Help me decide what to do please...

dazl1212

Hi guys, I hope you have all had a nice weekend:D First ill give you a little bit of background on me, I have around 8 years of IT experience mainly break fix got a couple of NVQ's and my Cisco IT essentials Decent knowledge of PC hardware and desktop OS. Heres the issue I have very little experience with things like exchange and active directory. I have some decent experience with small networks and wireless equipment and I am studying for my CCNA (although its taking me a while as I tried to rush it and ended up not really learning a lot. So my question is do I leave my cushy job on not a lot of money (partly why I am asking as I can earn considerably more on help desk) and A. suck it up and try and get a Help desk position where I will learn active directory and exchange etc. B. sit it out till I have done my CCNA C.try and find a gig at an NOC (so far proven impossible) which I figured will help my CCNA studies. I still have not figured out entirely what I want to do between either being a general IT support tech at a school college etc or eventually become a Network Engineer. Any advice is appreciated I have attached my C.V to hopefully help any body who is kind enough to assist me. Will re-ad proper CV when I get homePublic C.V 2011 v.2.doc

dazl1212

nobody?

jibbajabba

It depends what you want really. If you are bored of your current job then certainly look for something else. You mentioned AD, Exchange, CCNA etc. - these are wide area .. you need to decide what you want to do. Is it AD / Exchange you'd like to do ? Then certainly try to get a job where this is part of your responsibility, or at least where you can progress to it. If you want to work in "networking" then again, try to find a job where this is part of it or at least where you have the option to progress within the company.

Considering that you don't have much experience in either, you'd probably have to start somewhere (low) ...

By the way - you should modify you CV and remove certain infos such as your mobile number, mail and address ....

dazl1212

jibbajabba wrote: »

It depends what you want really. If you are bored of your current job then certainly look for something else. You mentioned AD, Exchange, CCNA etc. - these are wide area .. you need to decide what you want to do. Is it AD / Exchange you'd like to do ? Then certainly try to get a job where this is part of your responsibility, or at least where you can progress to it. If you want to work in "networking" then again, try to find a job where this is part of it or at least where you have the option to progress within the company.

Considering that you don't have much experience in either, you'd probably have to start somewhere (low) ...

By the way - you should modify you CV and remove certain infos such as your mobile number, mail and address ....

I definitely want my CCNA as its the only cert I seem to be able to apply myself to. That's the thing, other than that I'm not 100% sure.
I kind of feel that I will not make my target earnings of £19k PA in my current position.
I would prefer to find a Network hardware gig but they seem very rare at the moment.
Thanks for the advice , I could have sworn I uploaded my C.V with no details.
I must have clicked the wrong one

dazl1212

bump!

dazl1212

Anybody got any more advice?

RouteThisWay

Don't limit yourself unless you have an idea of the company you want to work for that hires guys/gals for specifically that technology.

You say you don't really know much about system or network administration. Then do what you are doing- learn. If Cisco is what drives you (you said it is the only thing you can self motivate for) then learn it. But don't dismiss something just yet.

You do not want to be pigeon holed into a technology that isn't in demand in your area and/or something you are not the "go to guy" in.

Many people may disagree with me and that is fine- but when trying to get a career going beyond the entry level help desk world you really should keep your options open and learn as much as you can.

It is like all of the guys with no or very little experience on here saying "I want to be the security guy!!! I want to get into security because it is so cool!!!!". How can you secure a system if you have no idea how it works. How can you secure a network if you don't know how a network actually works?

Don't be afraid to expose yourself to different technologies. It may open many more doors for you down the road.

rsutton

Help Desk can be a good starting point for either network/sys admin jobs, so starting there will likely be good regardless. I would aim for a large company that would help specialized departments that would potentially allow growth and advancement.

dazl1212

RouteThisWay wrote: »

Don't limit yourself unless you have an idea of the company you want to work for that hires guys/gals for specifically that technology.

You say you don't really know much about system or network administration. Then do what you are doing- learn. If Cisco is what drives you (you said it is the only thing you can self motivate for) then learn it. But don't dismiss something just yet.

You do not want to be pigeon holed into a technology that isn't in demand in your area and/or something you are not the "go to guy" in.

Many people may disagree with me and that is fine- but when trying to get a career going beyond the entry level help desk world you really should keep your options open and learn as much as you can.

It is like all of the guys with no or very little experience on here saying "I want to be the security guy!!! I want to get into security because it is so cool!!!!". How can you secure a system if you have no idea how it works. How can you secure a network if you don't know how a network actually works?

Don't be afraid to expose yourself to different technologies. It may open many more doors for you down the road.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.
This is my point I am pretty damn good at the hardware level of things When I took my current position I thought I was going to be exposed to a lot of different technologies but it never happened. As I love having a bit of variety do keep me from getting bored. I do get time to study (reading) so this place does have its perks
I do want to learn as much as possible hence why I got into doing my Cisco stuff as the Microsoft certs made me sleepy I want to get a cert to hopefully help me onto that next level.
Every time I look at any job spec it lists things like Citrix, Cisco, Exchange and AD just off the top of my head.
Its frustrating as how am I going to learn these if I cant get a job doing it? Hence why I was hoping help desk my get me there.

rsutton wrote: »

Help Desk can be a good starting point for either network/sys admin jobs, so starting there will likely be good regardless. I would aim for a large company that would help specialized departments that would potentially allow growth and advancement.

I hope that is the case.
Hopefully getting my CCENT may help me there.

pcgizzmo

My personal opinion is to try and get hired on as a tech for a consulting or services type company doing implementations. I got the broadest amount of experience as a system engineer for a consulting company (IBM Business Partner) previous to that I was a hardware guy in sales and help desk. This was 20 years ago but I started installing servers along with the operating system. Because I was doing this I got to learn a little about the network settings. Then they needed someone to install multiple servers in a company and I got to learn about DHCP and Domains and WINS (Windows NT 3.5.1 and 4.0) Next they needed some Citirix experience so I went to class for that. Then it was firewalls then switching and routing and before you know it here I am a network admin.

If you can get into a company like that and build your skills over time it would be much better than trying to get into a company as a help desk person and work your way into a position IMO. Just because slots may not open up that fast. My current company has not lost an IT person in 8 years and no new positions have opened up. Not to mention you are working with current technology at consulting companies as opposed to most businesses that are trying to save money and can't afford to do a technology refresh that often.

dazl1212

pcgizzmo wrote: »

My personal opinion is to try and get hired on as a tech for a consulting or services type company doing implementations. I got the broadest amount of experience as a system engineer for a consulting company (IBM Business Partner) previous to that I was a hardware guy in sales and help desk. This was 20 years ago but I started installing servers along with the operating system. Because I was doing this I got to learn a little about the network settings. Then they needed someone to install multiple servers in a company and I got to learn about DHCP and Domains and WINS (Windows NT 3.5.1 and 4.0) Next they needed some Citirix experience so I went to class for that. Then it was firewalls then switching and routing and before you know it here I am a network admin.

If you can get into a company like that and build your skills over time it would be much better than trying to get into a company as a help desk person and work your way into a position IMO. Just because slots may not open up that fast. My current company has not lost an IT person in 8 years and no new positions have opened up. Not to mention you are working with current technology at consulting companies as opposed to most businesses that are trying to save money and can't afford to do a technology refresh that often.

Wow!!! That sounds awesome!
That sounds like what I would love to do down to a T.
Would I be looking at the job being called a consultant?

pcgizzmo

I'd say system engineer or technician is the title you should search for and then make sure your looking at companies that sale hardware to businesses. I got lucky and got in with a smaller company and as my skills grew they were greatly valued. I was with an IBM Business Partner and so you might try searching for those. Keep in mind that most hardware vendors have a consulting/implementation side.

Dell
EMC and associated companies
Microsoft
Cisco
IBM
and many many more all have a consulting side. Plus just lots of private consulting companies out there that all sell hardware and software.

dazl1212

pcgizzmo wrote: »

I'd say system engineer or technician is the title you should search for and then make sure your looking at companies that sale hardware to businesses. I got lucky and got in with a smaller company and as my skills grew they were greatly valued. I was with an IBM Business Partner and so you might try searching for those. Keep in mind that most hardware vendors have a consulting/implementation side.

Dell
EMC and associated companies
Microsoft
Cisco
IBM
and many many more all have a consulting side. Plus just lots of private consulting companies out there that all sell hardware and software.

Thank you very much.
I will try searching for those kind of roles.
Thanks again.