JOBS: BMC IT Support Assistant

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 UKC/UKH Gear 09 May 2022
We are looking for an IT Support Assistant to provide support, guidance and assistance to our volunteers and staff across the organisation, ensuring...

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 morpcat 09 May 2022
In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

Interested to hear why someone with a technical background in supporting SCCM, SCSM, Exchange, OCS, LAMP, IIS, Azure, AWS, Windows Server and AD, AV, SQL (and more) would be paid 12% less than someone who writes marketing emails (https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/ukc/bmc_digital_marketing_coordinator-747...)

 snoop6060 09 May 2022
In reply to morpcat:

I don’t think they are after someone with bags of experience or highly skilled if they are offering 22k. You wouldn’t even get a computer science graduate with zero experience for that money. 

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 hokkyokusei 09 May 2022
In reply to snoop6060:

I'd doubt that a computer science graduate wouldn't be looking at "IT Support Assistant" roles anyway.

Its a very poor advert, it says almost nothing about what the job entails!

...and if the benefits are excellent, why not spell them out?

Post edited at 14:04
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 midgen 09 May 2022
In reply to morpcat:

I didn't get that from the job spec. It looks like a spec written for an enthusiastic college or school-leaver with a working knowledge of Windows, to do general basic IT support tasks.

They're not going to get anyone more experience than that, with the salary, either way! 

 hokkyokusei 09 May 2022
In reply to Tyler:

Ah, you got me there. I just clicked on "Read more" and didn't notice any further link.

 Phil Kelly 09 May 2022
In reply to snoop6060: The job spec is pitching it as a ‘Tier 2’ position. If that’s correct there would be a fair amount of knowledge/experience involved, but that’s not concomitant with the £22k price tag.

 morpcat 10 May 2022
In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

I was going to wait for BMC to reply but my impatience got the better of me. 

1. Relative difference in rate between roles

My argument is that you should be paying more for the IT Support Assistant role versus the Digital Marketing Coordinator role - or at least equal. 

First of all, I mean no offense to the Digital Marketing Coordinators and other marketing roles at the BMC. Marketing is something I have very little talent for have to lean heavily on others in my team for assistance with. That said, when I compare the DMC job description with the IT Support Assistant description, it's clear that the IT Support Assistant job role requires a much more technical skill set. 

In the outline and the "Essential" skills, you list at least 9 different technical areas they need to be able to support. Under "Desirable", you list a further 12. While there has been suggestion above that this is an entry-level position, that's somewhat conflicting with this being a "2nd Tier technical support" role, although not knowing your support structure it's not possible to tell how much difference there is in responsibility between 1st and 2nd tier. Given that the outline includes "administration of core services" including backups, Exchange, and SCCM, it looks like this role extends beyond client support and into systems administration duties, which is further confirmed by the "Desirable" skills including Windows Server, SQL Server, LAMP & IIS, Azure & AWS. 

Given the range of systems this role will be interacting with, and duties such as "maintenance of user accounts across AD", it's clear that this role will hold credentials with wide-reaching permissions within your IT infrastructure. It looks like this person will be granted access to your user directory, your production databases, your web servers, your cloud services accounts, your network infrastructure, your endpoint protection system, your corporate communications systems, as well as your backups for all of those systems. This means this role carries a high risk both from unintentional misuse and intentional abuse of those credentials. 

Yes, I understand that Digital Marketing Coordinator will have some responsibility for public-facing communications, and there is a reputational risk associated with this work done in this role. However, in my experience, it's normal for this type of role to work under an approval system, where any public-facing communications will be vetted and approved by at least one other person. The Digital Marketing Coordinator job description's frequent use of "Working with the Marketing & Communications Manager / Chief Commercial Officer / Content Co-ordinator/ Content Production Co-ordinator and Marketing /
Communications Co-ordinator suggests that this is the case. Therefore, this risk is mitigated in a way that the risks for the IT Support Assistant role are not. 

2. Base rate for both roles

In addition to the relative difference between the roles, I think you are starting from too low a base for both roles, not just the IT Support Assistant. 

I happened to have held the job title of IT Support Assistant and have been paid the same salary of £22K. However, that was back in 2009. According to Bank of England, inflation by end of 2021 means that should be £28K in today's money. Given the inflation so far this year, you can probably stick another 5%-7% onto that to keep up with the times. If you don't like the BoE's opinion on this, you can check elsewhere. measuringworth.com tracks changes in annual earnings for the UK and shows that average earnings in 2009 were £22,620 and have now risen to £30,160 (which due to inflation they equate to earning £22,111 in 2010).

3. So what's my stake in this? 

As a paying BMC member, perhaps I should be happy that you're being frugal and trying to keep costs down, but I'm not. Having done that job myself 13 years ago, and thought I was underpaid for the level of responsibility I was given then, I'm quite shocked that the situation is worse today, even though the technology landscape is so much more complex (back then it was all on-prem, no need to learn any of this "cloud" stuff, and no headaches from GDPR). Suddenly I don't feel so good about paying my regular contribution to an organization that doesn't seem to remunerate its employees adequately. 

Additionally, the BMC hold my personal data including at least my home address and direct debit details, but potentially other information from web analytics and insurance purchases, so I (and most others here) have some interest in ensuring you hire skilled, motivated, and and trustworthy employees to manage your IT infrastructure. 

---

Finally, I do want to say THANK YOU for posting clear, detailed job descriptions that include the compensation up-front. It is a much better experience for potential candidates, and a big step towards the honesty and transparency needed for true pay equity. The company I work for has a long way to go in this regard. 

Post edited at 16:18
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 alx 11 May 2022
In reply to morpcat:

This is the BMC, the role probably involves recording data on 3.5” floppy drives and printing the internet to be read later.

 Tyler 11 May 2022
In reply to morpcat:

> Additionally, the BMC hold my personal data including at least my home address and direct debit details, but potentially other information from web analytics and insurance purchases, so I (and most others here) have some interest in ensuring you hire skilled, motivated, and and trustworthy employees to manage your IT infrastructure.

Well then, you are really going to freak when you find out how little the off shore staff who typically do this stuff for most organisations are paid! FWIW the salary struck me as a bit low but I don’t know if it’s competitive or not, what I would say is that despite what the ad says the job function struck me more as first line than second, ‘“cloud” stuff’ is arguably less complex than what it replaces and installing an AV, SCCM, backup agent does not mean you need to be an expert in those technologies.

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 neilh 11 May 2022
In reply to morpcat:

If they have no suitable applicants then they will have to rethink their position on salary etc and readvertise.

Its the way the job market works.

I suspect being in Manchester etc they will attract a suitable person who will go for it on the basis that its a climbing type job.

Only time will tell.

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 Ramblin dave 11 May 2022
In reply to morpcat:

>  While there has been suggestion above that this is an entry-level position, that's somewhat conflicting with this being a "2nd Tier technical support" role, although not knowing your support structure it's not possible to tell how much difference there is in responsibility between 1st and 2nd tier.

You don't know, so you're just going to extrapolate wildly? Reading through the job description, in particular the "specific work areas", it sounds a lot like they want someone to do user password resets, set up Windows boxes, make sure Antivirus is up to date and help people who can't connect to the Wifi. You really have to work pretty hard to read it as some experienced cloud / sysadmin / DBA type role.

I'd agree with everyone else that it looks like an entry-level role, which is presumably why it's less well paid than the Digital Marketing Coordinator job, for which prior experience is listed as being essential.

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 morpcat 11 May 2022
In reply to Ramblin dave:

None of which requires any knowledge of IIS, Windows Server, LAMP stacks, Azure, AWS, SQL, etc. I'm not extrapolating, I'm listing what's in their job spec, and noting that this is second tier, implying that there is an even more entry level  position for first tier.

If, as you suggest, no prior experience is required, how would someone have any demonstrable knowledge in the 9 different "essential" tech areas and 12 different "desirable" areas?

Finally, I'm always perturbed by companies/people that place "user password resets" as an entry level duty. This is a high risk permission that should be guarded accordingly.

 Phil Kelly 11 May 2022
In reply to morpcat:

“This is a high risk permission that should be guarded accordingly.”

Whilst I agree in principle, it’s not the case if AD (which is the only directory service we’re being told about here) rights have been federated correctly and the environment is suitably architected.

In my experience as long as the correct structures are in place password resets can be a first tier task (note, not responsibility).

Talking of directories though, if LAMP is the LAMP that I think it is, do password resets and user admin stretch that far, or is there some SSSD-style integration going on? If not, that would possibly bring in Linux admin as well, unless there’s another role doing this.

 Ramblin dave 11 May 2022
In reply to morpcat:

> None of which requires any knowledge of IIS, Windows Server, LAMP stacks, Azure, AWS, SQL, etc. I'm not extrapolating, I'm listing what's in their job spec, and noting that this is second tier, implying that there is an even more entry level  position for first tier.

> If, as you suggest, no prior experience is required, how would someone have any demonstrable knowledge in the 9 different "essential" tech areas and 12 different "desirable" areas?

Recruiters love to list every technology that's in use anywhere on the organization on the "desirable" list. I don't know why, but they always seem to do it. The "essential" tech areas - Windows 10, MS Office, Endpoint Security and "basic networking" - are consistent with the job being to do normal IT support stuff like installing new windows boxes and getting them on the network, which is also consistent with the job title, and consistent with the "specific work areas" listed, and not wildly inconsistent with the salary on offer.


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