Trying to decide between two job offers

I've been looking for some entry level IT work and I finally got a couple of offers. Both jobs are about the same distance from my place. One is working as help desk in a call center for a major national hospital chain. The other is desktop support for a small office of about 40 advertising agents.

I can see pros and cons to both of these but I'm not really sure what I should go for.

I've done call center work before so I definitely feel like I can handle doing that again. I think that with big corporations like this you have more room to move up into other positions plus if you leave the company, other companies will at least recognize where you worked and I think working for a hospital looks good on a resume.

The desktop support position would actually be me being the "IT guy" for these advertising people and having to respond to their tickets and help them with their issues. The two things that bug me about this is that they're all using macs which I'm somewhat familiar with but not nearly as much as Windows machines. Plus I've never been the go-to guy, I've always worked with others as part of a team. I've never had it all be my responsibility before. Apparently this advertising company has two other offices in other states where they have one IT guy also. Part of me welcomes the challenge of doing something like that, but I also feel like I could be biting off more than I can chew and that the help desk position at the hospital would be easier and I should take that instead.

Any thoughts?

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Comments

NetworkNewb

I would take the hospital position and that isn't just because I hate Macs (just the OS, actually think they make really good machines). Healthcare is definitely a good industry and looks great on a resume. Also, alot more room to move up.

Being the only support for the sales group probably wouldn't be that difficult but I just don't know how much that would help your career at all, supporting a small group of Mac computers... Sounds like you would probably have a lot of down time to study for other things though if it was only 40 machines.

Hammer80

I concur, the Hospital job sounds like a better fit which will provide more growth and it will look great on your resume. The advertising job look like one those JOAT gigs with a crappy title like support specialist but they expect systems engineer level knowledge and they insist that they can't pay more than $20 an hour.

Kandinsky

Thanks for the replies. You both confirmed what I was thinking, I was leaning in the direction of the hospital job too, like 60/40. I think I'm definitely going to take it now. I should hopefully have my CCNA by this time next year and perhaps by then another position will have opened up within the company or I can look outside for a higher level position. Thanks for your insights, much appreciated.

nster

If it eases your mind, I would take the hospital job as well. If they were on Windows machines, it might have been debatable, but Macs? Nope

Kandinsky

Thanks for the input. I can see I'm not alone in my dislike of macs lol

jibbajabba

lol, I'd go for the small office haha. I see one advantage in working for small offices. You are being noticed quicker.

When was working in a small office I ended up being some people's hero who couldnt stop talking positively about me.

Small favours can go a long way...

Eventually a good internal position came up and the internal interview was merely to tick an HR box.

I worked for larger call centres as well (i.e. Xerox). Benefits are better but you are just a number and likely need to move on to move up.

The smallest company I worked for ended up being the job I was in the longest ...

Personal preference, that's all

Bear in mind, easier job means you likely get bored quicker.

LeBroke

Hammer80 wrote: »

I concur, the Hospital job sounds like a better fit which will provide more growth and it will look great on your resume. The advertising job look like one those JOAT gigs with a crappy title like support specialist but they expect systems engineer level knowledge and they insist that they can't pay more than $20 an hour.

Thing is, anyone with actual systems engineer knowledge won't even consider desktop support jobs unless they're a new immigrant or something. So, companies end up either hiring foreign sysadmins who barely speak the language, or 20-somethings trying to get their first/second IT job.

In the first case they're getting tech skills, but probably terrible support, and a guy who doesn't want to be there and can't communicate with anyone at the office. In the second, they might get a guy with a great personality (if that's what the interviewer is looking for), but so-so tech skills. Which is probably fine for an SMB environment, but tends to fall apart the second you need a Linux server or mass deployment via AD or something. Chances are, if the business grows, he'll spend most of his day putting out fires from stuff configured via Google instead of a thorough understanding of technology and best practices. I know I'd certainly be in this position if I worked SMB stuff.

Hence, these days small/medium businesses tend to move to MSPs. Don't have to pay a huge salary, AND you generally get someone who knows what he's doing.

epcg

Look at the benefits. Does either pay for certs, training, college? What about time off? But working on 40 macs no couldnt do it unless had no choice.

Nemowolf

Personally I would go with the smaller outfit for much the same reason that Jibbajabba mentioned. I am currently courting a new employer for an office 100 that has previously out sourced their IT to a consulting company and they want to bring it in-house. Ive worked for a medium sized corp with 600 employees and a smaller sized company of 300, in both cases I felt that I could get more personal interaction if I was in a smaller company. It was hard to get any recognition for my efforts as it was all for one and one for all in the larger situations where your just a part of the machine. The challenge of being everyone's personal hero would be a challenge up front but easier and easier as you get to know your clients and get to understand what it is they really need from you, by the time you hit a year i wouldn't be surprised if you were able to handle any of their requests and have plenty of down time pretending your working.

NetworkNewb

I know what everyone is saying about it being nice working for a small company. And I agree it can be nice. But managing 40 computers is not that many computers, I would imagine you would end up with ALOT of down time. Which could be good if you use the time to expand your skills. But the fact they are Macs, it is going to be hard to translate that into good experience if you ever try to and switch to another company, as most companies use Windows.

BradleyHU

I actually did Mac desktop support & sys admin for about 6 months @ 1 firm. It wasn't that bad. You get used to it pretty quickly, especially if you're able to adapt to technology. Macs bind to AD(if they have that), can see windows networked resources, and you don't really have to worry viruses...even though you should still have some sort of Endpoint Protection for the macs.

jibbajabba

NetworkNewb wrote: »

But the fact they are Macs, it is going to be hard to translate that into good experience if you ever try to and switch to another company, as most companies use Windows.

If you expand your Windows knowledge during your downtime, writing in your resume that you were responsible for 40 desktop computers or simply 'systems' won't hurt, if a bunch of certs are windows related ... You aren't lying, you merely leave out some details. Sure, there'll be interviews, but getting them in the first place is the hard part.

Then it is all down to selling yourself.

If you can't be bothered at all though then yes, skip the small company otherwise you'll be off soon anyway.

Kandinsky

epcg wrote: »

Look at the benefits. Does either pay for certs, training, college? What about time off? But working on 40 macs no couldnt do it unless had no choice.

The hospital offers tuition reimbursement AND pays for certifications. I've interviewed with other companies that only cover certifications that pertain to their particular specialty. For instance, I did a short stint at a storage company and they only would reimburse for certs related to storage. If you were going for something like A+ or a CCNA they wouldn't cover it.

The hospital does pay for pretty much any IT certification so that to me was a big plus.

jibbajabba

Kandinsky wrote: »

I've interviewed with other companies that only cover certifications that pertain to their particular specialty. .

I don't think I ever worked for a company where this wasn't the case. Plus you usually have to have a pass before you can reclaim your money back (in most of our cases anyway)

NetworkNewb

jibbajabba wrote: »

I don't think I ever worked for a company where this wasn't the case. Plus you usually have to have a pass before you can reclaim your money back (in most of our cases anyway)

My company doesn't help at all... Kinda surprises/annoys me since they will be promoting me this summer and letting me hire someone to work under me as well.