Advice needed

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So I have been in IT for over 3 years, I am currently on my third job, each position I have moved to has been a pay increase although that has not been my motivation for leaving. The first job I got in IT was limited (Helpdesk), there wasn't much else to learn and on-top of that I was unmotivated and employees were treated appaulingly so I left after 1.5 years.

I then moved onto desktop support, the job was great tbh, unfortunetly after 1.5 years of me being their the company unfortunetly clossed its doors so I had to find another job, which was sad as I could see myelf staying at the company for years, however there was never anything to progress to interms of moving up the ranks so I would have probably stayed on the helpdesk forever.

So here I am.. now in my third job and things look to be a little more difficult interms of where your knowledge needs to be to get the job done but like my previous jobs I'll learn what I need to learn and get the job done. This new job is still ultimately helpdesk so it's not like I have moved up the ranks I have simply moved to a higher paid helpdesk position working at teir 1-2 support. I don't really want to move to another helpdesk/desktop support role after this as I feel like that chapter in my life is coming to a close, but I am not sure what I should be aiming for or how to really get out of these positions.

 

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With or without certifications, IMO you need to set yourself some goals. Like, where do you want to be in the next few years and set yourself a plan on how to get there.

I was on helpdesk too and wanted to get off the phones. I did pass some certifications but I was lucky to be contacted by a recruiter for the position I am in now.

I'm really happy. Every day is a different day. I love going around the office and meeting new people. I love desktop support.

I sit next to the systems team and they were promoted from desktop support so there's possible progression in future but they sit at desk most of the time. I like moving about and more hands on.

Good luck!

 

Do some intermediate to advanced certifications.

People say that the knowledge is more important than the cert, which is true. But the certs don't lie. If you pass the cert you've adequately absorbed the information and understood it. If you fail, you didn't know the subject as well as you thought. It allows you to judge your own knowledge objectively, and it may be the thing that gets you in front of an interviewer for a higher level job. The knowledge obtained will actually get you the job at that point.

You can also set complex environments up at home and blog about them. For instance:

Set up a load balanced docker environment with a test app that uses nginx, mysql etc (In linux, only using the command line). Once you're done with that, push your environment to AWS/Azure/Google cloud and host it in kubernetes. Use ansible to create a kubernetes cluster, go through all of the kubernetes docs and figure out how to use it properly and understand its features.

The above requires you to understand networking, linux, high availability, security, cloud infrastructure etc.. etc

Demonstrate that you can perform complex tasks and explain what you're doing, how you're doing it and why. People will pay you for it.

Your market value is determined by how replaceable you are. The more complex tasks you can perform, the less replaceable you are.

 

Most sysadmins I work with started on the helpdesk. And I know a few helpdesk guys who would like to become sysadmins and fail (nternally). You need to put some (or a lot) effort in getting to know stuff that's outside of your daily helpdesk stuff. Every time you escalate to higher line of support make sure you find out the cause, fix etc so you can learn that way.
It's very difficult to change from helpdesk to administration by changing jobs - you'd need to convince the next employer that you know the job (certs, doing stuff above helpdesk etc). Usually it's easiest to be promoted internally - if that means going out of your depth or uncomfortable job just bear with it for at least 6 months and you have a much higher chance to get a job you want elsewhere. worked for me...