I'm a Network Engineer at a University in the Great Plains area of the USA. I have 7 years of experience in this position. Previous to this, I was a one man IT shop for a small K-12 school.
I'm single, no kids and 32 years old. I have CCNP r/S and CCNA Sec. I have alot of hands on experience with Cisco Nexus, Catalyst, ISR, ASA and Sourcefire. I also have a moderate amount of experience with Cisco wireless and VoIP. I'm the "go to" guy around here whenever there is a hard to resolve issue. I've also earned a reputation as an ambitious person that will press hard to get things done and I follow thru on them.
About a month ago, I was approached by an acquaintance(CIO of a bank/financial services company) who I had met only a few weeks earlier. He asked if I was interested in joining their team as the Network Engineer. This is a new position for them. Previously, the same person did the sysadmin and network duties. I would have a backup but his primary duties would be sysadmin stuff. So I would be the only Network Engineer on a day to day basis. They have about 25 locations within a 150 mile radius, so this is a small-midsize organization, nothing nationwide or global. About 700 employees total.
In speaking with the CIO, their benefits are outstanding and there is opportunity to work remotely, even for extended periods of time. He has an employee that has spent a month in Europe, working from his laptop. For the most part, I would work in the office, as that is what I prefer, but the option to work maybe one day a week from home and once and a while from another part of the world is very enticing. Travel is something I am very interested in doing.
Without actually saying it, it seems that the CIO has basically picked me as the guy that they will hire. He said, "We will leave the job opening posted for you", "We will do whatever it takes to get you to join the team", "we recognize that recruiting the best talent requires exceptional compensation, benefits and flexibility". He has also stressed that they very much value their employees and work/life balance. In doing research on the company, that seems to be true. I do not personally know anyone that works there, but I do know some other people in IT who may be familiar with the organization, so I am going to reach out to them.
Honestly, it all sort of seems too good to be true but I might be suffering from a bout of imposter syndrome and not appreciating my value. Here in the rural Great Plains, jobs where you can work remotely and have outstanding compensation/benefits are very uncommon. It is however also difficult to find good talent here.
Obviously, going from a University to a bank/finance company is going to be quite different. More security, less tolerant of outages, a more professional environment, things of that nature. Not that any of those are a problem for me.
What I'm wondering is, what things am I not thinking of?
What are your experiences working in the financial sector?
I am slightly concerned about being the only day to day Network Engineer but on the other hand, there is going to be alot less nodes to manage than what I am used to. I think I can definitely manage a network of this size alone without wanting to pull my hair out...........but I also remember the days of being a one man IT shop.
I have a list of interview questions meant to get insight on those concerns.....such as on call rotation, escalation process, etc.
Any opinions appreciated, treat this like an open discussion basically.
Also, they know my current salary..........do I ask for 30% more? I would be quite happy with 20% more as there is also a yearly bonus but that should not be included in any discussion of salary, correct? My current job has no bonus.
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