Now I am confused...Which job to take

Armymanis

So remember my previous post a little while ago about being promoted to help desk tier 1 and having that possibly fall through? Well now my school I go to is offering me a technical support job and it deals with outlook and resetting passwords. The company I am with now was going to use active directory to reset users passwords. Not sure which one to choose. Plus, I am not sure if either are going to come through all fall through. I do not want to look like I am job hopping. I am not, I am taking the work when there is some.

The position at the current company I work for was supposed to be a contract for 2 months and ended up being extended to 4 and then being promoted to help desk. Now I do not know whats going on as far as what the company is going to do about me. They are not sure if they are going to hire me on again or not.

My school however, is going to call me about a job opportunity doing technical support and resetting email passwords for students. Not sure which to do. I know I need experience in IT, but I want to make sure i choose the right path so I can not leave a destroyed bridge behind.

Also drawbacks are both companies have financial situation trouble and I know both managers and am recommended by both of them as someone who they would want to see get the job. Should I go with the school and possibly be working with mail exchange server 2010 or go with corporate environment and possibly work with active directory?

Nothing is final and no paperwork has been signed so i have sometime to decide. i need your help.

Akaricloud

Having worked directly with a university helpdesk, I'd advise you go the other route. The employees there didn't really do anything except reset passwords and clear out student viruses all day. I highly doubt that you would get to work with their exchange server.

Definitely make sure to pursue both until you have one locked down. Also, is taking both out of the question?

NetworkingStudent

Armymanis wrote: »

So remember my previous post a little while ago about being promoted to help desk tier 1 and having that possibly fall through? Well now my school I go to is offering me a technical support job and it deals with outlook and resetting passwords. The company I am with now was going to use active directory to reset users passwords. Not sure which one to choose. Plus, I am not sure if either are going to come through all fall through. I do not want to look like I am job hopping. I am not, I am taking the work when there is some.

The position at the current company I work for was supposed to be a contract for 2 months and ended up being extended to 4 and then being promoted to help desk. Now I do not know whats going on as far as what the company is going to do about me. They are not sure if they are going to hire me on again or not.

My school however, is going to call me about a job opportunity doing technical support and resetting email passwords for students. Not sure which to do. I know I need experience in IT, but I want to make sure i choose the right path so I can not leave a destroyed bridge behind.

Also drawbacks are both companies have financial situation trouble and I know both managers and am recommended by both of them as someone who they would want to see get the job. Should I go with the school and possibly be working with mail exchange server 2010 or go with corporate environment and possibly work with active directory?

Nothing is final and no paperwork has been signed so i have sometime to decide. i need your help.

I would go with your school, because it sounds more permanent to me. Is the position at school full time and permanent?

Armymanis

Taking both is out of the question because I have school and cannot work two jobs plus school. That is insane.

As far as whether they are permanent or not, the Help Desk Tier 1 was supposed to be a contract gig as long as I do well I can stay employed and the other job is quarter by quarter until they run out of funding. So either way its a loose loose situation. I just need more experience in IT. Both are resetting passwords and answering phones.

instant000

I just don't see where you've said that either situation is better than the other one.

With that being said, I can't see how staying pat would hurt you. (On the job, not with your career.)

It would seem advisable that you consider that in a work environment, you can get people to fall in line a lot better than college students, who sit around trying to bypass the secured computer image just to see what they can get into.

I was thinking that a college job would be great, as you'd have great opportunity to study, and since you're just starting out, education and certification would be the best ways you can separate yourself, until your experience catches up with you.

Also, you're going to need a little better than A+, to move on up, and you might not ever get that experience at your job, unless you apply yourself in your off-hours, improving yourself, so you're more capable of jumping into bigger and better things.

Armymanis

instant000 wrote: »

I just don't see where you've said that either situation is better than the other one.

With that being said, I can't see how staying pat would hurt you. (On the job, not with your career.)

It would seem advisable that you consider that in a work environment, you can get people to fall in line a lot better than college students, who sit around trying to bypass the secured computer image just to see what they can get into.

I was thinking that a college job would be great, as you'd have great opportunity to study, and since you're just starting out, education and certification would be the best ways you can separate yourself, until your experience catches up with you.

Also, you're going to need a little better than A+, to move on up, and you might not ever get that experience at your job, unless you apply yourself in your off-hours, improving yourself, so you're more capable of jumping into bigger and better things.

I was all gun ho on getting certifications, but many people say experience is what counts. Now if you count tutoring microsoft office over a remote desktop as IT experience then I have 5 months of that and am going to have 4 months of Desktop Deployment Experience. I want to learn, but do not want to have certs count against me.

CodeBlox

Armymanis wrote: »

I was all gun ho on getting certifications, but many people say experience is what counts. Now if you count tutoring microsoft office over a remote desktop as IT experience then I have 5 months of that and am going to have 4 months of Desktop Deployment Experience. I want to learn, but do not want to have certs count against me.

Had it not been for that A+ cert I don't think I would have gotten this job. In fact I was told to wait until I got it to get my Help desk position... And we are required to take security+ by the end of september. Certs mean something depending on how they were obtained.

Kasor

School. You might able to get discount to attend those certification courses, while corporation might not be possible at this time. It's all pending on request and budget. However, school always have something and you might able to take advance level CS classes.

Psoasman

I'd go with the school. Getting experience is what will help you, whatever job it is. You could probably use any downtime to study or perhaps use the student lab between classes. You should also ask yourself which place has more opportunities to advance?

Armymanis

Psoasman wrote: »

I'd go with the school. Getting experience is what will help you, whatever job it is. You could probably use any downtime to study or perhaps use the student lab between classes. You should also ask yourself which place has more opportunities to advance?

That is a good question. The truth is I am not sure. I would love to have a steady part time job that's in IT. I've had them in retail before and they are no fun. I want to work in IT and no matter what I do I want it to count going towards my path of choice. I mainly want to deal with servers and maybe go into networking eventually. There's only so much you can do with user support. I need people to give me a chance though.

Also as I was just thinking about this I am 22 and my resume kind of jumps every 5-9 months or so. Out of the 5 jobs that I have had, I have only had one of them for 2 years. I hope this is not a damper on it. I was hoping to stay at this company I am currently hired with for a little bit longer, if that is not the case then my resume will be a wreak and I will be a hopper and no point in even working anymore. Right now I am such a wreak and stressed. Have had headaces a lot recently over the last few days and trying to decide what I want to do. IT is not supposed to be this stressful it is supposed to be fun. I really love IT, but the job market is killing me. As far as other fields, I think they would be just as stressful and I would not have as much fun.

I enjoy looking at computers and trying to figure out problems. With my current employer I do ask a LOT of questions, but I just want to learn. If I already know how to do something, I get instructions and go do it. I try not to complain, but sometimes it is unavoidable when they want you to be in the stockroom when the main stockroom guy has left and is not at the company anymore. I want to get out there and do IT related things. Help desk was going to be a chance to show my skills off. Now I am just confused and not really sure of myself anymore. I am really motivated, but lately things are getting me down. Yes I have seen therapists and such and it has helped a little bit. What to do!

Psoasman

Sounds like you need a couple of days off. Take some time for yourself!

Jobs are different now. People generally don't work at the same place for 30-40 years like they used to. I read somewhere that the average person changes job every 3 years or so.

Armymanis

Psoasman wrote: »

Sounds like you need a couple of days off. Take some time for yourself!

Jobs are different now. People generally don't work at the same place for 30-40 years like they used to. I read somewhere that the average person changes job every 3 years or so.

I get weekends off.

Everyone

For a low level support job like that, you won't go anywhere near the Exchange server anytime soon. Do a good job with the Outlook issues (i.e. don't escalate any to whoever is responsible for the Exchange Server) and you may eventually get to look at it, but if you take it, don't go in expecting to do anything with Exchange.

Outlook does NOT equal Exchange. The sooner you figure that out, the better you'll do.

Essendon

Very good advice there by Everyone, so true. I did a contract role once and the job description had a lot about MPLS, QoS, BGP in it, all I actually did there was load pre-baked configs into routers abd switches.

Armymanis

Decided on doing the Help Desk tier 1 job. Look at my updated thread for more info