Make a Lateral Move from Help Desk to Help Desk?

Daneil3144

Instead of moving up, is it a good career move to go from held desk to help desk at a different company.

Just not getting the experience here; (This is my first IT gig)

This one help desk position I didn't even get an interview since they wanted professional experience with Citrix and SCCM.
Which I'm not exposed to here and never will be.

I get paid close to 40K, yet in my downtime, I can not be at my desk. I have to find issues or just be in another office. Find busy work like dust/wipe desktops or update Java or something.

My direct supervisor is old school. He told staff today that their new laptops can be overcharged and have a memory.

I've been here for 8 months. I really want to move up in terms of title at a different company. But, I need new and different experience at a different company it seems.

Just don't want to sell myself short when I get another cert in a few months.

jamesleecoleman

There's nothing wrong with it. Just make sure that the next job is more pay and more stuff to learn. A lot of people stay in helpdesk and either get more opportunities to do more or have to jump jobs to do more.

What certifications are you working on? What education do you have?

TechGromit

Daneil3144 wrote: »

Instead of moving up, is it a good career move to go from held desk to help desk at a different company.

It can be, if the new company exposes you to new technologies, or has more opportunities for advancement. Just be careful not to hop around too often. A bunch of short term just gigs doesn't look good your resume. after all 8 months really isn't that long at a job.

Daneil3144 wrote: »

He told staff today that their new laptops can be overcharged and have a memory..

Not even sure what this means.

UncleB

TechGromit wrote: »

Not even sure what this means.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-care-for-your-laptops-battery/
"In ancient, less enlightened times, there was a problem called “battery memory” that caused nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries to “forget” their full charge capacity and start charging at lower and lower levels.
This problem doesn’t exist any longer thanks to modern lithium-ion batteries, but it has led to a lot of poor advice and arguments about battery care based on outdated information."

DatabaseHead

Story time with databasehead.....

I worked with a friend who was on the helpdesk at the same company for ~7 years. Locked on tier 2 forever, waited, waited, waited.... You get the point. He eventually walked away from a FTE tier 2 position to a tier 1 position as a contract at another company near by. The pay was the same though......

Within 2 years on the service desk he landed an internal position as a security analyst. He held that for 3 years and is now a senior risk manager making really good money.

That one lateral kicked the door in for him and he is doing well now......

Nisseki

I did this last year.

I was working on a help desk at my previous company earning only £17K a year but I stayed on because they kept promising career progression which never happened therefore I left for a temp contract for 3 months on another help desk and now earning £10K more!

I'm still working on this contract after multiple extensions and now I'm starting to take on more responsibilities such as desktop support and user admin.