Service Desk 3-5 and you are done?

I know this isn't a law or anything, but in theory, do you think there is a set amount of time that you can spend in the (Support Center, Help Desk, Service Desk), whatever you want to call it, before it becomes counter productive or even career fatal.

I've been mentored by some people who are both superiors and my peers and a large portion of them feel you have 3-5 years to get out or you are destined to stay in that type of role. I hate to sound doom and gloom, but I wanted to see what others have felt about this.

I know we have a lot that started and got out and we have some that have started and are still there. Others skipped over the front line warfare.

Opinions?

I'll be honest I do have my own opinion and I think the 3-5 rule is true for help desk, in fact I am going to steal it and coin the rule myself. I think you have 3-5 years to get out of you are forever doomed.

I was once told by a director & friend who said that the Peter Principal came into play at the 3-5 year time frame. Managers see that and assume if you haven't gotten out by now, you must of hit your plateau.

I know this isn't for certain but a lot of people I know in the industry seem to agree with me and even share their own versions of it. Adding a story here or another theory there.

I'm on year 5 and damn worried.

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

gosh1976

There may be some truth to this but you could probably counteract that perception in a well done cover letter and by obtaining some higher level certs whether cisco or MS server...

wweboy

I've been in the same type of role for 5 years I've moved 3 different jobs but all of them have been a support role of some sort. I'm out of work now because my contract ended and to be honest I only apply for support positions because I know I can do it no problem.

By all means I want to get out of the help desk roles but the problem is I don't get to play with other things like Exchange and what not in a real life situation so when I look at bigger roles many times I say "I know of it but haven't done it" with the economy the way it is I don't think people want to train someone in my shoes although I'm very willing to learn.

I don't think there is a set time you should stay in the help desk I would say it does help you get your footing in IT and you can learn a lot and your critical thinking and troubleshooting skills get a work out but if your company isn't wanting or letting you do more than your kind of SOL.

When it is all said and done I think it depends on the company you work for, how much you get to touch and learn and how willing you are willing to learn new skills and improve your skills to make yourself a better employee for yourself and your company.

I've worked with folks much older than me and I've asked why they are still doing help desk and I've been told they liked what they were doing and didn't want to move on. I can't wait to read what others are going to say about this topic.

ehnde

If you've been in a help desk position for 5 years and have done nothing to further your career.....yep! There are tons of jobs out there, and the days of spending your career with a single company "moving up the ladder" are over. That being said, 5 years helpdesk experience counts for something.

NinjaBoy

N2IT wrote: »

I know this isn't a law or anything, but in theory, do you think there is a set amount of time that you can spend in the (Support Center, Help Desk, Service Desk), whatever you want to call it, before it becomes counter productive or even career fatal...

N2IT wrote: »

...Managers see that and assume if you haven't gotten out by now, you must of hit your plateau...

Personally (and professionally as an IT Manager), I do not believe that it is counter productive/career fatal. I know of people who have been on the helpdesk/servicedesk for alot longer - starting off as the junior/trainee analyst working their way up to Senior Analyst before making the jump to Servicedesk Manager. Some have worked up the career ladder at one company, some have changed employers.

However it does apply if you have let yourself stagnate, eg no continuing professional development, poor appraisals, etc...

One thing I would also like to add is that you can't interchange helpdesk and servicedesk. The helpdesk is a function of the servicedesk, added to that the servicedesk (depending on how it's implemented, eg with ITIL/FITS) can either deal or provide an interface for the following:

1. Incident Management
2. Problem Management
3. Configuration Management
4. Change Management
5. Release Management
6. Service Level Management
7. Availability Management
8. Capacity Management
9. Financial Management
10. IT Service Continuity Management
11. Security Management

So really there is alot of scope to progress and to develop.

-Ken

Turgon

N2IT wrote: »

I know this isn't a law or anything, but in theory, do you think there is a set amount of time that you can spend in the (Support Center, Help Desk, Service Desk), whatever you want to call it, before it becomes counter productive or even career fatal.

I've been mentored by some people who are both superiors and my peers and a large portion of them feel you have 3-5 years to get out or you are destined to stay in that type of role. I hate to sound doom and gloom, but I wanted to see what others have felt about this.

I know we have a lot that started and got out and we have some that have started and are still there. Others skipped over the front line warfare.

Opinions?

I'll be honest I do have my own opinion and I think the 3-5 rule is true for help desk, in fact I am going to steal it and coin the rule myself. I think you have 3-5 years to get out of you are forever doomed.

I was once told by a director & friend who said that the Peter Principal came into play at the 3-5 year time frame. Managers see that and assume if you haven't gotten out by now, you must of hit your plateau.

I know this isn't for certain but a lot of people I know in the industry seem to agree with me and even share their own versions of it. Adding a story here or another theory there.

I'm on year 5 and damn worried.

IT is a huge employer today particularly in the industrialised west. You will find many people working in and around the helpdesk area in one capacity or another and not always in a technical role. I think we will find many people remaining in helpdesk areas throughout their careers now moving from one company to another as the economy bumps and grinds. It's not the end of the world, it is a job and can lead to other jobs. Is 5 years too long? Well it depends on what you want out of your career. If you want to get into senior technical roles then I think it's time to move on. If you want to move into senior management roles then you need to make some noises as that area is rather oversubscribed at the moment for historical reasons. This was something voiced in an interesting opinion I found on the net and posted on TE yesterday but I think it was quickly deleted. A shame as it would have been an interesting discussion. When I started you got thrown into a lot of stuff and if you wanted to advance you simply had to work very hard at your job. If you did that the advancement came by changing jobs. But I think today you have all the separation of roles and responsibilities. The lines are less blurred, there are more IT people holding positions and hanging onto positions and a lot of the roles on offer, particularly junior ones make it difficult to progress sometimes because the hands on opportunities are just not there like they used to be and you get less exposure to so many things because somebody somewhere sees that as their responsibility. In the past there was a lot happening and not enough bodies to take care of things, so you got a piece.

eansdad

I'm kind of in a similar situation. I've been at my job (computer tech) for 5 years and fell into the no college/certs during that time. Looks bad, at least to me, so I am going back to school and picking up some mid-level certs along the way. My advice would be to go after some of the M$ certs or Cisco certs (whatever direction you want to go) and show that your still interested in tech and not just the money. If I am an HR person I'm looking for the person who is keeping up with tech and not the person with 3-4 year old certs.

powerfool

There is no way I would stay in any job for longer than two years without improving my position. But that is just me.

One of the best ways to make the move is to get a job at a smaller company. They may have just one or two IT positions, and you will get decent experience that way. Then, make your next move to a larger company, and so on.

xenodamus

I think after 5 years of helpdesk with the same company your chances for advancement are slim. If you've been working similar positions at different companies it would be easy to rack up 3-5 years, though. I moved from one desktop support job to another 6 months ago. But, I went from a small business with 5 employees to an enterprise with 4000 employees. So, with the same job title I'm getting to work with AD, scripting, VMWare, SCCM, etc. on a daily basis. I'm still in desktop support.....but I'm definitely not stagnating.

If you want to move up you have to find ways to get the hands on experience. It might be a lateral move into a company with more opportunity.

Mike-Mike

N2IT wrote: »

I'm on year 5 and damn worried.

so why are you in that position? is it your fault? have you tried to move up and failed? or have you just sat there?

I would say if you just stayed somewhere for 5 years and made no move for advancement, then yes, that would be negative to your career... but if you are trying and can't get the shot, then it's not so bad

N2IT

Mike-Mike wrote: »

so why are you in that position? is it your fault? have you tried to move up and failed? or have you just sat there?

I would say if you just stayed somewhere for 5 years and made no move for advancement, then yes, that would be negative to your career... but if you are trying and can't get the shot, then it's not so bad

My 5 years are spread across 3 different environments and 5 different positions. Starting at deskside support to remote desktop support to project management/service desk team lead, to remote desktop support level 2 and Network Analyst. So I haven't been "stagnant" by any means infact I have been the complete opposite. I've learned a lot in 5 years, but the fact remains, (except for the project management stint), been in a call center environment. Even when I was deskside support I would answer calls and head over to the customers cube.

I am looking to get a shot in a high level technology. System Admin, Network Admin, Application Analyst.

Repo Man

Depends on your responsibilities. Some places think a service desk is simply password resets and log and routes. If you are in an environment handling in depth troubleshooting than it's going to be easier to advance elsewhere.

Bl8ckr0uter

I wouldn't stay at a job that long period but that's just me.

If I were you I think you should start going for Admin jobs now. There is no reason why you should have to take another half step (to like physical desktop support or helpdesk engineering or something).

N2IT

Repo Man wrote: »

Depends on your responsibilities. Some places think a service desk is simply password resets and log and routes. If you are in an environment handling in depth troubleshooting than it's going to be easier to advance elsewhere.

Defiently handling more advanced issues. I have 0 SLA to follow. I either get the incident taken care of or find someone who can help. That's really what it comes down to. I can't just "punt" tickets, unless it's suppose to go to another team for routing purposes. Example a customer needs a new business warehouse environment created. Obviously I am not creating and denormalizing tables for business and financial analyst.

N2IT

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

I wouldn't stay at a job that long period but that's just me.

If I were you I think you should start going for Admin jobs now. There is no reason why you should have to take another half step (to like physical desktop support or helpdesk engineering or something).

Appreciate the vote of confidence. I would like to think I am ready to grow and learn in that capacity.

Bl8ckr0uter

N2IT wrote: »

Appreciate the vote of confidence. I would like to think I am ready to grown and learn in that capacity.

Mos Def. You already have 5 years in. I think you could be at least an Admin at a smaller shop. I am not sure how much "enterprise knowledge" you have but that will come with time.

N2IT

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

Mos Def. You already have 5 years in. I think you could be at least an Admin at a smaller shop. I am not sure how much "enterprise knowledge" you have but that will come with time.

All of my experience has been enterprise. Maybe that is why I haven't moved up as fast as I would of liked.

Bl8ckr0uter

N2IT wrote: »

All of my experience has been enterprise. Maybe that is why I haven't moved up as fast as I would of liked.

Working in an enterprise and having enterprise level experience are two different things. Knowledge of technologies on a large scale like DHCP, DHS, PKI (huge), VPNs, Active Directory (trust, forest, etc) as well as stuff like EIGRP, OSPF, Firewalls, VLans are what I mean. I know that kind of stuff and have had that kind of experience then you should have no problem with being an admin.

I am not attacking you at all btw, I just don't know what you know (but you do lol). So like if all of this sounds like stuff you deal with everyday than my suggestion to you would be to start looking asap. I worked at a fortune 100 shop for almost 2 years and they were very big on not letting people in certain parts of the company get to other parts of the company. IE if you were is helpdesk/customer support there was no way you were getting into pure IT/core support. I don't know if that describes your company but in my experience, you have to move on to move up.

N2IT

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

Working in an enterprise and having enterprise level experience are two different things. Knowledge of technologies on a large scale like DHCP, DHS, PKI (huge), VPNs, Active Directory (trust, forest, etc) as well as stuff like EIGRP, OSPF, Firewalls, VLans are what I mean. I know that kind of stuff and have had that kind of experience then you should have no problem with being an admin.

I am not attacking you at all btw, I just don't know what you know (but you do lol). So like if all of this sounds like stuff you deal with everyday than my suggestion to you would be to start looking asap. I worked at a fortune 100 shop for almost 2 years and they were very big on not letting people in certain parts of the company get to other parts of the company. IE if you were is helpdesk/customer support there was no way you were getting into pure IT/core support. I don't know if that describes your company but in my experience, you have to move on to move up.

Yeah I work in an enterprise environment and I utilize some of those technologies in day to day and others are merely a chapter in Network +

What you said towards the end about your company describes mine. We get to deal with switches and routers which I am thankful for, but not much with the servers other than some basic stuff. Even moving home directories and shared folders are up to security and the WINTEL group.

So basically you described my environment right on.

Repo Man

2 other things:

Have you thought about going after some higher end certs?
Have you spoken to your employer about more technical roles?

It's going to be tough getting an admin position with no prior admin experience and your certifications IMO (a lot of people are in the same boat myself included.) I'd stay at your job, talk to your employer and get your MS/Cisco certs depending on what you want to do.

N2IT

Repo Man wrote: »

2 other things:

Have you thought about going after some higher end certs?
Have you spoken to your employer about more technical roles?

It's going to be tough getting an admin position with no prior admin experience and your certifications IMO (a lot of people are in the same boat myself included.) I'd stay at your job, talk to your employer and get your MS/Cisco certs depending on what you want to do.

I've thought about it. 70-680 seems like a pretty nice one to go after so does the CCENT. That seems like network + on steriods.

it_consultant

Its not that easy to break out of the help desk type of roll. Exchange / SQL / Firewalls etc are so network critical that people need to be very confident you wont screw those things up when you get a chance to touch them.

N2IT

it_consultant wrote: »

Its not that easy to break out of the help desk type of roll. Exchange / SQL / Firewalls etc are so network critical that people need to be very confident you wont screw those things up when you get a chance to touch them.

Just to clear things up. Network as in TCP/IP or Linkedin?

it_consultant

Ummm, TCP/IP. It took me a minute to realize what you were asking!

rfult001

Back to the original topic...

3, 5, 100 years doesn't really matter all that much. What matters is what is on your resume when you move on.

With my employer I hold the title of "Coordinator - Systems Control". I held that title when working as a Level 2 Help Desk Analyst, and still hold it as a Sys Admin. Just about everyone that has been in our Division of IT for over 3 years and is not an Associate Director (or some other outdated title) has that title.

Service Desk has multiple functions, and depending on where you work you can gain considerable experience. It is the experience that you put under the position title on your resume that employers look at. 5 years says you have been a dependable employee and can open other doors for you.

That being said, if you don't want to be there anymore it is probably time to move on. If they pay is good and you like where you are, don't leave.

My 2 cents.

Geetar28

I think, unfortunately, that you are in the same predicament that a lot of us are in...you know that you want to move on, but it is damn hard without prior hands-on experience. And unless you are in the right company, opportunities are often not there. I am the IT guy at my plant...and the company loves me in that role. They think I'm great (in that role). But getting hands on server time has been a struggle.

I have been at my position for just shy of three years, and for the first 6 months man it was rough. I really didn't have a clue...but after about a year here, I was getting damn bored. Not that I'm not busy as s!@# but it's the same old crap. There's nothing quite like finally attaining your CCNA and your first call the next mornning is some b@#$ complaining about her f'ing printer jamming up. And I almost never get to work on admin level stuff. That being said, I did start trying to reach out to some of the other divisions at our company and just say "Hey, I hear your doing a server upgrade...Want some help?" So doing that a few times has been great, but I want more...

Now I'm working on MCITP:SA with the hope that it will open up some more jr. level admin work, if not where I am, then somewhere else...My advice is keep pushing forward, let it be known (albeit carefully) where you are that you'd like some other responsibilities. If you're lucky, things may happen where you are....but most likely you'll have to jump ship. Good luck.

Essendon

No boasting but I only spent about 4 months on the Support Centre, being on the graveyard shift (midnight to 9am) and the stupid users did my head in completely. I worked on my first certs and got the hell out of there. I began applying about 2.5 months into the Service Desk role and after 4-5 interviews I was able to move on.

Thing is, you dont want to be in the same job for more than a 3 years, give or take a few months. Be ambitious, do your job well, have a good relationship (the right kind!!) with your managers, plug away on the certs and move on. You dont want to be taking phone calls all your life.

N2IT

Geetar28 wrote: »

I think, unfortunately, that you are in the same predicament that a lot of us are in...you know that you want to move on, but it is damn hard without prior hands-on experience. And unless you are in the right company, opportunities are often not there. I am the IT guy at my plant...and the company loves me in that role. They think I'm great (in that role). But getting hands on server time has been a struggle.

I have been at my position for just shy of three years, and for the first 6 months man it was rough. I really didn't have a clue...but after about a year here, I was getting damn bored. Not that I'm not busy as s!@# but it's the same old crap. There's nothing quite like finally attaining your CCNA and your first call the next mornning is some b@#$ complaining about her f'ing printer jamming up. And I almost never get to work on admin level stuff. That being said, I did start trying to reach out to some of the other divisions at our company and just say "Hey, I hear your doing a server upgrade...Want some help?" So doing that a few times has been great, but I want more...

Now I'm working on MCITP:SA with the hope that it will open up some more jr. level admin work, if not where I am, then somewhere else...My advice is keep pushing forward, let it be known (albeit carefully) where you are that you'd like some other responsibilities. If you're lucky, things may happen where you are....but most likely you'll have to jump ship. Good luck.

Sounds like my story minus the CCNA. Thanks for posting

N2IT

Essendon wrote: »

No boasting but I only spent about 4 months on the Support Centre, being on the graveyard shift (midnight to 9am) and the stupid users did my head in completely. I worked on my first certs and got the hell out of there. I began applying about 2.5 months into the Service Desk role and after 4-5 interviews I was able to move on.

Thing is, you dont want to be in the same job for more than a 3 years, give or take a few months. Be ambitious, do your job well, have a good relationship (the right kind!!) with your managers, plug away on the certs and move on. You dont want to be taking phone calls all your life.

+1

Nice post.

Thanks for posting.

eMeS

N2IT wrote: »

I know this isn't a law or anything, but in theory, do you think there is a set amount of time that you can spend in the (Support Center, Help Desk, Service Desk), whatever you want to call it, before it becomes counter productive or even career fatal.

I've been mentored by some people who are both superiors and my peers and a large portion of them feel you have 3-5 years to get out or you are destined to stay in that type of role. I hate to sound doom and gloom, but I wanted to see what others have felt about this.

I know we have a lot that started and got out and we have some that have started and are still there. Others skipped over the front line warfare.

Opinions?

I'll be honest I do have my own opinion and I think the 3-5 rule is true for help desk, in fact I am going to steal it and coin the rule myself. I think you have 3-5 years to get out of you are forever doomed.

I was once told by a director & friend who said that the Peter Principal came into play at the 3-5 year time frame. Managers see that and assume if you haven't gotten out by now, you must of hit your plateau.

I know this isn't for certain but a lot of people I know in the industry seem to agree with me and even share their own versions of it. Adding a story here or another theory there.

I'm on year 5 and damn worried.

I've been watching this thread and the replies have been interesting...here are my thoughts:

Having never worked on a Service/Help Desk the thoughts that I can give will not be of the hands-on variety. Having been exposed to many Service Desks and how they work and what makes people successful, I can tell you some things that I've observed that might help you.

First, the Peter Principle deals with incompetence; I feel like if someone is incompetent then that will show on day 1 and is not likely to suddenly pop up in years 3 to 5. I disagree with that assessment. If you were incompetent, then everyone knew it on day 1, and I doubt that's what's at play here.

My strong belief is that the only "prisons" that exist are the ones that we create for ourselves through the choices we make. Any time that I've accomplished something significant, or made a big significant ife change or jump in my career it was always the result of some conscious choice that I made. Anytime I was not making the progress that I expected, that was always the result of choices as well. Choice is a two-way street.

I think if you want out of the Service Desk, then you have to "choose" to do that. Based on the conversations that we've had, I feel like you've made that choice. However, sometimes the consequences of actions do not always happen immediately. When they don't you keep trying.

Read: Amazon.com: Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom (9780060930141): William Glasser: Books

That guy's right and he's got excellent real-life examples of why he's right.

Seems like you might be having a bit of an early mid-life crisis. The only thing that really ever addresses that is buying a Porsche and getting something new on your hang-low!

But seriously, based on some of the threads that you've posted I feel like you might be bouncing around in search of something that's going to propel you out of your current digs. I feel strongly that that's not what certifications do. As I've told you before, your best bet is likely to dive head first into SAP. This is based on what I've gathered from our brief discussions, and I could be dead wrong, but I think it will have a better chance of paying off for you that doing random certifications here and there.

I also get the sense that you might be looking for something from work that isn't there for everyone. It's definitely not there for me. That is, intrinsic motivation, or that the accomplishment of work is its own reward or that one's desire to work is driven by internal factors. As I've said many times here I think that's nonsense, but that's because I know myself very well, and I'm motivated by external factors. I find about 105% of this stuff, and I mean anything I've done in the last 20+ years from technical to management to pm, etc.., to be dead boring. What is not boring is the life I can have with the fruits of my labor.

It's fair to point out that there is a whole segment of the market out there that's working to make the Service Desk a career unto itself. This is pretty much the realm of HDI, and I know a ton of people that have "chosen" that career path. I don't count myself among the people that agree that the Service Desk is a career unto itself, but many people do and many of them seem to be very happy with that. I've got one jackass that I recently kicked off of my LinkedIn that was always beating me down about coming to speak at Dallas HDI meeting. Eff that crap.

The people that I've seen that move fast out of these roles tend to do a couple of things really well. First, they tend to be well-liked, meaning that they develop and nurse strong connections throughout an organization. Second, they tend to get involved in stuff that is above and beyond their job description. They tend to embrace what is in front of them.

The people that I've seen linger tend to spend a lot of time complaining and don't make powerful friends in the organization. They also tend to not embrace that which is right in front of them.

Whatever is in front of you might not be sexy, but embracing it can definitely show your current employer that you're on-board with what's important to them, which can ultimately be a ticket to bigger and better things.

MS

N2IT

eMeS wrote: »

I've been watching this thread and the replies have been interesting...here are my thoughts:

Having never worked on a Service/Help Desk the thoughts that I can give will not be of the hands-on variety. Having been exposed to many Service Desks and how they work and what makes people successful, I can tell you some things that I've observed that might help you.

First, the Peter Principle deals with incompetence; I feel like if someone is incompetent then that will show on day 1 and is not likely to suddenly pop up in years 3 to 5. I disagree with that assessment. If you were incompetent, then everyone knew it on day 1, and I doubt that's what's at play here.

My strong belief is that the only "prisons" that exist are the ones that we create for ourselves through the choices we make. Any time that I've accomplished something significant, or made a big significant ife change or jump in my career it was always the result of some conscious choice that I made. Anytime I was not making the progress that I expected, that was always the result of choices as well. Choice is a two-way street.

I think if you want out of the Service Desk, then you have to "choose" to do that. Based on the conversations that we've had, I feel like you've made that choice. However, sometimes the consequences of actions do not always happen immediately. When they don't you keep trying.

Read: Amazon.com: Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom (9780060930141): William Glasser: Books

That guy's right and he's got excellent real-life examples of why he's right.

Seems like you might be having a bit of an early mid-life crisis. The only thing that really ever addresses that is buying a Porsche and getting something new on your hang-low!

But seriously, based on some of the threads that you've posted I feel like you might be bouncing around in search of something that's going to propel you out of your current digs. I feel strongly that that's not what certifications do. As I've told you before, your best bet is likely to dive head first into SAP. This is based on what I've gathered from our brief discussions, and I could be dead wrong, but I think it will have a better chance of paying off for you that doing random certifications here and there.

I also get the sense that you might be looking for something from work that isn't there for everyone. It's definitely not there for me. That is, intrinsic motivation, or that the accomplishment of work is its own reward or that one's desire to work is driven by internal factors. As I've said many times here I think that's nonsense, but that's because I know myself very well, and I'm motivated by external factors. I find about 105% of this stuff, and I mean anything I've done in the last 20+ years from technical to management to pm, etc.., to be dead boring. What is not boring is the life I can have with the fruits of my labor.

It's fair to point out that there is a whole segment of the market out there that's working to make the Service Desk a career unto itself. This is pretty much the realm of HDI, and I know a ton of people that have "chosen" that career path. I don't count myself among the people that agree that the Service Desk is a career unto itself, but many people do and many of them seem to be very happy with that. I've got one jackass that I recently kicked off of my LinkedIn that was always beating me down about coming to speak at Dallas HDI meeting. Eff that crap.

The people that I've seen that move fast out of these roles tend to do a couple of things really well. First, they tend to be well-liked, meaning that they develop and nurse strong connections throughout an organization. Second, they tend to get involved in stuff that is above and beyond their job description. They tend to embrace what is in front of them.

The people that I've seen linger tend to spend a lot of time complaining and don't make powerful friends in the organization. They also tend to not embrace that which is right in front of them.

Whatever is in front of you might not be sexy, but embracing it can definitely show your current employer that you're on-board with what's important to them, which can ultimately be a ticket to bigger and better things.

MS

As always money