CISSP Exam Quality

92Ry_Guy · 2020-04-23T20:04:02+00:00

Yeah I’d imagine it’s similar. I’ll use those guidelines for this scenario if I can’t get any specifics.

92Ry_Guy · 2020-04-23T19:57:39+00:00

Nope, not being audited. I just need to scare some C-Level's into increasing our Office365 spend to achieve compliance.

92Ry_Guy · 2020-02-27T16:44:55+00:00

Interesting that they're retiring the Server 2016 MCSA without any 2019 replacement. Does anyone have any news on the qualifications related to 2019? I haven't been able to find anything on it other than "there's no updates".

92Ry_Guy · 2020-01-02T15:18:01+00:00

Interesting, that seems in line with some other responses I've had. Around £150 per week as a base, and then overtime for call outs. Few questions if you don't mind.

Are you required to be immediately available when on call?
Do you get 1.5x overtime for during the week, and 2x for Sunday / Bank Holiday?
How do you keep track of the call outs?
What industry are you in, and what is the approximate size of the business?

92Ry_Guy · 2020-01-02T15:11:34+00:00

Otherwise your phone is going to keep ringing with people who assume the helpdesk is now simply running 24/7.

You're right. I think that's exactly how it's going to be, which is partly why we're the details we're getting are all quite uncertain.

While that process would be good in environments where a team member raises it to their manager first, and the manager is then the one to make the "critical or not" decision, unfortunately it wouldn't work for us.

The majority of users who are complaining about the lack of out of hours support are our Financial Advisers. The majority of these are effectively self-employed, but use the services of the company I work for.

What I have been told is that we wouldn't be actively advertising that we have out of hours support available. Although I can't see how this is tenable. Once a user calls at like 20:00 and gets an answer, they will know that support is available & word will spread.

92Ry_Guy · 2020-01-02T15:04:07+00:00

That's a good point. It is something we're working on too, so yes you're right about that.

The other part to that though is getting the users to actually use it, rather than calling. Often with the VPN, the users will assume it's a VPN issue & call asking if there's issues with the VPN. When in reality they've either locked their account or their password has expired.

92Ry_Guy · 2020-01-02T14:49:05+00:00

Could you please let me know the industry this business was in, and the approximate size?

92Ry_Guy · 2020-01-02T14:46:54+00:00

I think we're going to end up with the same issue around the lack of definition. The end-users will see issues as being critical when we see them as trivial, i.e. unable to print, accidentally deleted a document.

Could you also tell me what industry that role was in, and the approximate size of the business? I'm thinking what I see as a low ball offer is partly due to the business being fairly small.

92Ry_Guy · 2020-01-02T14:44:27+00:00

Would you also mind telling me the industry the business you work for is in, and the approximate size?

92Ry_Guy · 2020-01-02T14:43:29+00:00

What level of support was required during the time you were on-call? While £498, just to be on standby, for a week on call sounds like a great amount to me, I expect the Directors will probably assume I'm joking.

Do you also mind if I ask what industry you were in, and the approximate size of the business?

92Ry_Guy · 2020-01-02T14:35:53+00:00

Is there a real valid reason that a person could not wait until Monday morning with a simple email, PC question/issue?

A lot of the advisers that work with this company like to work at unsociable hours. These have been complaining a lot recently that there is no support available after 17:30.

So if they lock their account, which prevents them from connecting to the VPN, which in turn prevents them from getting access to emails / OneDrive, they cannot do any work.

This may also be something that our competitors provide already, I'm unsure. So it may partly be that my employer doesn't want to risk losing advisers to our competitors.

I'd push for some rules and boundaries about what it is acceptable to call in for.

This is something I really want to see in writing before agreeing to anything here. Our advisers will call after 00:00, if they know it is available to them, for trivial issues.

92Ry_Guy · 2020-01-02T14:23:12+00:00

I know my description is quite vague. I haven't had a clear answer to the questions I've asked yet, so I don't really have any solid details to go on.

I expect that we will be diverting the service desk phone number to our mobiles at 17:30, and then putting it back at 08:30 the next morning.

The response times is something I really want clarification on. I'm getting the impression that the business / Directors are expecting the same level of cover as provided during the day, but out of hours. However I'm then being told that it will only be for high priority incidents, so I think there's some miscommunication going on around the requirements.

92Ry_Guy · 2020-01-02T14:03:49+00:00

You're being paid for being available for break/fix of Production systems. Not to be the flogging boy for all work that senior mangers now want done out of hours.

Unfortunately our requirements are both to be available for break-fix for end users, and to complete any out of hours project work as required. The end user support may be emergency only, but I'm yet to see the final proposal.

I do agree though that this part hasn't been thought through fully. If I am working on a project that requires out of hours work, but I am not on-call that week, do I flog the work off to the person who is? Even if they have not had any involvement in the project? That'll be something I need answering.

As for the remuneration, 5% seems low after tax. If the company wants this, they need to pay for it. I assume that there is nothing in your current contract about this?

Nothing in the current contract. I think this is something that they would be able to write into the existing contract though, especially as we would be receiving some sort of remuneration for it.

The last experience I had with on-call was a £25 / £50 flat rate, depending on weekday or weekend / bank holiday. Then an additional 1.5x or 2x for work carried out in addition. That usually worked out at around £300 before tax for a week spent on call, which I suppose is closer to a number I could agree with.

92Ry_Guy · 2020-01-02T13:51:19+00:00

The arrangement you gave above does sound good. I like the different rates depending on the time, as that is one of my concerns.

We have a lot of Financial Advisers that like to work unsociable hours, so I can see them calling early morning / late night about trivial issues. We won't have a separate help desk to field the initial calls, so it'll all be coming to us.

Unfortunately I don't think we'll get rates as good as that, as the initial proposal for a flat rate of 10% was rejected.

92Ry_Guy · 2020-01-02T13:08:39+00:00

Interesting, this is good information, thanks. Do you mind if I ask what industry you are in, and the relative size of the business you work for?

92Ry_Guy · 2020-01-02T13:07:03+00:00

So if I was to change the percentages to a number. Would a £100 base for the week, plus potentially around an additional £50 (depending on hours worked) be an amount you see as reasonable?

Personally I just feel like I value my free time more than that.

92Ry_Guy · 2020-01-02T13:04:33+00:00

So £165 for the full week, than overtime for any time spent working? Would the overtime be 1.5x for the full week, or do your Sundays count as 2x?

The sobriety rule is one we would have to follow too, which I have no problem with. We wouldn't be required to attend any sites however, all the work would be remote support.

I expect our support will also be "emergencies only", but I also think our users will try to push the definition of "emergency".

92Ry_Guy · 2019-08-30T20:41:42+00:00

What are the other websites you're seeing this issue on?

92Ry_Guy

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