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What was your first move out of help desk?

gadav478

Hi all-

Just posting to see if anyone has suggestions on leaving the help desk. I've only been here a year and some change but the work is very monotomous and I really want to get my hands on more work. I do very basic help desk now (password resets, hardware dispatch, reporting network outages, a little AD administration, printer maintenance, Outlook etc). I guess what I am saying is that I want more responsibility. There is not much room for moving up here even though the atmosphere is great for studying. I really don't care what it is however I do want to become a jr. NOC technician preferably. It seems as if I can't find anything for NOC technicians without requiring a BS or 3-4+ years experience which I don't have. I'm working on my CCNA which I should have at the end of the month, but it is a little depressing to not see much for NOC tech out there in my area.

What did you do to move up if applicable? Are there any hybrid positions or intermediate step I should take before asking for that type of responsibility? Should I be more patient?

Thanks in advance.

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Comments

kurosaki00

I went from support to Sys Admin and now NOC help desk...
cant seem to land something out of it

FloOz

My Progression went like this:

IT Intern -> Desktop Support -> Network Engineer

I worked in desktop support for about a year before looking for a networking position. During my time as a network engineer I passed my CCNA and began studying for CCNP. I do have a 4 year degree in CSIT so that probably did help me out a bit.

N2IT

Transitioned from a service desk analyst 1 to a project lead on a 6 month effort. The title was something ridiculous but essentially a project lead.

StussyNz

I went from Service Desk to Associate Network Engineer; Did my time on the Service desk (Just under one year) and then moved on.

NinjaBoy

Went from IT Tech (was on a rota of Field Service/Workshop/helpdesk) -> Senior Tech -> IT Manager.

The only thing I can say is to keep on studying for your professional certs, consider doing your degree and keep your eyes open for job opportunities. You can also have a word with your manager about shadowing other tiers/other departments to gain additional experience.

I didn't make a move (from IT Tech to Senior Tech) for just under 2 years, but I made sure that I got stuck in with whatever I could and grab every continuing professional development going, even if it didn't directly relate to my job at the time.

Akaricloud

Desktop Support -> Helpdesk(Move in location was the reason for a lateral move) -> Jr. Systems Administrator -> Systems Administrator -> Systems Engineer.

Between each I've been obtaining certs and further education as well as gaining a lot of hands on experience with more advanced systems.

puertorico1985

Helpdesk > Instructor > Desktop/Server Support > (back to) Helpdesk > Network Engineer (after I got my degree)

shodown

NOC---TIER 2 NOC---TIER 2 NOC(move out of state)----Network Engineer

Tier 3 VoIP Support

Senior Voice Engineer

Polynomial

NinjaBoy wrote: »

Went from IT Tech (was on a rota of Field Service/Workshop/helpdesk) -> Senior Tech -> IT Manager.

I haven't worked an actual help desk job since I was 18, but this is my goal as well.

gadav478

Thanks for the insight everyone. I should be done with my AS in CS this semester and my CCNA this month so doors should open down the line.

Get this: Ironically this morning, I got a call for a NOC tech position 10 mins away. They train tech to eventually become engineers so it's a great learning opportunity too. Only caveat is that is it a morning shift position, and my final two classes are in the morning this coming semester depending on if enough people register. I should know by the 15th whether or not the school will offer the class and the recruiter said to call him back when I know. In any case, that was a confidence booster. Will give a update.

lsud00d

Have you asked for more responsibility? Or, depending on what services your company supports and what is handled in-house, you can request to shadow people in different groups. So, sit with the Network guys, the AD/Sys Admin guys, the Exchange/Email guys, etc. This will show initiative and you will expand your knowledge and possibly your skillset.

This is what I did that enabled me to move out of Help Desk to Sys Admin work...I took on a hybrid Help Desk/Network/Videoconference tier I and II role in my first job, then things that I learned there helped me jump into a linux sys admin role. I now do mainly Windows sys admin'ing and am getting into infrastructure engineering.

Good luck!

QHalo

Intern>Desktop Support I>Desktop Support II>Application Support>Sys Admin>Railroad Conductor>Desktop Support II>Application Support>Server and Storage Engineer

Yes, I repeated my career twice. Railroad was a 'swing and a miss'. Still loved every minute of it.

kohr-ah

Printer/PC Tech (Help Desk) > Cisco Field Engineer > NOC Engineer (Not sure how I ended up here) > Cloud Engineer

Shooting to go back to Cisco Engineer.

Anonymouse

Job progression:
1. doing menial office work while I studied for and passed A+
2. computer repair tech
3. desktop support temp
4. PC deployment temp
5. laid off and 8-9 month unemployment period
6. computer operator temp
7. helpdesk tech callcenter monkey
8. systems administrator

When I was at my last job as a callcenter slave we were pretty limited to what we could do other than level 1 support. I would work on level 2 issues to learn more. I also applied knowledge from previous jobs to connect the dots within the network at my call center job to try to understand how everything works. The only humble advice I have is to not stop learning.

clouder

In a nutshell: Tier 2 Help Desk > Desktop Engineering (SCCM, VDI) > Virtualization & Storage

W Stewart

For me, it really depends on what you define as help desk. My first IT job was a call center doing Dell tech support so if you count that as help desk then my first move out of help desk was into another help desk/administration role for linux point os sales systems. If you don't count that then I would say that my first move out of help desk was into a Jr Admin position at a web hosting company.

bobby27x

Bartender(2y) - Helpdesk Technician(1,3y) - Incident Coordinator(6months) - IS Site Service Manager(8month now)

Working in a ServiceDesk as a HDT is not bad if you do it for 1-2y. I jumped in the IT field as a HDT with little experience(just your regular neighbor who's an IT savvy person). Learned a lot as HDT supporting 1st line for 3 clients simultaneously(this is how they do it in SE Europe - you work your ass off for 500euro/month), promoted to an Incident Controller position, salary raised and all.
Got the opportunity to apply for my current position where I had to overcome the fact I had no certs and only 2 years of actual experience in the IT field. Landed the job and now I am doing a bit of deskside, a bit of vendor mgmt, a bit of SOX/ISECO compliance, a bit of Governance, a bit of PM role for global to local projects implementation and I love it. The downside is that the actual percent of tech-IT tasks gets to about 40%, the rest of 60% being adm/mgmt IT, but it pays very well + private medical insurance etc. It is very important that you mantain a good balance in developing both technical and soft-skills, except if you'll pursue the darker side into becoming a CCIE guru, an architect etc...but even in this case you ought to know how to ''talk'' to the business shareholders and board directors.

Expect

Help desk -> Helpdesk Tier II -> System administration -> Linux integration