- Once you’re hired they will request that you write a review of the company after 60-90 days, that way they get a good review before you find out what the company is all about. Don't do it, you'll feel the pressure, and repeated questioning to do so, but don’t do it. (Notice how almost all the reviews after Jan 1 2022 are from Current Employees working less than a year)
- I worked for other MSP's that have double the number of employee's but 10, 15, or even 20 times more clients and are able handle them better. (By clients I mean end users, not signed companies)
- Imagine signing onto a company, getting a week of training regarding ticketing systems, documentation software, phone queue handing, etc., then being sent to a client site to start handing tickets. Having little to no information regarding the site, or what's outside of scope for your work. Also, you may or may not even have someone to guide you. Thrown to the wolves.
- You will know your client site well, but you'll be handing phone calls from over a dozen client sites, and you'll be doing this at about week 2 or 3.
- Hope you are skilled in troubleshooting End of Life software, 10-year-old Office Suites is still a thing apparently. Just fix it, no need to upgrade.
- If you want promoted, just wait for the person who current has the job to start getting burnt out, then ask for it before they quit or get fired, you'll be first in line for the offer.
- Technology deployed is behind, years behind. When the world has moved to One Drive mapping, Azure, and Autopilot, Parasol Alliance is still in the dark ages running standards that are years old. Moving a site to Teams instead of using phone lines, or an old internal system? This happens everyday at other MSP’s, that idea was laughed at here when I told upper management my site wanted to go to Teams phones.
- Several times a year the entire service desk is put through the wringer when the Engineering team causes a major outage. This causes massive trust issues between teams. You hear stories from other employees about when x, y, or z failed, and it took months to get back to normal.
- During your interview find out what certifications/degrees the interviewers have. Plenty of great self-learned techs out there, but you would think that some of them would have advanced degrees in IT, or multiple certs. Nope. (Also, don't expect them to cover any cert costs unless it very nominal.)
- This is a company that deals with Senior Care healthcare companies. Go to the website and look for who handles the Security/HIPAA info. I mean they would be nuts to not have someone doing that. Complain that there are security issues, you'll be told that you don't know security. They don't either, but that doesn't matter.
- You don't have to be on-call, but if you are you are woken up just about every single night, I think it's 200 dollars (plus your hourly wage) on your check if you do. Also, if you don't want to be on-call and there is an after-hours outage at your site that is hours away from anyone else, you get to be on-call.
- Ask if they have a Microsoft Enterprise Administrator Expert, or Solutions Architect, or a Certified HIPAA Expert, or a CISSP, or CCNA, or anyone with more than 10 years of Administration\Solutions\Architecture Experience.
- Unlimited PTO, they brag this one up. A lot of employees feel considerable guilt when even taking a day off because you know your co-workers are now going to be short staffed. And there are some major caveats, like wanting more than 2 week’s vacation requires something like a 6-month notice. Got a write up, might not get vacation, not enough people on the phones, no vacation, the list goes on and on.
- Client treating you like crap, have you thought about just taking it?
- About once a year several employees will quit, which causes more work for others, who also then quit. They hire more people, say the issue is resolved with the new hires, and start the cycle all over again.
- There is nothing proactive about this company, nothing. It's purely reactive and just wants the fire out, doesn't care about making sure another fire doesn't start again. Once the fire is out, it becomes an old issue not worth discussing.
