Stuck in a primary school

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depressing me this now, the future isnt looking good,

Been applying for support jobs for a while now, at first i wanted a field based I.T support job ideally but recently ive also been applying for helpdesk roles but with no luck past interview stage

at the minute i work in a primary school managing the computer domain which consists of 100 xp desktops and 1 server 2003 server. I manage all aspects of the I.T side except for disaster recovery on the server itself which is managed by lancashire county council.

what ive found when applying for jobs is that although i have very strong desktop and server experience, im lacking in things like exchange and citrix etc.......

im already at the highest position i can get within school and theres no chance of us getting any more technology or new softare (exchange etc)

really annoying me now because im sort of stuck here and believe me wages in primary schools are well behind the commercial sector ones......

any ideas anyone?

at the min im on 16,000 pro rata, but i live on my own and cant afford to take a pay cut or anything when moving jobs...

 

You're getting Server 2003 experience, which is a great thing. Perhaps you're overqualified for help desk roles? Have you considered applying for systems/server admin jobs?

 

Hey same job as me ish, I do two schools.

Suprisingly enough we have both a good range of skills as I.T. Techs. We have to deal with all levels of people from staff, kids, parents to governors and suppliers. I know I certainly have to decide on equipment we buy, what server we get, what stuff the server will have, file structures, buying etc etc. The list is endless.

All the experiances are great! Have you thought about University or maybe open university/MCPS/citrix certs to back up your experiance? Also what feedback do you get from interviewers about why you failed to get past first stages etc?

About the university thing. I have a few friends who have only one year of experiance - from a placement year in industry. They have got into grad schemes ranging from 22 - 28k. It might be worthwhile doing degrees..

 

Total of 4 years desktop support and 2 years server support, in my previous role i also did some reception cover to brush up on my telephone skills etc

I've had a look at some of the specs of the jobs, they always say "must have knowledge in citrix, exchange etc" which i dont have or "must have previous experience as a field support engineer" which confuses me as i dont see how your supposed to get experience in the first place, theyre all over 20k as well which is a big jump from 16k (pro rata which works out at about 13.5)

Uni isnt something i could ever do, on the job training and quals is fine but i dont think i could sit down and study something at uni level...........plus come out a few years later with loads of debt lol

recruiters have been saying ive failed because the company has decided to go with someone with a little more experience...........maybe its my age with only being 20?

 

According to his profile he is not over qualified and at age 20 the experience level can not be very high.

 

Ryan,

From a personal standpoint I would say you're in a great position i.e. already in an IT position and getting what appears to be very good experience.

I would say to be patient and make efforts to study the areas that you say are a barrier to you moving on - at 20, you still have a looong employment road ahead of you .

As to your salary - not easy that one but I would say persue a pay rise or a move to a higher grade with your manager/supervisor. Have you discussed your future development with them or is that something that can't be done?

 

I would also see if you can get in touch with your local secondaries (the main school you feed into is likely to be the most helpful) and see if you can also get some experience with them as part of a job exchange. The schools can link it in together to work on transition and you and the techies at the secondary both get a chance to network and expand your experience.

The needs of a primary are different to that in a secondary and no matter what people in secondaries think, you can usually pick things up from primary techs.

 

Rather than quoting everybody ill just do a generic reply...

i think the issue i have is that i have too much experience to be an entry level helpdesk operator but not quite enough for a field engineer

also add that to the fact that i dont have much commercial phone experience and it kinda puts me in an awkward position.

the reason i didnt apply for helpdesk roles at first is because i dont like sitting behind a desk all day, i much prefer to be active and on the move (rather like a field engineer)

another thing as well is that im looking for something in my home town, at the moment im traveling 14 miles just to get to work and im fed up of it to be honest as the slightest delay can end up making me 10-20 mins late for work, i dont mind traveling on the job, but to actually get to work in the first place i ideally dont want anything further than 5 miles away.................maybe im setting my sights a little too high?

 

Get the certs to qualify your experiance and knowledge I reckon. Finish that MCDST and get your N+/A+ and maybe administrating server 2003/installing? Do it while you still have your job.

 

Av is managed centrally on the server yes, not sure about wsus, think it does yeah because computers pull updates down from the server i think?

yes i do all of that, plus deploy software using group policy..........basic logon scripts etc

dont have access to firewalls or anything as our internet runs through the lancashire county councils network and the filtering software is on their proxy server

 

yep its all on there including the fact that i manage the domain on my own at present as well as working as part of a team in my previous job......

 

If you have experience administering servers, then you have enough experience to get a junior systems admin / server admin job. You certainly have enough experience to be a desktop admin, which is a step up from helpdesk!!!

 

maybe its my age that puts people off, i went for a helpdesk role interview the other week with a chance to progress to the position above which was field engineer, some of the guys on the helpdesk were late twenties early 30s, perhaps they just didnt want a 20 year old at a higher position than some of the older people? as improfessional as it sounds...........people can run their businesses however they want i suppose

 

True. The good thing is this: you won't be getting younger! So your situation will improve over time... which, fortunately, you have plenty of.