How to get a Mid level IT Role beyond tier 1-2

Treylee1783

The IT field is my dream. I have experience in help desk for 7 years but have been out of IT for 2 years and I see idiots or unskilled People who lack the knowledge and skill get hired and I got passed on for help desk and desktop support, junior administration. Why hire a under qualified person but when you have candidates who are more fitting to role? Happens a lot. I dream of having a MCSA or MCSE, I have all the skills and knowledge of a MCSA and a tech school network support graduate. What will it take for me to be valuable and recognized as a must hire candidate? What Windows skills remain seeked after in IT field that not so many candidates can offer? Or is there other side skills, certification I need with MCSA or MCSE to make me a hot prospect and what is recommended? The only jobs I get my main response from is configuring MS Exchange At a pay rate of $15 hour in Texas which isn't great since I've made more then that and I need to be valued more. What is my best path to a better career ?

JeanM

You say you have the skills for MCSA or MCSE, so why not study and get that out of the way and put it on your CV/Resume? Do you have good soft-skills? Depending on the job, sometimes having good soft skills is a huge plus, even if you don't have great tech experience. With 7 years of help desk, you have to see it from two sides , a) you probably do have soft-skills and b) why were you in help desk for 7 years? Were you comfortable in that position and stayed or was there nothing else, no career path you could have advanced into?

I say instead of dreaming of IT field, why not make a plan, short term and long term goals and then go for it

Raisin

If you have the skills of a MCSA it shouldn't be a problem for you to go and get the certification. From the prospective of a hiring manager, seven years working a helpdesk is not going to be seen as a good thing. They are going to wonder why you spent so much in a entry level position without getting promoted.

I've seen this happen a lot, someone gets their foot in the door with a help desk position, and then they don't do anything to improve their qualifications. After building up too much time on the help desk, no one considers them to be a good fit for higher level positions.

You should have spent your time on the help desk earning certifications. Now you've got to make up for lost time. I'm a Linux guy so I have no idea what goes well with Microsoft certs. Virtualization seems to be a hot item these days.

Treylee1783

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Well one reason I was in help desk was because my help desk role for gaming which I loved was outsourced to Phillipines and there was no growth like to advance to, just a dead end. Then they relocated that job to a city I didn't want to be in. After that I moved to another department, and ended up relocating because of family and new child birth to West Texas and really isn't much here tech wise job market. So my goal is to relocate back to Dallas or Houston, maybe Austin where the market has many options? For you guys who are in Linux, how much more difficult was it to get certified and get a career vs doing Windows certification and job market? Is it worth it?

Raisin

Treylee1783 wrote: »

For you guys who are in Linux, how much more difficult was it to get certified and get a career vs doing Windows certification and job market? Is it worth it?

I was in the right place at the right time. I had a crappy job as a security guard, got the A+ cert and started applying for helpdesk jobs. Many of the places I interviewed at expected me to already be an expert at active directory. I didn't get those jobs. The last place that interviewed me starting asking me questions about the Linux command line. Since I enjoy doing web design as a hobby, I had enough Linux knowledge to answer most of his questions. The guy got really excited at this point and offered me a position on their Unix/Linux server admin team instead of the help desk position I applied for. Turns out the position needed to be filled fast for contract reasons, and they were happy to hire someone who at least knew the basics of the command line.

Certifications for Linux are a good way to get your resume pulled for an interview, but they don't seem to carry the same weight as in other areas of IT. Probably because the big certs like RHCSA/CE only scratch the surface of what is expected out of a Linux SA. Linux+ is a good cert to get your foot in the door. It shows that you have some basic knowledge of Linux and the hiring manager wouldn't be wasting his time if he called you for a interview. Many candidates will put Linux down on their resume, but then have a hard time answering even the most basic questions.

I don't think I'll ever go for a Windows job unless it's a hybrid position. My experience with so many places demanding system admin level knowledge of Windows but only offering a help desk level of pay left a sour taste in my mouth.

Jon_Cisco

Treylee1783 wrote: »

I see idiots or unskilled People who lack the knowledge and skill get hired and I got passed on for help desk and desktop support, junior administration.

Don't be so critical. They managed to get the job.

On a more serious note it sounds like you were working help desk and you were complacent. Since most skills are learned early on you were really just allowed extra time to perfect entry level skills. I can't give you specifics of what will work for you now but the idea is to make a plan and move forward.

Search job listings and determine the minimum qualifications.
Reflect on your experience to highlight what you currently know.
Fill in the knowledge gap through reading and/or testing.
Start networking (the human kind)

If you are good at what you do then you will eventually find an opportunity. Once you find the opportunity it's up to you to make the most of it.

Good Luck!

loxleynew

Two things I see that standout and don't take it the wrong way it's just what I see. You seem very judgmental of other people and this may come through in interviews or on your resume. Who cares who got what job or how they got it. You can only worry about yourself and go from there...

The second thing is you spent 7 years in one job without getting a cert so it looks like you were gliding through a job without ambition. This is one of the worst things to do as it looks very bad on a resume. I would suggest getting your MCSA or some cert so you can relate that to your job somehow.

RouteMyPacket

Treylee1783 wrote: »

I dream of having a MCSA or MCSE, I have all the skills and knowledge of a MCSA and a tech school network support graduate.

What will it take for me to be valuable and recognized as a must hire candidate?

What is my best path to a better career?

1. You dream of having an MCSA/MCSE? How about stop dreaming and making it a reality?

2. You have all the skills already? Then why were you on a Help Desk for 7yrs? People with drive and an open mind who are willing to learn do not hang around on Help Desks

3. What is your best path? I stress this: "KNOW WHAT YOU WANT" - Keep an open mind, check your ego at the door (hardest thing for IT idiots to do), and ALWAYS seek and push for advancement. ALWAYS seek out the positions that challenge you and study and certify yourself to supplement your practical knowledge.

Gaining ground in the IT field is rather simple to be honest, the field is over flowing with incompetents so rising above is laughably easy. Simply stay focused on what YOU want out of your career. Get a laugh out of hearing all the supposed "IT Pros" or "Senior" Admins or Engineers complain about how they aren't paid enough, how certification is a waste, how they know everything and everybody else know nothing. Meanwhile, you crack the books and put the time in to walk through these types, they simply cannot compete with someone who puts in the time and effort.

The hard part for us is to maintain that focus, there will be times where you are killing it, putting in lots of off hours for study/labbing then due to life or work projects it slows but all the while you continue reading and pushing. It won't be long before the cockroaches I previously mentioned will be complaining and asking you "How did you get that position and pay? Must be nice, I need to work there bla bla bla" meanwhile they sit at the same place doing the samething, yet expect different results. *sigh*

It's all on YOU, no one else. Good luck!