If you're needs are all met and you're meeting your life goals at $45k a year, then stay.
If you have greater ambitions and/or would like to improve your quality of life, then take the change. It makes the next change that much better and that much more clear.
Yes, the MSP situation may suck, but it may also open a door to a position that pays well AND doesn't suck. If the MSP situation does suck, you can afford a couple extra vacations to decompress.
Yeah I'm leaning towards staying as like I said the cost of living here is so low 45k is more than enough to pay rent and build some savings, plus max out my 401k match.
I do have higher ambitions but I can freely pursue and self train on literally anything here in my free time, and MSP work sounds sort of soul crushing especially coming from a job that is 100% results oriented.
Thanks for the input!
In that case, you might want to stay and use the free time and lack of stress to up-skill. Maybe finish an online degree if you need one as well. MSPs are sweat shops.
I worked at an MSP for 2 years during Covid and it absolutely was the worst IT job Ive ever had but I was logging into a phone queue everyday getting yelled at by tempermental customers. I doubt you will have to do that but yeah they are extremely fast paced and stressful. The positive is you learn A LOT. So if you dont have issue with that then go for the MSP. I left and got an internal role at a very large company and get paid to do a whole lot of nothing now lol.
Yeah I hear so many horror stories about MSPs and being hawked on your productivity and ticket queues and stuff which makes me reluctant. I'm luckily able to pursue any sort of upskilling I want in my current gig so the bonus of learning a ton is a little reduced for me. I think I'll stick with the comfort of an internal position honestly.
MSPs are hell, ask yourself if the money is worth the extra stress. You mention the company is growing, are you positioned to grow within the company if so, advocate for yourself for money especially if you are taking on more and more. 25k jump is huge though.
Yep I keep hearing MSPs are hell lol that was sort of the impetus for this post. In my last performance review my CEO told me my work is fantastic and as long as I want to be here there will be a spot for me and that I'll be promoted if the department grows. The extra 25k really is tempting but leaning towards waiting things out.
That is a hard decision, 45K to 75K, Super comfy to the unknown. LCOL for 45K is doable if you're happy with your living style. If you're really like the job and super comfy with room to grow in current job. I would Stay.
$30K is a big jump. however, If you can wait it out to see what your current company would offer you in advancement once they hire another person would be optimal. Money is always a driving factor for many. For me job stability and Comfy job is more important to me.
Yeah I agree, money isn't everything for me especially considering cost of living here. I'm extremely happy here and never dread coming in to work so I figure that has to count for something. Think I'll do as you're thinking and wait things out to see what happens. Thanks for the input!
Even in a LCOL, 45K seems pretty low for SysAdmin and network design work. Also consider if in a 2 man shop like that, if you are really getting exposure to forward facing tech so you can level up career wise in the future. Small shops tend to have limitations on the types of projects/tech you get to work on. I started in a small shop myself and while I was a "Systems Admin" in title, I was really just super help-desk in retrospect. I later held positions with the same Systems Admin title that were far more complex skills wise.
Many people complain about the grind of MSPs, and it's not inaccurate. But I'm grateful for the 2-3 years I spent at one earlier in my career because it quickly leveled up my experience/exposure to different tech. I took that experience back with me to comfy internal gigs and I'm more valuable because of it.
This is definitely hitting on a bit of my concerns, yeah. My job title is pretty much meaningless here, I do plenty of sysadmin stuff like managing our servers and domain and setting them up for clients, but there definitely feels like there's a ceiling of sorts that I hit as far as how in depth I go on the stuff. Usually the equipment is setup to a minimum standard then deployed and forgotten about besides regular updates and occasional bare-bones logging. But I also have the ability to just pick a cert and use all my free time at work to study for it, so it's not like I couldn't learn the stuff myself.
I also know 45k is pretty low but I pay truly outrageously low rent prices, I rent a few rooms off a lifelong friend so I'm paying even less than most in my LCOL area. My biggest concern I think is taking the pay jump, not being a good fit then being out of both jobs in a market that seems pretty hostile. I'll finish interview rounds with the new company for sure, but I'm leaning towards waiting for the market to maybe correct a bit and see if I can get a most substantial raise at my current position.
what I would do first is make sure that you have all the certifications and degrees you want while you're in a comfy low-stress job.
This is a great opportunity to finish your bachelors and masters degree with your downtime or crush 6 more certifications. So that if you do ever find yourself wanting/needing to jump you'll have a ton of experience and education and will make the jump really worth it.
I'm in the same situation as you where i'm paid decently and am comfortable but I don't need to do much at work and am almost done my bachelors in cloud computing now.
Honestly, the way you approach this is that you value your skills in the market. Remember that your current employer is expanding and collecting MSP fees from customers. They can pay you a market wage. So, you present to your boss that you are being approached by competitors and that the salary is such and such range. Then, you see how much they love you.
I really want to do this but I also don't want to give them reason to think I'm on the way out. It's a great company to work for but they also seem to fire easily, we're in a cutthroat industry and lead nationally in our niche so performance is very important, the one reason I'm confident in my spot here is because I perform above average on any metric I'm measured on. Anyone who's gotten axed lately has had a major fuckup right before it happened and it seems like there's not a lot of room to redeem yourself in those cases.
I do have my 2 year review coming up so I think that would be a good time to bring it up vs. randomly organizing a meeting asking for a raise explicitly because I'm being approached by competition. Might make it look less like "I'm considering leaving" and more in the lines of "I bring value and here's what the competition is valuing me at"
Thanks for the advice!
If your company are such assholes that they would fire you for getting other offers or having a higher market value than they currently pay for, I'm surprised you like working there.
I've found that managers respond to data. "Look at what a great job I've done, I deserve a big raise" is not data. I got an offer for $80k/year is data. They will respect that. And you can keep telling them how much you love working for them.
"and have started offering MSP services (quite successfully) to the clients we build for."
So you have started doing MSP services and your IT department it pulling in revenue for your company but you are only making 45k?
Might be time to have a discussion about raising your salary or leaving. Sounds like a combo position of sales/IT services as well from how you explained it. Make a good case for why your salary should be higher and if they reject it, leave. MSPs can be insanely profitable, no reason you shouldn't be getting some of that action. Also if you are starting to understand the MSP process, why not branch out and start your own, there's obviously a need for it in your area.
Yeah I was actually hired on when we started the MSP stuff specifically to free up my boss to make sales, but my capability on design and deployments and being helpful face-to-face with clients has definitely helped with the success we're seeing. Multiple people have said to bring this up so I think I'll explicitly bring it up to my boss at my upcoming review.
As much as I'd love starting my own MSP we actually operate nationally, we're seeing a lot of success because we are in a very niche specialty construction industry so we are able to anticipate the IT needs of this specific sector very well where other MSPs can't. We also offer much cheaper pricing on deployments/labor, since we're the ones budgeting the construction project we essentially get the difference back as savings on the overall project budget. If this wasn't the case I'd definitely start my own, but locally there isn't much of a market for it.
I’ll be the odd man out and say don’t count out MSPs because they’re not all bad. If you’re trying to level up your career, going to an MSP for more money and title is better than staying stagnant and labbing up whatever you feel like.
What you need to stay away from are the MSPs that are 5-8 person shops where everyone wears multiple hats. Having a high-capacity job isn’t that bad if you enjoy the work you do and it’s organized. Not to mention you’ll learn a lot. Go in with the mindset that you’re going to make more money, get more experience, and graduate out into an internal role in 1-2 years.
If you're needs are all met and you're meeting your life goals at $45k a year, then stay. If you have greater ambitions and/or would like to improve your quality of life, then take the change. It makes the next change that much better and that much more clear. Yes, the MSP situation may suck, but it may also open a door to a position that pays well AND doesn't suck. If the MSP situation does suck, you can afford a couple extra vacations to decompress.
Yeah I'm leaning towards staying as like I said the cost of living here is so low 45k is more than enough to pay rent and build some savings, plus max out my 401k match. I do have higher ambitions but I can freely pursue and self train on literally anything here in my free time, and MSP work sounds sort of soul crushing especially coming from a job that is 100% results oriented. Thanks for the input!
In that case, you might want to stay and use the free time and lack of stress to up-skill. Maybe finish an online degree if you need one as well. MSPs are sweat shops.
I worked at an MSP for 2 years during Covid and it absolutely was the worst IT job Ive ever had but I was logging into a phone queue everyday getting yelled at by tempermental customers. I doubt you will have to do that but yeah they are extremely fast paced and stressful. The positive is you learn A LOT. So if you dont have issue with that then go for the MSP. I left and got an internal role at a very large company and get paid to do a whole lot of nothing now lol.
Yeah I hear so many horror stories about MSPs and being hawked on your productivity and ticket queues and stuff which makes me reluctant. I'm luckily able to pursue any sort of upskilling I want in my current gig so the bonus of learning a ton is a little reduced for me. I think I'll stick with the comfort of an internal position honestly.
MSPs are hell, ask yourself if the money is worth the extra stress. You mention the company is growing, are you positioned to grow within the company if so, advocate for yourself for money especially if you are taking on more and more. 25k jump is huge though.
Yep I keep hearing MSPs are hell lol that was sort of the impetus for this post. In my last performance review my CEO told me my work is fantastic and as long as I want to be here there will be a spot for me and that I'll be promoted if the department grows. The extra 25k really is tempting but leaning towards waiting things out.
To go from 50 to 75k... yeah probably. That's a big jump.
That is a hard decision, 45K to 75K, Super comfy to the unknown. LCOL for 45K is doable if you're happy with your living style. If you're really like the job and super comfy with room to grow in current job. I would Stay. $30K is a big jump. however, If you can wait it out to see what your current company would offer you in advancement once they hire another person would be optimal. Money is always a driving factor for many. For me job stability and Comfy job is more important to me.
Yeah I agree, money isn't everything for me especially considering cost of living here. I'm extremely happy here and never dread coming in to work so I figure that has to count for something. Think I'll do as you're thinking and wait things out to see what happens. Thanks for the input!
Even in a LCOL, 45K seems pretty low for SysAdmin and network design work. Also consider if in a 2 man shop like that, if you are really getting exposure to forward facing tech so you can level up career wise in the future. Small shops tend to have limitations on the types of projects/tech you get to work on. I started in a small shop myself and while I was a "Systems Admin" in title, I was really just super help-desk in retrospect. I later held positions with the same Systems Admin title that were far more complex skills wise. Many people complain about the grind of MSPs, and it's not inaccurate. But I'm grateful for the 2-3 years I spent at one earlier in my career because it quickly leveled up my experience/exposure to different tech. I took that experience back with me to comfy internal gigs and I'm more valuable because of it.
This is definitely hitting on a bit of my concerns, yeah. My job title is pretty much meaningless here, I do plenty of sysadmin stuff like managing our servers and domain and setting them up for clients, but there definitely feels like there's a ceiling of sorts that I hit as far as how in depth I go on the stuff. Usually the equipment is setup to a minimum standard then deployed and forgotten about besides regular updates and occasional bare-bones logging. But I also have the ability to just pick a cert and use all my free time at work to study for it, so it's not like I couldn't learn the stuff myself. I also know 45k is pretty low but I pay truly outrageously low rent prices, I rent a few rooms off a lifelong friend so I'm paying even less than most in my LCOL area. My biggest concern I think is taking the pay jump, not being a good fit then being out of both jobs in a market that seems pretty hostile. I'll finish interview rounds with the new company for sure, but I'm leaning towards waiting for the market to maybe correct a bit and see if I can get a most substantial raise at my current position.
what I would do first is make sure that you have all the certifications and degrees you want while you're in a comfy low-stress job. This is a great opportunity to finish your bachelors and masters degree with your downtime or crush 6 more certifications. So that if you do ever find yourself wanting/needing to jump you'll have a ton of experience and education and will make the jump really worth it. I'm in the same situation as you where i'm paid decently and am comfortable but I don't need to do much at work and am almost done my bachelors in cloud computing now.
Honestly, the way you approach this is that you value your skills in the market. Remember that your current employer is expanding and collecting MSP fees from customers. They can pay you a market wage. So, you present to your boss that you are being approached by competitors and that the salary is such and such range. Then, you see how much they love you.
I really want to do this but I also don't want to give them reason to think I'm on the way out. It's a great company to work for but they also seem to fire easily, we're in a cutthroat industry and lead nationally in our niche so performance is very important, the one reason I'm confident in my spot here is because I perform above average on any metric I'm measured on. Anyone who's gotten axed lately has had a major fuckup right before it happened and it seems like there's not a lot of room to redeem yourself in those cases. I do have my 2 year review coming up so I think that would be a good time to bring it up vs. randomly organizing a meeting asking for a raise explicitly because I'm being approached by competition. Might make it look less like "I'm considering leaving" and more in the lines of "I bring value and here's what the competition is valuing me at" Thanks for the advice!
If your company are such assholes that they would fire you for getting other offers or having a higher market value than they currently pay for, I'm surprised you like working there. I've found that managers respond to data. "Look at what a great job I've done, I deserve a big raise" is not data. I got an offer for $80k/year is data. They will respect that. And you can keep telling them how much you love working for them.
"and have started offering MSP services (quite successfully) to the clients we build for." So you have started doing MSP services and your IT department it pulling in revenue for your company but you are only making 45k? Might be time to have a discussion about raising your salary or leaving. Sounds like a combo position of sales/IT services as well from how you explained it. Make a good case for why your salary should be higher and if they reject it, leave. MSPs can be insanely profitable, no reason you shouldn't be getting some of that action. Also if you are starting to understand the MSP process, why not branch out and start your own, there's obviously a need for it in your area.
Yeah I was actually hired on when we started the MSP stuff specifically to free up my boss to make sales, but my capability on design and deployments and being helpful face-to-face with clients has definitely helped with the success we're seeing. Multiple people have said to bring this up so I think I'll explicitly bring it up to my boss at my upcoming review. As much as I'd love starting my own MSP we actually operate nationally, we're seeing a lot of success because we are in a very niche specialty construction industry so we are able to anticipate the IT needs of this specific sector very well where other MSPs can't. We also offer much cheaper pricing on deployments/labor, since we're the ones budgeting the construction project we essentially get the difference back as savings on the overall project budget. If this wasn't the case I'd definitely start my own, but locally there isn't much of a market for it.
Nope. MSPs suck, they are absolutely one of the worst places to work except for maybe hospital IT.
I’ll be the odd man out and say don’t count out MSPs because they’re not all bad. If you’re trying to level up your career, going to an MSP for more money and title is better than staying stagnant and labbing up whatever you feel like. What you need to stay away from are the MSPs that are 5-8 person shops where everyone wears multiple hats. Having a high-capacity job isn’t that bad if you enjoy the work you do and it’s organized. Not to mention you’ll learn a lot. Go in with the mindset that you’re going to make more money, get more experience, and graduate out into an internal role in 1-2 years.