Feel a bit out on a limb..

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Its odd - this forum seems to be helpful, but seems to be helpful only to some people.

Im looking for some direction, help and advice, but no one really seems to be forthcoming, so I'm left at the cross-roads not knowing which is the best path to take.

Is it me, or has anyone else experienced this?

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

From what I've seen, you've asked and you've been answered. The fact that the answers may not necessarily be the most positive news in the world is just how it goes sometimes.

 

not exactly sure what you mean by helpful to some? what do you feel you haven't got that others have?

 

Guidance I think.

Negative answers can still be positive.

I don't know, perhaps I'm asking the wrong question's. I know the exams I want to take, but its after I take and pass those exams (confidence for you ) as to what I do next. What path I go down, in that do I continue with Help Desk, or move away.

I appreciate that its difficult to answer, as I don't know fully what I want to do, hence the questions.

Hmmm, perhaps theres a fault in my logic.....

 

i don't think anyone can really answer this question for you. I personally would not be stayingin helpdesk any longer than i could help. Which basically equates to getting as much experience as you can where you are working at the minute, but also at home and other peoples computers, be the go to guy for anyone you know with pc problems, and start trying to get a hands on support role. then do that for a while get experience in that role.

 

Well, if you dont know what you want to do, how can we tell you what you need to know to get there? We dont have a personal relationship with you where we could sit and grab a coffee and discuss it and see your reactions - we can only react to what you give us to react to.

It not that we dont like ya

 

lol, I never said anyone didnt like me Though with a name like Angry Dog.. lol.

I guess I dont want to be doing what I do now - supporting an old 16bit db for a company that I dont like and who dont like me lol.

 

As a philosopher once said "Change has to begin from within", sometimes the only person who can give a definitive answer to lifes problems is yourself.

From the sounds of it you seem really unhappy in your role, but you dont seem to have the confidence to move roles due to loss of income, and also your role seems specialised and you dont get the exposure to systems you would like.

Might I suggest that if this situation comes to a head and you and the company you are to part ways you could have no income anyway, Also you could look at how you can budget for a potential loss of income if you switch careers, think long term here.

This sort of time seperates the men from the boys, this is the time many of us on these boards have gone to work, put a 9-5 shift in and then gone home, done the essential jobs and then sat with a book or a vmware rig for a couple of hours before bed, to develop the skills and knowledge needed to progress our careers.

 

I agree, that would be the ideal scenario. I know this sounds like an excuse, but I also have a second job which I do most evenings and weekends, which basically allows me to keep my head above the water, as my gf is currently unemployed I am running a house for both of us, and as I am rapidly finding out, it is expensive lol

 

Sounds like a bad situation, but theres always something we can do.

The other option is to do some study on your breaks and maybe sneak a few crafty sessions in at work.

Hopefully your GF can find something soon, again might be worth looking at your finances to see if you could save enough money for you to cut down on your hours, try moneysavingexpert.com for help in budgeting, dealing with debt, maximising your wages and more.

 

Dude, you just sent me a PM yesterday. It takes time to craft a proper reply, ya know? After all, I'm not responding about "what's your favorite game"... I've got to carefully consider the advice I give to you. After all, I've already given you advice, and if that's not hit home already, I have to figure out a different way to say what I've already said to you.

As far as everyone else's responses are concerned, this isn't an instant chat service. Although it might seem like it, we don't stay glued to the forum 24/7.

Further, your career isn't going to change in one day, and it might not change in one week or one month. Be patient. A lack of patience can take the knees out from under your career. Haphazard action based on ill-informed decisions CAN be worse than no action at all.

You say you want into IT proper. If you want to switch to IT, you have to leverage the experience you've got to get you an IT position. If you DON'T have server administration experience, it's gonna be difficult for you to get a server admin job when competing against those who DO have server admin experience. And in this economy, those potential employees are out there, looking for jobs and competing against you. You'd have a much better chance at getting a desktop admin job.

There's no shortcut around the lack of experience. Certifications won't fix it. Degrees won't fix it. Technical training classes won't fix it. Messing around in a home lab won't fix it. The only way to get experience is by working with those technologies in a real-world, business IT environment with real users and real responsibilities and troubleshooting of real-world problems.

You say that you're not able to take a pay cut. There's no easy fix or magic spell for that. As I see it, you've only got two options:

- switch jobs and take the cut in pay so you can, over time, end up making more
- get a part-time job on the side, either paid or volunteer, where you can build experience

That's it. There's no quick fix.

Perhaps you can leverage your SQL skills if you want to get into database administration. But that's the only logical shot I see you have at securing a job beyond desktop administration at THIS point in your career.

You said in your PM to me that you want to move away from support. Dude, IT is all about support. Whether you support end-users through desktop, server, or network adminstration, or whether you support the code that you write, or whether you support the Web sites you design, it's ALL support. So I don't know what you mean by "moving away from support".

You say that you are unsure as to what path to go down. At this stage in your career, you have relatively few paths to choose from. If you're interested in technical administration, most people start out with an entry-level job, like first-line support or help desk, then move to desktop administration, then systems/server administration, THEN network administration.

Those who administer SQL servers sometimes move into database administration. Those server admins who enjoy working with e-mail systems often go into messaging administration. Those server and network admins who are responsible for security often go into security administration. Those network admins who are responsible for designing networks sometimes go full-time into advanced router administration or network design. Those network admins who implement voice systems sometimes go into VoIP administration. But all of those paths happen at or after server administration. With the possible exception of doing some database administration, you're not at the point where you have to choose ANY of those paths yet.

If you don't want to do database administration, you can become a Web developer or a programmer. To do that, you'll have to learn how to program. Some programmers end up specializing in a language or programming for a particular professional field. But that's not a choice you really need to make at this stage of your career.

I hope this has clarified things a bit for you. Be patient; things are NOT going to happen overnight, I promise you. But you CAN be successful in IT if you take things one step at a time.

I wish you wisdom in whatever decision you make.

 

Thanks everyone for your replies.

Thank you Michael, and I appologise for my impatience . I am at a particular low point in my job and other things I wont bore you all with, hence the need to get something new.

I already do a part time job (paid) that isnt related to IT. This helps keep a roof over my head. Without it I would be homeless.

I made the decision last night that I have to pull my finger out and that I, and only I can get myself into a position of possibly being able to progress in IT.

When I say I want to move away from support, I mean telephone support that I do now, although it seems that perhaps sticking with "what I know" may be the best route for me, at least until a different type of role that I'd prefer to do comes up - Better the devil you know and all that?

Which is why the decision I made last night involves definitely 100% doing the A+. Regardless of where I go after that, I have the experience, so I may as well have some kind of qualification for it.
I may as well do the N+ after it, as I imagine that it should help with my role as a DST (which I currently do as Second Line). I should then do the MCDST (as my work paid for it). I arent going to bother with MCSE's etc, as I arent interested in being a paper MCSE.
I should have a play with 2k3 at home and get to know it. Who knows where it will land me?

I suppose though, alot boils down to "money". I want to be paid more, and think that my current wage is the best I will get, though I do want to progress to enhance my career, and its not 100% about the money.

 

Your plan sounds good. And definately, is you have the time and the means to play with server OS's at home, and get familiar with that then do so.

Then get chatting with the server guys at work, take an interest in the calls you have to pass to them, find out what was wrong/what they had to do. you'll then be able to talk with server guys and understand a little more about what it is they do. I don't what your position is like, but if you show an interest in that side and show you have learnt some bits, they should notice this and you can try and get little jobs here and there in the server side.

 

Good luck with all that. Hopefully your gf will get a job soon so you can free up a bit of time for studying.

I'm looking for my first job in tech support and the majority of the entry-level jobs I've seen advertised list experience in telephone support as a highly desirable attribute, so you should maybe start looking now.

 

All of our infrastructure is run off site now, and is looked after by a different office, so theres no scope to do anything here.

Also, my role is supporting end users with a desktop database application, so limited scope from that

 

The fact that you DO support is the important thing, AD. THAT experience gives you an edge over your competition, regardless of what you support end users in doing.

Negativity can kill you. Grab on to the positive aspects and use them to your advantage!!

 

As BM said atleast you are in IT, I left IT so go to uni, failed out of that and then spent the next five years trying to get back to doing a helpdesk job - dont knock it!

 

All recent jobs that I have gone for in support, I've always been knocked back for as I have a lack of MS experience due to my supporting databases.

However, I am aware of a few positions come up (1st and 2nd line support, plus another IT job) that I may go for. I personally think I should have a good chance.

I think the reason I knock support, well my job at least, is because of the job I do, and the lack of opportunity in my role.

 

But it all counts as valid experiance on your CV, it may be a crappy role, but it is a relevent crappy role!