Current Events > So they're giving me a job offer... But there are complications...

(+) Yeah! (+)

Same salary, less annual bonus, $5500 relocation package...

Cost of living is indeed less in San Antonio, but... Not sure I want to do this if I have to take a pay cut... Gonna go back to them with a counter offer once I work out the numbers...
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I wouldn't take it unless one of your main goals is to move to San Antonio.
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Whats the situation with raises? When will you be eligible to get one assuming you demonstrate good performance?

Not sure why youd take it otherwise. Ive had to learn the hard way that gambling on some unknown position is a bad idea unless your old job is completely unacceptable.
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divot1338 posted...

Whats the situation with raises? When will you be eligible to get one assuming you demonstrate good performance?

Not sure why youd take it otherwise. Ive had to learn the hard way that gambling on some unknown position is a bad idea unless your old job is completely unacceptable.

It's a pretty complicated situation at this point...

1) This whole process essentially started when the current company made a really bad hire to fill a Direct of IT Operations role. This dude is a complete jackass.
- Acts like he knows things he clearly doesn't know on a regular basis
- Won't back down about things when shown he is wrong
- Places blame on others for his own failures
- Needlessly confrontational, has a habit of being confrontational in situations where there is no benefit to doing so

When I started, the company had 2 buildings and ~350 employees. Now we have about 12 buildings and over 1200 employees... The IT operations team has shrunk since I started.

I told the said director of IT that this is a really bad formula, but he refused to hire more people. When we set up our current corporate office, I was working 80 hour weeks to get everything done with the network. That was with me being the only network engineer and having another contractor come in for that project to help. They wanted to open the Canada office at the same time and that did NOT go well. The opening of that office was delayed essentially because I'm just 1 person and can only do so much.

I told that to our director of IT and there were multiple new locations trying to open at the same time and it probably wasn't going to go well unless they got me some help. There was a long stretch of time this year where I was working 60 - 70 hour weeks every week trying to get everything done.

When I went to Charleston, SC, I was working 60 hours during the day that week to get stuff done for the new location and then coming back to the hotel and working another 10 to 15 hours to get requests done for existing locations.

So they finally agreed to hire a contractor to help me out. We've both been working 60 - 70 hours/week for a long time trying to get multiple new locations straightened out.

We lost both our security architect and our system admin at the same time, in large part because they were tired of drowning in their work.

I asked for a raise because of this. I haven't ever been able to truly disconnect from work being the only network engineer on staff. I'm on vacation now since Monday and I've had to work at least a little bit all 3 days so far. This is pretty much common for me.

The company recently started looking for a CIO, and the director of IT wanted to be promoted to that position. Apparently a lot of people within IT had a lot of problems with that guy and the company ended up telling him he wasn't qualified for the position. He essentially got his feelings hurt and left the company.

I feel like the new CIO is going to fix things and is working on expanding the team, but it's just not gonna be an overnight thing to where everything is just better immediately.
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Is Trump the new it director?

CADE FOSTER posted...

Is Trump the new it director?

You don't even want to know how many times this comparison has been made
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I would have went to his boss sooner. Or even HR. That's definitely a toxic atmosphere.

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lol

Veggeta X posted...

I would have went to his boss sooner. Or even HR. That's definitely a toxic atmosphere.

The thing is... his boss KNEW that the guy couldn't be trusted. We were working on getting bandwidth upgrades at our corporate office... The conversation was between me, the VP of operations, and the director of IT operations...

VP: Why is one provider so much more expensive than the other?
Director: Because X isn't a tier 1 provider, while Y is, so X gonna be cheaper
Me: (Remembering the director specifically saying that X IS a tier 1 provider and Y isn't when he first started) O_o (stayed silent)
VP: What are the reliability numbers between the two?
Me: I don't have the exact numbers, I'll have to grab that.
VP: I don't mean to be a hardass, but I have to make sure that his bullshit (points at the director) is correct
Me: O_O Sure thing
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Roughly where do you live now and what's your annual bonus?
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The way you described your job is the exact reason why working more for more money means shit to me.

I have a lower paying job than you but I only work 36 hour weeks and get plenty of free time to do whatever I want. You sound like you're a slave to your job. The things you can buy with your paycheck are nice and all but what's the point when you're working hellish hour like that?

When I need more money I just pick up another day at the hospital

jeffhardyb0yz posted...

Damn bro, not that much increase? Dont you live in Austin, which is apparently the best city in Texas?

I'm working out the numbers and it would actually be a pay cut as it stands... I have to consider a number of things...

1) The base salary they're offering matches my CURRENT base salary
- I got a 5.5% annual raise, so I would end up making even more if I stayed at my current job
2) I'd be giving up 5% of potential bonus
- The company gave us 50% EXTRA on top of the 15% annual bonus this year. If they do the same thing, then my current situation will outclass this offer easily
3) Less paid vacation days
4) Less company holidays

I'm putting this spreadsheet together and they're definitely gonna have to offer more. Cheaper cost of living doesn't even cover everything I'm earning now.

Said director of IT leaving my current company really complicated this whole thing. Yeah, my work hours have been hellish, but... I genuinely believe it's going to get better with the new CIO in house.
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You can't uproot your life for equal or less money. They have to make it SUBSTANTIALLY worth your while!

Edit - still, well done on nailing the interview! This shows your skills are in demand, don't forget it!

I would consider the offer given that it sounds like you hate your boss. If it's the same title and everything I guess it's a re-roll but you lose a lot of the earned knowledge and respect from your current role without really gaining anything in terms of career progression.

Denver has a lot of telecoms btw, I work at Comcast and there is a massive network engineering team that sits in my area. Not sure how the market is in Texas but there's also Verizon, Charter, F5 Networks, Spectrum, etc all in the same area in Denver.
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IllegalAlien posted...

I would consider the offer given that it sounds like you hate your boss. If it's the same title and everything I guess it's a re-roll but you lose a lot of the earned knowledge and respect from your current role without really gaining anything in terms of career progression.

Denver has a lot of telecoms btw, I work at Comcast and there is a massive network engineering team that sits in my area. Not sure how the market is in Texas but there's also Verizon, Charter, F5 Networks, Spectrum, etc all in the same area in Denver.

Nah, my boss isn't the problem at all. It was his former boss that pretty much made the job terrible. THAT guy was a jackass. My boss is the best boss I've ever had. The new CIO seems to be pretty genuine in wanting to fix the fact that our team is understaffed. They actually brought in a network/systems guy yesterday, but I haven't met him yet since I'm on vacation.

And at this point I'm trying to stay far away from telecom. I grew up in the networking world in a managed systems environment that turned into a managed systems/telecom environment and got pretty burned out.
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Just sent them back the counter-offer. I'm glad I looked at all of the numbers instead of just jumping ship. We'll see what they come back with.
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I'm thinking this is just the HR guy trying to be cheap, honestly... Hopefully they're able to get the offer much closer to what I want.
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Working while on vacation?

bruh fucking quit.

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