How did you work your way up to high end I.T jobs.

loxleynew

Mine isn't as crazy but for what it's worth here it is. I started back in 2007 training to become a firefighter but needed a side job. I had just finished getting my bachelors by then in completely unrelated field but decided whatever and got a job as at IBM working help desk tier 1 type stuff. Back then I didn't even know what AD was and was like cool you can reset passwords? Awesome! So after doing that for 3 months and getting paid about $11 an hour I was like screw this I need more. So I quit my firefighting classes and training in the middle of it and decided to go IT full time.

I studied for 2 months and got my MCDST certs and found this job i'm at now making roughly $17.50 per hour. My title then was IT specialist. Side note I was the fastest person to leave that help desk ever the manager said. Most people took 1 year + to land a new job but no one else was motivated in getting certs or pushing themselves like I was I guess. I think me getting certs and moving on actually maybe inspired my then boss to do the same since I made more than him now lol.

Anyways from there I worked for 2 years then after getting more certs and my MCSA I went and got a promotion kinda to the network admin which is my title now and like a $1.50 raise lol. Now looking to finish my ccna and move into a 50k+ job. Been turned down for a few recently where I was like the top 2 candidate for the job so only a matter of time.

Basically it's all up to YOU. If you do not push yourself and basically market yourself as a product you will get no where in this business.

Bl8ckr0uter

N2IT wrote: »

Actually one thing you said I disagree with. You have an SLA that needs to be met.

This wasn't a SLA issue IMO well technically I don't know how to describe it.

I was getting my calls done at .65 the average time for the group and the department. In addition to that I was fixing problems that normally would be escalated (this was before they made me like level 1.5). So I was saving customers time and phone calls because I was fixing stuff in 1 call instead of escalating it. In hindsight I did go way above my duties by fixing stuff even 2L said couldn't be fixed.

True story: A customer called in after he purchased our custom software for like 10K plus support, and users seats and such. All in all he was probably out 15K that day. Well the customer started to do an install of the product and his machine crashed (power outage). When he tried to reinstall, it said it was already installed, but it didn't show up in Add and Remove programs. So he called into support. Support ended up calling 2L who told him to go to Microsoft because it wasn't our problem he couldn't install our product. When the customer was informed of this, he got pissed so they called the (complaint) manager who got chewed out for an hour. The complaint manager sent him back to support and I picked up the phone. The manager told me to fix the issue if I can and escalate it if I couldn't. The customer explained the issue and I knew how to fix it - Windows Installer Cleanup Utility. Now at the time, the utility was in the gray area of allowed use for 1L and 2L could use it. In order to escalate a ticket you had to call 2L and get approval to put it into their queue. From there they would take care of the rest.

Well I called the 2L guy and explained the situation, and even showed him other escalated tickets that had this utility listed as the resolution and he basically told me no, go to Microsoft. So I told him, this guy just spent a lot of money and at this point was threatening to return the product and also about how the complaint manager and stuff. He still said no. So I clicked back over to the customer and tried to see if there was a way around it. I explained to him that my 2L guys told him that he needed to go to MS (which sent him into a rage). All the while I am emailing 2L and the complaint manager who went quiet on me. After 20 minutes of getting yelled at I called 2L again, I got a different guy this time. He told me to go ahead and use the utility. So I remoted into the guys computer ran the utility and fixed the issue. We reinstalled, configured SQL server and he was happy. The entire fix took less than 10 minutes, after 3 hours of the customer being on the phone.

So after that I emailed the 2L guys letting them know that this worked and we need to update our knowledge base and all that stuff. Well the second 2L guy just said great job, the first 2L guy went off. He said I need to leave decisions like that to people with more technical knowledge and that while it may have fixed the issue it could have broke something. He then said that if I went against his authority he could call my team leader. Of course I was pissed (the customer later sent a letter to the company about how nice I was to him and that stuff). I told my team leader AND my manager and his team leader and manager what went down. He later apologized because he thought I was just trying to circumvent his authority. I was just trying to help the one who truly pays my paycheck.

It was at that period that I realized that I would be leaving that job soon. I lost out on a 2L position (right around the same time) and I was told that I would not be able to become a senior tech. I knew I need to get out of there. In hindsight I probably could have handled that better but I was over my shift by 2 hours getting yelled at because someone else was told me to send this guy to Microsoft.

N2IT wrote: »

If you are off on rogue adventures helping employee X with something not agreed to by the SLA and Scope of the service level management you could be doing more harm than good.
Customers call in expecting a set service level and providing acts of heroics can be more determental to the helpdesk than helpful.

This is where I disagree. If I call up my mechanic and ask for a oil change (no jokes please lol) and get an oil change and an air filter how would that be damaging? This just happened to me and I was very happy. If it is something that I cannot or will not do and it needs to be done and he went out of his way to do it, I am going to remember that the next time I get my oil changed. Going above and beyond is just good customer service. If someone came to me and asked me to remove a virus and I see that there hard drive is fragmented to all hell I am going to call them and say hey you hard drive is messed up which can cause slowness, can I do this as well. No charge. Guess who just got himself a repeat customer?

Customer service is just shitty all over these days that's why I pride myself with making my real bosses (the customers) happy. 'Cause if they aren't happy then there is no job for me. The whole dialog with my manager was she said that you obviously know a lot but you have to "tone it down" so we can provide "an even level of support". Quite literally dumb it down so you don't make the rest of us look bad. The issue was that there were two types of people: Customer Support people who they trained to be techies (fail) and techies who they trained to be customer support oriented. The techie people stood out because they could actually fix a problem. The Customer Support people were in greater supply and that's what she meant by even support. Some of these people regularly needed help doing basic things on their own boxes let alone fixing customer issues. It was just crazy, a bad place for me to be, so I had to dip.

N2IT wrote: »

****Note I am not saying you are stalling, but running over to department C and then D to get an answer is not cost effective and defiently not part of a solid ITIL/ISO model. The managers should be incharge of the training and what should be provided.

Define cost effective. It cost about 1000 per escalated incident with the differences in pay scale for 1L and 2L plus the time (escalation was not instant) and time. Even if I spend 8 hours in 1 call it would not have come to that cost.

But I agree with you. I wasn't a ticket holder. If I didn't know, I didn't know plain and simple. If I had to send it up, I had to send it up. But a lot of my escalations weren't because of technical knowledge, they were because of rules and restrictions.

You obviously a big standards guy. I can tell that by what you are posting and your certs (I don't mean that in a bad way) Maybe I don't understand that side of IT. Maybe its because I see IT like the guy who owns the gas station and pumps the gas. Every interaction counts and every person deserves 110% of your effort.

kiki1579

Started out about 13 years ago right out of HS with my first gig at a help desk for a local ISP making $8/hr. I had a few more IT jobs along the way untill early 2001 when the ecomony tanked making $38K. Keep in mind my skill level and education also peaked out at that point, since I really didn't have much experience or training. I was forced at that point to go back to school since I really didn't want to keep going on the "rollcoaster", and I wanted to exceed..not stall out.

Around 02-03 I left like I still wasn't getting anywhere, while still doing school, so I started my certification journey. I took several classes to gain some experience, took my cert exams, and in 2004 I finally got out of retail making 9.50/hr.

Around 04 I got my MCSE in 2000 & 03, plus a few other certs, while still being in school. I was in the same job for 5 years, 2004-2010 making $12K more than what I started out at. Although it was great getting paid, there was a downside to it that it was a Gov't contractor position. So there wasn't much room to grow skills wise.

I got my A.S. Degree in 07, took a break for a little while. Then I got laid off in Jan of this year. I took the time to update my certs, while working on completing my B.S. degree. Finally got a job due to my prior govt contractor job, and IT certs, degree and skills making about $3K more than what I did at my last job.

I certainly can't complain. But I do know that once you become relaxed/comfortable is the minute that you will be left behind.

N2IT

knwminus wrote: »

This wasn't a SLA issue IMO well technically I don't know how to describe it.

I was getting my calls done at .65 the average time for the group and the department. In addition to that I was fixing problems that normally would be escalated (this was before they made me like level 1.5). So I was saving customers time and phone calls because I was fixing stuff in 1 call instead of escalating it. In hindsight I did go way above my duties by fixing stuff even 2L said couldn't be fixed.

True story: A customer called in after he purchased our custom software for like 10K plus support, and users seats and such. All in all he was probably out 15K that day. Well the customer started to do an install of the product and his machine crashed (power outage). When he tried to reinstall, it said it was already installed, but it didn't show up in Add and Remove programs. So he called into support. Support ended up calling 2L who told him to go to Microsoft because it wasn't our problem he couldn't install our product. When the customer was informed of this, he got pissed so they called the (complaint) manager who got chewed out for an hour. The complaint manager sent him back to support and I picked up the phone. The manager told me to fix the issue if I can and escalate it if I couldn't. The customer explained the issue and I knew how to fix it - Windows Installer Cleanup Utility. Now at the time, the utility was in the gray area of allowed use for 1L and 2L could use it. In order to escalate a ticket you had to call 2L and get approval to put it into their queue. From there they would take care of the rest.

Well I called the 2L guy and explained the situation, and even showed him other escalated tickets that had this utility listed as the resolution and he basically told me no, go to Microsoft. So I told him, this guy just spent a lot of money and at this point was threatening to return the product and also about how the complaint manager and stuff. He still said no. So I clicked back over to the customer and tried to see if there was a way around it. I explained to him that my 2L guys told him that he needed to go to MS (which sent him into a rage). All the while I am emailing 2L and the complaint manager who went quiet on me. After 20 minutes of getting yelled at I called 2L again, I got a different guy this time. He told me to go ahead and use the utility. So I remoted into the guys computer ran the utility and fixed the issue. We reinstalled, configured SQL server and he was happy. The entire fix took less than 10 minutes, after 3 hours of the customer being on the phone.

So after that I emailed the 2L guys letting them know that this worked and we need to update our knowledge base and all that stuff. Well the second 2L guy just said great job, the first 2L guy went off. He said I need to leave decisions like that to people with more technical knowledge and that while it may have fixed the issue it could have broke something. He then said that if I went against his authority he could call my team leader. Of course I was pissed (the customer later sent a letter to the company about how nice I was to him and that stuff). I told my team leader AND my manager and his team leader and manager what went down. He later apologized because he thought I was just trying to circumvent his authority. I was just trying to help the one who truly pays my paycheck.

It was at that period that I realized that I would be leaving that job soon. I lost out on a 2L position (right around the same time) and I was told that I would not be able to become a senior tech. I knew I need to get out of there. In hindsight I probably could have handled that better but I was over my shift by 2 hours getting yelled at because someone else was told me to send this guy to Microsoft.




This is where I disagree. If I call up my mechanic and ask for a oil change (no jokes please lol) and get an oil change and an air filter how would that be damaging? This just happened to me and I was very happy. If it is something that I cannot or will not do and it needs to be done and he went out of his way to do it, I am going to remember that the next time I get my oil changed. Going above and beyond is just good customer service. If someone came to me and asked me to remove a virus and I see that there hard drive is fragmented to all hell I am going to call them and say hey you hard drive is messed up which can cause slowness, can I do this as well. No charge. Guess who just got himself a repeat customer?

Customer service is just shitty all over these days that's why I pride myself with making my real bosses (the customers) happy. 'Cause if they aren't happy then there is no job for me. The whole dialog with my manager was she said that you obviously know a lot but you have to "tone it down" so we can provide "an even level of support". Quite literally dumb it down so you don't make the rest of us look bad. The issue was that there were two types of people: Customer Support people who they trained to be techies (fail) and techies who they trained to be customer support oriented. The techie people stood out because they could actually fix a problem. The Customer Support people were in greater supply and that's what she meant by even support. Some of these people regularly needed help doing basic things on their own boxes let alone fixing customer issues. It was just crazy, a bad place for me to be, so I had to dip.



Define cost effective. It cost about 1000 per escalated incident with the differences in pay scale for 1L and 2L plus the time (escalation was not instant) and time. Even if I spend 8 hours in 1 call it would not have come to that cost.

But I agree with you. I wasn't a ticket holder. If I didn't know, I didn't know plain and simple. If I had to send it up, I had to send it up. But a lot of my escalations weren't because of technical knowledge, they were because of rules and restrictions.

You obviously a big standards guy. I can tell that by what you are posting and your certs (I don't mean that in a bad way) Maybe I don't understand that side of IT. Maybe its because I see IT like the guy who owns the gas station and pumps the gas. Every interaction counts and every person deserves 110% of your effort.

I think you understand that just fine. You don't need the certs to understand the impact of risk and the reward of quality.

Frameworks are used to piece together your organization and to create an environment that works with best practices, at least thats my opinion.

My point is this, if a customer calls in to technican A and asked how to build a Excel Macro and he does it, it's possible now that customers expectations are now inflated. They will expect that type of service in the future which will catch up with your service desk eventually IMO. Now obiviously you can create a solution submit it to CSI and have them review it and possibly implement it into the known error database / knowledge database. But what if a accountant ask for advice on how to create a formula and it so happens that Tech B has an accounting degree but for someone reason hates accounting so he went into helpdesk to get his start. So he decides to help this customer with the creation of formula that figures the gross profit ratio. Potentially that customer may call back in with higher expectations or even spread the word to others. This could create some bad trending and give the service desk manager and other stakeholders a potential headache.

My personal opinion is this. Try to stay as close to the SLA as possible. If your organization openly states they don't support home networks then don't troubleshoot them for very long. You get this with VPN and RAS issues. Another one I've seen is Microsoft Office applications. Some agreements leave out the support of Office. Should you support office everytime it comes in? What will that do to your abandoment rate? Are the customers with real issues being ignored or having to experience longer wait times? Are critical case/tickets/issues/problems missing SLA because the service desk is now trying to perform heroic acts?

Just things to consider. I aspire to be a IT manager one day that's why I really focus on the frameworks and best practices.

ipconfig.all

Wow. Interesting stories,

deemee1988

Insprining.

BroadcastStorm

At age 21 I started working under the table in the US as a PC technician I was making 800 $ a month, and was on my own all alone in the big city, the following year I was able to fix my papers my american citizen wife petitioned me, and started working different low end jobs, without experience, and needing some growing up it was very hard to land an IT job back then especially after 911 age discrimination is real, so I started working at Fry's/Walmart/Jack in the Box/Best Buy, making minimum wage and I was actually making more compared to my under the table gig :P having an ex. wife that doesn't like to work, things are harder, my major is computer science and graduated back in my country, and there's just no way to land a programming job without experience.

I remember getting laid-off me and my family had to stay at a shelter what hurt me the most is we had our newly born daughter, I was really heart broken there are people there giving us eggs to eat and there are family in there that are in the same situation, until I was able to live in a studio apartment with my daughter and wife, living from pay check to pay check, so I decided to go back and study I was frequently at the book store, I can't even afford to buy myself a book it was so tough I was literally broke, so I had to buy the book burn the CD and return it, I started watching simple Windows XP video and started relearning again that's when I landed a 1 day contract at a school system back in 2003 the 8 hours they cut it to 3 hours, then after that I finally landed 3 months contracts and more contracts came making 18$ - 24$, at age 24 I landed a fulltime position making 40,000 $.

This year I was hired as a systems engineer and now makes 80,000 $ a year, I bought a small house for myself, and bought a new car, I am happy and dating a nice girl I'm divorced.

Life is not fair, so hard workd/attitude/dedication is a must! or it's going to give you lemon, I expect myself to make 100K next year or the following year.

This website has helped me alot I've been using this since 2007.

networker050184

BroadcastStorm wrote: »

At age 21 I started working under the table in the US as a PC technician I was making 800 $ a month, and was on my own all alone in the big city, the following year I was able to fix my papers my american citizen wife petitioned me, and started working different low end jobs, without experience, and needing some growing up it was very hard to land an IT job back then especially after 911 age discrimination is real, so I started working at Fry's/Walmart/Jack in the Box/Best Buy, making minimum wage and I was actually making more compared to my under the table gig :P having an ex. wife that doesn't like to work, things are harder, my major is computer science and graduated back in my country, and there's just no way to land a programming job without experience.

I remember getting laid-off me and my family had to stay at a shelter what hurt me the most is we had our newly born daughter, I was really heart broken there are people there giving us eggs to eat and there are family in there that are in the same situation, until I was able to live in a studio apartment with my daughter and wife, living from pay check to pay check, so I decided to go back and study I was frequently at the book store, I can't even afford to buy myself a book it was so tough I was literally broke, so I had to buy the book burn the CD and return it, I started watching simple Windows XP video and started relearning again that's when I landed a 1 day contract at a school system back in 2003 the 8 hours they cut it to 3 hours, then after that I finally landed 3 months contracts and more contracts came making 18$ - 24$, at age 24 I landed a fulltime position making 40,000 $.

This year I was hired as a systems engineer and now makes 80,000 $ a year, I bought a small house for myself, and bought a new car, I am happy and dating a nice girl I'm divorced.

Life is not fair, so hard workd/attitude/dedication is a must! or it's going to give you lemon, I expect myself to make 100K next year or the following year.

This website has helped me alot I've been using this since 2007.

Crazy story dude. I'm glad things have turned around for you.

My story is pretty boring. Joined the Army at 17 and worked with Cisco stuff and was good at it. I really enjoyed it too so I decided to make it a career. Been working at ISPs pretty much since I've been out.

Bl8ckr0uter

N2IT wrote: »

I think you understand that just fine. You don't need the certs to understand the impact of risk and the reward of quality.

Frameworks are used to piece together your organization and to create an environment that works with best practices, at least thats my opinion.

My point is this, if a customer calls in to technican A and asked how to build a Excel Macro and he does it, it's possible now that customers expectations are now inflated. They will expect that type of service in the future which will catch up with your service desk eventually IMO. Now obiviously you can create a solution submit it to CSI and have them review it and possibly implement it into the known error database / knowledge database. But what if a accountant ask for advice on how to create a formula and it so happens that Tech B has an accounting degree but for someone reason hates accounting so he went into helpdesk to get his start. So he decides to help this customer with the creation of formula that figures the gross profit ratio. Potentially that customer may call back in with higher expectations or even spread the word to others. This could create some bad trending and give the service desk manager and other stakeholders a potential headache.

My personal opinion is this. Try to stay as close to the SLA as possible. If your organization openly states they don't support home networks then don't troubleshoot them for very long. You get this with VPN and RAS issues. Another one I've seen is Microsoft Office applications. Some agreements leave out the support of Office. Should you support office everytime it comes in? What will that do to your abandoment rate? Are the customers with real issues being ignored or having to experience longer wait times? Are critical case/tickets/issues/problems missing SLA because the service desk is now trying to perform heroic acts?

Just things to consider. I aspire to be a IT manager one day that's why I really focus on the frameworks and best practices.

In that particular situation I think someone asking for asking for accounting services is just crazy. I can agree that would be way outside the scope. However if it is within reason the thing to do shouldn't be tell 1 employee to dumb it down, it should be raise you other employees up. The reason why they told me to dumb it down is because its quicker and cheaper IMO. Send out information to 100 people or so or tell 1 person to keep his mouth shut and then promise him a 2L job and never give it to him, hmm. Yea let's do that.

Bl8ckr0uter

BroadcastStorm wrote: »

At age 21 I started working under the table in the US as a PC technician I was making 800 $ a month, and was on my own all alone in the big city, the following year I was able to fix my papers my american citizen wife petitioned me, and started working different low end jobs, without experience, and needing some growing up it was very hard to land an IT job back then especially after 911 age discrimination is real, so I started working at Fry's/Walmart/Jack in the Box/Best Buy, making minimum wage and I was actually making more compared to my under the table gig :P having an ex. wife that doesn't like to work, things are harder, my major is computer science and graduated back in my country, and there's just no way to land a programming job without experience.

I remember getting laid-off me and my family had to stay at a shelter what hurt me the most is we had our newly born daughter, I was really heart broken there are people there giving us eggs to eat and there are family in there that are in the same situation, until I was able to live in a studio apartment with my daughter and wife, living from pay check to pay check, so I decided to go back and study I was frequently at the book store, I can't even afford to buy myself a book it was so tough I was literally broke, so I had to buy the book burn the CD and return it, I started watching simple Windows XP video and started relearning again that's when I landed a 1 day contract at a school system back in 2003 the 8 hours they cut it to 3 hours, then after that I finally landed 3 months contracts and more contracts came making 18$ - 24$, at age 24 I landed a fulltime position making 40,000 $.

This year I was hired as a systems engineer and now makes 80,000 $ a year, I bought a small house for myself, and bought a new car, I am happy and dating a nice girl I'm divorced.

Life is not fair, so hard workd/attitude/dedication is a must! or it's going to give you lemon, I expect myself to make 100K next year or the following year.

This website has helped me alot I've been using this since 2007.

Wow dude! How old are you if you don't mind me asking?

Iristheangel

knwminus wrote: »

In that particular situation I think someone asking for asking for accounting services is just crazy. I can agree that would be way outside the scope. However if it is within reason the thing to do shouldn't be tell 1 employee to dumb it down, it should be raise you other employees up. The reason why they told me to dumb it down is because its quicker and cheaper IMO. Send out information to 100 people or so or tell 1 person to keep his mouth shut and then promise him a 2L job and never give it to him, hmm. Yea let's do that.

I would have to say that I agree with you in this case.
With my company's service desk, Tier I is expected to adhere to a different average handle time than Tier II's, but that's about the only difference between the tiers. If Tier I can't resolve the problem in 4 minutes or less, create a new ticket for Tier II to either take the call immediately or have them call the customer back and let the Tier I move to the next customer on hold. If the Tier II can resolve the problem though in the allocated time, then they're allowed to. I would think that this is best practice since it's adhering to the SLA and satisfying the customer. You're never going to "shine" or show that you can perform at a L2 level if you're constantly "dumbing yourself down." Way to go with getting out of that situation, knwminus.


I guess to keep on track with this thread, I'll give my own story.
I always wanted to do IT work, but honestly... I slacked away my early 20s and was never motivated to do anything. Around the age of 25, I started wanting to do more with myself but money was tight and I didn't know where to start. In the beginning of 2008, I got a customer service job at a tiny little company and during the interview, I mentioned to the owner of the company that I was interested in eventually getting into IT work. By my second month there, he moved me over to the IT department to train underneath the IT manager. At that point, I knew how to fix little computer problems, but I couldn't even tell you what a private IP address range was or even explain any network protocols to you or their corresponding ports. I worked my butt off there and my job role was help desk at $13 an hour. I got a second job doing security on the weekends to pay for my certifications and I started working on my A+, then moved to Network+, Linux+, and Security+. I had free reign on the network at my job, so I started playing around with AD and Exchange server and soaking up as much information as I could. After awhile though, I realized I couldn't move up at this company given the size of it and they weren't willing to pay me above $13/hr so I started putting my resume out there in the beginning of April of this year.

Within a week, I had an interview at a temp-to-hire position at a large health system and I was started at a Tier 2 service desk position at $18/hr. Within my first two weeks there, management decided given my skills, I was qualified for the security access team and was moved there and given a raise to $50K a year. Now, three months later, I have my MCSA and am working towards my MCSE. I'm closing over 1000+ security access requests a month while everyone else in my team is closing 300 and under. I've already been approached by the service desk manager and told that they plan on hiring me on and giving me a paybump as well (I'm going to ask for 65K since I'm completely the workload of 3 people with ease). I wouldn't call my job "high end" IT work, but it's a BIG step from $13/hr and I'm hoping that the next step is comparable. I have more than enough ambition to keep working towards my certifications and keep learning. Wish me luck, guys!

N2IT

knwminus wrote: »

In that particular situation I think someone asking for asking for accounting services is just crazy. I can agree that would be way outside the scope. However if it is within reason the thing to do shouldn't be tell 1 employee to dumb it down, it should be raise you other employees up. The reason why they told me to dumb it down is because its quicker and cheaper IMO. Send out information to 100 people or so or tell 1 person to keep his mouth shut and then promise him a 2L job and never give it to him, hmm. Yea let's do that.

I agree the manager of the support center tier 1 tier 2 whatever, should create training sessions and documentation and go over reoccuring issues. Windows corrupt profiles, Outlook issues, Synchronization issues, etc. I don't think you should "dumb it down", but I don't think you should run over to every tier 3 group to learn the answer, when half the time you don't even have the access nor does the group want you fixing the issue.

You should worry about good documentation and troubleshooting. Make sure the little stuff has been accounted for. Knowing your place in the business is really what it's all about. Heroic acts are nice and good feel moments, but they really aren't what an ITSM environment is all about.

shodown

Pimped my military background and clearance and applied for everything I was even close too. Got in and told the guys I didn't have a clue so give me all the crap work and built a reputation for BEING ON TIME, BEING RELIABLE, HOLDING MY WORD. Hell my manager would even send me out to customers sites due to the miltiary background and soft skills I work on damn near everyday.


After I did the crap work for about 2 months I was on par with the other entry level guys and moved into harder task, I also used that time to pass a few professional level exams. Now I had identifed who were the smart guys and got them to open up there wisdom to me. Doing backups and reloads at the crack of dawn. Going out to customers site to just wigle a cable. I built up a pretty good repuation for hard work and more importanly politics. I know how to talk when to talk.

Used all I gained there and started applying for higher level jobs later. I had been griding hard like John Fitch(not a true fighter, but will ware you down) for a while and was on the verge of aburn out and I finally found a job as WAN engineer with all the knolowdge I gained.(I dont' know how I was doing Tier 2/3 VOIP) My mangers didn't wanna see me go, but they put in a good word for me. But the real goal was never to be there perm it was to soak up all I can as the ultimate goal and go somewhere else to make money.

shodown

ColbyG wrote: »

Started at an ISP helpdesk, moved to another helpdesk, etc (~$10-12/hr). Eventually landed a residential consultant gig (~$30/hr, but sporadic work, so not much actual income), which was pretty ok. Then I jumped into a small company doing consulting and level 2/3 support for a small ISP they contracted to. Eventually, within that same company, I started working full time (still contractor through consulting firm - ~$15/hr) with a medium sized land development company as their IT guy. The company hired me on (~$40k) after awhile, but then they started going under.

After that I was jobless for quite awhile. I took some MS classes as up until that point I did mostly server stuff. There was a few week gap between some of the classes so they put me in a Cisco class. That was the end of the MS classes for me, lol. I was in love. I busted my ass and got the CCNA in a few weeks.

Then I got a job with another consulting company (~$45k) who focused on schools and medium business. It was supposed to be all Cisco, but I ended up doing a lot of server crap because they fired the guy who was doing it. I learned a little for ~5 months but ended up getting laid off. Then I moved to a contract position with an ISP ($24/hr), doing kind of network admin type stuff.

Finally I ended up where I'm at now, as a network engineer 2 ($62k) with a large enterprise. I had an offer a few months ago (from ACS, ~$75k), but my company offered me a small raise immediately ($67k, topped out my current position's range) and a promotion in September with a larger raise (hopefully $80k+).

That's my story.

I thought by now you were making way more than that. I follow your blog(WHEN U UPDATE IT and you seem like you have a clue more than a lot of guys I see in this field.

Turgon

BroadcastStorm wrote: »

At age 21 I started working under the table in the US as a PC technician I was making 800 $ a month, and was on my own all alone in the big city, the following year I was able to fix my papers my american citizen wife petitioned me, and started working different low end jobs, without experience, and needing some growing up it was very hard to land an IT job back then especially after 911 age discrimination is real, so I started working at Fry's/Walmart/Jack in the Box/Best Buy, making minimum wage and I was actually making more compared to my under the table gig :P having an ex. wife that doesn't like to work, things are harder, my major is computer science and graduated back in my country, and there's just no way to land a programming job without experience.

I remember getting laid-off me and my family had to stay at a shelter what hurt me the most is we had our newly born daughter, I was really heart broken there are people there giving us eggs to eat and there are family in there that are in the same situation, until I was able to live in a studio apartment with my daughter and wife, living from pay check to pay check, so I decided to go back and study I was frequently at the book store, I can't even afford to buy myself a book it was so tough I was literally broke, so I had to buy the book burn the CD and return it, I started watching simple Windows XP video and started relearning again that's when I landed a 1 day contract at a school system back in 2003 the 8 hours they cut it to 3 hours, then after that I finally landed 3 months contracts and more contracts came making 18$ - 24$, at age 24 I landed a fulltime position making 40,000 $.

This year I was hired as a systems engineer and now makes 80,000 $ a year, I bought a small house for myself, and bought a new car, I am happy and dating a nice girl I'm divorced.

Life is not fair, so hard workd/attitude/dedication is a must! or it's going to give you lemon, I expect myself to make 100K next year or the following year.

This website has helped me alot I've been using this since 2007.

Very well done on your accomplishments young man.

zerglings

Geek Squad - 1 year part time

IT Field Support for Fortune 500 (within the top 50) - 2 years

NOC Engineer (same company as above) - close to 3 years

Network Engineer/Analyst (same company as above) - 6 months and counting

Bl8ckr0uter

N2IT wrote: »

I agree the manager of the support center tier 1 tier 2 whatever, should create training sessions and documentation and go over reoccuring issues. Windows corrupt profiles, Outlook issues, Synchronization issues, etc. I don't think you should "dumb it down", but I don't think you should run over to every tier 3 group to learn the answer, when half the time you don't even have the access nor does the group want you fixing the issue.

You should worry about good documentation and troubleshooting. Make sure the little stuff has been accounted for. Knowing your place in the business is really what it's all about. Heroic acts are nice and good feel moments, but they really aren't what an ITSM environment is all about.

See like I said, you are very corporate and that was a very corporate answer. Whenever a "frame work" or a "best practice" silos someone into NOT supporting a customer AND dumbing their selves down for the sake of providing "even levels of customer service" there is a problem. A "frame work" shouldn't be so ridged, in fact, it should support going above and beyond when possible AND "safe".

I am not what you mean by "run over" a tier III (or tier II for that matter). Documentation is fine and should be updated constantly to "level out customer support" but that doesn't do much for the customer's right in front of you.

To me your words sound like someone who is in a tier II or III position and doesn't want someone "tramping" on their work. More often than not (at least in my opinion) it has been an ego thing (not you per se but in my experience ), especially when you do not interact with different groups. That is, not wanting lower levels to have more responsibilities/access in order to keep your own job secure (again not you per se just in my experience). That is a natural reaction. But again, the customer doesn't give a care about that, they just want their problem solved. Truth of the matter is, their is only 1 position in any company: CUSTOMER SERVICE. The only difference is who your customers are and how you interact them. From the janitor to the CEO. But like I said, I think I have a very different perspective on how a business should be. IMO if a janitor has an idea about how to improve business, they should be able to walk to the CEO and share the idea without being shoved aside for being "just" a janitor. If a helpdesk guy knows how to fix an issue that the senior admins don't know how, they should be able to share it without someone shooting them down for them "just" being a helpdesk guy. Ideas or Ideas. Fixes are fixes. Just my 0.02 When I open my business, I am going to run it this way. Everyone will know their place, customer service. No big Is and little Yous. Just everyone working to be the very best at what they do so we can all keep our customers happy.
But I am an Idealist and young. Please don't take my words as a personal attack, this is just a difference in philosophies that all lol. I am just not really build for the corporate world. When I was a young boy and through my teens, people simply thought I had a problem with authority, but as I grew it was revealed that I simply like walking on my own. The beaten path of top down management just seems inefficient to me.

tomahawkeer

knwminus wrote: »

See like I said, you are very corporate and that was a very corporate answer. Whenever a "frame work" or a "best practice" silos someone into NOT supporting a customer AND dumbing their selves down for the sake of providing "even levels of customer service" there is a problem. A "frame work" shouldn't be so ridged, in fact, it should support going above and beyond when possible AND "safe".

I am not what you mean by "run over" a tier III (or tier II for that matter). Documentation is fine and should be updated constantly to "level out customer support" but that doesn't do much for the customer's right in front of you.

To me your words sound like someone who is in a tier II or III position and doesn't want someone "tramping" on their work. More often than not (at least in my opinion) it has been an ego thing (not you per se but in my experience ), especially when you do not interact with different groups. That is, not wanting lower levels to have more responsibilities/access in order to keep your own job secure (again not you per se just in my experience). That is a natural reaction. But again, the customer doesn't give a care about that, they just want their problem solved. Truth of the matter is, their is only 1 position in any company: CUSTOMER SERVICE. The only difference is who your customers are and how you interact them. From the janitor to the CEO. But like I said, I think I have a very different perspective on how a business should be. IMO if a janitor has an idea about how to improve business, they should be able to walk to the CEO and share the idea without being shoved aside for being "just" a janitor. If a helpdesk guy knows how to fix an issue that the senior admins don't know how, they should be able to share it without someone shooting them down for them "just" being a helpdesk guy. Ideas or Ideas. Fixes are fixes. Just my 0.02 When I open my business, I am going to run it this way. Everyone will know their place, customer service. No big Is and little Yous. Just everyone working to be the very best at what they do so we can all keep our customers happy.
But I am an Idealist and young. Please don't take my words as a personal attack, this is just a difference in philosophies that all lol. I am just not really build for the corporate world. When I was a young boy and through my teens, people simply thought I had a problem with authority, but as I grew it was revealed that I simply like walking on my own. The beaten path of top down management just seems inefficient to me.

I agree 100%! When it comes down to what we do, its always to the satisfaction of a "Customer". Whether that customer is an end user, your boss, or the head of your company. They are your customers!

ColbyG

shodown wrote: »

I thought by now you were making way more than that. I follow your blog(WHEN U UPDATE IT and you seem like you have a clue more than a lot of guys I see in this field.

Hey, thanks. It'd be nice to make way more, lol. Cost of living here is pretty low, so I feel like I make decent money.

I'll get back into the blog as soon as I get this ITIL crap done with.

earweed

I really like the attitude that Knwminus aka "Killa K" has about customer service. If the goal of everyone is just to "close out" a ticket or escalate it then the whole operation sucks as far as customer service. The customer pays the checks, not the manager or the guy a tier above you. Using this "model" of best practices may look good on paper but we don't live in an ideal world.
Ideally you should be able to close a ticket every 4 minutes but sometimes the customers' needs are greater than that ideal standard.

networker050184

earweed wrote: »

I really like the attitude that Knwminus aka "Killa K" has about customer service. If the goal of everyone is just to "close out" a ticket or escalate it then the whole operation sucks as far as customer service. The customer pays the checks, not the manager or the guy a tier above you. Using this "model" of best practices may look good on paper but we don't live in an ideal world.
Ideally you should be able to close a ticket every 4 minutes but sometimes the customers' needs are greater than that ideal standard.

I agree, but some times its your job on the line if you aren't meeting the numbers. That attitude has to come form the top down, you can't just decide to change the process from the bottom up unfortunately.

Bl8ckr0uter

networker050184 wrote: »

I agree, but some times its your job on the line if you aren't meeting the numbers. That attitude has to come form the top down, you can't just decide to change the process from the bottom up unfortunately.

Exactly. At the aforementioned job of mine we didn't have that issue but they did keep track of how many calls you closed and stuff. They then set a base line of what they wanted. They soon realized that all calls aren't equal so they assigned values or estimated time amounts to calls. At that point I left. I wouldn't be surprised if they did start firing people over that stuff.

That type of atmosphere doesn't encourage people to go the extra mile for a customer. It makes people want to get them off of the phone as soon as possible. This leads to people giving half answers and customers having to call in multiple times.

sidsanders

started doing repair work/builds of desktops for 2 years (some field work). got a new job doing help desk, and in 4 months they liked what i could do and offered me 2 jobs, net admin (novell related), and nt admin. went nt admin route. was able to pick up other items and now support quite a bit. i had some certs before the second gig. was in college during the first job and done before starting the second gig.

CCIEWANNABE

started at help desk in 2002.
Went into the military in 2002 as computer operator.
Got out of the military in 2006.
Started working as a DoD Contractor in 2006.
Used GI Bill to Get 9 Cisco Certs and few Juniper Certs.
Started climbing DoD ladder to get where I'm at which is Level 3 Network Analyst.
Also, used knowledge that I am learning from CCIE R&S to create my small business that I do on the side.
Currently riding the gravy train :]

thetrillionaire

I joined the NAVY in 2005 as a Deck Seaman and worked my way to IT

Certified A+. Net+ CEH and came out with a Top Secret/SCI Clerance. I got out a got a job immediately as a NOC Technician with got CCNA certified did that for a year making 52k. Move to a another position with in the company a Jr Network Engineer making 75K I also got my CI Poly and ITIL Certified did that for and year and some change. Just recently took a position with Network Engineer IV 100K+ got my Full Scope Poly and working on my CCNP. I am 25 years old and been in IT for 6 years I think I am on the right path. My rise maybe quick but my work speaks for it self but I know that clearance is the money maker.

SubnettingGoddess

Sorry, very long winded...

My first "real job" was managing an account base for midmarket voice customers for a telecom. It was the gruntwork for the salespeople, and cleaning up after their mistakes (of which there were many). They planned to relocate our department so I was going to be displaced and had preferential status for other organizations. I chose the firewall administration group as my target. Again, I was hired to do what the others did not want to do - mostly SecurID administration and simple digital certificate stuff. But what an opportunity! I got O'Reilly's TCP/IP book, started working firewall tickets and learning to admin Raptor and Firewall-1, all the while working on proces improvement, like learning enough PERL to write some scripts that saved us hours weekly in digital certificate admin.

Went from there to a similar role at a webhosting dotcom that planned to be the next Exodus, and they were, only they beat Exodus to the punch. I was laid off and the company assets purchased by iirc divine. HUGE career misstep next - remembering how much I had enjoyed my customers in the first job, I became a data salesperson for another telecom. The less said, the better.

Then thank God I had the keyword websense on my resume because I was brought on short term at a federal agency to implement websense and Cisco Content Engine, never mind that I knew very little about them and made that clear. Then the person who coordinated all the implementations left, and I was asked to fill in "for a few weeks" - I did that job for two years!

A position opened on the network team and that to me was when I truly had a satisfying, challenging position. I learned SO much there....switches, routers, PIX, ASA, TACACS+. VPN concentrator, tinydns...

Just wanted to illustrate how much of a role dumb luck can play.

Mojo_666

I just hit the casting couch.

rwmidl

I was working in Sales for a company in Atlanta in 2000. I wanted to move back to Charleston (where I'm from) and the company I was with had an opening in IT (helpdesk). I applied for it and got it. Got transferred around the US some, then decided to get my CCNA and MCSE. They really didn't help me.

In 2007 I decided I had been with that company long enough so I took a position as a gov contractor. Did that for over 2 years, got my Sec + and then got another position as a contractor for another agency. Which is where I currently am. Luckily the contracting company I'm with offers quite a bit of training (and encourages it) so in my almost 6 months I've been with them I've gotten my GSEC and 2 out of the 5 requirements for MCITP: EA.

Paul Boz

BroadcastStorm wrote: »

Life is not fair, so hard workd/attitude/dedication is a must! or it's going to give you lemon, I expect myself to make 100K next year or the following year.

This website has helped me alot I've been using this since 2007.

Good for you man. I had a similar story, all be it without the homelessness and kid. I grew up as the oldest of four boys with poor parents, so when I turned 18 I set out on my own. I got the cheapest apartment by LSU that I could and paid for it and my bills month to month. I made $8.17/hr in tech support which was sometimes only enough to cover rent. My job was 35 miles from home so after the cost of fuel I was usually broke. There were plenty of times where I didn’t have the money for electricity (especially awful in the Louisiana summer heat) so I would run an extension cord from outside for my laptop and use my neighbor’s wireless. I used being in the dark with nothing in my fridge (what good is a fridge that’s off?) to become a better person. It was pretty damn tough being 18-19 years old going to class with people who have full rides from their parents knowing I’d be riding the bus home to a third-world living situation. I didn’t have the money or time to party or do the fun college things. I just worked my ass off to make ends barely meet. For one six month period my entire family (mom, dad, and two youngest brothers) lived with me because my dad’s oldest son (my half brother) evicted them from a house he owned. At that point I was trying to cover not only for myself but for all of them as well. After two or three years of living like that I eventually got a promotion and could afford rent AND electricity on a regular basis. You guys have no idea how glorious it was to come home to a cool apartment and lights.

I'm 25 now but have eight solid years of IT experience. Through those hard times I started laying the foundation for my career by studying for and obtaining certifications. I learned to use Dynamips router emulation because I didn't have electricity to run a lab. I only had my extension cord for my laptop. I openly admit that I used to also pirate training materials, simply because I wanted to further my career but couldn't afford to. I've certainly paid that back since then, hah. I make damn good money now but my mortgage is only $600/month and I don’t have a car note. I could afford a much larger house and a brand new car and all the bullshit that comes with that stuff, but why? My condo is twice as big as my old apartment was, I have electricity whenever I want it, 500 channels on cable, and a big yard to play and grow things in. I also have the best friends I could possibly ask for. Whenever I feel greedy I just think back to my lean times and remember how fortunate I am now. People ask me why I don’t get stressed when I’m unemployed and the answer to that is that I truly know how much worse it could be. My dark times make me fight harder, work harder, and out perform my peers. I don't take jobs for granted and do my best to crush my co workers. I have an internal tenacity for job preservation that is hard to match. Without living on the edge like I did for so long I doubt I'd care to work as hard as I do.

cleanwithit

Paul Boz wrote: »

Good for you man. I had a similar story, all be it without the homelessness and kid. I grew up as the oldest of four boys with poor parents, so when I turned 18 I set out on my own. I got the cheapest apartment by LSU that I could and paid for it and my bills month to month. I made $8.17/hr in tech support which was sometimes only enough to cover rent. My job was 35 miles from home so after the cost of fuel I was usually broke. There were plenty of times where I didn’t have the money for electricity (especially awful in the Louisiana summer heat) so I would run an extension cord from outside for my laptop and use my neighbor’s wireless. I used being in the dark with nothing in my fridge (what good is a fridge that’s off?) to become a better person. It was pretty damn tough being 18-19 years old going to class with people who have full rides from their parents knowing I’d be riding the bus home to a third-world living situation. I didn’t have the money or time to party or do the fun college things. I just worked my ass off to make ends barely meet. For one six month period my entire family (mom, dad, and two youngest brothers) lived with me because my dad’s oldest son (my half brother) evicted them from a house he owned. At that point I was trying to cover not only for myself but for all of them as well. After two or three years of living like that I eventually got a promotion and could afford rent AND electricity on a regular basis. You guys have no idea how glorious it was to come home to a cool apartment and lights.

I'm 25 now but have eight solid years of IT experience. Through those hard times I started laying the foundation for my career by studying for and obtaining certifications. I learned to use Dynamips router emulation because I didn't have electricity to run a lab. I only had my extension cord for my laptop. I openly admit that I used to also pirate training materials, simply because I wanted to further my career but couldn't afford to. I've certainly paid that back since then, hah. I make damn good money now but my mortgage is only $600/month and I don’t have a car note. I could afford a much larger house and a brand new car and all the bullshit that comes with that stuff, but why? My condo is twice as big as my old apartment was, I have electricity whenever I want it, 500 channels on cable, and a big yard to play and grow things in. I also have the best friends I could possibly ask for. Whenever I feel greedy I just think back to my lean times and remember how fortunate I am now. People ask me why I don’t get stressed when I’m unemployed and the answer to that is that I truly know how much worse it could be. My dark times make me fight harder, work harder, and out perform my peers. I don't take jobs for granted and do my best to crush my co workers. I have an internal tenacity for job preservation that is hard to match. Without living on the edge like I did for so long I doubt I'd care to work as hard as I do.

Truly inspirational! I love to hear these kind of things.