"what are your salary expectations" answers ?

[bigredshark]

I never know which way to answer. People like you say not to avoid the question and answer honestly.

But then i wonder what happens if you lie and get round out. You cant win

Oh, I'm not saying be honest. Just don't avoid the question so blatantly, being seen to be evasive isn't good. Most of the time I don't much how much they earn if I ask that question.

If somebody talks around the subject and avoids putting forward a figure it generally indicates to me it's a bit of a pay bump for them and the job is a step up. People who come out and say 'I'd expect towards the upper end of range indicated' or 'I'm earning X at present and I'd like to see a slight rise' inspire more confidence and suggests they're used to that the job and earning that kind of money.

I would never rule someone out on the basis of that question alone but I wouldn't look favourably on evading it entirely. Basically what I'm looking for if I ask that question is if the candidate is confident in their own ability and their value to an employer.

 

[MagicBoy]

yeah but we all know council jobs rarely go external

I got the last externally advertised IT support job at our place and that was 5 years ago.

Local Government around here pay 17-24k for first line in an officer position. Senior officer 24-32~

We've got Analyst, then Senior Analyst then Senior Officer. Analyst is on less, other two similar to above.

 

[Fr0dders]

I would never rule someone out on the basis of that question alone but I wouldn't look favourably on evading it entirely. Basically what I'm looking for if I ask that question is if the candidate is confident in their own ability and their value to an employer.

thanks for the advice need to find somewhere in the middle, As admitting my current employers pay is drastically less than the going rate for the work i do just doesnt inspire confidence in me. Need to find a happy medium to avoid people making snap judgements and doesnt look like im avoiding it too much.

I got the last externally advertised IT support job at our place and that was 5 years ago.

lol sounds about right

 

[MagicBoy]

lol sounds about right

I didn't realise how lucky I was until recently. They needed someone with Citrix experience so it went external. We've hired since but not using the traditional methods.

 

[Ev0]

Not council, but public sector, and our last 4 hires, 2 trainee desktop support, team admin and ops manager (my boss) were all external and over the last 14 months with most recent 6 months ago.

The trainees start on 20+ lol.

 

[Fr0dders]

this kind of stuff makes me sad

there i am messing around with active directory replication and server performance issues for less than the "turn it off turn it on" brigade at the council

 

[Ev0]

Well as I said it's not council, and they do a bit more than turn it off and on again

But they are desktop support yes.

Must be the regional differences then, not that things on the whole are relatively well paid down here anyway.

Won't tell you what the server guys get then (what they do is very similar to the stuff posted in your original job ad)

 

[Fr0dders]

we all know that 90 % of desktop support is on par with the difficulty level of turning it off and on. How many calls a week do they get with "my screen is upside down" (that would be the intel extreme graphics adaptor for you) "press ctrl + alt + up arrow madam" ... "oh thats better, thankyou" phone down. Thats actually even easier as you dont have to wait for them to turn the pc back on lol

I've been there and done it so know what its like, and its not ALL that easy. Best example i had was a PC that that crashed the in house software when scanning. So we swapped it for another PC, which did the same. Scanner fault we assumed, so changed the scanner. Same thing, Scanner cable we thought, so changed that as well. Still the same. Scanner drivers we thought, re-installed with known working good ones - still the same.

The end cause ? both PCs had identical faults with the windows installation ! didnt see that one comming.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Not council, but public sector, and our last 4 hires, 2 trainee desktop support, team admin and ops manager (my boss) were all external and over the last 14 months with most recent 6 months ago.

Where do you work?

 

[Ev0]

No screen upside down calls, our users aren't morons like most places

Where I am is ok, don't really get any 'stupid' calls. My wife's place however (where I have worked previously) are pretty dumb to say the least. They want everything doing for them and won't help themselves.

My final years in a desktop support team were mostly spent applications packaging and on project work. No turning off and on again involved.

Where do you work?

In Exeter You?

 

[[TW]Fox]

In Plymouth Do you work for a private firm with public sector contracts or a public sector organisation beginning with R?

 

[Fr0dders]

what type of organisation is it ? if its not the council btw ?

*edit* duplicated.

 

[Ev0]

In Plymouth Do you work for a private firm with public sector contracts or a public sector organisation beginning with R?

don't like to say on here just because bosses are nosy Email in trust though (it's nothing exciting, postiviely dull)

 

[Fr0dders]

thats fine, any tips on where i should be looking for better paid jobs apart from the usual websites like reed, job centre etc..

I'd love public sector pay, if i could fine one to apply for

 

[Ev0]

Only place I really check is cwjobs, I hear jobserve is good too.

 

[Mr Jack]

Answer = your current salary + 20% or minimum you would accept + 10%

Depending on how desperate you are.

 

[Fr0dders]

Only place I really check is cwjobs, I hear jobserve is good too.

already use cwjobs + reed + jobserve so at least im looking in the right places