Confidence in Your Skill Set?

Fulcrum45

I've been working I.T. for about 5 years now, have a few certs and working on others. Out of the blue I've received two job offers within a few weeks of each other- wasn't even searching, they approached me. They're offering (much) better pay, better potential etc. Problem is I don't feel confident that I know enough to abandon a stable ship just to jump right into a new position. I'm in my mid 30's, have a wife and a kid so I cant really afford to "dabble" from job to job as the sole bread winner.

I guess my question is: when did you feel confident enough with your skills to pick up and jump into other opportunities? Where you even sure you could hack it? Or did you plan to fake till you make it? I feel grateful to even have random job offers like this but a Plan B is still hard to come by in this job market all the same.

pinkydapimp

Have you been offered the job(as in gone through the entire interview process and have a formal offer) or has someone just reached out to you. If you go through the process and are honest throughout, then they feel you have the skills to do the job. I wouldnt sweat it. Take the job and further your career.

If you havent interviewed and gotten a formal job offer, then it cant hurt to do that, and during the process is where you can find out if the position is worth the risk. But those are questions you need to ask during that process to help make your decision. It really will all depend on the role regarding whether its worth it.

But regardless, if your at a job where you arent progressing(learning new skills, being promoted, getting raises) then you are hurting yourself in the end and really should make a move. What if you get laid off? Is your job really that stable? If you are that important, why arent you being promoted or paid better?

srabiee

5 years in the same job, it's time to move on. It's time to challenge yourself and expand on your skillset. This is how you further your career (and make more money). You will learn a lot of what you need to know on the job. It will take patience and persistence, but I'm sure you can do it. Every IT professional faces this issue when they move into a new job position that offers new responsibilities, new technologies, etc. The first few months may be stressful and intimidating, but eventually you will settle into the role just like you have in the role that you've been doing for 5 years. I say take the job and don't look back.

Also, certain IT career paths certainly require a bit of self-study and labbing at home to increase your skillset and stay on top of technology changes in the industry. I think you will find that a lot of the really good techs have some sort of lab at home that they utilize on at least a semi-regular basis. I recommend you do the same. (if you aren't already)

Good luck on your new ventures. Go in with confidence and a determined attitude and you will succeed.

lsud00d

You should never take a job that you can already do--pursue opportunities that bring you to the next level. There might be some bumps along the way but if you're not swimming, you're just treading or even worse...sinking.

Fulcrum45

Appreciate the replies. I should clarify however. I've only been in my current job about 9 months. My previous job (for which I was employed for a little over of 4 years) with an MSP disappeared due to us being a small shop and losing a large client. I took this current job out of necessity but I have to say I've done well with it, like my boss, benefits etc.

These current job opportunities are just that. Kind of in between the inquiry and job offer stage so nothing is concrete. I've had an interview with one and a phone interview scheduled with the other tomorrow. Perhaps there is something to a job interview where "What can you do for me?" is as just as important as "What can I do for you?"

Again, I appreciate the replies. As always, thoughtful and empathetic; that's why I love these forums.

lsud00d

Fulcrum45 wrote: »

Perhaps there is something to a job interview where "What can you do for me?" is as just as important as "What can I do for you?"

This^∞ , and I think not enough people realize this. The interview process is a metaphoric tango of sorts where both parties need to thoroughly feel each other out. The importance of the match increases directly with years experience; early in the career its importance pales in comparison to the mid-to-senior opportunities.

techfiend

That's really good advice about every job should be a challenge to advance in this field. Even at entry level this should be a high priority right? This is what I've decided to do and only showing interest that involve networking or have clear paths to networking for promotion. It shuts out most help desk positions but is 6 months at a help desk doing nothing related to networks really going to help get a network position next?

docrice

I think helpdesk provides a starting point in gaining insight into what the end-user experiences are in regards to their role within networks. Having that perspective is pretty crucial if you're a network admin because it's very easy to make configuration changes and not realize the consequences of unintended effects when you're staring at some terminal interface where client nodes are abstracted out of the picture.

One thing I've realized over the years is that you can never be completely confident in your skill set. Every environment, team, and expectation is different. The moving parts will always differ to some degree from one organization to the next. You can't test your limits (and thus professionally grow) unless you provide yourself the opportunity to try. If you don't periodically try to expand your horizons, the danger of becoming obsolete will eventually turn much more real because most things become commoditized in time.

You have to trust yourself to some degree in your abilities. As long as your fundamentals in general base knowledge and analysis are sound, you can always pick up the peripheral details to fill in the blanks.

pinkydapimp

docrice wrote: »

I think helpdesk provides a starting point in gaining insight into what the end-user experiences are in regards to their role within networks. Having that perspective is pretty crucial if you're a network admin because it's very easy to make configuration changes and not realize the consequences of unintended effects when you're staring at some terminal interface where client nodes are abstracted out of the picture.

One thing I've realized over the years is that you can never be completely confident in your skill set. Every environment, team, and expectation is different. The moving parts will always differ to some degree from one organization to the next. You can't test your limits (and thus professionally grow) unless you provide yourself the opportunity to try. If you don't periodically try to expand your horizons, the danger of becoming obsolete will eventually turn much more real because most things become commoditized in time.

You have to trust yourself to some degree in your abilities. As long as your fundamentals in general base knowledge and analysis are sound, you can always pick up the peripheral details to fill in the blanks.

This! This is why its really important to build strong foundational knowledge. If you do that, you can pick things up quickly. When people ask me do you need a computer science degree for example, i always recommend it because while it doesn't teach you IT skills, it does teach you to think logically and teaches that foundational knowledge. It puts you a in a great position to learn new skills and solve problems without prior exposure and that is where you want to be.

techfiend

I can understand help desk would teach a lot of entry level people some skills but those same sort of skills would be learned at more relevant positions too wouldn't it? I'm not omitting all help desk positions, there's one I've interviewed for and sent thank you letters, that sits next to sys admins and net admins, this is a position I feel I would learn the help desk skills along with relevant technical skills. Opposed to the standard help desk where you may work with a few tier 2's but they are basically solving the same windows, office issues which has no technical relevance to networking.

Back to the OP. Is this a position where you would be at the highest level? If not, you always have the higher level as a backup and in any decent place you should be able to learn from the higher levels, which will advance you. I know it might hurt your confidence to say you don't know but I've been told it's really important to have this 'skill'. It's much better to find out what you don't know than to try to do something and risk a mistake. Leave the experimenting for labs.

I can relate though, my first interview in years was for an MSP and I really didn't think I had what it takes to do the position based on the technical questions asked. I tried fumbling through the ones I didn't which probably looked bad. During the interview I lacked confidence and was setup in a real high pressure setting, I bombed it. Since then, going into an interview I haven't tried to know it all but instead show that I'm willing to learn and I've received positive feedback for doing so. I would definitely suggest you pursue them even if you're unsure if the position fits right now. I've been to a few interviews where I was doubtful going in and came out feeling it would be a great fit. The aforementioned help desk position is one case.

WiseWun

pinkydapimp wrote: »

But regardless, if your at a job where you arent progressing(learning new skills, being promoted, getting raises) then you are hurting yourself in the end and really should make a move. What if you get laid off? Is your job really that stable? If you are that important, why arent you being promoted or paid better?

+1. The key to advancement is constantly challenging yourself and pushing the envelope.