Started new position and duties nowhere near what I expected. (apply, application)
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I started a new position as an application administrator in an IT department six weeks ago. So far, probably 25%-50% of my time is spent in desktop support duties - PC moves, printer repairs, AV assistance, imaging, etc. I spent half the day today moving PCs and equipment, moving cables around on the patch panel and switch, and another hour helping a user provision mobile email. Yesterday I spent an hour troubleshooting a printing issue in Word at someone's desk. Between the desktop support and meetings, I'm barely learning anything about the applications I am supposed to be the administrator of, and the other administrator is taking a week of vacation soon. I don't feel anywhere near prepared for it and have no one to ask while this person is gone. The pay is commensurate with administrator position, not desktop support.
Nowhere in the job description was this amount of desktop support for routine COTS issues specified. Had I known this, I wouldn't have taken the position. I did routine support for years and want out of that, and took this position because it was an administrator, not support, position. We did hire a tier 1 support person and she is helping, but it still appears there's going to be a ton of this support expected overall. This is a four person IT team, supporting about 150 staff with about twenty remote users.
Overall, the role just appears to be a bad fit. How long should I wait before discussing this with the manager? I feel like the position was marketed as more senior than its actually working out as. I'm thinking of waiting until the six month mark to see if this washes out, but we are scheduled to move an office into another building in the summer, which is going to require at least two weekends to do with no comp time. I don't mind to help on an emergency basis, but desktop support has probably become the biggest focus of time at this point, and it feels a bit like I was baited and switched.
thats how it goes isnt it? when short staffed, supervisor is expected to get hands dirty and do the work of their staff... what do you expect with just 4 people
and you are "administering", you are getting the computer/accessories where they need to be to work
Are you being paid at an administrator level or a desktop support level? Jobs change. Suck it up for the in-service time and then start to apply for another internal position. Smile and move up in a year.
I would consider waiting six months but you never know if it will get better.
Six weeks is short enough to leave off resume if you find something else. I don't know your job history but did you quit your previous job for the current one, and if so, would you consider going back?
Are you being paid at an administrator level or a desktop support level? Jobs change. Suck it up for the in-service time and then start to apply for another internal position. Smile and move up in a year.
Administrator. There's really nothing else to apply to internally within IT.
i assume this isnt a technology company and so i assume there isnt a cto or vp of information services.
i know of several it workers of non-tech firms and they are usually severely understaffed (probably because a cto isnt there to tell them what type of budget/personnel/hardware/software/networking resources/... are required; the same way that the cfo, ceo, coo, cmo, ... would ensure they have accountants, warehouse workers, doctors, ... staffed correctly with the equipment they need.)
what ends up happening is a 2 or 3 person team (sometimes even 1 person) ends up being the it department for like a bank.
Administrator. There's really nothing else to apply to internally within IT.
Fine. If you don't like the job, put together a long term plan to leave. But before you leave, squeeze everything you can from the company. Can you get a free graduate degree? Free certifications, exposure to certain LOBs, etc.
i assume this isnt a technology company and so i assume there isnt a cto or vp of information services.
i know of several it workers of non-tech firms and they are usually severely understaffed (probably because a cto isnt there to tell them what type of budget/personnel/hardware/software/networking resources/... are required; the same way that the cfo, ceo, coo, cmo, ... would ensure they have accountants, warehouse workers, doctors, ... staffed correctly with the equipment they need.)
what ends up happening is a 2 or 3 person team (sometimes even 1 person) ends up being the it department for like a bank.
You've guessed Correctly. There is a head of IT coming in - but the entire team including development is like eight people.
i guess what happens in these situations is that the non-techies (which a lot of times are the managers) view a programmer or dba or serial servo controller the same thing as it and will assign them to stuff like clearing paper jams from the printer.
Nowhere in the job description was this amount of desktop support for routine COTS issues specified. Had I known this, I wouldn't have taken the position. I did routine support for years and want out of that, and took this position because it was an administrator, not support, position. We did hire a tier 1 support person and she is helping, but it still appears there's going to be a ton of this support expected overall. This is a four person IT team, supporting about 150 staff with about twenty remote users.
When you went to work in a 4 person IT department that oversees 150 staff and 20 remote users, no matter what your title, who did you expect was going to be doing support work involving keeping them all going. You also said it only takes 25% to 50% of your time doing support work. So you still have 50% to 75% of your time to use for other more pleasant duties. The place must be running pretty well, or you would not have 50% to 75% of your time for other duties. The important thing in an IT department that supports a lot of workers as you do, someone is going to have to support them. And that means everyone in the department is going to spend time doing it regardless of title when it is only a 4 person support department.
I know a little about this, as my daughter was head if IT for a lot bigger operation than you are supporting, and she still had to get down and do support very often. They have called her on an emergency at night and when she was away on vacation on her company supplied cell phone when problems arouse. She was well into 6 figures salary wise, and there were times she was needed to handle support problems that were above her staff, even when she was in the hospital recovering from surgery.
What you are complaining about, is just the nature of the job. Learn to live with it.
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