There is a reason it is called ENTRY LEVEL

I have noticed a ton of posts popping up lately, complaining about how this sucks, that sucks, .. and it is an entry level position. Of course it sucks. Everyone in IT knows this.

I started out in the shipping/receiving warehouse of a local mom/pop computer company. I spent a year there, until I had some certs and a degree. They moved me from shipping/receiving , to building computers for customers. Alright cool, some kind of IT. I did that for about 3 months, before being moved out doing Desktop Support for the same customers in the field. I did that for another year.

Then I took the skills I learned (customer support, desktop troubleshooting, etc) and found an equivalent job doing Desktop Support for a US federal govt facility, and was even given a high level (Q Clearance.. wiki it if you don't know) security clearance for my job. And it was front line, Desktop Support. But guess what, the Sys Admins get busy too. And you know what they do if they trust you, know you work hard? They pass some of their smaller projects to you. And you learn. And apply those skills to getting more certs. And that is when a Network Engineer position came open, and boom.. there you go.. In less than 3 years, I went from making minimum wage shipping boxes out, to making almost 4 times as much. And it wasn't because of my degree or my certs. But because I stuck it out. Paid attention. And the skills I learned, I applied towards certs.

Even though I was a lowly peon, I still took pride in my work and it SHOWS. There is a huge difference between someone who takes pride in their job, and someone who doesn't.
Go knock on doors.

If you are starting out in IT, you are going to hate it. You will be treated like crap lol. But you are in a good position to LEARN. It is hard enough breaking into IT. If you land any kind of entry level phone support/helpdesk role.. take it, keep it, and work at it. And you will do helpdesk/support for about 2-3 years. But stick with it, it is rewarding.

**One huge tip is that, anytime you learn something new, complete a project at work, develop some kind of marketable skill, UPDATE YOUR RESUME. I continually update mine, and to be honest... I would forget half of it if I had to recall a year from now what all I had done.

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veritas_libertas

DM05 wrote: »

I have noticed a ton of posts popping up lately, complaining about how this sucks, that sucks, .. and it is an entry level position. Of course it sucks. Everyone in IT knows this.

I started out in the shipping/receiving warehouse of a local mom/pop computer company. I spent a year there, until I had some certs and a degree. They moved me from shipping/receiving , to building computers for customers. Alright cool, some kind of IT. I did that for about 3 months, before being moved out doing Desktop Support for the same customers in the field. I did that for another year.

Then I took the skills I learned (customer support, desktop troubleshooting, etc) and found an equivalent job doing Desktop Support for a US federal govt facility, and was even given a high level (Q Clearance.. wiki it if you don't know) security clearance for my job. And it was front line, Desktop Support. But guess what, the Sys Admins get busy too. And you know what they do if they trust you, know you work hard? They pass some of their smaller projects to you. And you learn. And apply those skills to getting more certs. And that is when a Network Engineer position came open, and boom.. there you go.. In less than 3 years, I went from making minimum wage shipping boxes out, to making almost 4 times as much. And it wasn't because of my degree or my certs. But because I stuck it out. Paid attention. And the skills I learned, I applied towards certs.

Even though I was a lowly peon, I still took pride in my work and it SHOWS. There is a huge difference between someone who takes pride in their job, and someone who doesn't.
Go knock on doors.

If you are starting out in IT, you are going to hate it. You will be treated like crap lol. But you are in a good position to LEARN. It is hard enough breaking into IT. If you land any kind of entry level phone support/helpdesk role.. take it, keep it, and work at it. And you will do helpdesk/support for about 2-3 years. But stick with it, it is rewarding.

**One huge tip is that, anytime you learn something new, complete a project at work, develop some kind of marketable skill, UPDATE YOUR RESUME. I continually update mine, and to be honest... I would forget half of it if I had to recall a year from now what all I had done.

Excellent post!

skrpune

veritas_libertas wrote: »

Excellent post!

Agreed, most excellent post. Not every job is glamorous, but doing good work can get you noticed and you can learn a lot from almost any job.

My first IT job was far from "pretty" - I worked in the unfinished basement of my boss's house, repairing and building machines and occasionally going to sites where I would be crawling under desks or hanging out of walls/ceilings pulling cables, etc. It wasn't rocket science, but I impressed my boss enough that he gave me a free custom desktop when I left.

And at my current job, I'm a tech for a business school - I work on laptops & desktops, troubleshoot programs and various issues, set up mic's & projectors, etc. Again not glamorous, and not rocket science, but the fact that I have a good work ethic is getting me noticed by the higher ups.

There's a reason people speak about climbing the ladder when it comes to a career path - more often than not, you don't start at the top and you have to deal with some crap on your way up. But if you keep at it, you'll eventually find yourself above most of the muck.

tpatt100

DM05 wrote: »

But guess what, the Sys Admins get busy too. And you know what they do if they trust you, know you work hard? They pass some of their smaller projects to you. And you learn. And apply those skills to getting more certs. And that is when a Network Engineer position came open, and boom.. there you go..

That is how I got off the help desk. A new "work from home" Citrix project came up and they were over loaded I volunteered because during the Christmas season call volume is way down. They said "oh what the hell go for it". They gave me a 30 day window which I used to my advantage. I went to Barnes and Nobles picked up a CCA book and downloaded their admin pdf guide and went nuts with demo software over the course of a week. Gave a demonstration to the government with four desktop computers, they liked it and told me to size up what they needed server wise, headed on to Dell.com got an estimate and they ordered the hardware for me.

I ended up being the admin for a 40 server Citrix farm supporting everyone that was working from home on a rotational basis.

Due to that they gave me a Microsoft Streaming Media project to stream live/recorded messages through out the building, it was so easy a cave man could do it lol.

Anyways both of those projects became pretty high profile and our managers realized it looked kind of lame that the go to guy for their big tele-work project was on the help desk so they moved me to network ops.

Reseven

skrpune wrote: »

My first IT job was far from "pretty" - I worked in the unfinished basement of my boss's house, repairing and building machines and occasionally going to sites where I would be crawling under desks or hanging out of walls/ceilings pulling cables, etc.

This sounds exactly like my first IT job!!!

pml1

Thanks for the encouraging posts! It's great to hear stories from people who have worked hard and made their way up through the ranks.

I have a year of experience under my belt, and I consider myself very fortunate to be in the position I am. Our IT staff is small enough that I get to wear very many hats, and I get to put my hands on a wide variety of equipment....workstations, servers, routers, switches...pretty much everything to some extent. But at the same time, I'm the low man on the totem pole, so I get stuck with the tasks no one else wants. For instance, I spent a significant amount of time last month making my way to our sites to vacuum out workstations. I also get to teach one-on-one courses to staff members that frequently start out something like, "This is a mouse. This is how you click the mouse." But even when performing he most mind-numbing tasks, I try to keep a positive attitude and work to the best of my ability. I believe that will pay off in the end.

Bokeh

Yep, it all pays off in the end. The long hours, the obnoxious end users (well they dont all go away), the scrapped knuckles, the cut fingers from doing upgrades inside poorly designed cases.

If you train your users right, you'll end up with less support calls, and more time for other projects that will help move you up the chain.

veritas_libertas

@pml1

That is half the reason I come to TechExams.net daily! I get the encouragement of like minded individuals with the same passions, and often the same struggles.

Psoasman

DM05 wrote: »

I have noticed a ton of posts popping up lately, complaining about how this sucks, that sucks, .. and it is an entry level position. Of course it sucks. Everyone in IT knows this.

I started out in the shipping/receiving warehouse of a local mom/pop computer company. I spent a year there, until I had some certs and a degree. They moved me from shipping/receiving , to building computers for customers. Alright cool, some kind of IT. I did that for about 3 months, before being moved out doing Desktop Support for the same customers in the field. I did that for another year.

Then I took the skills I learned (customer support, desktop troubleshooting, etc) and found an equivalent job doing Desktop Support for a US federal govt facility, and was even given a high level (Q Clearance.. wiki it if you don't know) security clearance for my job. And it was front line, Desktop Support. But guess what, the Sys Admins get busy too. And you know what they do if they trust you, know you work hard? They pass some of their smaller projects to you. And you learn. And apply those skills to getting more certs. And that is when a Network Engineer position came open, and boom.. there you go.. In less than 3 years, I went from making minimum wage shipping boxes out, to making almost 4 times as much. And it wasn't because of my degree or my certs. But because I stuck it out. Paid attention. And the skills I learned, I applied towards certs.

Even though I was a lowly peon, I still took pride in my work and it SHOWS. There is a huge difference between someone who takes pride in their job, and someone who doesn't.
Go knock on doors.

If you are starting out in IT, you are going to hate it. You will be treated like crap lol. But you are in a good position to LEARN. It is hard enough breaking into IT. If you land any kind of entry level phone support/helpdesk role.. take it, keep it, and work at it. And you will do helpdesk/support for about 2-3 years. But stick with it, it is rewarding.

**One huge tip is that, anytime you learn something new, complete a project at work, develop some kind of marketable skill, UPDATE YOUR RESUME. I continually update mine, and to be honest... I would forget half of it if I had to recall a year from now what all I had done.

+1
That is the way to learn and get ahead. I think a lot of people get in too big of a hurry and bite off more than they can chew. I am currently working as a tech, but am self-studying for the MCSE - 298 to go. I am hoping the admins will allow me to watch / help out with small projects in the future.

Xenz

For every poster that complains about doing the low jobs there are people out there who would gladly take them. Hell, I can't even get Geek Squad to hire me and all you have to do for that job is lie/scam.

The job market in my area is effectively dead. I'm actually trying to finish up the MCSA and hopping onto the train to Chicago daily and literally knocking down doors until I can find a job. Then I'll commute daily just for the experience

JoJoCal19

Excellent post! In addition to people complaining about their entry level jobs I cant believe some posts where people are saying they want to get in to IT but dont want to do HD, sys admin, NOC work and they also dont want to bother with a degree or sometimes even certs and want to start out making decent or good money. WTF? It is hard to get into IT, but when you do, you make the most of it and you learn and work hard. It will pay off.

I got my A.S in Computer Networking and while working a menial customer service assistant job I applied for and got a PC specialist job in the same company. At first the job kinda sucked because it was in a warehouse and filthy and I had to crawl around, bend down, lift, move, etc. My office was in the server room which was hot and loud. But you know what? I LOVED IT. I finally had gotten into IT and I didnt care what I was doing. I was in IT and thats all that mattered. I continued to work hard and was soon given the unofficial position as Network Administrator as well (I didnt get the official title). I ended up building servers, working on the network and eventually migrating our entire IT infrastructure of the warehouse to its own domain when our warehouse was sold off from the main company. I loved it. Then I moved to a large fortune 500 company as a Level II branch office support tech. Along with it came a nice raise. I then moved to my current position dealing with all of the user account, network access and security provisioning for the entire company. Its almost 5 years since I broke into IT and Im in a real good place now and Im also doing schooling and cert studying so I can add new skills and move up even more.

mikedisd2

Bokeh wrote: »

the cut fingers from doing upgrades inside poorly designed cases.

Man, I used to hate when you don't notice that you've cut yourself and then find blood marks all over the chassis and motherboard. Some of those cheap cases were like razor blades.

binari

DM05 wrote: »

I have noticed a ton of posts popping up lately, complaining about how this sucks, that sucks, .. and it is an entry level position. Of course it sucks. Everyone in IT knows this.

I started out in the shipping/receiving warehouse of a local mom/pop computer company. I spent a year there, until I had some certs and a degree. They moved me from shipping/receiving , to building computers for customers. Alright cool, some kind of IT. I did that for about 3 months, before being moved out doing Desktop Support for the same customers in the field. I did that for another year.

Then I took the skills I learned (customer support, desktop troubleshooting, etc) and found an equivalent job doing Desktop Support for a US federal govt facility, and was even given a high level (Q Clearance.. wiki it if you don't know) security clearance for my job. And it was front line, Desktop Support. But guess what, the Sys Admins get busy too. And you know what they do if they trust you, know you work hard? They pass some of their smaller projects to you. And you learn. And apply those skills to getting more certs. And that is when a Network Engineer position came open, and boom.. there you go.. In less than 3 years, I went from making minimum wage shipping boxes out, to making almost 4 times as much. And it wasn't because of my degree or my certs. But because I stuck it out. Paid attention. And the skills I learned, I applied towards certs.

Even though I was a lowly peon, I still took pride in my work and it SHOWS. There is a huge difference between someone who takes pride in their job, and someone who doesn't.
Go knock on doors.

If you are starting out in IT, you are going to hate it. You will be treated like crap lol. But you are in a good position to LEARN. It is hard enough breaking into IT. If you land any kind of entry level phone support/helpdesk role.. take it, keep it, and work at it. And you will do helpdesk/support for about 2-3 years. But stick with it, it is rewarding.

**One huge tip is that, anytime you learn something new, complete a project at work, develop some kind of marketable skill, UPDATE YOUR RESUME. I continually update mine, and to be honest... I would forget half of it if I had to recall a year from now what all I had done.

I find it amazing how easily some people can defend greedy rich people. Paying someone $12 an hours in the year 2009 for a job that requires a certain amount of skill is total BULL&^%$.

Where I work I am not in an entry level position, but I work the the guys lower down the ladder than me. Trust me, they do thier fair share for the company and trust me, the company is making obscene amounts of cash off our labor. They can definetley afford to pay morer than they do.

The icing on the cake is when you see the CEO driving to work in his Farrari.

Please justify for me how paying someone $12 an hour in 2009, adjusted for infalation its probably like $9 an hour in 1998 money, for a job that requires skills which someone studied their ass off with long nights and weekends and a lot of discipline and sacrifice.

You can really justify that?

you think if you make $30 an hour your getting what your worth? I beg to differ there as well. When the economy was good, Companies were making more and more profit every year due to technoloy and high productivity of their workers. And if you'll notice, many raise the prices of thier goods and services every year. Does your average workers pay go up significanly for their higher productivity? Your lucky if you can get a few thousand a year. Many CEO's were making close to $100,000,000 and year, some were making billions. Yet you people have the balls to talk down to people who complain because theyre getting paid close to minimum wage. The economy will be good again, and sooner rather than later. Then we will be back to the same old game. Rich people getting richer and the middle class getting smaller and smaller.

You know, where I work we have security guards in our building. They get paid $12 an hour for standing around and giving people the evil eye all day. They get to go home and have a beer and watch the game or whatever. Low wage earning "entry level" I.T. workers get off work and go home and study, on the weekends they study, they wake up early and they study. When theyre not studying, theyre feeling guilty because their not studying. All the while they actually come to my place of emploment and earn the company money, many tomes above what they are paid in daily wages. Its pathetic.

Its greed, pure and simple. And I cant believe fellow workers in the trenches in the Tech sector would condone it.

and TBH I really dont see why anyone would want to get into the tech sector these days. Crappy pay, on call 24/7 and near impossible to break into, as an industry. at thie point I just have to much time invested in it to walk away...

dynamik

DM05 wrote: »

**One huge tip is that, anytime you learn something new, complete a project at work, develop some kind of marketable skill, UPDATE YOUR RESUME. I continually update mine, and to be honest... I would forget half of it if I had to recall a year from now what all I had done.

That's great advice, and something I keep meaning to do. I'll get to it soon. Maybe tomorrow...

blargoe

binari wrote: »

I find it amazing how easily some people can defend greedy rich people. Paying someone $12 an hours in the year 2009 for a job that requires a certain amount of skill is total BULL&^%$.

Where I work I am not in an entry level position, but I work the the guys lower down the ladder than me. Trust me, they do thier fair share for the company and trust me, the company is making obscene amounts of cash off our labor. They can definetley afford to pay morer than they do.

The icing on the cake is when you see the CEO driving to work in his Farrari.

Please justify for me how paying someone $12 an hour in 2009, adjusted for infalation its probably like $9 an hour in 1998 money, for a job that requires skills which someone studied their ass off with long nights and weekends and a lot of discipline and sacrifice.

You can really justify that?

Sure I can. It is a business. They are going to pay what the market will bear. As long as there are people willing to work for $12 an hour and they get the end results they want, that is exactly what they are going to pay, and why would they have any incentive to do otherwise? Unfortunately that is what it has come to for folks starting in IT. But I don't care how skilled you are, no one is entitled to some amount of salary just because the company "could" afford to pay it.

Nothing stopping you from going out and marketing your work experience to find something that pays more money. Someone out there would probably pay you more.

binari

blargoe wrote: »

Sure I can. It is a business. They are going to pay what the market will bear. As long as there are people willing to work for $12 an hour and they get the end results they want, that is exactly what they are going to pay, and why would they have any incentive to do otherwise? Unfortunately that is what it has come to for folks starting in IT. But I don't care how skilled you are, no one is entitled to some amount of salary just because the company "could" afford to pay it.

Nothing stopping you from going out and marketing your work experience to find something that pays more money. Someone out there would probably pay you more.

And I suppose when greedy bankers and traders ran wild with Credit Default Swaps and almost caused and world wide depression and countless millions of people to endure unimaginable financial suffering, Its just business...huh?

So you see no issue with the way the economy is heading do you? Stagnant wages and the shrinking middle class, no thats not a problem huh? As long as your comfortable thats all that matters right?

thomas130

To be honest I'm not sure If I should stay in IT the money is really bad these days and compared to other jobs the amount of effort you need to put in just to have a chance of doing well is bad

There is a job at the moment and they want the following

Full knowledge of AD or the networking basically a technical support job
Want you be a web developer. web developer
Developing applications. software developer

Guess how much they are offering

£23,000

To be honest what they are offering is a joke but I can see that is where we will be going with all jobs.

I think if you wanted to be in IT your 10 years to late. I want to stay in IT because I love technology and love learning but I don't think it much of a career now. Anybody my age will now just be working on the helpdesk for years to come earning really bad pay how are we suppose to make a living.

veritas_libertas

@binari: Your forgetting that laws were passed forcing banks to give out credit to people that were financially unsound because these people some how had a right to it. Any sane business person would not want to hand money out that they knew they wouldn't get back.

I have just started making a decent living and I don't feel bad about the fact that most everyone around me has nicer vehicles than me. It does give motivation to work harder though. I have kept myself out of debt so far. Most of you would be shocked on what my wife and I lived on for two years.

mikedisd2

binari wrote: »

And I suppose when greedy bankers and traders ran wild with Credit Default Swaps and almost caused and world wide depression and countless millions of people to endure unimaginable financial suffering, Its just business...huh?

So you see no issue with the way the economy is heading do you? Stagnant wages and the shrinking middle class, no thats not a problem huh? As long as your comfortable thats all that matters right?

Blargoe is just being pragmatic about the circumstances. Yes, we all see the injustices of the world, and yes, a lot of us are stuck in lousy dead-end jobs, but none of us being whiny about it.

pml1

binari wrote: »

I find it amazing how easily some people can defend greedy rich people. Paying someone $12 an hours in the year 2009 for a job that requires a certain amount of skill is total BULL&^%$.

I graduated from college in 2006. My first job after that (it was not in IT) paid me $10 an hour. Three years later, I have a full year of IT experience under my belt, and I'm making a decent wage. Am I making what I'd like at this point in my life? Not really, but I know the only person who controls what I'm worth to an employer is me. It's not up to my employer to offer me more money for no reason. It's certainly not up to the government to force my employer to pay me more. It's up to me. It's up to me to put in long hours gaining the experience necessary to move up. It's up to me to give 100% effort on every task so that people above me take notice. It's up to me to come home after a long day's work and pull out the books to study instead of turning on the television.

Furthermore, when I see other people in my company or in my industry succeed, I don't see that as an injustice...I see that as an encouragement. If you see the CEO drive on in a new Ferari, you may think, "that greedy,cheating dirt bag." I think there is a good chance that person has worked very hard to get where he or she is. I also think there is a chance I can get there myself one day.

networker050184

If you think that IT is the only sector that gets paid low wages when they first start out you are just plain ignorant. This is just the way business works. Its not some evel plot against IT workers.

And you think its bad that the security guard gets paid as much as an entry level IT tech? That security guard is expected to put others personal safety before his own. If that doesn't warrant $12 an hour then I don't know what does.....

skrpune

networker050184 wrote: »

If you think that IT is the only sector that gets paid low wages when they first start out you are just plain ignorant. This is just the way business works. Its not some evel plot against IT workers.

And you think its bad that the security guard gets paid as much as an entry level IT tech? That security guard is expected to put others personal safety before his own. If that doesn't warrant $12 an hour then I don't know what does.....

I'm going to have to agree with you here, and it's not just the business world. People who have gone through medical school (who, one could safely argue, have put more time and money and effort into their training and education than most in IT) have to do insane shifts for poor pay when they go through their residencies. Does it suck? Yes. But that's how it works.

You can't just walk into a career and have money flying out your yin yang. While some are lucky, most have to pay their dues and work at jobs which are less than high paying and less than glamorous.

And I personally think that security guard at $12/hr has a better argument for being underpaid than an entry level IT tech. A guard putting his/her life on the line and thus possibly not making it home at all vs a tech being able to go home every day to bone up on their technology knowledge?? No contest there in my opinion.

TheFORCE

You guys are all correct, hard work pays off sooner or later, for some that are lucky its sooner for some that are not so lucky its later. It depends on the area, the people you meet along the way and everything else. I just went back to my old job, helpdesk support, because i was looking for 3 months and couldnt find anything. My GF on the other hand is a project manager in IT for MTV they had plenty of positions but i couldnt dare ask her to push my resume, i wouldnt want her to be my boss anyway lol. So i just have to stick it out here on the helpdesk and get my certs and experience.

sambuca69

thomas130 wrote: »

To be honest I'm not sure If I should stay in IT the money is really bad these days and compared to other jobs the amount of effort you need to put in just to have a chance of doing well is bad

There is a job at the moment and they want the following

Full knowledge of AD or the networking basically a technical support job
Want you be a web developer. web developer
Developing applications. software developer

Guess how much they are offering

£23,000

To be honest what they are offering is a joke but I can see that is where we will be going with all jobs.

I think if you wanted to be in IT your 10 years to late. I want to stay in IT because I love technology and love learning but I don't think it much of a career now. Anybody my age will now just be working on the helpdesk for years to come earning really bad pay how are we suppose to make a living.

I've "been in IT" for about 10 years now. In those 10 years I've always seen these types of ridiculous job descriptions and salaries.

There are people that will take advantage of anyone in any field. I don't think this is a "IT" thing. Know what I mean?

blargoe

binari wrote: »

And I suppose when greedy bankers and traders ran wild with Credit Default Swaps and almost caused and world wide depression and countless millions of people to endure unimaginable financial suffering, Its just business...huh?

So you see no issue with the way the economy is heading do you? Stagnant wages and the shrinking middle class, no thats not a problem huh? As long as your comfortable thats all that matters right?

That is SOOOOO not even the same thing. All the crap with the mortgage securities trading, risky loans, should have never been allowed. I won't even get into the personal responsibilty argument regarding the idiots that kept spending more money than they have and borrowed into a hole they could never get out of, but you can't ignore that either.

Anyway, the company you work for is a private business and they can pay you what they want; and you have the option to either accept it and honor your agreement to work there, or find another job.

veritas_libertas

blargoe wrote: »

That is SOOOOO not even the same thing. All the crap with the mortgage securities trading, risky loans, should have never been allowed. I won't even get into the personal responsibilty argument regarding the idiots that kept spending more money than they have and borrowed into a hole they could never get out of, but you can't ignore that either.

Anyway, the company you work for is a private business and they can pay you what they want; and you have the option to either accept it and honor your agreement to work there, or find another job.

+1 Exactly!

DM05

Glad I good provide some encouragement for those out there.

If you were to dig up my first posts back in Jan of 08.. I was trying to get my A+, not sure of myself or how to get into IT. And it's funny, because the same naysayers here are making the same arguments being made back then. "Oh you are too late, you will never get in".

Don't let anyone discourage you from your dream. those who are stuck in HelpDesk/Support roles for 15 years of their IT life choose to be there. They aren't advancing their skillset by getting certifications. They aren't putting forth the desire.

The guy who I consider my mentor, who was the Windows team lead over the sys admins,helpdesk, etc at my DST job told me one thing I will never forget:

No one will invest in you, if you do not invest in yourself.

Going out and getting certified is an investment in yourself. Volunteering to come in and help out with maintenance is an investment in yourself. It wasn't my job description when the Network Admin replaced all of our outdated Cisco switches, to help him. But when the project came up, I offered to help in my own downtime. And then I could put that in my resume that I did have hands-on WORK experience retiring, implementing, and configuring Cisco switches (which I did under supervision). Was it alot? No. But be truthful when your interviewer asks. Explain that you volunteered (team player) to help bring the new switches into production for experience (willing/desire to learn). You will find there are a TON of IT guys who will love to show you how to do things, if not for the simple pleasure of showing off their skills. Just have to ask.

Now obviously, everyone's path is different. I was just giving mine as an example.

I just don't want people discouraged. IT is hard to break into. GOOD and DEPENDABLE Help Desk guys are hard to find. We expect them to be hungry. To realize they are doing entry level work, to pickup and learn whatever is tossed their way. We are doing them a favor, as they are us. We are giving them needed experience to move up, and they are giving us dependable people who interact with the customer/employees everyday.

As an earlier poster said, there is a reason it is called a ladder, not a slide. You start at the bottom and work your way up.

thomas130

DM05 wrote: »

Glad I good provide some encouragement for those out there.

If you were to dig up my first posts back in Jan of 08.. I was trying to get my A+, not sure of myself or how to get into IT. And it's funny, because the same naysayers here are making the same arguments being made back then. "Oh you are too late, you will never get in".

Don't let anyone discourage you from your dream. those who are stuck in HelpDesk/Support roles for 15 years of their IT life choose to be there. They aren't advancing their skillset by getting certifications. They aren't putting forth the desire.

The guy who I consider my mentor, who was the Windows team lead over the sys admins,helpdesk, etc at my DST job told me one thing I will never forget:

No one will invest in you, if you do not invest in yourself.

Going out and getting certified is an investment in yourself. Volunteering to come in and help out with maintenance is an investment in yourself. It wasn't my job description when the Network Admin replaced all of our outdated Cisco switches, to help him. But when the project came up, I offered to help in my own downtime. And then I could put that in my resume that I did have hands-on WORK experience retiring, implementing, and configuring Cisco switches (which I did under supervision). Was it alot? No. But be truthful when your interviewer asks. Explain that you volunteered (team player) to help bring the new switches into production for experience (willing/desire to learn). You will find there are a TON of IT guys who will love to show you how to do things, if not for the simple pleasure of showing off their skills. Just have to ask.

Now obviously, everyone's path is different. I was just giving mine as an example.

I just don't want people discouraged. IT is hard to break into. GOOD and DEPENDABLE Help Desk guys are hard to find. We expect them to be hungry. To realize they are doing entry level work, to pickup and learn whatever is tossed their way. We are doing them a favor, as they are us. We are giving them needed experience to move up, and they are giving us dependable people who interact with the customer/employees everyday.

As an earlier poster said, there is a reason it is called a ladder, not a slide. You start at the bottom and work your way up.

I agree with you over the last 2 years I have completed my Hnc and have started my degree and will hopefully have gain my ccna in October. I thought that investigating would bring me rewards but it hasn’t.

Basically people in my department were given pay rises and didn’t bother completing anything they got their raises because they are relatives and friends there.

So I find very upsetting when I have work my ass off to better myself and I get nothing in return.