Getting back into the game

I had an interesting meeting with a staffing recuitor on Friday. I was pretty much told I needed to make a lateral move in order to get to the next level.

In 2009 I was part of a lay off, at that time I was doing system administration. For the next year I finished my MBA and I picked up a contract desktop support job. That contract ended up going perm. There is no room to grow at the location I am. We are a MSP and our contract is only for desktop support.

I want to go back to doing higher level work. I am tired of removing viruses and imaging and setting up new hire equipment. Its not tough work, just not challenging enough for me.

I am working on CCNA and hope to have it by June\July. I seem to enjoy the cisco stuff more than anything else I have studied.

So back to the recuitor, I was told if I wanted to get back to doing system admin or networking I'm going to need to get with a company I can grow with. He stated " you are applying for jobs with guys who are currently still doing the admin role, and you have not used those skills since 2009." I feel like I am getting penalized for trying to make a living and stayed working, even at a lesser role.

He presented a company doing the same role as I am doing. It would pay 50k, so its a good jump in pay for me. They have other IT departments so there is a chance to move up within the company.

What is everyone's thoughts, suggestions?

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Comments

earweed

Go for the lateral move. It couldn't hurt. Plus you may have a chance to advance at your new company.

Turgon

odysseyelite wrote: »

I had an interesting meeting with a staffing recuitor on Friday. I was pretty much told I needed to make a lateral move in order to get to the next level.

In 2009 I was part of a lay off, at that time I was doing system administration. For the next year I finished my MBA and I picked up a contract desktop support job. That contract ended up going perm. There is no room to grow at the location I am. We are a MSP and our contract is only for desktop support.

I want to go back to doing higher level work. I am tired of removing viruses and imaging and setting up new hire equipment. Its not tough work, just not challenging enough for me.

I am working on CCNA and hope to have it by June\July. I seem to enjoy the cisco stuff more than anything else I have studied.

So back to the recuitor, I was told if I wanted to get back to doing system admin or networking I'm going to need to get with a company I can grow with. He stated " you are applying for jobs with guys who are currently still doing the admin role, and you have not used those skills since 2009." I feel like I am getting penalized for trying to make a living and stayed working, even at a lesser role.

He presented a company doing the same role as I am doing. It would pay 50k, so its a good jump in pay for me. They have other IT departments so there is a chance to move up within the company.

What is everyone's thoughts, suggestions?

Do you have an MBA? At the very least you have a Masters degree according to your signature and various certifications. You need to be pushing for management openings or at the very least supervisory. You have hands on experience so I would worry less about getting back into server admin and expend energies trying to get into a management or project based/design role. Leverage the education you have.

UnixGuy

Turgon wrote: »

Do you have an MBA? At the very least you have a Masters degree according to your signature and various certifications. You need to be pushing for management openings or at the very least supervisory. You have hands on experience so I would worry less about getting back into server admin and expend energies trying to get into a management or project based/design role. Leverage the education you have.

+1

you have excellent qualifications, what you need is an immediate career change, few yrs of hands-on higher-level work and then go straight to management or projects/design roles!