Breaking the entry level slump
Raya90
CEHMember Posts: 21 ■■■□□□□□□□
I have a prompting question about entry level IT jobs, and a trend ive been noticing during my first year of working in IT.
First I will give a short back story of myself. I have a degree that is not techincal or in tech. Ive been working in IT for about a little over a year now. First it was more IT procurement and "coordination" but more recently this year, it was straight up desktop support and helpdesk contractor.
Over the past year ive been noticing a trend that a lot of my present and prior colleagues have also been in desktop support and helpdesk for waaay longer than one would be in in order to progress in their careers. Most of my colleagues ages range from early 20s/straight out of college to pushing 40-50 age group. For the older of the group I find it odd that they seem content to stagnate in a lower level IT jobs and not just rise through the ranks to more higher and specialized positions. A lot of them are hard working and very knowledgeable, but yet they just cruise on by in lower grunt work and not strive for more. A lot of them have been in these lower positions for 10-20+ years as well! Theres only so much of being at the mercy of the phone and doing minor break fix tickets that one can tolerate, but to do it for a couldnt fathom doing this for most of my career!
Anyways, recently Ive moved from Fl to NY and its the same thing here as it is there in regards to my work environment being a good mix of younger and older colleagues, but in NY the pay is double or even triple what you can make down south, so I can see why people up north will be more complacent about cruising by at a lower level, but its still depressing to see.
My goal is to stay at the entry level for another year while getting my CCNA and then the entry level security certs and move up from there. As well as going back to grad school for cybersecurity. I refuse to just settle with a okay salary and sail on by with uninteresting grunt work and tied to the phone with its endless end user incidents.
Has anyone else notice this?
First I will give a short back story of myself. I have a degree that is not techincal or in tech. Ive been working in IT for about a little over a year now. First it was more IT procurement and "coordination" but more recently this year, it was straight up desktop support and helpdesk contractor.
Over the past year ive been noticing a trend that a lot of my present and prior colleagues have also been in desktop support and helpdesk for waaay longer than one would be in in order to progress in their careers. Most of my colleagues ages range from early 20s/straight out of college to pushing 40-50 age group. For the older of the group I find it odd that they seem content to stagnate in a lower level IT jobs and not just rise through the ranks to more higher and specialized positions. A lot of them are hard working and very knowledgeable, but yet they just cruise on by in lower grunt work and not strive for more. A lot of them have been in these lower positions for 10-20+ years as well! Theres only so much of being at the mercy of the phone and doing minor break fix tickets that one can tolerate, but to do it for a couldnt fathom doing this for most of my career!
Anyways, recently Ive moved from Fl to NY and its the same thing here as it is there in regards to my work environment being a good mix of younger and older colleagues, but in NY the pay is double or even triple what you can make down south, so I can see why people up north will be more complacent about cruising by at a lower level, but its still depressing to see.
My goal is to stay at the entry level for another year while getting my CCNA and then the entry level security certs and move up from there. As well as going back to grad school for cybersecurity. I refuse to just settle with a okay salary and sail on by with uninteresting grunt work and tied to the phone with its endless end user incidents.
Has anyone else notice this?
Completed: CEH
Goals: MSCSIA, CISSP, GICSP, GCIP
Goals: MSCSIA, CISSP, GICSP, GCIP
Comments
Security+, eJPT, CySA+, PenTest+,
Cisco CyberOps, GCIH, VHL,
In progress: OSCP
"content to stagnate" - I worked at help desk for 14 years. Tell me I was "content to stagnate" and I will tell you the story of family commitments, economic problems, personal issues, health issues.. Tell me I was 'content to stagnate' when I was working super, super hard at certifying and educating myself, but unable to land the 'dream job'
I am glad you "refuse to settle with an okay salary" - I suppose that is what I did? I mean, aside for working hard yet struggling to climb the ladder like MANY of us do until the right opportunity,mentor, or whatnot comes along.
Without knowing someones backstory, life history, you should probably not judge why they 'settled' for help desk. When I was a 23 year old IT hotshot working for a bank in 2003 I am pretty sure I thought I would be running the world by now. It took me quite a bit of time and heartache to move my career forward. but absolutely NONE of that was due to being "content" making an "okay" salary.
-scott
I agree with what Scott said.
You really don't know everyone's story. I hope you never get laid off, let go, or your company closes. If any of those things happen a help desk job will look really nice. Sure everyone wants to get their DREAM job, but the path to that job is NOT the same for everyone.
I imagine you are getting paid more because the cost of living in NY is higher than it is in FL.
FYI- Help desk can mean so many things. In one company you are just answering phones. While at another company you are the system admin, and you are answering phones too.
--Alexander Graham Bell,
American inventor
Goals: MSCSIA, CISSP, GICSP, GCIP