What was your position after helpdesk?

I am currently in my first IT Job doing ti
r 1 helpdesk for 6 months now. I was just curious as to how long anyone was in helpdesk and what position or title did you take next to move up and how

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higherho

Help desk for 5 months, then Systems Administrator

LinuxRacr

Operations Support for 5 years, then Systems Administrator.

N2IT

Deskside support then I went into access control over NARA and other DOA and DOD databases. I actually quit and tried my luck in real estate. That was a big fat fail, however in the process I became a property manager and that developed a lot of my skills. Then back into help desk for 1.5 years then start to ascend again.

Essendon

I did helpdesk for about 3 months, got FED UP of it in about 2. Luckily landed a much better gig within a month of applying. Here's what happened.

I used to do the graveyard shift for this ISP from midnight to 9am and I lived in an area that was a 90 minute train journey away. Anyways, I applied for this job for a junior sys admin role just before I left for that night's shift. They asked for an MCP plus some experience with XP and Outlook and other basic stuff. I didnt expect a call back at all. About 9.15am after my shift, I got the phone call asking me if his client could interview me the same day. Tired that I was (I had worked an extra few hours the night before) I agreed to see them at 1pm, I wanted that job. So I reached home, ate something, showered and borrowed a suit from my housemate. Managed to make it to the interview at 1pm despite some train delays. The interviewers asked me how my day was going and I explained that I was coming off a couple of long night shifts and how far I lived. And they go - You look like a motivated guy. I was like - Um, yeah I WANT this job real bad, I didnt care if I was missing out on a few hours of sleep and would sleep better if I had this job. They went - Can you start tomorrow. I said - of course. I got the job right there! Overjoyed, I went back to the ISP place, turned in my notice (which was only an hour), couldnt sleep rest of the day and the night (was so happy). The next morning when I arrived for my new job, I hadnt slept for about 2 days.

Motivation and desire is what it's all about.

SteveLord

Never did helpdesk.

System admin 2 years > PC Repair part time while job searching after move 2 months > System admin again 4 years and going.

phaneuf1

higherho wrote: »

Help desk for 5 months, then Systems Administrator

You understand that it's not the usual path right?
What kind of enterprise is that?
it looks pretty quick 5 months to move to a sys admin position. did you have any prior sys admin experience.

Sponx

Not necessarily after "help desk" but I went from Staples Tech (laugh...) > IT Director for a small radio station > End User Support & Applications Specialist for Molina Healthcare, Inc. I hope to expand from that, to Security or Networking.

keenon

Jr. IT Admin after helpdesk

apoole15

Systems Administrator almost 3 years after Help Desk. I had been doing my system admin roles for about a year before the official promotion.

Akaricloud

I went from Desktop Support to Helpdesk for a small company where I was able to take on a lot more administrative tasks and then finally to a real systems administration position.

higherho

phaneuf1 wrote: »

You understand that it's not the usual path right?
What kind of enterprise is that?
it looks pretty quick 5 months to move to a sys admin position. did you have any prior sys admin experience.

Yes, I understand that. I work for the govt. The team I was on at the time had a few system admins on it and a help desk. Typically SA's would move out of that role after roughly 18 months and luckily someone left for a prior position and they saw my progress on help desk and what I learned (in 5 months I did quite a bit, got awards too, and gained a lot of respect from upper management). I basically absorbed everything like a sponge and learned very quickly. Also, my previous jobs (while I was in college) helped out a lot (knew more networking than most of the members on the team).

The first SA role (prior to the position I'm in now) was not extremely difficult (managing AD, images, blackberries, etc) I would technically call it a Tier 3 support role. However, the SA position I'm in now is a full blown SA spot (my own VPN, firewall, SAN, networking gear, 30 servers (across 4 forests), I'm the enterprise admin, and the only admin in this environment). I volunteered to take it and grew even more and gained more respect, etc.

Plus the school I went to helped out quite a bit. It was not your typical B & M school but had a lot of labs and hands on experience.

Aldur

I suppose working at JTAC is helpdesk work. After 1 yr 10 months of that I moved on to be a design resident engineer for Juniper. I was up in Edmonton Canada for that, good people, but don't miss the winters.

Forsaken_GA

Wal-mart, while I put my carcas through school so I'd never have to do that kind of work again

Webmaster

I went from desktop software support to helpdesk (for 3 months) to desktop hardware and software support.

paul78

My first job was on a help desk that provided pre-sales tech support for a reseller of development tools. It was actually a pretty neat job since it was part sales. I did it for about 1a year. I left to go work for a university as a systems programmer developing os utilities, and portingI tools.

Mike-Mike

I was on the Service Desk for shortly under a year. I recently moved to "Access Management" which is a sort of jr. admin role. Not really sure how to qualify it. We grant file rights, do account creates and deletes, vpn, and random other stuff

Hypntick

Network engineer, now i'm the support engineer supervisor.

N2IT

Mike-Mike wrote: »

I was on the Service Desk for shortly under a year. I recently moved to "Access Management" which is a sort of jr. admin role. Not really sure how to qualify it. We grant file rights, do account creates and deletes, vpn, and random other stuff

Mike that is a security function like Access Control. Document your experience and you can use that experience to qualify for high-level security certifications.

Hypntick

N2IT wrote: »

Mike that is a security function like Access Control. Document your experience and you can use that experience to qualify for high-level security certifications.

I'm looking at security as a concentration myself, hadn't thought of it like that. Very interesting...

the_hutch

Three years of help desk, then on to vulnerability management and analysis

techie2012

Geek Squad(laugh)->Help Desk in 2 months-->Network Engineer in 10 months

Nobylspoon

A little bit different starting point for me. I started in IT as a QA Technician and 6 months later became a Resident Engineer. Job consists of a mix between Systems Admin, Server Admin, DB Admin and QA, all at a remote site away from the company.

Now if I can only figure out how to transition over to network security from this...

baseball1988

spent 1 year in help desk. then, software tester.

(i didn't want to go through the 'support' route whether its network, system admin, or other areas. didn't like to work on call. didn't like the work hours in general. it might be good if you are young....i don't think i'll have the time keeping up with the latest technology when i'm 30 years old +. i'll keep work/life balance)

eten

1.5 years in help desk, then network analyst.

Finished my CCNP while in help desk then left.

Mike-Mike

N2IT wrote: »

Mike that is a security function like Access Control. Document your experience and you can use that experience to qualify for high-level security certifications.

hey thanks!

N2IT

Mike no problem man

I would stay in that role for 5 years if possible. If you move up then cool, if not cool too. You are getting specialized now and that's great. Cherish it and document. 1 year and you can sit the SSCP I believe and 5 years the CISSP. Those are some impressive certifications. Plus all the security experience. Nice!

doobies

sys analyst performing admin,networking and IA duties.

cmitchell_00

keeranbri wrote: »

I am currently in my first IT Job doing ti
r 1 helpdesk for 6 months now. I was just curious as to how long anyone was in helpdesk and what position or title did you take next to move up and how

Keeranbri...I believe I worked helpdesk for 6mths but; I was bumped up to desktop support. Then in 1 and half years later I was doing Systems Administration doing Novell/Microsoft within an ticketed system. Now, ten years later Network Administration/Engineering, Project Management etc. but, it really is how aggressive you are in your career path. However, I still take calls which can be considered helpdesk from Level 1-3 etc. so; it depends on the size of your company which can add more responsibilities too.

NightShade1

Never did helpdesk
NOC Technician Level 2 = 4 months On one NOC
NOC Engineer =4 months On another NOC
Network & Infraestructure Specialist = 3 Years and im still here, and im planning to stay for a while bosses are cool, and raises nice rises every year depending on your performance and certifications you get. The more you get certified and the more you know the more they pay you!