What would you do if you feel that you're not used to your full potential at work?

loss4words

Hi guys,

What would you do if you had just started working (about 2 years) in a helpdesk/desktop support role, but feel that your skills are not recognized and you don't feel that you're being challenged at all. I'm working an evening shift (3pm-11pm) on most days and my day-to-day responsibilites are just not challenging at all and there's not much that I could do to improve. There's a separation of duties for all technicians at my job and I feel like I'm at the lowest of the low being asked to do the simplest stuff and that I'm only here because other workers didn't want to work the evening shift.

I started studying for certifications (just passed Net+, and have A+ and 70-620) under my belt and decided to go back to school since the job will pay for it, and let my supervisors know what I'm studying and my school plans.

I just wanted to ask what would you do in my position?

Thanks

cyberguypr

I was in the very same situation almost 8 years ago. In my case the company I worked for was great with superb salary and benefits so I didn't feel an urge to flee. I made the most out of it by studying for Net+, 70-270, 70-271 and 70-272.

mattlee09

Agreed - continue to milk it and pump out learning/certs for the next few months, then reassess.

Try and get some experience in the job you want to be in. It sounds like your current environment is hostile to this, so you might have to network with other professionals outside your organization and talk with them.

ehnde

2 - 5 years at a job generally doesn't raise eyebrows. I agree with the others. If your job isn't sucking the life out of you get some more certs.

One other thing...take the time to work on your job description for this current position in your resume. Make notes about your job role and major achievements like "saved the company XXX dollars by doing such and such" or "completed project foobar 3 months ahead of schedule". That will come in handy when you're ready to move on.

518

I agree, continue milking it. I need 3 more years before I'm fully vested. In the meantime, I plan on getting a few certs, tuition reimbursement for MS, and perhaps a boot-camp this year.

westward

Not being challenged, and not being used to your potential are two separate things.

The first implies you're not able to do new things. The latter implies you're not doing some of the more skilled things you already know how to do.

Since you're just getting entry level certs, it sounds like an entry level job is appropriate for you.

However, you've been doing it for 2 years? I've never held a single position for more than 9 months, and never will!

Ask for a raise. Are you performing as the BEST help desk employee the company has?

ibcritn

loss4words wrote: »

Hi guys,

What would you do if you had just started working (about 2 years) in a helpdesk/desktop support role, but feel that your skills are not recognized and you don't feel that you're being challenged at all. I'm working an evening shift (3pm-11pm) on most days and my day-to-day responsibilites are just not challenging at all and there's not much that I could do to improve. There's a separation of duties for all technicians at my job and I feel like I'm at the lowest of the low being asked to do the simplest stuff and that I'm only here because other workers didn't want to work the evening shift.

I started studying for certifications (just passed Net+, and have A+ and 70-620) under my belt and decided to go back to school since the job will pay for it, and let my supervisors know what I'm studying and my school plans.

I just wanted to ask what would you do in my position?

Thanks

What do you want to progress towards? Networking? Security? Server stuff?

I would suggest doing something above and beyond the call of duty in the area you want to progress in. This could be the following:

Lets use security as an example
-Perform open-source research and provide situational awareness updates to team members, managers, and users of some of the latest vulnerabilities, attacks, etc
-Become a subject matter expert on malware related issues
-Increase troubleshooting efficiency through the use of a protocol analyzer/Traffic analysis (Windump/TCPdump)
-Start to script some things you do manually (this applies to anything)

Just an example the list could continue to go on, but you get the idea....find your passion and start to go above and beyond the call of duty in that area.

reloaded

I feel unchallenged in my current position (only day guy in the NOC...mostly for continuity and long-term outages) so I always goes around seeing what people are up to and/or ask if they need a hand. This has allowed me to not only do Tier-2 networking, but end up doing Tier-3 routing work, installing leased lines, and doing a lot of configuration and change management. Now I'm a go-to guy for most anything. That's what I suggest doing. Even if the positions are pretty locked in, don't be afraid to investigate and learn what others are doing.

thomas130

Yeah I also recommend you try and find things to improve and get involve.

It's my currently you just come day to day answeing the phone and change tapes and then go home. But with the time we have on our hands etc I starting to get involve server builds linux/microsoft, scriting and programming.

I also see this as two things

1 - so management that you care and want to improve and get involve
2 - Building you skills for that next job

kiki162

Wow yeah that sounds like my crappy day at work on a Saturday today. Working for a "dog and pony" show is never fun, but you try and make the best of it. I was so pissed today at work trying to transfer our network over to AD that someone else in the group I work with decided to revert back because of mapped drive issues not coming over. We got about 1/2 into reverting back to the old network, when I was able to fix the problem. A few more hours at work and we could have finished the project. Anyways, it was one of those situations that made me rethink my goals for a minute or two.

Anyways sorry for the whining...

So going back to your question. You need to understand that there's always going to be a "plateau" effect in any job, and sounds like you have reached yours. I would suggest finding some time to kill in between downtimes, like doing college courses online, or right after school. Look at doing more certs in your spare time, and work on creating a lab at home with VM products. Once you get some more of that under your belt, then you'll be able to get a better position all together.

Work on getting your MCSE, MCTS, and MCITP. Next is getting that degree finished. Getting one or more of those certs will help to move you out of your job. I will tell you from experience that you need to have a f**k it attitude and make 1 year plan and jump into it. Hardest part is getting started, and next is staying committed.