New Job ? What to do ?

BillScarab

It's a difficult question to answer. If I could get a job on more money at a local school I'd be very tempted, especially if it is term time only. In fact I'd take a pay cut to have school holidays off, but then I'm 41 with a family so my circumstances are very different.

I'd also like to go back to a job where I had responsibility for everything rather than my current job where I just look after servers.

As others have said you'll probably end up earning more in a commercial environment eventually.

No idea how secure school IT jobs are but there's always the risk of redundancy in a commercial company to consider as well.

If you currently work for a large oganisation are there other benefits to consider, such as private health care or a company car, either now or in the future? Also how do the pension schemes compare? It may seem a long way off but a good pension is worth getting and not many comapnies offer final salary schemes now so working in education that may be better as well.

Astaroth

A blue chip company is always going to look better on your CV than a school. If it is anything like my old school there was only 1 Tech person and so there was no career advancement for the person with the job at all.

If you were much older (ie at the end of your career rather than the start), had a wife and kids and was just wanting something until retirement then the school job sounds great but personally I wouldnt look at something like that in your current possition unless you do still want to be at the school as lan support when you are 65?

Ultimately it is your choice though

superscaper

If it were me I'd be tempted by the school job and put serious consideration into personal projects like as I mentioned before, setting up my own company or putting effort into investments such as renting out property etc. Just to make that holiday time productive which in the long term could prove more lucrative than staying in a company. I think I'd be more concerned with setting up stable investments with regular returns life for my future than pension schemes which could be something of a major problem in the future.

chrispyphillips

Not sure if someone has mentioned this (theres a lot of writing on this page and I have been staring at MSE pages for 4 hours now!) but if this company your currently with values you enough to send you on courses galore, to improve you as an employee, tell them that a rival company has eyed you up for x more money which is seriously tempting you, but you would rather stay with this company, then see if they offer you what the school is offering (maybe haggle a little bit more if this is looking promising) to keep you on. If not, their loss, and you can move on to do something different in the school. If you find thats not for you, at least you've got all this experience with your current job to ensure you dont have to start at entry level if you decide to come back to the work.

Purely a non-ethical money minded suggestion, please ignore if of no use to you

superscaper

chrispyphillips wrote:

Purely a non-ethical money minded suggestion, please ignore if of no use to you

This site is about Legal money saving, noone says it has to be ethical I think you could quite ethically tell them you have a job offer that is offering you more money without giving details of the job. Just give them the figure and let them decide if they want to counter it. You're under no ethical or legal obligation as far as I'm concerned to tell them any more than that.

amcluesent

>if im moving into a job that im not going to learn anything new.<

The clue is in 'not going to learn anything new'!

IMHO, companies know exactly what the need to pay to retain staff (which is not the same as how much value you add!). Mobile young chaps who pull their weight can expect to get a rapid increase in wages, if that doesn't appear then plan on walking.

And yes, I'm afraid that a lot of companies think that people are in the public sector simply because they can't hack it in the 'real world'. Once you step off the business track, it'll be hard to get back on...:(

You will definitely be in a much stronger position with MCSE/CCNA and then think about your future.

P.S. Obviously ignore all of above if the school's French teacher is a super-hot babe!