Career path and salary

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Last August (2007), I applied for a Desktop Support role after passing my A+ exams, and was very fortunate to get the position.

I earn £17k and get a company car (valued at £3k) but the company offers no training courses and shows no willing to assist in any training. The other engineers have worked for the company for a good few years and not had any pay-rises (besides inflation) and as such, I'm considering moving on.

I'm not TOTALLY sure I want to stay in desktop support as it's not really a role from which you can learn enough to move into another role, and as such I can't see my salary ever really increasing.

Am I correct in thinking this? What kind of salary might I be looking at in the future if I did stay in desktop? And what career paths do people usually take when they've moved from desktop?

 

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You know... for a 1st line support role you're not on a particularly bad wage, right? I know a lot of other people who would love to be on that kind of salary and you get a company car on top of that - I wouldn't overly complain.

Two questions for you:-

• Do you enjoy your current job?
  
• What kind of job do you see yourself realistically doing as a progression from Desktop support?

Your quote of its "not really a role from which you can learn enough to move into another role" I wouldnt agree with. Almost everyone has to start somewhere and the desktop role experience gives such people a base from which to work with and progress from.

This all depends on what you want to do though!

The natural progression is usually based upon a number of factors:-

Real-world Experience
Relevant Qualifications
Attitude
Luck

You just need to take a good hard look at what you want to be doing, what you enjoy doing and whether you can see yourself progressing.

Hope this helps.

Qs

 

I'm told we're Third Line? We get the calls passed to us when Second Line can't resolve them? I do a fair bit of the usual desktop work such as resolving hardware and software faults. Also building PC's, rebuilding, moving servers, AD work, and anything else that needs an admin to login.

I KINDA enjoy this job. I've always liked resolving hardware and occasionally software problems so desktop is fine for me. But I just feel like this particular position is a bit stale. I'm not really learning much more now, my employer wont help with any training either.

On the plus sides of it, the company car is definately great. We also get a lot of time in the office, which I can use to study for qualifications

I'm just a bit concerned about where I might be in five years. This particular position really indicates that I wont have moved at all when looking at the other engineers. They've been here for a good few years and not had pay rises. I don't want to still be on £17k in five years time to be honest.

I can see myself learning what's needed to move to a different role, but I'm just not sure what that role might be at the moment.

 

Hmm for 3rd line that seems to be a little on the low side, then again I'm no expert on average salaries, I'm sure someone will be along shortly with a better idea.

 

You're told? Is there nothing stated in your job title / contract?

From your previous posts on alternate threads I gathered that you had the A+ qualification as well as relevant customer services experience. Is this correct?

What kind of problems do you encounter on a day to day basis? (Just so I can get a feeling of what type of job role you're in)

 

I was also thinking that. Though if Dazimus' company is truely employing him as a third line support they should state that somewhere.

 

Then again one company's perception of what is 3rd line can be different to anothers.

 

I'll dig out my contract tonight and have a look

Basic role is in the post above, I think I edited it after I posted I'll copy it here though ...

Hope that's a decent description

Edit: This is my job description that I've found in my email:

 

Sounds very much like a 1st line support role to me, in which case the £17k with the company car seems quite fair.

If you answer the questions in my previous post then we'll be able to help you further.

Qs

 

I agree with Qs,

Just had a daily jobs email from Monster and 1st line support in London is £22k so knock off at least £5k for the rest of the country and that would be about right, again I stand to be corrected.

Where in the country are you based?

 

Cheers Qs.

I have got my A+ qualification, also have a good few years of customer service experience as well.

We have a seperate 1st Line who deal with password changes and other basic stuff that can be sorted out remotely. Then they pass that to 2nd Line, who again have a go at the problem remotely. After that, it comes to us for us to have a go remotely or needing to visit the user and go from there.

Problems faced today?

- User has complained that their scroll bar is scrolling to the top of the screen and won't come back down.

- Monitor turning itself off and as such needed to be sent in for repair.

- Windows BSOD's frequently so needed to run diagnostics and order RAM to be installed when it arrives.

Various other examples

- Numerous printer problems with printers jamming, queues not clearing, drivers needing installing

- Resolving Windows bootup problems, common issue at the moment is gina.dll errors cropping up

- Rebuilding PC's/Laptops, user profiles

- Installing and configuring new PC's/printers/scanners

- Installing software


Wizard, I'm based in Warrington.

 

Hmm I'd check your contract, that to me looks like it's definitely above 1st Line and just checked a couple of the jobs on IT Job Board in that area and 1st line support comes in at £14k - £16k

 

Yep, most of the day to day things that are listed I do during my regular day and I'm 1st line support.

Stands to reason you are too.

I was on £12k prior to my HND so I think you're on quite a decent pay packet.

Still, we're avoiding the original post.

Do you enjoy your job?
Where do you want to progress (outside of the company perhaps?)

Qs

 

I would say my position is similar to yours, i get paid about £1000 less and no car. Having said that i am on the look out for a new job.

 

You know, the description of your company sounds an awful lot like mine. Except that the warrington office closed a while back really. Your company isnt a Global company, beginning with A is it?

In this company, local support are defined as 'Third-line'. But you have to remember that that is third line, in relation to the chain from the point of contact. It doesnt necessarily mean that its a more typical view of 'ThirdLine' (which, as I understand it, is more higher level things like server admin, etc).

Where you can go, and what money you can get in the future are totally dependant on factors Qs mentioned earlier. When moving jobs, where possible, you should look for a job offering 'more money' than at present, and a role that interests you, that is at, or a little above, the capabilities you have just now.

 

What you describe there sounds exactly like one of the 2nd line teams in my last job.

I was on 1st line/helpdesk and we had 2nd line remote desktop support and 2nd line desktop support, if it was a fault that couldn't be fixed remotely, or was an important user, it went to 2nd line desktop support.

That type of job was the reason I got into IT and seemed so unobtainable for me.. So I wouldn't knock it so much. I think you did well to get that solely on A+..

It seems to vary from company to company what 1st/2nd and 3rd line do.

In my current job our 2nd line team is made up of security managers, network engineers etc. though it's a small company.

 

Nope, not the same company. Cheers for the advice tho.

I think you might be right in thinking I'm actually 2nd Line desktop instead.

This was the reason I got into IT also, and a couple of years ago it seemed way out of my reach! I'm extremely glad I got in, and I'm definately not knocking the job at all, it's just that I'm trying to plan ahead really. I feel like I've gone as far as I can get in this job, although maybe that's just this company, and I don't want to be doing the same job with the same salary in five years time.

So, assuming I am 2nd Line, where do people usually go to from that role? Have any of you been 2nd Line and moved on?

 

Is it just me or is being Technician a pretty much dead end job? (In terms of you can't progress to high earnings/positions)

 

There is nothing to stop you from looking for another employer to progress your career further.

 

It's just you. You actually need to have the drive and determination to succeed in order to progress and even then it's not a sure thing.

You need:-

Experience
Determination
Qualifications
Luck

If you sit in a job and don't wish to progress of course it's going to be seen as dead-end - but this isn't specific to the I.T industry, the same happens anywhere you go.

Qs