the POS business 1

[alohaakamai3]

This is a "just for fun thread".

I was having a discussion with a friend of mine the other day about education levels, jobs, pay, etc... he is a network administrator for a small company, and I was explaining to him how I usually tell people to run like hell from the POS business on almost every level.

10 years ago, the knowledge required to be a POS technician was mostly confined to close networking (protocols, communication), drivers, operating systems, PC hardware, and the POS software you were supporting, of course.

The pay was always lower in those jobs compared to other IT fields (many times because the companies were smaller), but the knowledge was also not as broad as demanded by other fields.

Times have changed. Now you need know all the stuff and whole lot more, including routers, knowledge of the Internet, security, wifi, etc, etc... But the pay is still on the crap end of the scale.

I had to laugh when I looked on one site and saw it saying the average POS technician is making $59k... lol. Whatever. I don't personally know a POS technician that made anywhere near that, and I would guess the national average to be *maybe* the low 40s, and I would bet a large portion of POS techs are in the mid 30s. And I'm not talking about people who work for companies like Radiant or other big name developers, I'm talking about actual in-the-field guys fixing and installing systems.

Hey, I'm not saying they are the worlds worst jobs, and they can be a foot in the door for other IT related jobs. But they are definitely at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to respect and pay (even if it's not fair in terms of skill and knowledge anymore). Also, I don't know anyone who grew up wanting to be POS technician. Sometimes you just show up, and you're doing it too long, you probably forgot to leave

I was curious if anyone else thought the average of 59k was kind of outrageous.

Anyway, rant away!

 

[DrZogg]

Yeah, tell me about it. It is all first level that is like that. The ideal place is to work corporate i.e. liquorstore chain, chemist chain, pub chain so that you get decent money on 2nd and 3rd level support.
Installers are essentially project managers and get absolutely crap wages. I have been on the 59k ceiling for years and decided to kick it to the curb. I now work less and earn more per hour, but still about the same p/a. My jobs were 59K + car, 59K + expenses (with a lot of travel), and now I have 2 job sectors. My private customers pay 500 per day, and in my partnership I only earn $200 a day while I am charged at $800.
The $500 customers are all Micros systems, which is my bonus, and is all customisation and problem solving. The partnership is selling 3 other pos solutions, and is growing.
I really think the time of the big POS company like Micros is over. Micros may have a great product but their knowledge base is spread too thin and customers are ultimately paying for features they will never use. With access to so many programming tools and solutions out there, I believe the time is right for well written, stable programs to find a niche.
Most people want to send orders to printers, be able to count their money accurately, not have it fail or be slow in the busy times and not be troubled by the complexity of the system. If they want inventory, BI tools, accounting packages, I believe you need to talk to those things and not let the POS system get weighed down by these other things. Our best system will outperform Micros and runs on Firebird (interbase). Its just amazing, distributed databases talking directly to the database hierarchy without the need for a VPN. Just a port listening on the firewall. So cool!

Anyway, you are not wrong. The pay is crap and it should be a stepping stone to a better career, like being the dishie at a restaurant.

 

[coorsman]

I'e seen jobs in the 70K to 80K range. lol Wish I had one of them.

We have 400+- restaurants and only 3 techs - talk about streching us thin and our company still can't make ends meet.

I'm the senior tech - been there 5 years. Mid 30's is all the pay we get here.

Been looking and applying for one of the 80K jobs - no luck so far but i'm always looking. btw - been doing restaurant and pos for 20+ years.

Cheers,
Coorsman

 

[alohaakamai3]

Dr. Zogg, you hit on two interesting points.

The first being, I went finally went back to finish the last few remaining classes for my bachelors in Information Systems (which was recently, even though I am old), one the remaining classes was project management. The course outlined project management, methods, responsibilities, and also what big shots they are in terms of the value they add to a company in meeting deadlines and getting things done. I laughed thinking I know POS guys who do this every day for 40 grand, not 100 grand, AND unlike most project managers, these guys actually have the technical skills to get the job not- they aren't merely managing someone else who is being paid to do it!

The other thing you said that I've been saying for years is the race to design new features has been over for a while now, whether the developers know it or not. Sure, years ago, POS resellers were selling on features, and were saying "well, we can split a bill into three separate credit card payments" or another reseller was saying "Oh, with our product,l we can delay or time send an item so that it will fire 10 minutes from now"... yeah, it worked for a while, and the restaurants were impressed, until they found out no one ever used these features. Even the semi-savy restaurant owner of today knows those are mostly just gimmicks... most now know the meat and potatoes of what they need on a daily basis, and much of the rest is just for show.

For the last 15 years, I more or less made sure every gas grill I bought had a side burner built-in, in case I ever need to cook something in a pot. I was recently looking a new grills and it dawned on me... I never once used that damn side burner in 15 years and 3 grills. Proof that everyone eventually catches on, even me


Coorsman- that's been my experience too- overworked and under paid in the mantra for small POS companies. And 400 customer and 3 techs is absolutely insane. But you are right, the smaller companies and working barely making ends meet, and I too have about 15 years in this business and it seems like they all are run like that.

That's why whenever anyone comes on this forum and says "How do you get into the POS business", it's kinda like asking "How do I become a garbage man" or "Where is a good place to go for janitorial school?" I hate to sound negative, but like Zogg was saying, unless you get into a corporate chain with deep pockets and tons of locations, this career should really be a pitstop.

 

[alohaakamai3]

I failed to mention that my involvement in the POS industry is now similar to what Zogg is doing... I'm still a support guy, but I'm doing it on more of a contractor level, so while the work is the more or less the same, the pay is much more palatable.

Coorsman, I have been watching you on this forum for years and I know for a fact that you a smart guy who knows his crap. Unless you are living in an impoverished African nation, the idea of you making that amount is insane and proof that this industry is whacked.

 

[coorsman]

Anyone need a GREAT Aloha/Squirrel/Maitre'd tech? lol

Cheers,
Coorsman

 

[Lex87]

I spent 7 years in POS because I was dumb enough to believe there was some gold at the end of the rainbow. I got into the 42k range on my last year after many threats to walk over the insanely uncompetitive rate of pay.

When I left that company I took with me an entire product line because I was the only tech skilled in it and I also took with me all the high level networking/firewall experience and skills.

The result was they started selling managed firewall solutions, and they switched to cheaper, less fancy software that was easy to setup and support. In fact they went to each client that had the software I knew, and gave them a free copy of the new software to get them back.

The company I am currently working with part time doesn't really sell a complex solution, they sell packaged bundles that only do what they say, only work on their own (or with bundled apps), and don't require a lot of technical help. Plus the packages are very focused so a hair salon gets a salon solution that wouldn't be a good choice to resell or re-use for another business type. Just use it and throw it out when it gets old. Much like a hair roller. ;p

I'd try to say this is a bad direction but it is lowering the cost of operations for businesses and that makes businesses more competitive and it trickles right down to the consumer level. Really the only people losing out are the technicians?

 

[coorsman]

One of our salesmen quit two years ago - he was selling Aloha - started his own pos company selling Microsoft's pos system. He only sells to liquor stores, the sweet thing is they all have the same inventory items, bar codes and suppliers. Copy a database, change a few prices charge them $$$ for install and programming. He signs them up on his credit card system and makes a killing on residuals. One of his stores I was in yesterday did over 37K in sales on wed.


Cheers,
Coorsman