Career in Desktop Support

drkat

Hey Folks, just lookin to poll here and see if anyone here has made a career out of Desktop Support / Helpdesk type work - this does not involve server administration or networking but strictly desktops and managing "AD/Exchange/Applications"


I'm only asking because I'm to a point in my career where I'm "out of options" I guess. I have no ambition to continue a career in Networking or Telephony and want to go back to "fixing the box" - I'm however really afraid of being used and abused by employers and getting paid ****

One of my last roles before going into NOC type work - was a typical helpdesk but I had a lot of interaction with AD writing LDAP scripts and creating packages in altiris and scripting out enterprise-wide installations and patches.

I'd like to go back to that.

I was also thinking about certs and I could easily pass ICND1 but maybe Network+ would look better for these types of roles? I figuring like CCENT/MCP or something along those lines I honestly dont feel like the CCNA (i really have no interest beyond the basics)

Whats everyone's opinions?

N2IT

drkat wrote: »

Hey Folks, just lookin to poll here and see if anyone here has made a career out of Desktop Support / Helpdesk type work - this does not involve server administration or networking but strictly desktops and managing "AD/Exchange/Applications"


I'm only asking because I'm to a point in my career where I'm "out of options" I guess. I have no ambition to continue a career in Networking or Telephony and want to go back to "fixing the box" - I'm however really afraid of being used and abused by employers and getting paid ****

One of my last roles before going into NOC type work - was a typical helpdesk but I had a lot of interaction with AD writing LDAP scripts and creating packages in altiris and scripting out enterprise-wide installations and patches.

I'd like to go back to that.

I was also thinking about certs and I could easily pass ICND1 but maybe Network+ would look better for these types of roles? I figuring like CCENT/MCP or something along those lines I honestly dont feel like the CCNA (i really have no interest beyond the basics)

Whats everyone's opinions?

I think getting your CCNA would be the best if you want a certification for those jobs. First of all it's known, everyone knows those 4 letters. It also isn't so far out where it would prevent you from getting a help desk / deskside job.

I also think it's going to be difficult to find a job like the one you described. Not all jobs are similiar so there will be some risk, but utilimately you will have to decide.

drkat

Thanks for the response. I'm at a cross road right now where I really hate "paying customers" and IT Management. I need a serious life reboot.

To be QUITE honest... I was always good at computers growing up - technology in general really... I dropped out of high school @ 16 to become a "Junior Perl Programmer" for an ISP here in Rochester NY - how this was at the tail end of the dot-com so I'd say about 1999-2000. I did that for oh 2 months because they paid me $6/hr (shivers) and well - I eventually quit and moved on to doing odd jobs (fast food, carpet repair, walmart type stuff) - I went back to the ISP in 2002 and was in the same boat; I was suppose to be paid on per project basis but turned out to $7/hr again...

I quit and eventually went to school for Automotive through a GM Apprenticeship Program at the local community college. I didn't finish but ended up working as a mechanic for 2 years on different makes/models - I did alright I flagged 35hrs a week or more @ $13/hr with bonus pay for anything over 32 hours. (You work flat-rate / piece work as a mechanic)

I then found out "we're pregnant" @ 22 and well... I had to find a "good" job so I went back to computers and started off as a contract worker doing refresh projects and help desk / Desk side support on W-2 contract basis by leveraging my know how and right time opportunity.

From there I did contracting from 2005 - 2008 never getting over $18/hr - I eventually took a job with a local Communications company working in their internal help desk making $14/hr - I was first not interested in the pay but it was full-time with bennies so I took it and I was in that department from 2008 to 2010 and did all i described in the original post - I loved it I was the SME on a bunch of stuff and was a great team to work with. I however was over-qualified and came across as a "know it all" - I eventually had a falling out with management and moved into their NOC.

I worked in the NOC for 1.5 years and in April 2011 I did the stupid thing by quitting and moving to another Communications job who was offering a higher base salary. Needless to say this company didnt work out and I left and ended up where I am now doing voip and routing/switching.

I've just done so much in my life so far that I'm wondering if I only got into IT because the wife was preggo -- I think sometimes that's it. I mean I liked computers but only in a certain capacity - I can fix em well and fast but I have no real ambition I guess... I've been behind the eight-ball for so long that I guess I'm at a point where I'm just looking for "peace"

I feel I've run my course in the corporate world - I don't blend well with these people and I dont believe in screwing people or lying to customers. I'm not "college educated" I'm a blue-collar person who'd rather go to work in my jeans and car hart vs a polo and slacks. I'd rather work outside the office and leave the politics behind -

f'd up thing is the only skills I have are either IT related or mechanics... I mean how the hell am I suppose to support a family on less then what I make now which is like $50K - I'd have to get two jobs but I'm thinking about it... just to be happy --

I'm just sick of the customers, the management, everything is an emergency and needs to be fixed now and fast - can never tell people it's not our issue; kissing a** to the customers.. I'm sorry but I'm a realist... Customers are people and sh** happens - networks go down, calls don't complete, servers mess up, switches break.. it's all a part of life - it's a PHONE! or COMPUTER! it's not life... maybe the businesses should have a DR plan or some sort of redundancy? yet that's my problem - the printer doesnt print fast enough - that's my problem... screw this; it's not my problem... I thought maybe by going back to desktop support it would "lighten the load" - but writing this post out I'm thinking it may only be a temporary solution and I'll eventually end up back here.... I've dealt with stress and anxiety during my whole IT Career which I never felt working before all of this... I honestly dont give a rats A** about certifications - which i think is a HUGE indicator.

Problem is - I'm on these darn forums talking about this stuff since I have no buddy's in IT - they're all doing other stuff and seem a lot freaking happier than I am..

Anyway - if anyone wants to comment feel free... I'll be checking periodically but I think I'm gonna stick a fork in myself - cuz I'm done.

- Mike

N2IT

drkat wrote: »

Thanks for the response. I'm at a cross road right now where I really hate "paying customers" and IT Management. I need a serious life reboot.

To be QUITE honest... I was always good at computers growing up - technology in general really... I dropped out of high school @ 16 to become a "Junior Perl Programmer" for an ISP here in Rochester NY - how this was at the tail end of the dot-com so I'd say about 1999-2000. I did that for oh 2 months because they paid me $6/hr (shivers) and well - I eventually quit and moved on to doing odd jobs (fast food, carpet repair, walmart type stuff) - I went back to the ISP in 2002 and was in the same boat; I was suppose to be paid on per project basis but turned out to $7/hr again...

I quit and eventually went to school for Automotive through a GM Apprenticeship Program at the local community college. I didn't finish but ended up working as a mechanic for 2 years on different makes/models - I did alright I flagged 35hrs a week or more @ $13/hr with bonus pay for anything over 32 hours. (You work flat-rate / piece work as a mechanic)

I then found out "we're pregnant" @ 22 and well... I had to find a "good" job so I went back to computers and started off as a contract worker doing refresh projects and help desk / Desk side support on W-2 contract basis by leveraging my know how and right time opportunity.

From there I did contracting from 2005 - 2008 never getting over $18/hr - I eventually took a job with a local Communications company working in their internal help desk making $14/hr - I was first not interested in the pay but it was full-time with bennies so I took it and I was in that department from 2008 to 2010 and did all i described in the original post - I loved it I was the SME on a bunch of stuff and was a great team to work with. I however was over-qualified and came across as a "know it all" - I eventually had a falling out with management and moved into their NOC.

I worked in the NOC for 1.5 years and in April 2011 I did the stupid thing by quitting and moving to another Communications job who was offering a higher base salary. Needless to say this company didnt work out and I left and ended up where I am now doing voip and routing/switching.

I've just done so much in my life so far that I'm wondering if I only got into IT because the wife was preggo -- I think sometimes that's it. I mean I liked computers but only in a certain capacity - I can fix em well and fast but I have no real ambition I guess... I've been behind the eight-ball for so long that I guess I'm at a point where I'm just looking for "peace"

I feel I've run my course in the corporate world - I don't blend well with these people and I dont believe in screwing people or lying to customers. I'm not "college educated" I'm a blue-collar person who'd rather go to work in my jeans and car hart vs a polo and slacks. I'd rather work outside the office and leave the politics behind -

f'd up thing is the only skills I have are either IT related or mechanics... I mean how the hell am I suppose to support a family on less then what I make now which is like $50K - I'd have to get two jobs but I'm thinking about it... just to be happy --

I'm just sick of the customers, the management, everything is an emergency and needs to be fixed now and fast - can never tell people it's not our issue; kissing a** to the customers.. I'm sorry but I'm a realist... Customers are people and sh** happens - networks go down, calls don't complete, servers mess up, switches break.. it's all a part of life - it's a PHONE! or COMPUTER! it's not life... maybe the businesses should have a DR plan or some sort of redundancy? yet that's my problem - the printer doesnt print fast enough - that's my problem... screw this; it's not my problem... I thought maybe by going back to desktop support it would "lighten the load" - but writing this post out I'm thinking it may only be a temporary solution and I'll eventually end up back here.... I've dealt with stress and anxiety during my whole IT Career which I never felt working before all of this... I honestly dont give a rats A** about certifications - which i think is a HUGE indicator.

Problem is - I'm on these darn forums talking about this stuff since I have no buddy's in IT - they're all doing other stuff and seem a lot freaking happier than I am..

Anyway - if anyone wants to comment feel free... I'll be checking periodically but I think I'm gonna stick a fork in myself - cuz I'm done.

- Mike

Mike

Peace is found not at work but in life, so just correcting it at work is merely a bandaid not a fix. It sounds like you need to find the root cause of your problems. Are you angry you don't have a degree? Are you tired of dealing with people who wear nice clothes and speak a certain way? Maybe it's an inferiority complex, I'm not sure but remember we have value, it's up to you to discover what that is and how to use it.

It's hard to say but it sounds like a lot of your problems might be deeply rooted and I would consider talking to a consoler or a mentor. To be honest Mike it sounds like you have A LOT of talent and it just needs to be channeled properly. Junior PERL programmer at 16 is impressive. Do you have your GED? I would look at taking classes and getting your GED. It's a milestone that you skipped over, if in fact you never obtained it. IMO you should go for that. Plus it can and will keep you from jobs.

Next I would create a spreadsheet of all your skills and what you enjoy. Try to mirror those to jobs on the job boards and maybe that could help you come up with an idea of what you want to do. Be patient it’s important and make decisions with facts not opinions or emotions.

As far as work environments, you sound like a perfect fit for a manufacturing environment. Rough around the edges, not really into corporate dialog, just want to do your thing and fix things. IMO that sounds like the right fit. A lot of times those environments are looking for guys who can do it all. From rebooting routers to testing fiber and networking cables to fixing machines. Understanding the networking and server technology would give you a huge advantage. You could be used to work on the manufacturing machines as well. That would be pretty cool if you ask me and very rewarding. You are in a great place it just sounds like you need to tie up some loose ends.

1. GED if you don't have it.
2. Career coach, mentor, resume writer
3. Manufacturing enviroments

drkat

Nice to meet you as well Patrick - I do really appreciate you taking the time out to respond. I think you've hit the nail right on the head if not in fact drilled it through.

I think I honestly do need a mentor - I've never really had that and I think some of my issues are deeply rooted and not solvable through work. I've tried the counseling approach without much success. I'll need to do some soul searching for that.

I do believe entirely that I may have an inferiority complex (root cause?... maybe) - I'm not as successful as I believe I could've been due to poor choices in my younger years and I guess I feel like I'm just running in place - making decisions based on emotions rather than facts. You're right - I do feel angry I don't have a degree and that shows on my sleeve. I think if I had a degree and a job I loved these business types wouldn't bother me.

I dont have a GED - It's never been required ya know? I think I may feel regret about never completing high school and flying by the seat of pants without a plan. I'm going to take that advice and get it. I think it's time.

I'm going to create that spreadsheet and try to filter my skills out and mark which ones are true skills and enjoyable and which ones aren't - I think I have a procrastination/over-thinking issue with things that make goals unachievable.


I never thought about manufacturing - I may have to look into industries that need IT folks but not necessarily is corporate - I really do hate corporate dialog.


I appreciate that you think I have a lot of talent - I do need help harnessing and channeling it. I feel like I'm good but never GOOD enough... when I see guys that are not as talented moving up and making the big bucks I get discouraged and start beating myself up - I think the problem really is the soft skills and maybe... just maybe... if I get my GED and start looking for something I actually want in an IT job I'll find success and happiness I too can move up because I'll love my job. A lot of the times I think I'm passed up or dis-liked because I channel my talents negatively into being angry about not being recognized or getting promoted which in turn comes off as a "know it all" when I'm trying to show folks my talent and then it leaves a bad taste in management's mouth and then I'm screwed for life which then in turn starts a cycle of just being angry lol

I thank you again. I will read your response every day to keep on track and hopefully a year from now I'll be in a much happier place. I guess I'm not done yet I think I might have a few new tricks up my sleeve.

- Mike

drkat

Welp after giving this a lot of thought I do believe I'm going to go back to the Enterprise Support - Probably going to get an A+/N+/S+ type of thing and forsake the vendor certs because to be quite honest?? I dislike vendor certifications; I also believe in 100% experience based hiring (but that's just me) -- I will get the GED

Thanks folks.

jfitzg

drkat:

I am from Rochester as well and can give you some advice. If you are looking for a helpdesk and/or desktop support roll, check out the University of Rochester. They pay pretty well (especially for the work), their benefits are great (very cheap health insurance, 3 weeks paid vacation per year, and FREE college!), and its not hard work. I left there a while ago only because I am a type A (very driven) personality and they are a type C (very slow) organization. Heck, from what I am told they are still running Windows XP and IE 7 there! Get hired, get your GED, then get a FREE B.S. from one of the top colleges in the nation! Skip the certs if you go there, they dont know anything about them, just work with a resume service (Rochester Works should have something) and apply for many jobs there, they are slow to respond but they will.

N2IT

drkat wrote: »

Hey Folks, just lookin to poll here and see if anyone here has made a career out of Desktop Support / Helpdesk type work - this does not involve server administration or networking but strictly desktops and managing "AD/Exchange/Applications"

With all the experience you have I would consider one of these

Certification Exam 250-400: Administration of Altiris Client Management Suite 7.0

TS: Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, Configuring

Either one would add to your experience and help get you back into the enterprise desktop engineer/release management position.

GL

darkerz

I highly recommend working in Healthcare IT, especially during evenings or nights. It pays night premiums, weekend premiums, typically allows 3 days off or more a week, leaves you study time, leaves you real space to resolve issues and lets you control the situations with vendors and engineers. The customers when you do face them have procedures to deal with downtimes and know you are only so limited, and usually, in my experience, incredibly collected and cool about situations.

That's my personal experience in the field on the IT side. I've noticed outside of it, whether its a Education environment or a contract/outsource firm... Customers and Internal staff are horrid people and I would never go back given the choice between a hospital/clinic/medical group and them.

Iamnothappy

I work at a help desk doing desktop support amongst other things.
This job lands you no respect. You're at the bottom of the food chain. I have been doing this for 3 years now...
Sometimes I will be asked by my manager if I did something and then he will have someone stand with me to look over my shoulder if I did it correctly. As if I'm a complete retard and I can't do a simple task by myself.

Many times after having another day of answering the same questions by users and doing numerous password resets, I have thought of killing myself. But I can't gather the courage to jump under a moving vehicle or anything drastic like that. Desktop support will eliminate any romantic ideas you ever had about life, and slowly suck all the joy out of you. Untill you become an empty shell, listening to commands, used to the disrespect you get from the people higher up the food chain.

I hate my life

vCole

drkat wrote: »

I never thought about manufacturing - I may have to look into industries that need IT folks but not necessarily is corporate - I really do hate corporate dialog.

I've worked the majority of my IT career in manufacturing. It's much different then a lot of environments. I find myself able to have a lot of autonomy and it's a little bit more of a laid back culture (Depends where, that is). I prefer working in a manufacturing environment, I currently do and get to see some pretty cool stuff. (I guess I just like knowing how stuff is made )

drkat

jfitzg wrote: »

drkat:

I am from Rochester as well and can give you some advice. If you are looking for a helpdesk and/or desktop support roll, check out the University of Rochester. They pay pretty well (especially for the work), their benefits are great (very cheap health insurance, 3 weeks paid vacation per year, and FREE college!), and its not hard work. I left there a while ago only because I am a type A (very driven) personality and they are a type C (very slow) organization. Heck, from what I am told they are still running Windows XP and IE 7 there! Get hired, get your GED, then get a FREE B.S. from one of the top colleges in the nation! Skip the certs if you go there, they dont know anything about them, just work with a resume service (Rochester Works should have something) and apply for many jobs there, they are slow to respond but they will.

Where abouts? I have been in the game 7 years here.. maybe we know each other?

drkat

I’ve worked for a hospital on contract once for their operations/helpdesk – it was a pretty sweet gig. My problem is this: Money. I find that the skills that pay the bills (thanks Everest guy) aren’t valued enough. I have way too much generalized crap on my resume and not enough focused.
I mean hell let’s look at the list (in no particular order)
1. Desktop Support / Helpdesk – all aspects of hardware break fix/ Windows troubleshooting
2. Active Directory management – Accounts, Groups, OU Management etc
3. Microsoft Exchange management – 2003/2007
4. Citrix and Terminal Services administration
5. Microsoft Office 2000,2003,2007 / Lotus Notes
6. File and Print services
7. Novell - account management etc
8. Printer (hardware) break/fix
9. Altiris – packaging and scripting
10. Powershell to automate tasks for Exchange 07 and Active Directory – automating process and streamlining account creations / management – ldap scripting in perl
11. Perl scripting and basic linux administration – web,dns,ftp servers
12. CGI Web programming in perl – I wrote a hotmail clone once… sold it for profit
13. In-depth understanding of network protocols such as DNS, HTTP, SMTP, etc
14. Mobile devices – blackberry, windows mobile
15. Networking – IP Routing, MPLS, QoS
16. SS7 Telephony – Call Routing and Troubleshooting
17. VoIP – Broadsoft Switch, Session Border Controllers, SIP Trunking – troubleshooting and setup
18. T-Carrier circuits – provisioning, troubleshooting including PRI
19. Cisco, ADTRAN brands
20. Cat3/5 Cabling

Now I don’t know about you but this is a big bag of mixed **** - Now I’ve been in the industry professionally first in 2001 as a Jr. Perl Programmer for an ISP and then came back in 2005 as a Desktop/Deployment tech. However!!! - The salary is just that… When I first started out it was $30K a year – then it went to $38, then to $35 then back to $30K… it eventually went up to $50K then back down to about $40K – you can’t make over $50K in this town doing IT… if it does happen it isn’t happening to me. Jfitz advised the UofR which starts you at about $17.00/hour – I guess that’s good pay for someone with a few years of exp – but I’ve got tons of experience and yet no focus and channelization. I need a mentor J

vCole

drkat wrote: »

I’ve worked for a hospital on contract once for their operations/helpdesk – it was a pretty sweet gig. My problem is this: Money. I find that the skills that pay the bills (thanks Everest guy) aren’t valued enough. I have way too much generalized crap on my resume and not enough focused.
I mean hell let’s look at the list (in no particular order)
1. Desktop Support / Helpdesk – all aspects of hardware break fix/ Windows troubleshooting
2. Active Directory management – Accounts, Groups, OU Management etc
3. Microsoft Exchange management – 2003/2007
4. Citrix and Terminal Services administration
5. Microsoft Office 2000,2003,2007 / Lotus Notes
6. File and Print services
7. Novell - account management etc
8. Printer (hardware) break/fix
9. Altiris – packaging and scripting
10. Powershell to automate tasks for Exchange 07 and Active Directory – automating process and streamlining account creations / management – ldap scripting in perl
11. Perl scripting and basic linux administration – web,dns,ftp servers
12. CGI Web programming in perl – I wrote a hotmail clone once… sold it for profit
13. In-depth understanding of network protocols such as DNS, HTTP, SMTP, etc
14. Mobile devices – blackberry, windows mobile
15. Networking – IP Routing, MPLS, QoS
16. SS7 Telephony – Call Routing and Troubleshooting
17. VoIP – Broadsoft Switch, Session Border Controllers, SIP Trunking – troubleshooting and setup
18. T-Carrier circuits – provisioning, troubleshooting including PRI
19. Cisco, ADTRAN brands
20. Cat3/5 Cabling

Now I don’t know about you but this is a big bag of mixed **** - Now I’ve been in the industry professionally first in 2001 as a Jr. Perl Programmer for an ISP and then came back in 2005 as a Desktop/Deployment tech. However!!! - The salary is just that… When I first started out it was $30K a year – then it went to $38, then to $35 then back to $30K… it eventually went up to $50K then back down to about $40K – you can’t make over $50K in this town doing IT… if it does happen it isn’t happening to me. Jfitz advised the UofR which starts you at about $17.00/hour – I guess that’s good pay for someone with a few years of exp – but I’ve got tons of experience and yet no focus and channelization. I need a mentor J

Do you have any certs? You need to invest in yourself, before a company will invest in you. Also, specialization will allow you to get your salary range up.

drkat

Nope no certs basically cuz I have no idea where to specialize lol

superjerelman

Well I know you said at First you didn't Want any Certs and now you do. Believe me I've been there! So go get those CompTIA Certs they will help you leverage a better job with your experience (they should be fairly easy for you), write a book, get a teaching cert and train people, in-person, online etc..... Find out what makes you happy and go for it. if you know you deserve something better then go for it. Just love and be happy in what ever you do in life.

vCole

drkat wrote: »

Nope no certs basically cuz I have no idea where to specialize lol

What do you enjoy doing the most? (Or things you enjoy doing the most) To break the $50k barrier, you need to specialize and get certifications. Sure you can do it without certs - but why make it harder?

ptilsen

drkat wrote: »

Nope no certs basically cuz I have no idea where to specialize lol

Get your A+ and Net+. They will be at least somewhat relevant in just about any discipline of IT infrastructure, and they'll improve your chances at getting jobs.

Forget about specializing for a minute and think about what career track you wanna go down. If you really want to stick with DST-type jobs, head down the MCITP:DST track. If you wanted to move into networking, go Cisco; server administration, MCITP:SA; etc. If you at least have some idea of what general area you want to stay in, there are definitely certifications you can go for. In the meantime, A+ and Net+ probably won't hurt.

drkat

You know the BEST job I ever had was one of the one's that paid the least - working on the helpdesk for my former company at the ISP doing internal IT. It wasn't the pay but the culture and benefits and flexibility of the schedule and time off that made it the best.

I'm all sorts of confused.

jfitzg

drkat wrote: »

Where abouts? I have been in the game 7 years here.. maybe we know each other?

I doubt it, I dont hang out with other IT people. If UR isnt your gig you might want to try a managed IT services firm. THere are plenty of those, some pay great, some pay crap (stay away from Kriterium). They would appreciate your wide range of experience as they deal with all kinds of clients. Let me give you some advice I have learned from the 5 months it took me to find my last job. Experience trumps all! This is not negotiable, certifications barely come in 2nd but if you have a cert with no experience to back it up it pretty much doesnt count (I have a CCA in Xenapp 6, but I have no back end experience on Citrix, when people asked I explained I have a cert and they didnt care). 3rd, education means NOTHING. I have 2 graduate degrees ( IT and IT management from a respectable college) and maybe one person brought them up in the 15 or so interviews I went on. Make that resume up, make it a killer, and THAT is what will land you a job! You have a great skill set, make that look pretty on paper and you should be able to pull $50k from a managed IT services firm easy! In fact, PM me your resume if you want, I think I might know of an opening that you may like.

N2IT

jfitzg wrote: »

I doubt it, I dont hang out with other IT people. If UR isnt your gig you might want to try a managed IT services firm. THere are plenty of those, some pay great, some pay crap (stay away from Kriterium). They would appreciate your wide range of experience as they deal with all kinds of clients. Let me give you some advice I have learned from the 5 months it took me to find my last job. Experience trumps all! This is not negotiable, certifications barely come in 2nd but if you have a cert with no experience to back it up it pretty much doesnt count (I have a CCA in Xenapp 6, but I have no back end experience on Citrix, when people asked I explained I have a cert and they didnt care). 3rd, education means NOTHING. I have 2 graduate degrees ( IT and IT management from a respectable college) and maybe one person brought them up in the 15 or so interviews I went on. Make that resume up, make it a killer, and THAT is what will land you a job! You have a great skill set, make that look pretty on paper and you should be able to pull $50k from a managed IT services firm easy! In fact, PM me your resume if you want, I think I might know of an opening that you may like.

Some companies require higher level degree, certifications, and everything inbetween, with that said I agree completely with you about the "Experience Factor".

It's 1a, 1b, and 1c. 2nd isn't even close.

jfitzg

N2IT wrote: »

Some companies require higher level degree, certifications, and everything inbetween, with that said I agree completely with you about the "Experience Factor".

While technically this is true, dont let this discourage you from applying for a job! While degree and certs do actually matter to some companies, from my experience its only a small % of them. For example, my last job @ UR required a bachelors degree, I only had an associates when I was hired, they didnt care. My wife's father has no college degree (went to Kodak straight out of HS), he has held a few jobs since Kodak (not IT) and never had a problem finding one because people knew he was a hard worker. Once again, this is my experience so I cant guarantee you will have the same, but if you have a good enough resume most places will overlook your lack of formal education, in fact if they ever ask just tell them you dropped out of HS and became a Perl programmer at 16, that sounds great!

ptilsen

In terms of the ability to do your job, experience is one of the biggest factors. But bigger than anything is skill, and extensive experience does not mean high skill. Neither do certs or a degree. I always hire based on my determination of what I think a candidate can do, and so does my CEO, another IT professional, who did the bulk of the tech interviews before I came along.

If you have MCSE or MCITP:EA, I will absolutely hire you with relatively little experience. Because if you managed to scrape by a pass on all five (or more) of those tests, you at least learned how to do something relevant. If you have twenty years of experience, I will not hire you if I don't think you have the specific skills I'm looking for. I'd be more inclined to hire a college grad with little to no relevant experience, who I can likely train quickly.

To jfitzg's point, your resume is absolutely the first and probably most important step in presenting your skillset. Techies are notoriously bad at writing resumes, and even with that knowledge I throw so many bad resumes in the trash, knowing the candidate may well have the technical skills I seek. Generally, either the resume is poorly written enough that I know the candidate's soft skills will be inadequate, or the hard skills are either unclear or not well presented. Unless the experience and skill descriptions are very good indicators of technical ability or there are relevant certifications listed, I will throw the resume out, as I should. Certifications are not the ultimate proof of skill, but I'm less likely to throw out a crappy resume that has the certifications I'm looking for.

I'm still going to say you should absolutely get yourself some certifications, even something entry level. Non-technical hiring managers are even more likely to treat certifications as a checklist item than I am, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't do that at all. Yes, there are lots of jobs that will only care about your experience, but there are probably lots that care just as much about certs. Ultimately, it comes down to your skill. Presenting that well through a good resume, certifications, and a good interview is how you get the job you want. It might not be a bad idea to post your resume up for review here on TE (keep in mind, the criticism can, will, and must be brutally honest). I can already tell you that even if you perfect it, the missing item is certifications.

drkat

jfitz I cant PM you. It says that you arent accepting them.

I would like to say I do have SOME certifications just not the major ones. I do have a certification from ADTRAN, Polycom and brainbench stuff I just dont put them on my resume because they're all "free" certifications. (What can I say I dont want to spend money on something someone isnt going to value)

jfitzg

drkat wrote: »

jfitz I cant PM you. It says that you arent accepting them.

I would like to say I do have SOME certifications just not the major ones. I do have a certification from ADTRAN, Polycom and brainbench stuff I just dont put them on my resume because they're all "free" certifications. (What can I say I dont want to spend money on something someone isnt going to value)

Try again, I think there is a problem with my account.

eserfeliz

drkat wrote: »

I’ve worked for a hospital on contract once for their operations/helpdesk – it was a pretty sweet gig. My problem is this: Money. I find that the skills that pay the bills (thanks Everest guy) aren’t valued enough. I have way too much generalized crap on my resume and not enough focused.
I mean hell let’s look at the list (in no particular order)
1. Desktop Support / Helpdesk – all aspects of hardware break fix/ Windows troubleshooting
2. Active Directory management – Accounts, Groups, OU Management etc
3. Microsoft Exchange management – 2003/2007
4. Citrix and Terminal Services administration
5. Microsoft Office 2000,2003,2007 / Lotus Notes
6. File and Print services
7. Novell - account management etc

...SNIP

Now I don’t know about you but this is a big bag of mixed **** - Now I’ve been in the industry professionally first in 2001 as a Jr. Perl Programmer for an ISP and then came back in 2005 as a Desktop/Deployment tech. However!!! - The salary is just that… When I first started out it was $30K a year – then it went to $38, then to $35 then back to $30K… it eventually went up to $50K then back down to about $40K – you can’t make over $50K in this town doing IT… if it does happen it isn’t happening to me. Jfitz advised the UofR which starts you at about $17.00/hour – I guess that’s good pay for someone with a few years of exp – but I’ve got tons of experience and yet no focus and channelization. I need a mentor J

Hey dude,

Sounds like you have a lot of experience doing a lot of different things. If I see this on a resume, I might think a few different things:

1. You're not sure of what you want to do.
2. You took a bunch of stuff and crammed it all on a resume.
3. You're a jack-of-all-trades, master of none.
4. You're going to leave in three months to go do something else.

If you can, try to tailor your resume to the field that you're applying to. Like with like. Make a couple of resumes: help desk support, desktop support, network operations, development. I don't know what you should do about the dates. I guess just explain the gaps if you spent time in another field when you get to the interview.

Make it absolutely clear to the hiring manager why YOU are the person for the job they're hiring for, not why you are the person for six different jobs. With your experience, I struggle to see why you aren't making 50k, other than, you know, bad economy. Things will pick up this year for hiring in the IT field, but you need to clean up your resume post-haste. I saw an e-mail from a recruiter to my boss today, the sharks are in the water. The security admin told me of multiple people he knows getting hired for full-time work, along with the companies they currently work for counter-offering in order to retain them.

I wish you nothing but luck.

drkat

eserfeliz wrote: »

Hey dude,

Sounds like you have a lot of experience doing a lot of different things. If I see this on a resume, I might think a few different things:

1. You're not sure of what you want to do.
2. You took a bunch of stuff and crammed it all on a resume.
3. You're a jack-of-all-trades, master of none.
4. You're going to leave in three months to go do something else.

If you can, try to tailor your resume to the field that you're applying to. Like with like. Make a couple of resumes: help desk support, desktop support, network operations, development. I don't know what you should do about the dates. I guess just explain the gaps if you spent time in another field when you get to the interview.

Make it absolutely clear to the hiring manager why YOU are the person for the job they're hiring for, not why you are the person for six different jobs. With your experience, I struggle to see why you aren't making 50k, other than, you know, bad economy. Things will pick up this year for hiring in the IT field, but you need to clean up your resume post-haste. I saw an e-mail from a recruiter to my boss today, the sharks are in the water. The security admin told me of multiple people he knows getting hired for full-time work, along with the companies they currently work for counter-offering in order to retain them.

I wish you nothing but luck.

Dude I totally agree and thank you for the response.

I do feel like a master of none - but with my experience it's hard to fill the gaps but maybe I'll have to work with a professional resume service like most of have suggested.

I'm right now at (or just was) at 48K a year - but with the benefits... health etc my actual taxable is like 41K - I'm paying like $130 a week in bennies ouch. So i'm slowly getting there but it's a rough road. Hopefully I'll get the resume in order and figure out what I want to do - the problem I think i might run into is if say for instance my resume is strictly say Network - then the hiring managers might not want me if they need someone to also do Active Directory or something else ya know? but I guess that's egg on them because why put up a Network Admin position and expect me to do MS Server stuff...

I'm going to post my resume next thread and please review.

ptilsen

Just skimming through, this looks like a pretty good start. Now get it into a Word document and post that. That will be easier to read and critique.

drkat

Yeah sorry about that... I tried to strip it of personal details - here is the word format

jfitzg

drkat wrote: »

Yeah sorry about that... I tried to strip it of personal details - here is the word format

Here is my opinion. Your resume is a good start, but I wouldnt submit it in its present form to employers. But before I go into details about your resume, are you sure desktop support is a way you want to go? Im asking because I see this quote from you:

drkat wrote:

I'm just sick of the customers, the management, everything is an emergency and needs to be fixed now and fast - can never tell people it's not our issue; kissing a** to the customers..

A good portion of IT in today's world is customer service, especially with desktop support. If you want to go into desktop support, you are going to run into much more of these situations which will ultimately make you very unhappy from what you say.

Im going to be completely honest, the IT market in Rochester sucks, it is VERY over saturated! Wages for techies in this area are lower than the national average. If you want a good salary, IT management is the way to go, but I can imagine that it would drive you insane as it is all politics, backstabbing, etc... The ONLY reason I myself am staying in the IT field is that its the only thing I am good at, my brother in law is very good with his hands, and if I had his skill set I would become a mechanic, plumber, or something of the like (he currently works for the city and does auto and home work on the side). Think about this, there are very few IT jobs out there with minimal customer interaction, if dealing with customers drives you insane, then there are very limited roles you could take, especially in the entry/mid level field where you are. Im not trying to discourage you from IT, you have a great skill set and if you find what aspects of IT you really like, I think you will do very well, the problem is the area that we are in. Here is something to think about, if you want a good IT job that pays a lot of money with little customer interaction, software development and/or database administration would be good roles. Both of these skills are highly concentrated, in great demand, and carry a good salary.

Now on to your resume, I would recommend you work with a professional resume writer, your resume would benefit greatly from it. I say this because you listed a great skill set earlier but mention none of those skills on your resume, for example.

drkat wrote:

9. Altiris – packaging and scripting
10. Powershell to automate tasks for Exchange 07 and Active Directory – automating process and streamlining account creations / management – ldap scripting in perl
11. Perl scripting and basic linux administration – web,dns,ftp servers
12. CGI Web programming in perl – I wrote a hotmail clone once… sold it for profit

These are VERY impressive skills, yet none of them are on your resume! You say you did helpdesk work yet you were also writing Powershell scripts, however it does not say that on your resume so employers wont know that you have this still rather rare (in the area) skill. I will continue this post later but think about what I have said in the meantime.

drkat

Yeah I try not to bog down my resume. It needs an entire re-write with a focus on which area(s) I want to specialize in.

It's not the end-user I hate - it's the external customer. My current/last job wanted me to coddle the external customer to the point of a father/child role. This is what I was getting at.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do. I know the IT market in Rochester blows donkey **** - we're under paid and over saturated. All the Rochester IT market is built up of recruiters who are paying $12-$16/hr with no benefits on short-term contracts - or hell Sutherland who is paying $9.50/hr for helpdesk roles.

If I could do something else I would.

See I guess I come from a different world - I started PC's in 95 and grew up on IRC - hanging with some of the best technical folks I've ever met.

They were programmers, support, designers, engineers - I've met developers of IRC servers (commercial ones in the 90's) I even volunteered for Akiva (formerly ChatSpace) doing product support and on-boarding of new customers at 15 (my pay was a free IRC server hosted for me lol) - I scripted mIRC, I wrote C and Perl, learned linux - BIND/Apache - read through code and just had FUN... fun being the operative word here. It's no longer fun doing what I do so I think I need to find or maybe GO BACK to what got me interested in all this to begin with.

I mean seriously?? am I gonna break $50K with a CCNA alone in this town? I somehow dont think so.