[Gllug] VACANCY: Junior Sysadmin/Helpdesk/1st-line support AND Reasonable Salary

Thu Feb 3 01:20:06 UTC 2011

I'd like to thank everyone who commented on the position we advertised. 
Some of your responses gave us all a good laugh at the Board meeting 
where we discussed the applications we have had. However, I think they 
also demonstrate some misapprehensions and some considerable 
misunderstanding of the job application process *from the point of view 
of an employer*.

  As a geek who has now been advertising for people for technical roles, 
and then employing them with some success (from their viewpoint!), for 
some 35 years, I thought it might be worth briefly setting out my views 
on the process in the hope it may be of some use to any potential job 
seekers on the list, particularly those seeking a first paid responsible 
position. Please remember that this job is for someone in that position 
- *not* a trained and experienced sysadmin, but someone who may become one.

  1. It was quite notable that (with some clear exceptions) most of 
those commenting were not seeking a job  (those seeking a job were 
presumably amongst our applicants). However it was also very apparent 
that (again with some  clear exceptions) most of those commenting had 
not followed the link to the actual job advert on our website.

  It is my experience over the years that there is a clear difference 
between those students who get a first, and those who don't. Those who 
do, invariably read and follow the instructions given to them in their 
course *very carefully*. They look for what the tutors are looking for 
in them. So here, part of the person specification is, implicitly, 
'someone who can follow simple instructions (and hyperlinks!) accurately’.

  Anyone who had actually followed the link would have found that, for 
example, I had only mentioned  (as requested in the GLLUG ad 
requirements) the *minimum* salary for the job and not the maximum. 
Those interested in a job would have followed the link and seen that we 
hope not to pay the minimum stated. That is, we will not pay *less* than 
12k for this role.

  They would also have seen that the job specification primarily 
describes supporting the Windows desktop and toolset. However depressing 
that stuff is, that's what most small businesses use; and that's what 
the starter will be doing first. Our hope is that they will have enough 
notion of server software, probably Windows but preferably also Linux, 
to be brought on to a junior sysadmin role by the end of their first 
year of employment.

In passing, it's worth pointing out that a university degree (even from 
Oxford or Cambridge) is of little proven direct benefit to any employer. 
The level of understanding needed to get a degree does not map well on 
to typical employment scenarios. A degree (or similar training) does 
show some useful attributes:

- persistence
- organisation
- ability to read and write
- debt management

and a technical degree may indicate numeracy. Getting a first usually 
indicates a strong likelihood of the above.

However none of this can be taken for granted, and non-degree candidates 
can be just as good.

  2. My common and frequent experience with people who are just leaving 
training is that they overvalue their worth *to an employer*. The total 
cost of employment of any employee is something that is remarkably hard 
to accurately quantify. There is however (for those interested) a 
spreadsheet available here:

  http://www.techscribe.co.uk/ta/cost-of-employment.htm

  - which attempts to give some idea of the costs, and the results this 
gives align quite well with our experience.

  So, let's say one was paying the minimum and measly 12k mentioned for 
someone who might, in the next six months, be fit to be let loose on the 
Helpdesk without supervision. I calculate the total costs of employment 
(with minimal extra benefits) at being around 25k per annum.

  Now that is a bare minimum. Realistically, we can assume a minimum 
involvement of other staff to train and manage a new starter of around 2 
hours a day as an absolute minimum over the first six months (and much 
more than that for the first month). But even at 2 hours a day, that's 
10 hours a week, or around 25% of a income-earning staff members 
billable time (billed usually at a net cost to the company of around 125 
per hour).

  If we assume a minimum value for all that, then the real costs of 
employment to the company for the first year, with salary of some 12k 
gross, is more like 31k for the first year as an absolute minimum.

  Now how much is this employee going to contribute to our bottom line? 
Well that's simple, it will start at zero and we must hope that by the 
end of the first year we may be able to anticipate a future break-even 
situation.

  So the cost of the new employee to the company is at least 31k with no 
direct benefit in the first year. The only person to benefit directly is 
the new employee, who has at least been paid and gained some experience. 
The company has paid out and not gained any experience.

To give some idea of what the employee would have to contribute in a 
typical small B2B company to earn their pay, each full-time employee of 
my company bills about 85k per annum currently for the company. To 
enlarge further, that is half from sales and half from services. On 
sales we average 2% profit on sales; that’s quite good in the industry.

To address another related point: we are a small company, and the 
employment conditions are quite different to those in a large 
organisation. This brings freedom, but demands responsibility. This 
suits some people and not others.

As another related point, we need someone who ‘gets’ hardware and 
software. This is not something I have found to be teachable. There are 
brilliant systems programmers (who usually ‘get’ hardware) and brilliant 
application programmers (who usually don’t). There are sysadmins who can 
manage a few scripts, but who no-one would describe as gifted 
programmers: but conversely, who I can completely trust with clients’ 
data and hardware. That’s what I’m looking for - as a trainee. I don’t 
know any way to specify such a person that works better than this.

  3. This brings me to the probationary period. There seems to be some 
misunderstanding of this. In UK employment law there is no special 
provision for a 'probationary period'. The comments seemed to see it as 
being equivalent to 'being on probation' - but we do not expect to 
recruit from the output of the probation service :)

  What a probationary period really is is exactly what the derivation of 
the word indicates  - ‘probare', 'testing', 'trying'. *We* are trying 
the candidate to see if they fit the job and the company, and testing to 
see if one day they will make a profit. *The candidate* is testing the 
job and the company to see if these fit with them, and whether they want 
to commit to a permanent position with us.

  The probationary aspect is entirely two-way.

  We use a year as a probationary period, because in previous experience 
we have found candidates who were still not at a level where we could 
offer a full-time post after six months, but who were sufficiently 
promising to not terminate at that point. Stating the year makes this 
explicit from the outset.

  There were comments on how, at the end of the period, a new staff 
member should immediately become a full staff member. Well this of 
course is what a full-time position implies. But employment law does not 
suddenly change after one year's employment. A staff member with one 
year's experience of their job is still going to be very junior, when 
compared with one who has 20 years' experience. There's no way round that.

There’s some good info on the legal situation at:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/life/employment/contracts_of_employment.htm

4. What constitutes a ‘reasonable salary’? This is difficult to define. 
Over my working (and employing) life, I have repeatedly found that 
people who were attracted by a salary (rather that the potential for 
them to fulfil themselves in a job) were unhappy employees, and not 
employees for very long. If your interest is income, then the best 
prospects in IT are in the financial programming area in the City, and 
in the support services that go with that. That’s also where all my 
unhappiest contacts work :)

If you really want lotsa money then you probably need to be an innovator 
and an entrepreneur (with enormous luck), rather than an employee, and 
IT is probably not where you should be working at all. Nor is the UK 
ideal for this, due to the lack of available SME investment capital.

Many people who do work for themselves get sufficient satisfaction to 
override the income cut they also typically take.

On the other hand, those who like to separate life and work (and perhaps 
want to raise a family) often find that being employed suits them well, 
and they need a salary that reflects their proven value to be content. 
That is something that varies based on far too many factors to 
generalise here.

5. As a final point, one thing that must be apparent to most people by 
now is that information on mailing lists and social networking sites is 
all too permanent. While I am clear that most comments were from people 
not at all interested in the advertised opportunity, what if our next ad 
is for a full-time (or perhaps contract) PERL developer? So I would urge 
moderation rather than a slagging-off, where possible :)

It’s perhaps not overall advisable to start (just to pick an example, 
Peter) venting about ‘Dickensian employers’ (especially without 
following the link, or finding out what the whole job offer is!).

I am happy with the response to the ad, and the quality of candidates 
who are applying for the post, though most of them have come direct from 
Prospect rather than through this list I think :)

Since I think it important to take people off the streets :) I will 
continue to advertise (occasionally) positions for starters as they 
become available.

And thank you, Tet, for your voice of reason.

MeJ

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Stabilys Ltd		www.stabilys.com
244 Kilburn Lane
LONDON
W10 4BA

0845 838 5370
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