Are my salary expectations reasonable?

[dabigginger]

I've been working in IT for 7 years now. 5 years working in helpdesk and desktop support roles and then moved to a medium sized company about 2 1/2 years ago. In the past 2 1/2 years, I've taken on looking after the infrastructure (Windows servers) and have a few decent projects under my belt such as Windows Server migrations including domain controllers, Windows 7 roll out, implementing a new backup system etc.

I've been on a few courses such as VMware, VBScript etc. and really gotten good at scripting. However, I don't have any certifications at the moment.

Currently I'm on £25k a year, but want to aim for £30k now. Given my (brief) background I've written here, is that reasonable? I'm in Hampshire BTW.

[P.addy]

Can get that as a self employed contractor easy.

[arry]

Don't want to come across a bit edgy here but don't you think asking randoms with nothing more than a scrap of info on you is a bit, I don't know, searching to receive the answer one hopes for after telling half the story?

If you can't have the sort of sensible conversation with your boss about salary then you're either working for the wrong company, the wrong boss or you're not able to structure and influence the conversation to your favour - all of which not desirable outcomes - all of which action required

If you've not got a personal development plan already with some agreed milestones and rewards in it then suggest you talk to your company about building one.

But on what you've said and brief knowledge of the arena no what you're aiming for doesn't seem unreasonable

[Rogerborg]

£25K is noob graduate. £30K is noob graduate whose daddy knows the boss.

Stop asking what you're worth and start telling other employers what you're worth. You'll get that and more easily.
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[CaNsA]

[angryjonny]

I can't think of anyone better to ask than a biker forum.

In your position I'd ask for 175k. I suggest you send out an urgent meeting request on Monday. Invite your peers too so they can argue their case.

[duhawkz]

given the number of people on here who work in IT in some form or another I'd say it's it a fairly reasonable question to ask, in an of topic area.
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[dabigginger]

Like dubwakz said, exactly why I asked on here...

I know my current employers will not be able to afford to give me a rise at the moment. I won't go into the politics, but it won't happen for a while with where I am.

I've seen infrastructure engineer roles going for anything between 20k and 40k, so I'm sure there is a big difference in what employers are hoping for from employees at the bottom and top of these pay ranges.

I know some people are very good at over estimating what they can expect given their experience, so I'm just wondering what I should be looking for being realistic or if I should actually just be happy with what I'm getting given my current experience, then I can push for a little more with my current employers when the time is right.

[duhawkz]

what you have described in your first post is what I would class a systems administrator.

day to day managing and maintaining of the server estate, building and deploying vm's, patching, trouble shooting etc. 2nd possibly 3rd line support and some project work. probably following somebody else's project plan or design.

the term infrastructure engineer, to me means somebody who designs and implements the actual vmware estate for a datacenter, esx hosts, vcenter, storage, network requirements etc, possibly even deploy and configure the networking kit too.

they are very different roles and have very different salaries attached to them, and again that depends a lot on location too.

for sys admin on the windows side of things 25-35k possibly more in london, i have seen them as low as 18k, if you have linux experience to can be a lot more.

for the infrastructure engineer type stuff I have seen salaries of 35-55k and even higher in central london,

I definitely don't think 30k is an unreasonable expectation for what you have described in your first post.

but if you want a better idea have a look on jobsite or similar how your skill set matches up.
____________________
"The guy is a worthless cunt and I honestly believe I would be a slightly happier person if he died." - Chris-Red

[Rogerborg]

[duhawkz]

OP is in Hampshire by the looks of things, so yeah Lahndahn maybe doable for them.
____________________
"The guy is a worthless cunt and I honestly believe I would be a slightly happier person if he died." - Chris-Red

[barrkel]

The best way to figure out your worth is to test the market and interview for positions elsewhere.
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[Rogerborg]

Oh, right, post was tl;dr.

Reality remains that you're worth what someone will pay you in practice, so get pimping yourself.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
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[barrkel]

[Skudd]

You may be worth more.............. to the right person, but there are thousands of IT bods now so it is becoming the new shelf stacker job and will get paid as such soon.
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[dabigginger]

barrkel is right. Thanks for the comments, I will see what's around. I'm not in any rush to move on. In fact, I genuinely like where I work. However, I've been thinking over the last few months that I'm worth more than what I'm being paid. Hopefully my current employer will be in a position to pay more in the future, but this is by no means guaranteed and the longer I sit around waiting, the more potential money I'm throwing away.

I would only commute to London if I was out of work and in desperate need of a job. It would be an hour and a half each way at best which is rather not do...

This post was a quick reality check to make sure my expectations don't sound unrealistic, so thanks for the comments.

[someotherguy]

Go contracting.

You should make a LOT more than what you're on now, possibly even double.

£500/day sounds about right for that, in London anyway.

HTH

[Andy_Pagin]

OP's problem will be that he has a very common, and fairly basic skillset, and only a couple of years experience in anything beyond helpdesk work. Such people are two-a-penny especially in the City of London. £25,000 doesn't sound too bad to me.
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[someotherguy]

[Ste]

"is that reasonable?"

"Stop asking what you're worth and start telling other employers what you're worth. "



That list of stuff you've written in your post could be good but things like "a few decent projects under my belt" and "really gotten good at scripting" need context.

[Andy_Pagin]

[someotherguy]

[Andy_Pagin]

Sure, but OP isn't a graduate is he? or did I miss something, and he's not an experienced infrastructre engineer. Setting up servers and backup software is very basic stuff.
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They're coming to take me away, ho-ho, hee-hee, ha-haaa, hey-hey,
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[someotherguy]

[Andy_Pagin]

OP needs to give us a full CV. Plus we're all jumping to the conclusion that he wants to work in the City.
____________________
They're coming to take me away, ho-ho, hee-hee, ha-haaa, hey-hey,
the men in white coats are coming to take me away.
Yamaha Vity -> YBR125 -> FZS600 Fazer -> FZ1-S Fazer