IT support, where to go next?
Discussion
Having working worked for a IT help desk dealing with hardware now for over a year & a half, I'm wondering if some one could give me advise on where next to progress?
I know people tend move around a lot in support, but what worries me is I have no qualifications in IT whats so ever, even though I can happily outperform my colleges who do.
Coming from a practical background I do like the idea of being and IT engineer, in my current work compTIA A+ is the key to this.
Has anyone got experience going from help desk to on-site engineer or any general advice would be appreciated.
I know people tend move around a lot in support, but what worries me is I have no qualifications in IT whats so ever, even though I can happily outperform my colleges who do.
Coming from a practical background I do like the idea of being and IT engineer, in my current work compTIA A+ is the key to this.
Has anyone got experience going from help desk to on-site engineer or any general advice would be appreciated.
*helpdesk
*advice
*whatsoever
Some certifications certainly wouldn't go amiss, they may get you a foot in the door if you are going for a job against people with similar experience. A+ is a good place to start, but maybe some vendor certification (eg HP, MIcrosoft) would be useful too?
There are plenty of IT training videos available on the internet, if you get my drift. Exams are generally expensive though.
You might want to consider an apprenticeship - qa.com has plenty of info and will help, but the money is obviously poor while you are doing it.
Also consider getting Windows 7 & 8 certifications - with hardware experience and some desktop OS knowledge, you could potentially land yourself a junior rollout engineer contract. Do a few of these and get some SCCM / MDT / Altiris exposure and certs, you could be well on your way. Keep an eye on Jobserve, see what comes up, and with what frequency. See what they need in terms of skills, experience and certification too.
There are plenty of other options, I'm sure someone will be along soon with some better suggestions!
*advice
*whatsoever
Some certifications certainly wouldn't go amiss, they may get you a foot in the door if you are going for a job against people with similar experience. A+ is a good place to start, but maybe some vendor certification (eg HP, MIcrosoft) would be useful too?
There are plenty of IT training videos available on the internet, if you get my drift. Exams are generally expensive though.
You might want to consider an apprenticeship - qa.com has plenty of info and will help, but the money is obviously poor while you are doing it.
Also consider getting Windows 7 & 8 certifications - with hardware experience and some desktop OS knowledge, you could potentially land yourself a junior rollout engineer contract. Do a few of these and get some SCCM / MDT / Altiris exposure and certs, you could be well on your way. Keep an eye on Jobserve, see what comes up, and with what frequency. See what they need in terms of skills, experience and certification too.
There are plenty of other options, I'm sure someone will be along soon with some better suggestions!
Thats a difficult one to answer, location seams to factor in alot.
I have 12 years at 2nd\3rd line, with certs in server 2008, win7 and xp, sccm, cisco, active directory.
Thats the ones i can remember.
Whats happening is every job will have loads of applications, its picking the right quals that make your cv standout.
An example, a roleout in derbyshire with a 3 month duration, attracted 110 applications for 2 places.
When i first started the must have qual was cisco ccna, now it depends on the role, itil comes up alot, especially for the helpdesk teams.
Sccm and citrix also get asked for in many adverts.
Its a case of looking what is available locally, or where you are prepared to travel to, then pick out what is best suited.
Can you progress say go 2nd line in your currant place ?
I have 12 years at 2nd\3rd line, with certs in server 2008, win7 and xp, sccm, cisco, active directory.
Thats the ones i can remember.
Whats happening is every job will have loads of applications, its picking the right quals that make your cv standout.
An example, a roleout in derbyshire with a 3 month duration, attracted 110 applications for 2 places.
When i first started the must have qual was cisco ccna, now it depends on the role, itil comes up alot, especially for the helpdesk teams.
Sccm and citrix also get asked for in many adverts.
Its a case of looking what is available locally, or where you are prepared to travel to, then pick out what is best suited.
Can you progress say go 2nd line in your currant place ?
I'd have a good think about whether you want to specialise or generalise.
I'm a sysadmin and at times it feels like that actually means I get to deal with anything that uses electricity, but I much prefer the variety to waking up and knowing my entire day will be spent doing DNS or SQL or some other very specialist role - the downside is that arguably you're jack of all trades and master of none.
I'm paid a reasonable wage so I've never really looked too hard at whether the specialist route would pay off - I expect the geographical area plays a large part in this due to the number of opportunities.
I'm a sysadmin and at times it feels like that actually means I get to deal with anything that uses electricity, but I much prefer the variety to waking up and knowing my entire day will be spent doing DNS or SQL or some other very specialist role - the downside is that arguably you're jack of all trades and master of none.
I'm paid a reasonable wage so I've never really looked too hard at whether the specialist route would pay off - I expect the geographical area plays a large part in this due to the number of opportunities.
Depends really on what you want to do. If you want to stay hardware, you can pick any field any specialise. Cisco, HP, IBM, or a generic field services role.
If you want to do software, then again, pick a speciality. MS, Cisco etc. Look to move into infrastructure and then to architecture. I finally got out of support this year after 10 years and was so happy. Its a thankless job.
If you want to do software, then again, pick a speciality. MS, Cisco etc. Look to move into infrastructure and then to architecture. I finally got out of support this year after 10 years and was so happy. Its a thankless job.
I posted this a while back may / will come in handy for you.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Lots of reading.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Lots of reading.
Edited by Allanv on Thursday 26th December 10:49
My experience has shown that 'more often than not' those who appear to be able to do x,y, and z are pretty useless when it comes down to it - as mentioned, jack of all trades, master of none.
However, i am the first to admit that my experience is 'shelterd' - having always worked for big firms, there have always been separate teams for san / network / sysadmin / db etc ...
I've been in IT now for about 15 years I guess - about 9 of those as a unix sysadmin - and now I specialise in enterprise size backups - and by specialise I mean I do nothing else.
This has pros and cons - I'm not as good at unix as I was or would like, but I have more then sufficient knowledge to do my job. I have a working knowledge of networks / san / filers / etc ... enough to get by for what I do, but I couldn't move into say a role as a NetApp engineer for example.
However, I am good at backups which is an area that should always be in demand (hopefully).
So my advice is pick one area to specialise in, pick it wisely and then become very very good at it.
The majority of cock ups I have to deal with I truly believe is down to people not knowing what they are doing, but believing they do - (jack of all trades again).
However, i am the first to admit that my experience is 'shelterd' - having always worked for big firms, there have always been separate teams for san / network / sysadmin / db etc ...
I've been in IT now for about 15 years I guess - about 9 of those as a unix sysadmin - and now I specialise in enterprise size backups - and by specialise I mean I do nothing else.
This has pros and cons - I'm not as good at unix as I was or would like, but I have more then sufficient knowledge to do my job. I have a working knowledge of networks / san / filers / etc ... enough to get by for what I do, but I couldn't move into say a role as a NetApp engineer for example.
However, I am good at backups which is an area that should always be in demand (hopefully).
So my advice is pick one area to specialise in, pick it wisely and then become very very good at it.
The majority of cock ups I have to deal with I truly believe is down to people not knowing what they are doing, but believing they do - (jack of all trades again).
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