Moving from Desktop Support to Server Admin Role

I Have 3 years of Helpdesk, and 3 Years of Desktop Support Experience in massive companies National, and International Companies.

I want to move to a Server Admin Role (Inside or Outside of my company). I do have correct education for the the transition.

Where I run into a road block when I do get interviews for a Server Admin Role is my lack of experience as a Server Admin.

As one person interviewing said it, come back to me with 2 years of server admin experience and I would love to have you on my team.

Seems like my education and past IT experience don't count for nothing.
Any ideas how I could get around this "Experience" Issue?

Here is my Education background:

BA in International Relations, Minor in Management (From one of the Best univ in Canada)
BSc in IT (Network Design & Management)
MCITP: Enterprise Administrator ( Windows Server 2008 )
A+
Security+
Project+
MCTS: Windows 7
MCTS: SCCM Config
MCTS: Exchange 2007 Config
CCNA Courses from a Local college

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Comments

Bl8ckr0uter

You are probably going to have to get some experience.....

I know that sounds like a douche answer but its true. Smaller companies should have relaxed requirements for a JR level Sysadmin. You may want to try looking at some smaller shops. Alternatively you could also try to do some contracting for some server admin roll outs or something like that. Alternatively still, you could try to donate your time to a church or a local charity and handle their IT support as well as servers. I am not a big fan of the third option because I don't believe in donating my time for something I should get paid for but that's just me.

Getting experience is tough, getting education is slightly less tough. Getting certs is easy. You have the last two, when you get a little more of the first one your last two will really shine. How much have you worked with the technologies you are certified in? Your resume could be suffering from cert bloat (certifications in stuff that are grossly different from what you have done or at a much higher level from what you have done) which can be a real problem.

asurania

I haven't worked with much of the technology
exception of just resetting pw in active director, and just starting to touch SCCM at my work.

Yea i figured volunteering my time is the only option kinda knew that is the only way I can get out of this dumb cycle.

I can't give up the full time/perm role that I have as a desktop support role.

My current game plan is to volunteer my time setting up serves for a privite school and a couple business.

I am also trying to get some mentoring/shadowing going in the Data Center at work , but that might will have to wait till Jan

Any other ideas?

Bl8ckr0uter

Have you looked internally for Jr Level Server Support Positions? Does you company promote from within? Do they do mentoring? What about job shadowing?

Why can't you give up your position? Money or Contract?

TheMechanic

Wow man that's tough. Here in NY, you'd be given the opportunity. I don't have not even a third the certs you do but was given a shot, and man i'm loving it. Powerful feeling

pml1

Have you setup a home lab for any of your cert studies? If you haven't, that's a great way to become familiar with the technology. Create a domain in VMs. Lab up the different situations. Setup DNS, DHCP, and other server roles. It's not work experience in a production environment, but it's the next best thing!

JockVSJock

You are not alone...I'm having that problem too of making that jump.

http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/59913-did-not-get-sys-admin-job-again-what-am-i-not-doing-right.html

asurania

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

Have you looked internally for Jr Level Server Support Positions? Does you company promote from within? Do they do mentoring? What about job shadowing?

Why can't you give up your position? Money or Contract?

I would want to go from my current perm full time position to server support position which would be perm full time. (Without a Pay Cut).

I can volunteer for free in the everning/week which i plan to do to fullfill the exp.

Also seeing if I can join the mentoring program at work...

I hope all of this would count.....

I find me having to do all of this overkill to do for a better position, but guess no choice with today Job Market...

Also just a FYI I have had Professional Interview Mentoring, and my resume I been told by my recuiters is amazing

powerfool

I would have to echo the sentiment of moving to a smaller shop. That is pretty much where I got all of my career movement experience. Somewhere that has enough of an IT need for one full-time person and may rely on some external help. 50+ users, and 2+ servers. Two years there and you will be able to move on to something bigger. I moved from that to an environment with doing nearly the same thing with about 200 users and 15 servers in three locations. From there I moved into an environment with about 3000 users and 50 servers and two other people assisting me, but we were mostly server/network focused and not very end-user centric. Now... I am in a 20,000 user environment with about 1,000 Windows servers and about 100 Solaris systems. I am one of 20-ish engineers that writes documents for a handful of operations folks to implement. Of course, I am burdened with ridiculous tickets that are supposed to be tier 3, but the ops folks don't do tier 1 or 2 troubleshooting before they give up. Anyhow, I think I am pretty much set for any type of organization now.

InfusiveInc

Why It’s Time to Leave Desktop Support | Dice Blog Network

Here is a resource that may be helpful in understanding the perspective of hiring organizations when it comes to this issue and what technical professionals can do in order to overcome the obstacles.

motheo

I have found that it very hard to get an opportunity in server support/ admin especially when you don't have any experience but the qualification.

DoubleNNs

It wasn't hard for me to move into the Server Admin space, but I'm on the Linux side of the field.

@motheo This thread is from 2010 however. You might be able to follow the posting history of the people involved in this discussion and see where they ended up and how they were able to make the jump.