Gone CCNA instead of MCSE.. advice needed

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I just want to add Gibbo that you should get out of desktop support ASAP, I've been told by several professionals that it leads nowhere.

 

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already in the pipeline hertz

just been offered interview for NOC 1st line with Affiniti/Kingston so all being well I can do some proper work and get some more £££ aswell

watch this space

 

Nice one, keep us updated.

 

Sorry, but that is rubbish. Many companies (including mine) treat is as a training ground where you cut your teeth on the helpdesk for six months to a year and then move onto something bigger and better. Entry level jobs are just that, entry level. We all have to start somewhere.

 

I agree with regards desktop support. I am on the 'worst' contract currently. its got that tag due to the diversity of calls recieved, very strict SLA's and a very picky customer

we do ok and I have learnt a lot about corporate IT and ITIL based IT support

every job I have looked at requires everything I have already done in my current role so I have the perfect grounding to take further

now I have 10 months experience I am getting calls weekly from agencies, granted they rarely go any further but eventually one will and in the meantime I am studying for CCNA, getting more proficient in desktop support and still earning enuff wedge to pay the mortgage and satisfy the missus' shopping habits (just)

 

Baba's right, that's rubbish. My first two jobs were "Field Service Tech" and "Systems Engineer", in which I did a great deal of desktop support... and I'm doing quite well these days.

 

Both comments are true
staying in desktop support, leads no where, your salary caps in that field quite low
however desktop support is a required step on the ladder for everyone if they want to ever be well rounded and any good at fault isolation/problem solving, getting off of it however is a good move, as long as your moving up, and confident your ready for that move!

 

I agree with you except for your first sentence. Hertz's statement that "it leads nowhere" is wholly inaccurate. By your definition, if desktop support is a required step on the ladder, then desktop support does, in fact, lead somewhere.

I agree that you should continue to advance in your career and, thus, you should advance past desktop support at some point (not necessarily "as soon as possible", but more accurately, "as soon as you're truly ready"). But saying that desktop support, in itself, leads nowhere is bad advice for new techs. This sort of thinking causes newbie techs to think they should go after a Network Admin or Security Admin job making $50K per year right out of the gate in an attempt to bypass the "awful world of helpdesk and desktop support"... and 99% of the time, that mythical shortcut just doesn't happen - nor should it. It is madness for an IT manager to hire someone to secure a network if they've never administered one, or to hire someone to administer a network if they've never supported users on a network.

The formula is easy:
1. Get an entry-level job, which might require helpdesk and/or desktop support work
2. Build experience (and certifications and education if at all possible)
3. Acquire increased responsibilities or get a better job with increased responsibilities
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3, over and over and over. In time (and that's what it takes - time), you will reach your career goals.

 

I agree Mike but now were just dancing around wordings

 

My brother works in a large NHS hosptial, and there was some guy there for a week sorting out everything Cisco.
Apparently, he had someone drive him to work (he said he can work whilst being driven), wore a dickie bow, was being paid £1250 per day and saved BT a fortune.
Oh, he was also down to earth and a good laugh!

Si

 

Wording interpretation is important - after all, that's the cause of many religious denominational splits! That being said, the statement "desktop support... leads nowhere" is pretty cut and dried. ;)

Sorry - just hate seeing new, aspiring techs get the wrong idea because of a misspoken statement, that's all.

</rant>

 

Can see both sides of the coin, but again it's just wordings...

I'd never of got my 3rd line position with servers and networking if i hadn't of spent a few years on the phone and dealing with desktop issues.

How can you fix a complex server or network issue with no understanding of user requirements and problems?

So do your time and move onwards and upwards!

 

Ok what I meant was that Desktop Support directly needs no where. you can become a Desktop support manager but what then?

 

Network Engineer, Senior Network Engineer, Network Manager, IT Manager, CIO/CTO... the ladder is right in front of you.

Now, if you just sit on your backside and stop learning new technologies and gaining new responsibilities, then sure, your career will go nowhere. But that's true in *any* field, at *any* level.