Question: As an Ex Marine Stuck in a Help Desk Job What Should I Do?
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- Опубліковано 19 гру 2014
- I am twenty-five years old, and I'm concerned about my future in IT. I served five years in the Marine Corps as an "IT Guy" doing, more or less, basic help desk troubleshooting. I am now a contractor working for the DoD doing the same help desk type of things but now I have CompTIA Sec+ and nothing else. Specifically, I administer Active Directory, Exchange 2010, Windows 7 and even Windows XP workstations. I work in an open storage environment (for those that don't know, it's where you don't have to secure classified materials when you leave for the day) and wireless devices are not allowed. As you can tell by now, I am a little behind the power curve due to my working environment. I believe this is going to significantly effect me if I try to get a job in the private sector. Could you tell me what you did in order to transition from the government side to the civilian side of IT?
-Christopher W.
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As a 36 year old working in IT for 15 years I can say this is truly great advice. I was stuck within a Service Desk Role for nearly 7 years and the only thing that brought me out of it was chucking the job in and trying something completely different (in my case it was starting an IT business and winging it) However even that has it's limitations and after some time you realize if you aren't actively self studying you are going nowhere in the IT World. I am now at a turning point and am looking at university as a primary path. My advice to anyone who has spent a long time in Service Desk would be to figure out what your passions are in life and chase those (provided there's a job in it) . DO NOT FOLLOW OTHERS. This was my mistake, I constantly listened to friends who managed to climb the IT ladder but eventually I realised the roles they were chasing were not what I wanted. It's all about chasing your own dreams but in a practical way. If you are passionate about something nothing will stop you.
I would also say that Help Desk roles are incredibly draining on the mind. Try working one for an extended period and coming home to an MCSE, it's extremely hard to do, some people do it but I think it's a real struggle unless you are super self motivated. Many of my friends transitions occurred through getting in to decent jobs/companies to start with and just knowing the right people. Most of them have confidence in what they do and most do not have any certs/quals/degrees they are completely self taught. Many of them have high end jobs paying $100k a year or more. Anyway, just my 2 cents.
Thank you for telling the whole story when it comes to "I.T." training and the truth about the "help desk" job that makes some think that they are "real" I.T. pros. Maintaining your continuing education training in I.T. is always good.
Very good assessment couldn't agree more...
25 year old Marine in community college.. Shit this spoke too me best advice on the internet for me, and no such thing as an EX-Marine..
thanks for the advice
I just love his advices .
I'm currently stuck in IT Certification hell, only have an A+, failed MCSA twice, Network+ twice, and ITIL Foundation once.
Hope you are better now but don't worry I have 11 certifications and still stuck in my senior tech support role for 10 years now (20 years in total). These are hard times and I starting to think that just having a job that you can quiet quit is the only thing that we have left.
Im literaly in the same spot! I just go out of the marines. i was in the infantry lol so thats doesnt transfer to anything, i buested my ass learning all this new materal and took a A+ and Net+ course offerd in the marines, i got out got a lil part time job at staples fixing computers. i got out in dec and now im on my first semester of school. i attended a online job fair recentally and landed a interview then i had three more interviews and ended up getting a job at global software. They are allowing me to work mon wed and fri as i go to school tue and thurs. The title is help desk. So im getting great eperiencee while in school. Point is you have to put youself out there to get noticed. Your resume gets you the interview and your experence/drive gets you the job. Good luck brother!
Great message! No longer then 4 years! Get out! Run for your life!
Eli's point is great, but not exactly the best advice when I and many of my peers are doing administrative/managerial/engineering work and STILL being asked to do helpdesk/desktop support.
I do system administrative work every single day ranging from GPO / Active Directory and directory services...etc etc and also all the desktop support for my entire office supporting 100 end users.
...I have a helpdesk analyst title.
I hope you moved to a new company
I did - and I now make well over six figures fully remote as a senior systems engineer :D@@epixdevo3180
Hi im 31 and stuck in a hotel receptionist. I got my Microsoft network engineering diploma in 2012. i need to get into Microsoft networking again. What would be the best Option to start my career again in IT ?
I was on helpdesk and went into server stuff then because lack of jobs went back to helpdesk and service desk type jobs but really I was doing a lot of server stuff even on helpdesk support.
And make sure the bachelors degree especially if it’s computer science is as practical as possible with built-in vendor certification.
What I find is most of the hiring managers IT managers usually have bachelors degrees so they often like to see that especially if it’s appropriate to the job so like computer science just a way of getting through the door that’s it….And often governments require it in the US as well as the UK…..If you want to work for the big big companies they will definitely require it on top of everything Else
I started off a senior tech years ago, then ended up on the service desk. Down, down, down.
@Teddy Bunny Lack of opportunity? Low balled offers from employers to fill positions higher than a help desk? Dude, every company infrastructure nickles and dimes everyone these days. 2 years ago? Maybe it wasn't so bad. But demographics play a lot into a professionals career.
I wish the Jr. Admin role still existed
And I will give your viewers a clue they should specialise as soon as possible and then do that instead of doing desktop support helpdesk that is not always necessary to go into those jobs will destroy your mind especially helpdesk
If you're employed as a Help Desk Technician and you want to develop your IT career, most employers recognize the star performers from the rest of the team. If you are committed to being the star performer on your team, you will learn and do more than everyone else, advancing your tech skills and knowledge. Combined with your reputation as a Star Performer you will be presented with opportunities to move up into other IT technical or leadership roles. If you have maintained a passion for your area of tech interest you will become an expert in your field and continue to move up or across in the direction you chose. You will likely have to switch companies when you recognize a culture that will not serve your career path objectives but enjoy being paid to learn and develop along the way.
i love my grandma
Once a Marine, always a Marine no such thing as a ex- Marine
Hi bypassed Help desk, desktop Support third and second line and then onto cyber then onto infrastructure and then back to Desktop support.
why back to desktop support?
I´m doing IT Support as a Student beside college (studying computer science). Is it okay, to do it for 1-2 years? I really need the money to finance myself. Will i stuck at IT Support later after graduation too?
That's a great side job whilst studying, I wish I found something like that when I did my Information systems degree, I could've probably skipped help desk now lol.
Spent 7 years and 10 months
Never heard of an ex marine. Weird.
I may have to disagree with getting the Bachelor's degree. I think it's best to take instructor led classes from a community/technical college that focuses on IT classes that are current to the job market. I've attended a community college that the instructor worked in the field and also taught classes and kept up to date with current technology. I would also combine that knowledge and get certified. I've seen many college programs and also spoke to people who have 4 year degrees and a lot of times they don't know to much. I also went for a semester or two to an online school and the IT program had nothing to do with anything that I was currently doing it was a waste of time.
If you think learning about databases consists of taking an Access class then I'm done. The only reason I would suggest a Bachelor's degree is because SOME companies require it. To tell the truth most companies don't care what the Bachelors degree is in. You have tons of people who go to school for one thing and end up in IT. So study your ass off, setup a home lab, and look into your local tech schools and if you think it's a good idea then go for your Bachelor's degree.
They require BS because they know that you can speak and write on academic level. Otherwise you would get people who create reports similar to this "Yo manager... I want to submit this report today cuz i wuz supposed to do it ystrday" Ok maybe i exaggerate a little but you get an idea.
only one thing, Marines get their GI benefits in crayons.