting at ~£15k, pro rata.

 

The question is, is that enough? It's no mean feat to acquire the knowledge that would be required to do such a job. Granted, many IT techs I know bypassed a university education in favour of getting straight in to work, but every one of them spent many, many hours of their own time learning all this stuff. They may not have a piece of paper "proving" they know it, but they damn well worked hard most of their lives to understand it all.

 

Are we being massively underpaid for the skills we are required to have? Do you think the pay is adequate? Is the fact that many of us accept these low paid jobs early in our careers partly to blame for the wages remaining so low (and seemingly getting lower, or at least extra responsibilities being added with no increase in pay).

 

Just something I pondered this morning whilst looking through our job bulletin.

[AngryTechnician]

In a word, yes. £15k is too low for that post if they want someone who can fulfil that job spec competently.

 

Unfortunately there is a long history of schools paying as little as possible for staff due to limited budgets, and that's unlikely to change any time soon. They'd pay the teachers less too if they could get away with it. That combined with the fact that industry looks down on school IT as 'too basic' to allow us to move easily into non-school roles (partly due to the low pay making us look underskilled) means that the route out isn't as easy as it should be, so people get stuck in low-paying jobs and the school thinks "well, they're still here, we must be paying them enough".

Edited March 7, 2013 by AngryTechnician

[X-13]

Are we being massively underpaid for the skills we are required to have?

 

Yes.

 

But, it's not a case of techs underselling themselves, it's a case of this being what the pay is because of XYZ reason. Until we get an IT union who will push for proper pay [like the teachers have] it's going to be this way.

[CamelMan]

For basic IT pay (which I would class to be around 15k as above above) I would class as a technician role. I would only expect hardware maintaince, desktop support and basic server task skillsets.

 

For the skills required above I would see as a Senior Tech / Leading Tech / NM type role and then looking at somewhere between 20k and 30K depending on the size of the school, budget responsibilities etc.

 

However there is a recession and there are alot of good people out of work.

 

Also if this is a small primary school then the jobs might sound big (like web developer) but are actually lower level (such as updating the news section) and therefore are reflected in the pay.

 

I think in general IT support is underpaid - but then its seen as a kind of "anyone can do it" type job, with high turn over of personal. Sadly many management level people dont see or understand what you actually do all day - simply because generally if you do an IT support job well, no one see's you!!

[pcstru]

Are we being massively underpaid for the skills we are required to have?

Not sure about massively, but IMO schools IT support is generally underpaid for what is being asked. However ...

Is the fact that many of us accept these low paid jobs early in our careers partly to blame for the wages remaining so low (and seemingly getting lower, or at least extra responsibilities being added with no increase in pay).

Yes and I don't think it is confined to early in peoples careers. But there are obviously side benefits because people put up with it and staff turnover in many institutions is surprisingly low.

[X-13]

Also if this is a small primary school then the jobs might sound big (like web developer) but are actually lower level (such as updating the news section) and therefore are reflected in the pay.

 

This isn't always the case. I was expected to fully design the website while employed as a part-time [15 hours], term time only tech.

 

 

It was only passed on to a proper web company when, after being told it wasn't good enough, I told them that if they wanted a professional looking website then needed to pay me proper web-designer money.

[CyberNerd]

Are we being massively underpaid for the skills we are required to have?

 

No, because people happily go for the jobs. If there was a skills shortage the price would go up. There are plenty of people who would happily work term time only and click next next finish all day long. Windows admin isn't highly paid because it is very easy - thats part of MS selling point. If you want more money as an administrator get some unix skills.

[witch]

There are plenty of people who would happily work term time only and click next next finish all day long.

Do hope you are not implying that us term-time only people are only good enough to click next finish all day. Besides, the point is that the job description was far more than just a next finish sort of job and yet the salary is derisory.

Not quite sure what you mean by "windows admin" but I don't think it is that easy unless you know how to do it - like anything in this world. There is little or no call for unix skills in any tech job I have seen around here.

Outside education, at least around here, salaries aren't much better. I just went for an interview for a full-time job which was roughly the level I am on, and it was only about £2k more a year at the very most.

[CyberNerd]

Do hope you are not implying that us term-time only people are only good enough to click next finish all day. Besides, the point is that the job description was far more than just a next finish sort of job and yet the salary is derisory.

Not quite sure what you mean by "windows admin" but I don't think it is that easy unless you know how to do it - like anything in this world. There is little or no call for unix skills in any tech job I have seen around here.

Outside education, at least around here, salaries aren't much better. I just went for an interview for a full-time job which was roughly the level I am on, and it was only about £2k more a year at the very most.

 

No not at all. I wasn't trying to imply that term time only is 2nd rate, or in any way trying to say that windows skills are not valuable - just that there are a LOT of people who can use windows, it's NOT a highly skilled area in schools or in industry.

[witch]

Use windows in what way though? Not many people can do what we do - at least not outside our geeky circles!

[LosOjos]

No not at all. I wasn't trying to imply that term time only is 2nd rate, or in any way trying to say that windows skills are not valuable - just that there are a LOT of people who can use windows, it's NOT a highly skilled area in schools or in industry.

 

Yeah, it is easy to follow the Windows wizards, as you say just click next, next finish. But what when it doesn't work? That's where knowledge is essential.

 

There's a huge difference between using Windows and administrating a network - I'm quite surprised to hear such a shallow explanation of the role from a fellow geek...

 

In fact I'd argue that good knowledge of how a network works, how to diagnose problems and fix them and why they happen in the first place is infinitely more important than the platform you apply it to - the principles are the same, only the toolset changes

Edited March 7, 2013 by LosOjos

[CyberNerd]

Use windows in what way though? Not many people can do what we do - at least not outside our geeky circles!

 

Think of it this way - there is nothing in MS land that is more difficult than reading a manual. One book and you know exchange, one book you know AD etc. Finding the anwsers is easy if you can use google. it isn't hard to do and a lot of people do it, therefore the pay isn't so good. Compare that to a teacher where you (currently) NEED a degree and a PGCE (ok, there are exceptions with this) or a Doctor where you need a medical degree and a Ph.D - there is more demand for these jobs and less people able to do it, hence the pay is more. logic.

[glennda]

Use windows in what way though? Not many people can do what we do - at least not outside our geeky circles!

 

the common misconception with windows is that while yes it can be very easy to setup and have it run happily it is when it goes wrong where you earn your stripes as IMHO is can be harder to figure out what has gone wrong than with linux (depending on your linux knowledge that is). As with linux as so much more is involved in the installation and configuration you tend to know more about how and where it does things whereas windows and its wizards you don't.

[CyberNerd]

the common misconception with windows is that while yes it can be very easy to setup and have it run happily it is when it goes wrong where you earn your stripes as IMHO is can be harder to figure out what has gone wrong than with linux (depending on your linux knowledge that is). As with linux as so much more is involved in the installation and configuration you tend to know more about how and where it does things whereas windows and its wizards you don't.

 

That's definitely true. I went from installing windows 2000 for the first time to installing a domain within about 6months. It all worked ok, but it essentially only took a few days 'training' to learn how to do it.

[FishCustard]

Absolutely. Some bits of IT are a bit like flying an airliner. When everything is going fine, very little needs to be done beyond keeping an eye on various metrics and pointing things in the right direction (i.e. autopilot does 99% of the work).

 

However, when the excrement hits the AC unit, that's where specialist knowledge and experience is really necessary. When 3 of 4 engines are on fire, you want an experienced pilot at the helm. When your PDC explodes, you want an experienced IT techie putting things back together.

[TechMonkey]

@CyberNerd: But is that because it is 'easy' or because of your experience, skill set and mind set? Bet not everyone could have been put infront of that hardware and that book and have a working, efficient and properly configured system at the end. Or even with an acceptable time period.

[witch]

Think of it this way - there is nothing in MS land that is more difficult than reading a manual. One book and you know exchange, one book you know AD etc..

A very simplistic view IMHO. So if I read a couple of books on Physics I'm a physicist?

Maybe I'm just thick but it took me a bit more than just reading about it to get to grips with AD, GP etc.

Also, you are missing the point that most people don't WANT to do this sort of thing so no, there aren't that many people doing it.

I think part of the low pay is definitely related to age. It is often youngsters - 16-25 who start fiddling with computers and so their salary expectations are low. Also because they are keen they tend to shoot themselves in the foot by doing far more than the job actually entails, thus leaving the school presuming that you can pay £15k and get someone whose skills are very high level.

[Guest salan]

My opinion is that to people outside IT, Windows IS just a case of pressing next!

We all know that is far from the truth often (has anyone NEVER had an update commit self destruct on a system? not often but boy what a mess!).

It's like our Principal, My boss got asked 'what does he do'?

His reply was well do you know even how to turn on the server?

when everything is going smooth, then people do not even think of you. When TSHTF, then all of a sudden it's all your fault!

lol

BTW I moved some stuff over to Linux servers and have had far less trouble with them then I have ever had with IIS!

Alan

[glennda]

@CyberNerd: But is that because it is 'easy' or because of your experience, skill set and mind set? Bet not everyone could have been put infront of that hardware and that book and have a working, efficient and properly configured system at the end. Or even with an acceptable time period.

 

It goes back to what I said - its easy to setup and then monitor its not easy to then fault find within the system which is where IMHO the experience plays its part.

[TechMonkey]

But are we saying it is easy because we have the skillset and experience to do it. As someone else said, anything is easy if you know how to. Do you think you could grab Joe Public off the street, give him a book and tell him to get on with it? Would you do that? If not the it isn't easy. It requires a skill. This, I imagine, is part of the problem. We see it as easy to don't assign much value to it.

 

The other side of the coin is people are used to managing their home computers so have the attitude, how hard can it be.

[glennda]

But are we saying it is easy because we have the skillset and experience to do it. As someone else said, anything is easy if you know how to. Do you think you could grab Joe Public off the street, give him a book and tell him to get on with it? Would you do that? If not the it isn't easy. It requires a skill. This, I imagine, is part of the problem. We see it as easy to don't assign much value to it.

 

The other side of the coin is people are used to managing their home computers so have the attitude, how hard can it be.

 

I put 3 work ex kids (who were only with me and they didn't have any other placement) no real interest in IT and gave them an old box and switch and a desktop and a windows disk - said install that and create a domain - 4 user accounts and make a group policy to map a drive onto that machine which needs joining to the domain.

 

4 hours later they came back having done it - and although I wouldn't of expected it to take 4 hours they did it without and real guidance (apart from the raid config).

[CyberNerd]

A very simplistic view IMHO. So if I read a couple of books on Physics I'm a physicist?

 

No- that's the point - you need a physics Ph.D before you'll likely to get any sort of employment as a physicist and because there are relatively few people with this sort of knowledge so the salary is higher.

 

But are we saying it is easy because we have the skillset and experience to do it.

 

Yes - and lots of people have this skillset and experience.

 

I'm really not trying to belittle our chosen careers, it's just NOT an in demand job given the number of people who can do it with little or no qualification.

[sukh]

It depends on the level of experience & industry you work in and which country you are based in. It also depends on how the product is being used. I know it's got a little easier over the years, but for e.g Exch isn't just next, next, next and finish. However, some admins have the same knowledge as another UK admin but are based in "cheap labour" companies. This is similar to where you are located in the UK, Different area's different pay.

 

I believe it's down to the individual to set pay expectation, and if not met, then decline.

 

There isn't nt even a handful of employers I know that will recruit a person who has just read a book and installed a DC or Exch. You need to know your stuff. The only competition I see is the cloud or "cheap labour" countries, IMHO.

[Ephelyon]

There is a difference between doing something and doing it with distinction, whether you choose to base your sysadmin skillset around Windows, Linux, Solaris, OS X (supposedly even easier to administer than Windows but still a b*gger when it falls over), or in the mainframe market like AIX.

 

It's true that Windows sysadmin skills are among the most common in that job market, but it's also true that the majority of SMBs will use Windows (at least on the desktop). Certainly the majority of schools do as well. Are there more people because there are more jobs, or is it vice versa? I imagine it's probably both.

 

If you Next > Finish your way through Windows networking, you're not getting the most out of it. I've achieved a level of automation (image deployment, software installation, backup management etc.) here with Windows - through Group Policies, batch scripting and Auto-It - that frankly you're not going to get with anything else, and that means the system just runs itself most of the time (isn't that the American Dream of sysadminning?) so I'm freed up to focus on the strategic side and work with the curriculum staff to achieve the best from their technology. It might look easy to keep it going now... but that's only because of the phenomenal effort it took to get it there. When I first got here there was an average of 50 jobs on the Helpdesk all the time and we had a couple of Win2K3 tower servers that fell over every few hours or so, with XP on the desktop.

 

Now we're a fully-virtualised Win2K8R2 + Win7 shop that largely runs itself with an average of 0 jobs on the Helpdesk... but that's only happened through years of work (as Technician then NM) that's far beyond the Next > Finish level (not being arrogant, jus' sayin'). So put bluntly you can Next > Finish your way through administering a Windows network, yes, but you're using very little of its potential to free you up for the rest of the role if you do. At the end of the day, there's a reason why the "green and keen I-can-regurgitate-MCITP-textbooks" types aren't as well regarded as people with actual experience. Simon Travaglia likes to talk about this...

Edited March 8, 2013 by Ephelyon

[andrew_91090]

No, because people happily go for the jobs. If there was a skills shortage the price would go up.

 

I would say this is only partly true, YES, there is ALOT of people looking for IT jobs and ALOT of people out of work at the moment, but at the same time, NO, I'm sorry but they are taking the lowest wage for this this role and giving it to anyone and with the technology improving every single day, IT Techs jobs are getting hard and harder day by day, we are getting asked to do more than was on our current contracts and IMHO, other people don't realise how important we are to schools/industries, near enough all GCSE/controlled assessments all have to go through computers nowwa days and sales all go through computers at industries.

My position is Operational Support Assistant, which is basically, I do a bit of everything and anything here, from maintaining the server with the credit card checks on to following orders and checking stock and I'm currently on a low wage myself