Where should my career be at?

I'm currently a 25 yr old "IT Specialist" for a company. In other words, I'm help desk and do anything and everything with technology, servers, network, etc.

I dropped out of college after 3 years and have been working in the IT/computer field for 7 years(3 of which was retail tech). Not counting college as any experience.

I have my A+, MCTS, and ACMT and should have my CCNA, ITIL, and MCITP by early next year.

I'm getting tired of help desk as I've been doing it for so long, but don't feel I have the experience yet for sysadmin.

Any advice from people who have been here?

Thanks!

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cyberguypr

Kind of sounds like my story. I worked help desk (deskside support) for many years. While doing that I worked on some MS server certs and lots of labbing. I leveraged that to secure a job in a medium environment with a small IT dept. Since there was more to do than the pair of hands available I was able to ease into an jr admin role and eventually sys admin. So my advice to you is to look for something similar where you can prove yourself and move forward.

Mc5ully

cyberguypr wrote: »

Kind of sounds like my story. I worked help desk (deskside support) for many years. While doing that I worked on some MS server certs and lots of labbing. I leveraged that to secure a job in a medium environment with a small IT dept. Since there was more to do than the pair of hands available I was able to ease into an jr admin role and eventually sys admin. So my advice to you is to look for something similar where you can prove yourself and move forward.

So after I grab a bit more certs and experience, try to move into a jr admin role? Sounds like what plan I've been going after. The trouble is finding that jr admin job as my current job has no room to move up, at least not in the next few years.

I just feel like I'm behind in where I should be at my age and salary.

Everyone

Well with 7 years of experience (which would have been about 5 years ago) and no degree... I was in a Senior/Lead level Systems Administrator role. As far as certs go, I had Security+, an outdated MCP, and some vendor specific (Dell) storage related certs.

The question you should be asking is where do YOU want it to be. I didn't tie myself down to any specific geographical location, and that helped a lot. It's easier to move up when you're willing to not only change companies, but move to where the work you want is currently available.

Mc5ully

Everyone wrote: »

Well with 7 years of experience (which would have been about 5 years ago) and no degree... I was in a Senior/Lead level Systems Administrator role. As far as certs go, I had Security+, an outdated MCP, and some vendor specific (Dell) storage related certs.

The question you should be asking is where do YOU want it to be. I didn't tie myself down to any specific geographical location, and that helped a lot. It's easier to move up when you're willing to not only change companies, but move to where the work you want is currently available.

I WANT to land a sysadmin job. Or at least something higher than help desk. I'm currently in my 3rd state and 5th city in the past 4 years. So moving has never been as issue, and has helped me very much. I want to stay is this city at least a few move years, then plan on moving to another state if possible.

elTorito

With 7 years of IT experience, a junior admin role should definitely be your focus. Even if there's no immediate chance of promotion at your current job, you might be able to catch the attention of your higher ups by going above and beyond your call of duty. Offer friendly suggestions on how to structurally fix problems (rather than just battling symptoms). Find ways to automate tasks that would normally cost a lot of time to manually do. Write documentation. Make it known to your manager that you'd be willing to carry out some admin tasks, perhaps in your own free time.

Every little bit helps, and if you show enough drive, someone is going to notice sooner or later. It's what helped me jump from Helpdesk to Systems Admin in a relatively short time.

Mc5ully

elTorito wrote: »

With 7 years of IT experience, a junior admin role should definitely be your focus. Even if there's no immediate chance of promotion at your current job, you might be able to catch the attention of your higher ups by going above and beyond your call of duty. Offer friendly suggestions on how to structurally fix problems (rather than just battling symptoms). Find ways to automate tasks that would normally cost a lot of time to manually do. Write documentation. Make it known to your manager that you'd be willing to carry out some admin tasks, perhaps in your own free time.

Every little bit helps, and if you show enough drive, someone is going to notice sooner or later. It's what helped me jump from Helpdesk to Systems Admin in a relatively short time.

Long story short, my job title would be System Administrator, but they didn't want to give me the pay bump. If I wanted I could request the job title name change without the pay bump. But there isn't any room for advancement as I'm 1 of 3 techs for this company. Which consists of 2 techs and a CIO basically. I guess when I apply for my next job I would put this job as sysadmin anyway.

jmreicha

How much does pay factor in to the consideration? If its not a big deal, my advice would be to target small company's, looking for an "IT Specialist" or jack of all trades sort of position, then to kick huge amounts of ass there implementing projects and technologies you are interested in, leveraging that experience into either a jr. or mid sysadmin type position. The pay will likely be horrible, but its a small hit to take to land your dream job.

cxzar20

Finish up your degree man, it will only help you. I see lots of positions that require a BS at a minimum. My company won't hire anybody for anything more than help desk or technician unless they have a 4 year degree.

powerfool

With the way the economy is, I would say that you need to get a degree under your belt if you want to make a move. Other folks looking to move into a role like that will likely have a degree with fewer years of experience, and that may make the difference for you. A degree isn't everything, but considering that you only need about a year's worth of courses, why wouldn't you finish it? It is kind of mind-boggling, actually. Why did you drop out of school, especially entirely? You could have at least taken a course here and there. And that is just me sitting here on a board postulating about it... what do you think a hiring manager is going to be doing?

There are plenty of options available to you. Unless you were going to a community college or another online school, I wouldn't do something like WGU with as close as you are to completing your degree. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't do anything online with as close as you are to completing a degree. Most schools require that you do your last 30 credit hours with them in order to graduate with a BS. You could essentially pick just about any school that would accept your credits and apply them to a practical degree. What was your major before?

And while there certainly are plenty of folks that make it without a degree, it does close some doors for you. My company essentially has a policy that requires a BS for all hires. They have only deviated in some rare and special occasions: 1) they took over a contract where the client wanted them to retain specific employees and one of them didn't have a degree, and 2) they were in a pinch and grabbed someone with an AS with the requirement to have a BS within two years. Having a degree isn't going to hurt you, the converse isn't necessarily true.

genderdude

what is the point in going back to college and getting a degree?

Why do you want to go backwards in life?

Experience beats education any day and from what I can see you already have that, just keep on doing some infrastructure certs and look for a place that will give you junior system administration experience.

hackman2007

genderdude wrote: »

what is the point in going back to college and getting a degree?

Why do you want to go backwards in life?

Experience beats education any day and from what I can see you already have that, just keep on doing some infrastructure certs and look for a place that will give you junior system administration experience.

There are a lot of places that will not hire someone without a degree.

Considering there are a lot of people looking for work right now or at least that is what the media says, why would a company take a risk on someone that doesn't have a degree?

powerfool

genderdude wrote: »

what is the point in going back to college and getting a degree?

It's unfinished business and required for many positions. Plus, it is self-improvement, which is always a good thing.

Why do you want to go backwards in life?

I disagree with your premise.

Experience beats education any day and from what I can see you already have that, just keep on doing some infrastructure certs and look for a place that will give you junior system administration experience.

Experience is the second most important thing, but he doesn't have the kind of experience he wants, else he would more readily be able to get the position that he wants. The most important thing is current performance... which experience is a measure of past performance. Education is also very important. The latest statistics on education suggest that the BS/BA is like having a high school diploma in the 1960s, and the MS/MA has become the new BS/BA. It is a highly competitive environment, and every advantage you have is an improvement.

Why settle for mediocrity? That is the sort of attitude that keeps people unemployed for an extended period of time when they do get the pink slip.

Daniel333

Mc5ully wrote: »

I'm currently a 25 yr old "IT Specialist" for a company. In other words, I'm help desk and do anything and everything with technology, servers, network, etc.

I dropped out of college after 3 years and have been working in the IT/computer field for 7 years(3 of which was retail tech). Not counting college as any experience.

I have my A+, MCTS, and ACMT and should have my CCNA, ITIL, and MCITP by early next year.

I'm getting tired of help desk as I've been doing it for so long, but don't feel I have the experience yet for sysadmin.

Any advice from people who have been here?

Thanks!

Not flaming you, please take this to heart.

I will start by stopping saying "dropped out" drop the negative. Get positive! What's a better way to say that? e.g. “I took a few classes and it wasn't for me.”

I say all this as you are building your on-line brand. There are dozens of people reading this forum that could be helping you move up. But you just turned them away. I have received a few job leads from this forum. I have received even more helpful career advice.

Well, what do you want to be doing? The customer, the phone and the trivial stuff is never going away.

Quick Q&A to see how you have develop yourself...
1) What professional organization do you belong to? Such as users groups etc? If you are not in one, get one going!
2) What was the last career development book you read?
3) Describe your home lab to me?
4) What kind of volunteer work do you do?
5) Professional organizations? Users groups? etc.
6) What "else" do you do at your job? Training? Party coordinator? Maybe you can get more value from your work.
7) Your cert list is kinda weak, I respect it in as much as I get the feeling none of it is cheated, never-the-less 7 years experience I expect to at least see Network+ on there. If not your CCNA:Sec or more.

As for advise?
1) get in shape.
2) Start working on your can-do, will do, no problem
3) Work on you, there is always room for improvement in your personality and ethic.
4) Make yourself fall in love with the work
5) Read these books, and I don't mean read them. I mean maybe 5-10 pages a day. Take it to heart, apply it.
How to Win Friends & Influence People
The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs
Delivering Happiness
6) Work on your core certs, Linux+, MCSE/MCITP, CCNA Security at the least.
7) Make friends of management. Goto lunch with them, invite them for dinner. UNDERSTAND THEM and their business. The biggest complaint an IT manager have is that IT doesn't understand the business. If your company it in law, take some law classes.

lsud00d

Well put, Daniel

To add to the above, if you want to get somewhere that you are not fully qualified for, you have to show them your ability and willingness to learn and commit for the long haul. You want to designate yourself as an asset to the company and its goals. Show them that you are HUNGRY for knowledge and that the partnership is of benefit to all. Then, and only then, will someone take a chance on you. And, obviously...don't f it up

Mc5ully

While I appreciate all the tips and support from everyone; I don't see how telling me to stay positive helps me. I'm a positive person as it is and I don't want any of that "The Secret" crap. Having said this, EVERYONE here has contributed helpful advice and I thank you all very much.

Also, going back to school isn't just a year left for me. As I transferred to different schools and states I will be starting back as a 2nd semester sophomore from my previous experience.

Everyone

In regards to the school vs experience thing... a lot of places will take "or equivalent experience" in lieu of a degree. So if the job "requires" a Bachelor's, and you don't have one, take 4 years off of your experience. 7 years without a degree, can be thought of as "equal" to 3 years with a Bachelors. If you think of it like that, you're about where you should be, which is the point where you're transitioning out of entry level positions and into mid-level positions.

To work things in your favor, you may not have to shave all 4 years off your experience in lieu of that Bachelor's as you have SOME college.

I have something like 72 credit hours right now, but no degree. I put this at the very bottom of my resume, so it's evident I do have some college, but it isn't highlighted. By the time anyone sees all the experience and strengths I have, they may not care at all what college or degree I do or don't have. I list it as "xx credits towards a degree in blah blah at the Blah Blah College."

MrRyte

lsud00d wrote: »

And, obviously...don't mess it up

And if you DO; take responsibility and fix it ASAP.
The way you handle unexpected issues on the fly will be a bigger measuring stick than just your certs/degrees/skills.

Mc5ully

Everyone wrote: »

In regards to the school vs experience thing... a lot of places will take "or equivalent experience" in lieu of a degree. So if the job "requires" a Bachelor's, and you don't have one, take 4 years off of your experience. 7 years without a degree, can be thought of as "equal" to 3 years with a Bachelors. If you think of it like that, you're about where you should be, which is the point where you're transitioning out of entry level positions and into mid-level positions.

To work things in your favor, you may not have to shave all 4 years off your experience in lieu of that Bachelor's as you have SOME college.

I have something like 72 credit hours right now, but no degree. I put this at the very bottom of my resume, so it's evident I do have some college, but it isn't highlighted. By the time anyone sees all the experience and strengths I have, they may not care at all what college or degree I do or don't have. I list it as "xx credits towards a degree in blah blah at the Blah Blah College."

Thanks for the input. What you have described has been my experience so far, as well as many of my fellow IT friends. I was hired a two different places that "required" a bachelors, only to find out that the manager of the dept didn't really care. A good friend just got hired at a large company that required bachelors and he was hired with less schooling than me and with the same amount of experience.

instant000

Mc5ully wrote: »

I'm currently a 25 yr old "IT Specialist" for a company. In other words, I'm help desk and do anything and everything with technology, servers, network, etc.

I dropped out of college after 3 years and have been working in the IT/computer field for 7 years(3 of which was retail tech). Not counting college as any experience.

I have my A+, MCTS, and ACMT and should have my CCNA, ITIL, and MCITP by early next year.

I'm getting tired of help desk as I've been doing it for so long, but don't feel I have the experience yet for sysadmin.

Any advice from people who have been here?

Thanks!

Daniel gave some of the most sound advice available in this thread.

Here's my two cents:
1. Finish your degree. Currently, you either put the partial schooling on your resume, or you look like you only have a high school diploma.
2. Work on your certs.

If you want some book suggestions:
1. IT Career Builder's Toolkit
2. The New CIO Leader

I'm not clear on if you want higher technical or higher management (as things go, even if you try to keep some of your technical, you have to do more management stuff as you go higher)

To help on that aspect, get good with this:
1. Making network diagrams
2. Spreadsheets
3. Presentations

If you get the chance, read some business books. You may not be of that mindset, but the people who hold the budgets are of that mindset, and it makes things easier when you both speak the same language.

In conclusion, I see nothing wrong with where you are, to paraphrase what another poster said and rip off Microsoft: "Where do you want to go today?"

Microsoft's Where Do You Want To Go Today, Windows 98 Introduction - YouTube

Hope this helps!