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I've got some exciting news! I start a new job in 2 weeks. I'll be staying with the same company, but I'm switching from the retail side of banking and going to IT. I've been preparing for this for quite a while, and I've been wanting it bad, so this is extremely exciting. It also came with a raise significantly greater than I expected. Anyways, just wanted to share this somewhere but I don't share these kinds of things on Facebook.

Congratulations! What will you be doing in the IT world for your bank?

My title is IT Support Specialist. Pretty much being the help desk for the bank. I know the first thing they want me to do is replace a bunch of computers and set up computers in a new office. Once I get their back log caught up the Network Systems Admin wants to work with me and get me doing some of his stuff.

Oh man, I remember those days. Just be careful they don't get you doing all kinds of stuff above your pay-grade for whatever it is they're paying you. The experience is nice, but when you start doing server administration and network administration...those are far higher paying jobs.

Hrm, I won't really know at what point I'm doing too much work for my pay grade. I might have to talk to you when I feel like that could be happening. I did get a raise significantly larger than expected, so right now I feel like I wouldn't mind doing extra work for a while.

Well, the best I can do is give an example of what I mean.

One unrelated example was working at Six Flags: no matter how many rides I was trained to operate, I still got paid $6.50/hr...even though I was older than my peers and my bosses. That is taking on unnecessary responsibility without compensation.

The other example (being taken advantage of, and being denied compensation): I worked at a university's IT Department doing User Support, and the main task was fixing computers for professors, faculty and staff and setting up computer labs. That was all well and good, but when I got brought over to the Law School to work in their IT Department at random times, I started getting tasked with solving server and network problems when we'd normally ask the guy labeled "Server Administrator" or "Network Administrator" to solve them. I didn't mind doing it because I wanted to learn how and wanted to showcase my abilities to fix things beyond user's problems. I asked for a promotion to become a server admin and was declined. Not only that, when raises went out (we were paid hourly), my raise was less than half (like $1/hr for them, $0.45/hr for me), when everyone started literally the same day as me (or more recently), and I was the one the others were asking for help to solve their tickets. That is when I realized I was being used for my abilities and underpaid. So I started looking for a new job in the area I wanted to move into since I couldn't get promoted into it.

This isn't to say it'll happen to you - but it's something I am always weary of now, so that I don't set a precedent (in my line of work) that I am willing to give anything to a company without being compensated for it - even though I love what I do. I hope that doesn't sound too negative.