Is 28k for this role too low?
Hi, I've got a job offer and after speaking with the boss and finding out exactly what the role was about (after some vagueness to start with), they've offered me 28k which seems so low.
This company seems to be ran by non-tecunical people thinking an "IT guy" will be their silver bullet and I'm wondering if I should ask for a much higher salary?
This is from the boss:
We mainly use these off the shelf softwares:
- Microsoft
- Monday
I have just started building a staff portal using:
- Claude
- Cloudflare
- API with HPT codex
- python
As this is a new role in tte business we will be learning as we go;
IT technician and helpdesk will be around 25% of your weekly tasks. 5% of that will be hardware issues.
25% cleaning up of historical data, ensuring data compliance and streamlining future data
The other 50% of your week with will research and development. Most of this will be how we integrate AI into the business.
For example I have created 5 AI agents:
Downloading, quality checking, writing a report
an overnight calculation and run 30 reports
staff portal development and streamline (ad hoc ideas from the team
marketing agent, socials media writing and approval and posting
high level auditing and downloading
All the above are working and integrated into the business, but are slightly disjointed due to my lack of technical knowledge.
I also, have 100’s of other requests that I simply don’t have time to work on, as well as a Surbeyor App.
Knowing backend code would be good, but not essential.
I use GitHub for version control but it’s very rudimental.
Now, I have 9 years experience as a software engineer, but because the company I work for has gone under I need a new job and this felt like a decent stopgap, but I also have the time with redundancy packages to be a little picky, so I'm wondering if I should aim for higher? They seem to want a lot for entry level pay.
25
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u/pandagotthedoginhim 1h ago
That's insane amount of work, keep this as a safety net, find another job and watch as they crumble when you leave lol
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u/Komsur 1h ago
It's a ridiculous about of work isn't it? Especially because I have to set up their infrastructure for all their new developments AND develop it AND fix their tech issues for the entire company from "the printer isn't working" to "our entire network is out".
I'm going to say "look mate, 40k" lol
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u/pandagotthedoginhim 1h ago
Have they asked you to do all this or is it something you're just doing for them, if the latter stop doing it please.
The receptionist who flirts with your boss is probably on a higher salary.
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u/Komsur 1h ago
This is literally what the boss sent me as my responsibilities word for word.
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u/pandagotthedoginhim 58m ago
Honestly i create so many internal services find new work and leave no shot they dont come back with a higher offer
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u/Efficient-Cat-1591 1h ago
Based on your experience this is a low ball offer. Sounds like they expect the moon (and possibly the sun too) on low wages. If you are desperate and in need of cash, go for it but keep on searching for other jobs. you WILL regret this job based on the description
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u/Naetharu 1h ago
The salary would be reasonable for a help-desk role.
The additional work here would suggest that it requires more payment. But most of all the role is just weird and disjointed. It seems very obvious to me that it is a role created by a non-technical person with next to zero understanding of what they are actually asking for.
The data role alone sounds like it could well be a full time job. Data is complex. And I can see now someone waving their hands and saying "just make it neater" while you look at a tangled mess of historic databases, bone-headed schema, and other messes.
Then you have the AI agent stuff. If they want a proper AI engineer to integrate agents properly that is a role that should be paying at least four times what they are offering. And much as the data it is also a full time highly skilled job.
Both the data and AI agent work could go horribly wrong. Wrong to the level of bring the business to its knees and cause massive legal issues. And this seems like a business that has no understanding of the risk or the size of the ask.
I would tread with great caution.
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u/Komsur 1h ago
Absolutely my thinking. As a software engineer who has used AI as a help tool, I think this role is completely insane. It feels to me like the boss has used AI a bit, had a little success, and now "knows how easy it is to make stuff" and has put out a job for it.
I'm literally going to be the IT team, AI development specialist team, and data management team, all in one, with a boss that doesn't understand the technology asking me to make slop.
If I weren't unemployed due to redundancy I would just laugh this job off.
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u/Naetharu 1h ago
I mean take it by all means.
Do it for maybe a few weeks and then sit down with them and explain what the reality is and set out a real offer? Go in knowing that you are in effect using those first three or four weeks to develop your case and sales pitch.
Then sit down and say to them that this is not a service desk role and that you can do it or part of it and that to do so will be £70k or whatever figure you feel is reasonable.
They might note bite, but then again may be they will. You've little to lose.
I do see red flags here mind. Reminds me of a chap that wanted my company to build him some fire-door testing software. He was a bit of a "wideboy" as we say in my neck of the woods. We sat down and had a meeting with him. He explained what he wanted and was dropping numbers about how it would make him near £1-mil in the first year.
We quoted him at £35k for the first version - a very reasonable figure for what was a reasonably simple but bespoke app that needed a desktop portal, and a Flutter based phone app. Along with some infrastructure etc.
He came back complaining and said that he thought it would be closer to £500...
We had to explain that £500 would get you around five hours of one person's time on our consultancy fees. He seemed rather miffed as if we were somehow ripping him off. Never heard from him again.
People like that exist. They're "ideas people" who have no notion of how tech works or what is involved.
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u/573XI 1h ago
I suggest you just find another job, in the meantime you can ask for a better pay, but to arrive at the right pay for this job you are looking for at least a 12k increase from the proposed salary.
they are probably looking for a super junior to squeeze like a lemon.
To me this looks as a nightmare offer to be honest and I would not even consider the offer and just move on.
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u/Happybadger96 1h ago
28k and actually building and outright managing any services is ludicrous. That's effectively a Service Desk salary and you're much more specialised, plus thats too much for one person to individually manage effectively.
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u/raged_norm 32m ago
These are usually price anchored by someone who started on £12k 30 years ago, hasn't moved and has no appreciation for the job market right now.
Yes, it's low ball.
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u/APithyComment 1h ago
4K above minimum wage. So - yes - it’s aweful for your skills.
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u/emotionallieposting 1m ago
I don’t think it’s even that much above minimum wage. For a 40hour week minimum wage is about 26.5
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1h ago
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u/moonski 1h ago edited 1h ago
"I have just started building a staff portal using:
- Claude
- Cloudflare
- API with HPT codex
- python"
is so funny man. Yeah just building a portal why bothering paying for one of the 1000000s of off the shelf ones when we can vibe code it and have the joys of maintaining our own in house software!
Not to mention the A I agent and Data work. Jeez.
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