Ever been mis-sold a job?

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To give some context. I started a new role in a Network Ops Centre on Monday. Prior to this I had been working in a 3rd line Wintel support role for about 6 years having been in the IT industry for 8 years after finishing my degree.

I gave up my 3rd line Wintel role as I was offered a Senior 3rd Line Wintel Engineer role at a different company. As opposed to working for one specific client, I'd be working for a number of smaller clients.

I received a £2.5k wage uplift and the people at the new company told me I'd be carrying out similar serious server work etc, only with a little bit of training helpdesk staff etc. Not a problem.

Since Monday I have done nothing of any worth and have been acting more like a secretary than anything. I have been told that I will be sitting with the helpdesk and taking calls etc etc - no server work in sight!!

I've spent a few hours spending time with lots of teams, Wintel teams, Unix teams etc - and all are amazed when I tell them I have an MCSE, 8 years of experience, and only last week in my last role I was supporting 500+ servers, managing patching, managing WSUS, deploying software, capacity management etc etc.

Truthfully, I regret leaving my old position - but there is no way back, so I've already had to start applying for new jobs!!!!!!!!

Anyone been gloriously "mis-sold" a job?

 

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Nothing quite as bad as that, but used to get routinely sent 150+ miles to interviews that weren't what was promised by recruiters.

Also had few companies lie about their balance sheets, so got job only to be made redundant 1 year later, that happened twice.

 

Ouch. When I started reading your post I thought: "Yeah pretty much every time when I mentioned my salary requirements in range as opposed to firm figure.", but after reading the whole story I don't feel like saying it out loud (Although I just did). I had a situation where on my second day of work 9 people were made redundant and it was awkward as hell to introduce yourself around the office knowing that.

I have mixed feelings about it. First of all, 3 days on the job might be a bit short to be given admin passwords to everything. On top of that, seeing closely how it all works for a short period of time will make you better at your job. I'm pretty sure zeb mentioned that he covered for the 1st line at times.

You've been employed as a Senior 3rd line tech. Do you seriously think that any company would hire someone with that title and pay him the market rate to get him to answer calls and read the script?

I'd give them bit more time to be honest, but if not, you've got more money and nothing stops you from looking for another job.

 

Yeah three days is too early to be sure, some companies just aren't well organised around new hires and you can be twiddling your thumbs for most of the first month.

 

Haha, for the first three days I've been answering the main building phone and transferring the calls to other people.

I was supposed to spend all day with the "Wintel Team" today. I turned up there at 9, he asked what sort of stuff I'd done before, I explained I'd been a Wintel Engineer for best part of a decade, had my MCSE, did a bit of networks, used to do Novell way back when..." He then said "aaah, well there's probably nothing I'm going to be able to show you". Fair play to the guy, we cracked up and laughed for about 5 minutes after that!

Like someone mentioned earlier, I wouldn't mind if it was just knowing how to answer the helpdesk phone just in case anyone ever calls in sick, or if the odd hour here and there is covered - but at the moment everything is looking like I'm just being stuck on the helpdesk! I've had a headset and other stuff ordered for me.

 

Do you have a job description anywhere? The one you applied for. Can you post it?

 

Here's as much of the job description I could paste without giving the company away etc..


"Senior Windows Systems Engineer
Working within ITIL framework.
1st point of escalation for all incoming contact/issues.

Attempt 'First Time Fix’ where possible.
Work with with other technical teams.
Perform scheduled change activities.
Mentor junior team members and other teams, acting as a technical authority where needed.

Requirements
• Knowledge of ITIL principles.
• Knowledge of Windows 2003 and 2008/Exchange/Active Directory/DNS, TCP/IP etc
• Understanding of networking.
• 5 years or more experience in a 3rd line/senior support role.


Desired Skills
Any Unix skills would be considered beneficial, although not essential.
MCSE/MCITP/Similar certifications would be considered beneficial.
CCNA certification would be considered beneficial.


Personal Skills
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to handle multiple tasks, prioritising accordingly

 

Sorry but the two bolded comments above scream to me 1st line work, perhaps it's a case of you not reading the job spec properly?

As far as the role is concerned, you got a pay rise out of it when a lot of people are being made redundant (my place just got rid of approx 10% of the IS workforce) so whilst it's not the role you want be thankful that it's a role.

Now you could of course go back to your old place explaining that the new role didn't work out... but I was always told never to go back.

 

The "First Time Fix" part I understand yeah.

The "escalation" part is probably a bit out of context. At the same time the company were advertising for Helpdesk roles, and in their adverts they have the line "First point of contact for all incoming calls/emails".

I think the idea meant between the two is that the helpdesk guys deal with first point of contact, and all escalations go to the 2nd/3rd liners.

 

I soooo disagree with this statement but I don't want to discuss it either.

I agree however that this looks like a senior front-line support position. The experience requirement is misleading but certifications are not required (not essential). Did you not discuss your responsibilities during the interview stage?

To be honest it looks to me like you applied and accepted 1st line support role with ridiculous requirements (which you meet) and a decent paycheck. While the salary increase is nice, if I were you I'd be out as soon as you can. 1st line day to day can kill your drive and will look odd on your CV.

Good luck!

 

I've been mislead in the past as well... there was this one time where I accepted the job thinking I'd be working as a level 3 support which includes VMware/Storage/Networking/Windows/etc... I was literally told that during my interview and I even asked again at the end of the interview.. when I got there, all it was is just doing internal tech support and some level three work, more like monitoring... I came from a role where I was level 2+3 and I pretty much did a lot of the implementations.

I then spoke to my boss and his basically kept avoiding me until I just found something else and left. I heard that after I left, they went through 2 guys and one quit the other got fired. Sometimes the interviews are misleading, I've experienced that first hand.

I do have to admit, that the description does sound like a supporting role, could be level 1-3. I find that the senior roles have lots of description on the job, jobs that have very little description, I tend to stay away from.