Have a very big predicament with a job offer

Hey all,

Little background on me. I'm 25 years old and currently in school for Computer Science. I have no IT or software work experience and I am looking to get a year or so of that in before I graduate to make job opportunities more plentiful.

Today I had a technical interview and basically a job offer for a helpdesk position doing user support for a very large military base. The job requires a secret clearance which they'll sponsor, also pays more than what I make now and is excellent experience as far as moving up in the industry.

Only problem is my school schedule is very random. Higher level CS courses are going to be from Monday-Thursday morning and afternoon hours. The hiring manager e-mailed me saying that I look like an excellent candidate, but the company aren't willing to consider anyone unless open for all shifts, but MIGHT work with me on my schedule, but no guarantees. I don't really want to give them the run around by going through the secret clearance process to ultimately find I cannot work the shifts. I'll also be out of work, because I have to give my current job a 2 week notice. I'm really at a crossroads on what to do. I spoke with some people who told me just to do what I'm doing now and put school #1, that these types of positions open all the time and in the future I'll be able to work it. Still, I really want to get experience in this field and will feel pretty bummed if I have to turn this down. What to do?

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Comments

pert

Take the job AND stay in school. It's not an OR decision unless you make it one. There's a way to do both and that's what you should do. Doing either is a mistake when you can do both.

the_Grinch

I'd say stay in school. Since your going for Comp Sci, how much is a helpdesk really going to help you? Secret Clearance? Takes a month and most companies will sponsor for that because it is cheap and quick to do. Lots of contracts out there for helpdesk people to support the military or agencies, I wouldn't extend my time in school for them.

ptilsen

pert wrote: »

Take the job AND stay in school. It's not an OR decision unless you make it one. There's a way to do both and that's what you should do. Doing either is a mistake when you can do both.

Read first post again. The job is not going to give the flexibility needed to attend classes, period. It is one job and not worth changing schools to do an all-online program, which is the only program that would be flexible enough to deal with the work schedule OP would have.

I agree that work and school are not mutually exclusive, but this job and this school are. There will be other job offers with better flexibility.

tom_dub

I turned it down, wasn't really a good choice for anyone in a non-online school but would have been a great opportunity for someone with open availability. Would have been doing swing shifts so they wanted someone who wouldn't have a problem getting a completely randomized work schedule which is a HUGE no no for me.

Kind of has me down though because I really want to break into this field. Do certain IT jobs offer flexibility mainly for late evenings/weekends? Most I see ask for typical 9-5 or open availability.

jdancer

tom_dub wrote: »

I turned it down, wasn't really a good choice for anyone in a non-online school but would have been a great opportunity for someone with open availability. Would have been doing swing shifts so they wanted someone who wouldn't have a problem getting a completely randomized work schedule which is a HUGE no no for me.

Kind of has me down though because I really want to break into this field. Do certain IT jobs offer flexibility mainly for late evenings/weekends? Most I see ask for typical 9-5 or open availability.

Have you contacted your school's career center and see if any internships or co-ops you can do with companies willing to work with your school schedule?

I am sure you will find an organization to work with your schedule, not theirs.

CodeBlox

MiikeB wrote: »

Is this job working at the NMCI helpdesk? If so that is where I got started and I would say save yourself the headache. You will get yelled at by customers who hate the network policies and get no support from management and they are not very accommodating to personal lives at all.

I spent my early IT years at the NMCI helpdesk on NOB and while I will say I learned a lot and the experience looks great on my resume (it is the largest secure network in the world) I also saw it literally suck the soul out of many of my friends who would develop drinking problems from the stress and it would poison there outside relationships. We were once on mandatory overtime 60 hours a week for 2 months with calls in the queue every minute of it, limited to 2 minutes after call work, no support because your tech leads had to take calls too and you got 2 15 minute breaks and 30min lunch but you had to take them when they dictated.

LMAO! I live in Hampton Virginia and worked on the NMCI helpdesk in Norfolk Virginia for about a year... First IT job so I was really excited. There is some good experience to be had at the extreme entry level but really after like 6 months, GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE... The job started to drive me nuts every day... Taking non stop calls for an 8 - 10 hour shift is NOT FUN! Having people yell at you all day. The ticketing system sucks and went down almost everyday and you found yourself saving your tickets in notepad to manually put all 45 in the ticketing system at the end of your shift... NOT FUN! Needless to say, I left that job in May of this year and am a lot happier... You will not be happy on that helpdesk trust me! It's not the problems people call in with so much ( I found a lot of it easy). It's the sheer volume and crappy work conditions. Don't buy into the promises they make about moving up either it's all lies. I'm not making this stuff up. They will put you in mandatory overtime and make you work 55 - 60 hour work weeks of nonstop calls. They will put you on an overnight shift without asking too. I found myself working at 6am on saturdays because i was randomly picked. If you took the job, PLEASE get the experience and go on to much much greener pastures. I am now working at a bank in virginia beach and it's so much better... the pay, the benefits, the amount of stuff we get to do. I don't dread work going at this new job.

EDIT: I'm glad you turned it down. sorry for not reading all post before posting.