Interesting Interview Situation

Submitted by Danny Beckett
in
General Questions and Comments

Hi,
I am in an interesting interview / work situation, that I wish to share with the team, and that I don’t seem to recall in the interview series.
Currently I am part of a Server (Windows) Systems/Engineer Team.
We have recently had a large number of our team leave in short succession for a variety of reasons,  and our team has recently had meetings with the CIO and GM of Corporate Services, regarding the exodus of the team, and what plans are in place to stop this.
Due to the resignations, I will soon become the Exchange Administrator / Engineer for the company.
1st Question to the team – When is it too early to ask for a pay raise to represent this new role?? Now / 1 month / 3 months.  I am currently on the same JR Systems administrator rate as when I started 4 years ago. (part of the reasons so many of the team have left)
Currently the recruitment drive is out there for replacements to our team.
My gut feeling is to get Head Down / Bum Up and ensure things tick over … then in a months time mention the extra work/pay dilemma
Part 2 of my post,
I have just been given an opportunity to interview for a role within the organization, but outside my team.
The interview will be next Thursday (28th) This Thursday (21st) I have arranged a quick 30 minute informal catch-up with the head of the Department.  I aim to find out, what he is looking for to fill the role, what he expects the role to be, and where he sees the role heading.
The new role is a Business Analyst for an application that I currently am the Systems Administrator for.  1 of the questions will be if he feels that the Server admin and BA roles could be combined, especially due to our current team’s short staff issues.
Can anyone suggest any other great questions to ask during this informal chat ??

As Mike and Mark have often said (along with many other contributors within these forums) – “You don’t have anything until you have something in the way of an offer”.   I currently don’t want to do anything that will jeopardies my current and future position in my current role. 
Does anyone see anything wrong with applying for an internal position within the organization?

 

Many Thanks to you all,


Danny
 

Submitted by Doug Humble on Wednesday April 20th, 2011 4:04 pm

A while back I was in a similar situation.  'd moved roles, but not titles / etc. a few times.  Basically I went from being a desktop support tech for a small back office area to the a software application to be deployed in the business, integrator for a large high profile area.  (an integrator is the guy that packages software to deploy in an organization).  After doing the job for six months or so I approached my manager and he went to HR to see what needed to be done.  He came back with needing a list of what was different between the job I was being paid for and the one I was doing.  It took me a number of DAYS because I was unprepared for the question.  Looking back I'd provide the information up front, even though I was wildly succesful (I got a change in title and a 14% raise). 
So to put Mark's advice into practice I'd:

  1. Get your current job description
  2. Inventory what you do now.  Compare that to the job description.
  3. Write a new corrected job description.  If you move this will be usefull for your current boss.
  4. Get the job description for both positions
  5. As you do whichever new job, catalog what you do
  6. Compare the what you do to the job description
  7. Be prepared to say to your manager, this is what I'm getting paid for, this is what I'm doing, and I think an adjustment in compensation is appropriate. 
Submitted by Danny Beckett on Wednesday April 20th, 2011 9:09 pm

Thanks everyone for your input.
I will let you know how this pan's out.
@ Dhumble - Thanks for the steps you gave .. Great advice, and will start gathering my data now.
 

Submitted by Danny Beckett on Wednesday April 20th, 2011 9:09 pm

Thanks everyone for your input.
I will let you know how this pan's out.
@ Dhumble - Thanks for the steps you gave .. Great advice, and will start gathering my data now.
 

Submitted by Robert Bolton on Saturday April 23rd, 2011 4:22 pm

 if you are part of a team that has a mass exodus and you don't know why, do feel comfortable taking on a very uncertain future as well as a new position. But look on the bright side there seams to be lots to learn from in this situation,