Should I accept a high paying help desk job

Hi all,

Long time reader, first time poster here.

I took an interview yesterday for a help desk job at an investment company with about 50-60 employees. This investment company handles about 8 billion in assets. So needless to say this company has money.

A little bit about my background, I have a degree in CIS that I got over 10 years ago. My biggest problem is I am too smart for help desk (since I've been doing it forever), but I am not a senior level systems administrator. I've worked as a systems admin for a few small companies, and I worked as an entry level systems admin for company of about 7,000. Then I got laid off from that job because of budget cuts (it wasn't just me).

I've never had the opportunity to work with things like AWS, Google Cloud, storage, databases, Linux, Sharepoint, or Citrix. I've worked with Windows Server, Active Directory, HP Servers, VMware, and a little bit of Cisco IOS.

At my last systems admin job, I was part systems admin, datacenter admin, and datacenter datacenter technician. Since we didn't have datacenter admins or datacenter technicians. We did have a NOC that did all of the monitoring for us.

Getting back to my current situation. This help desk job is offering $65,000 which is great for a help desk job, but it's just a help desk job. I don't want two years to go by and still be no where closer to the senior level. In this day and age no job lasts forever; and finding another high paying help desk job is no small task.

I am going back today for a second interview, so I will be interviewing them more today. Asking about them about their environment, and opportunities for learning.

So the big question is, if they offer me this job and there's no opportunities for learning should I take it?

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Comments

Tyb

Well, money is money and if you need a job yes take it.

poolmanjim

That is a tough choice. I think the big question is do you need the $65,000 or can you manage on what you have and look for a more ideal position?

Sometimes you have to consider the value of doing what you like over a large paycheck. If you aren't going to be happy doing Help Desk or will quickly grow bored, it may not be a good idea. However, I have taken a Help Desk job to get out of a crummy Entry Level SysAdmin role to find myself being promoted because I wanted to go into the Systems side more.

Sorry for the somewhat neutral reply. There are a lot of different things in play and the decision is ultimately yours, we can't know your whole situation like you can.

scaredoftests

But, will you be bored? I accepted a 'help desk engineer' job a few years back. High paying. Description was totally different from the real thing. All I did was reset password and pass on the tier 2/3 issues. Bored out of my mind. So, I quit after 4 months (after I got another job, of course). So, be careful..you don't want to be there bored to tears.

Chinook

I would inquire about the opportunity for potential growth. How large is the team? If it's 2 guys and you're number 2, you might be in the position for a long time. Is the company growing rapidly? Will the IT department get bigger or will it be the same size 5 years from now. One of the benefits of a company of 60 people is that you could get to touch a lot of stuff provided whoever handles the Tier 3 stuff is willing to let you.

If you need the job, take it. During your time there get the certs you want & then if they don't take you forward, find someone who will. When they ask "why do you want to leave" you can say "it's a great place to work, but the firm is small and there is no chance of promotion or advancement"

Have you given a thought to working at a Managed Service Provider?

Trucido

8 billion dollars for 60 people in the company. Sounds like alot of growth potential. That's 2x what im getting paid (Ohio) to do help desk. Not sure if they consider help desk at that company to be more of an IOC type responsibility, but yeah definitely see what you'll be doing on a daily basis.

Wish I could get a 65k help desk job. Around here they're all $11-16/hr. 65k is like a Network engineer job here.

franco67

Did you take the job ? Take it if you don't might have a lot of growth opportunity, if something better come along within a couple of months quit this job and go for a high paying position.

Winzer

Chinook wrote: »

One of the benefits of a company of 60 people is that you could get to touch a lot of stuff provided whoever handles the Tier 3 stuff is willing to let you.

Strongly agree with this. Since the IT team is likely pretty small, the 'senior' guy will probably be very happy that you are eager to learn and help him with the more complex stuff.

It is often harder to move up the ladder in large organizations.

mindcrank

My rule of thumb is, only change jobs when they offer 10-15k+ more than your current or if it is an advantageous position for experience and progression. If it doesn't meet one or both of that criteria then just keep shopping bro.

wrfortiscue

I am helpdesk with a bachelors and 10 certs making 42k with 4 years exp lol. Take it, then find what you like.

Piers

That's a decent salary for help desk, it may be a bit more than just the usual basic help desk description, these places can be pretty fast-moving. Good points above, is there a growth opportunity, both in position and in raises? And yeah, if the company grows in size, will your role and salary grow with it? Might be good to get in while the getting's good and establish yourself.

I'm kind of in the same situation, except I'm farther along that you.. 20 years into the career, I have what's technically a help desk level 2 job, and I make about the same as what you've been offered (I'm in Canada, so depending on fluctuating exchange amounts it could be more it could be less lol). I service good people, a couple pains but they're far outnumbered, good benefits, good boss, good co-workers. I do get bored sometimes, but there's plenty to learn, there's plenty on the internet if you need to kill time. I've used most of my quiet time to advance my certs and general knowledge, and in case of job loss I feel very ready to hit the market. Plus, with my tenure here, I'll get a nice severance package, which would be full pay for a year or more, benefits and education funding still available.

It's been a great job that gives plenty of consideration to family and personal life and I never looked to go further for a while because I had young children that I got to see every day, as the job was pretty easy to leave at work and the shifts were optimal. I say go for it, if only to get experience and some money in your pocket

Skylake

Sorry for the delay in giving an update. It's been a very long week.

I took a second interview on Thursday with a different person then I took the first interview with. The interview went well, it was a pretty standard interview. We just went over my resume and my work history. It was not a technical interview by any means.

Sadly, I don't think that they will be offering me the job. I think the person who I interviewed with thinks I am over qualified for the job. I probably wouldn’t have accepted the job even if they did offer it to me. This is just a high paying help desk job with no room for growth. Two years would go by and I still wouldn't be any closer to the senior level.

Their environment is really small. They only have 4 VM hosts each with about 4 servers. There's no SAN, and they don't have any projects in the pipeline.

Oh well, thanks everyone!

fmitawaps

I've got a similar situation. I just had an agency call me to be a team lead on a 6 month desktop support contract. The plebeian desktop support workers get $16.50 an hour and I would get 30. Yes, THIRTY AN HOUR.

This is all well and good, and I'll take it if I get the offer, because it is THIRTY AN HOUR!!!

But I am completely uninterested in it. I've done desktop support for over 4 years, and I am the master at it, more or less. I'm bored with it. I can do better. I want to get into data centers as a tech or noc person, or to just do cabling and rack-n-stack, anything, just to get a start! But I've been to several interviews for those jobs in the last few months, and applied to many more, and so far NOTHING.

I'd even be willing to take a data center job at a substandard pay rate, just to get in and get job experience. But I'm not even getting an opportunity right now.

sj4088

Skylake wrote: »

Their environment is really small. They only have 4 VM hosts each with about 4 servers. There's no SAN, and they don't have any projects in the pipeline.

Wow. If you don't mind me asking what company is this?

PJ_Sneakers

Man I wish I could find a job where I could get paid a lot more in order to to be bored during the day.

techfiend

Chase experience, not money, especially early on. I'd suggest taking a $40k admin job over a $65k help desk job if you can afford it. The admin job will lead to more money than the help desk ever will in a year if you decide to move companies that early.

As for team lead, it might be a good path towards management, if that's the goal but don't let the $30 PER HOUR! solely determine it. I know we'd all like to work for fmitawaps someday, let's make this happen!

Showing years of help desk on a resume shows lack of ambition to many employers. This is why so many get stuck in the lower-level positions. I looked at hundreds of resumes last week and so many were stuck in this rut. Certs and responsibilities being equal I was more interested in those with less experience as it shows more ambition.

When it comes to your career don't settle until you get to where you want to be, be selfish, take advantages of companies, move up ASAP without looking like a job hopper.

fmitawaps

Looking like a job hopper has been a problem with the number of contract assignments I've had in the past few years. It's been mentioned in interviews more than once this year.

I plan to move to a different city in a year or two, and when I do, I am considering rewriting the resume with considerable "adjustments" made to my past jobs and dates of employment, to avoid this problem. I don't want to have to do that, but the prejudices of interviewers is forcing my hand in this.

If I am at a future job for a while and get fired for an inaccurate resume, I still have that real experience to list!

techfiend

I would avoid lying on a resume. List contracts as they are, they're often short. The way for fmitawaps to fix his resume is to become a more personable employee. Make colleagues want to work with you and realize life's never fair. I'd set your next goal is to work for a year at your next position or if contract finish it and hope for extension.

Finishing 3 month contracts doesn't hurt a resume, it ended. Getting let go does because it signals issues most manager's don't want to deal with.

volfkhat

fmitawaps wrote: »

Looking like a job hopper has been a problem with the number of contract assignments I've had in the past few years. It's been mentioned in interviews more than once this year.

I plan to move to a different city in a year or two, and when I do, I am considering rewriting the resume with considerable "adjustments" made to my past jobs and dates of employment, to avoid this problem. I don't want to have to do that, but the prejudices of interviewers is forcing my hand in this.

If I am at a future job for a while and get fired for an inaccurate resume, I still have that real experience to list!

At the risk of Trolling... i am in complete agreement with this approach!

Someone once told me Not to have one, set resume.
Instead, have a template.
And tweak it to match the objectives of the Job that you are applying for.

At face value... it seems very disingenuous (imo); but apparently it's what employers want.

/shrug

DatabaseHead

Agree take it and try to ride it out for a few years. Doesn't sound that bad to be honest. Disregard you didn't get it sorry.

DatabaseHead

@fmita - I've experienced this before, just recently coming off a 14 month position. They asked why I left after 14 months, I was shocked, we weren't even at the 3 month or 6 month contract stretch yet. Talk about floored, I was all calm and cool until they popped that on me. Mr. DataHead your resume has a lot of movement, it gives us the impression you have a hard time staying at one job. Even though all my short termed contracts have -CONTRACTOR next to the title. No matter what you do they want to get their shots in on you about that hopping.

That's why I am so freaked out about leaving now, I can make 15 more K a year but I don't want to have all that hopping on my resume. Once I hit year 3 I should be in the clear, no guarntees though I may have to bounce.

No_Nerd

PJ_Sneakers wrote: »

Man I wish I could find a job where I could get paid a lot more in order to to be bored during the day.

try helpdesk in iraq 100K+ ....

scaredoftests

DatabaseHead wrote: »

@fmita - I've experienced this before, just recently coming off a 14 month position. They asked why I left after 14 months, I was shocked, we weren't even at the 3 month or 6 month contract stretch yet. Talk about floored, I was all calm and cool until they popped that on me. Mr. DataHead your resume has a lot of movement, it gives us the impression you have a hard time staying at one job. Even though all my short termed contracts have -CONTRACTOR next to the title. No matter what you do they want to get their shots in on you about that hopping.

That's why I am so freaked out about leaving now, I can make 15 more K a year but I don't want to have all that hopping on my resume. Once I hit year 3 I should be in the clear, no guarntees though I may have to bounce.

I had the same issue with short-term jobs (most of it was the contract changed or the economy). The interviewers that got it knew how the economy was or how contracting goes. However, there were those interviewers that had no clue how things were and acted like I was Typhoid Mary.

volfkhat

I never apologize for any of my career moves.

These interviewers want to browbeat You for making frequent moves....

but if they got a better offer tomorrow, they'd be OUT THE DOOR too!

DatabaseHead

No_Nerd wrote: »

try helpdesk in iraq 100K+ ....

I'd help desk for a 100