Lowball job posting for the week 20080813
Title: System Administrator
Skills: DNS, mail servers, web servers,clustering, Veritas and backups, switch and pdu management,server hardware, Windows 2000/2003, Linux, FreeBSD, network security and management
Date: 8-11-2008
Description:
Job description: deleted is seeking System and Network Administrators for its Network Operations Center in Austin. The System Administrator will provide third-level/hands-on support for customer servers and related network equipment.
Candidates interested in this position should be adept at using and
troubleshooting Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and Windows server environments as well as having basic knowledge of network switching and routing as it pertains to a datacenter environment. This position interfaces with second- and first-level support, as well as the Network Engineering Team and the end user.
Responsibilities:
* Interact with support staff to resolve issues
* Provide front line customer support via telephone
* Update and monitor the Remedy Ticket Tracking System
* Perform daily checks on all assigned servers
* Respond to any outage assigned to the NOC Systems Operations Group
* Monitor and respond to all e-mails
* Maintain problem ownership and accountability
* Work with and train new and entry level employees
* Deploy new network hardware/servers as required
* Perform other duties as assigned
Expectations:
* Communicate professionally in a fast-paced setting while maintaining a positive working environment
* Be a team player and a self-starter
* Maintain high level of customer satisfaction
* Be adaptable
* Have excellent verbal and written communication skills
* Have excellent customer service skills
* Perform analytical thinking
* Have awareness of the web hosting industry
* Work a five-day shift that includes 1-2 weekend days or nights
Qualifications:
* College degree or equivalent work related experience is required
* Understanding of x86 hardware platform.
* Understanding of RAID.
* Administrative experience with operating systems: Windows Server, Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD
* Understanding of and experience with the ATM, TCP/IP, and UDP.
* Working knowledge of routers and switches (specifically vlan
fundamentals and switch management)
* Experience and skill with DNS, mail servers, web servers, clustering, Veritas and backups
* Understanding of ipsec, iptables, and pf
* Understanding of and experience with mysql, postgresql, and or mssql.
* Ability to utilize scripting to automate tasks. (shell, python, or perl).
* Understanding of VPN (specifically openvpn)
* Ability to demonstrate knowledge of the above.
The preferred candidate will have experience in a datacenter
environment, as a System Administrator in a multi-user or web hosting environment, or in any prior position making full use of the above qualifications.
Applicant may be required to work both inside the facility and on occasion remotely. Shift and on-call availability is required as this is a 24x7x365 data center environment.
deleted offers a competitive salary and benefits including Earned Time Off, Medical, Dental, retirement plan, and much more. If you are interested in joining a profitable, growing, and dynamic company, we want to hear from you! To be considered, fax or email your resume including salary requirements to 512-deleted or deleted@deleted
Please include reference code: 203
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So far a pretty normal senior level sysadmin job description. Here is the ugly part:
Location: Austin, TX
Area Code: 512
Tax Term: FULLTIME
Pay Rate: $15-$19/per hour
Length:
Position ID:
Dice ID:
Travel Required: none
Telecommute: no
$19 per hour??? Are they nuts? Sysadmins with all what they are asking for usually get $50k+/yr, especially if they have to work nights, weekends or be on call 24/7.
- softwarejanitor's blog
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"Perform analytical thinking". Ha!
Funny how they can ask for things like that when they are offering pay that would offend a monkey! Some of these low-ball job descriptions really make me want to laugh... or cry. I'm not always sure which.
PS - I met someone today who loves your "Lowball job posting of the week" series. So you have fans :)
Wow! Glad to hear that someone out there finds it amusing... I would enjoy seeing more comments from the "peanut gallery".
I also love the idea of slightly embarrassing companies that are advertising the lowest job of the week... maybe even a large link to it on the Jobs page?
But... as for this post, if you're correct that most Sr. Sys-Admins make $50k+/yr AND (a big "and: here) these people were actually paying per hour, then to make $50k/yr at $19/hr this person would be working about 50-55 hours/week... not too far from what a lot of people working this job probably put in when they get paid for only 40hrs/week.
Here's a question for the rest of the peanut gallery; Do you get paid for hours "on-call"? Or only if you have to do work then?
-Tim
The problem is that most of these positions don't authorize overtime, so even if the worker is expected to work 50-55 hours per week, they are usually only allowed to bill a maximum of 40. If workers repeatedly submit time cards with more than the allowed hours they tend to get terminated, so its treated the same as someone who is salaried, except of course no benefits. Generally, the maximum number of billable hours per year that they generally expect to pay is about 1920 -- $19 * 1920 = only $36,480. And $19/hr was the top end of their range -- chances are they would want to low-ball a lot of people closer to the $15 end of their range.
Benefits and taxes are the real place where the poor schlobs who are stuck with this sort of gig get the shaft. Health insurance if you have to pay it yourself will run you $500/mo+ for a high deductible plan for a single person, add a spouse and any children you can easily double or triple that. The tax problem is that if you're on 1099, which most of these low-ball contract gigs are, you have to pay the employer's portion of the FICA, which is around 7%. Take the 7% off and you are looking at $33,926. Figure a comparison of even $400/mo for health insurance, assuming an employer would normally subsidize part of that for employees and you deduct almost another $5k...
So compared to a typical salaried person at $50k, these low-ballers are looking to really pay more like $30k. After renting a decent apartment and a payment on a modest car, plus gas, utilities, etc... and the person working in this kind of job is not going to have much left over to eat -- better stock up on Top Ramen and Mac n' Cheese. And forget about saving any money, or being able to keep up on education or whatever to keep current -- they won't be able to afford it.