1

So I have been in the sysadmin/helpdesk role the past 6 years and am getting bored of it. I feel like I am not going anywhere and now dread coming to work everyday. I don’t want to leave the IT field but am just stuck on what “useful” skills I should pick up that will not only benefit me but ones that I will also like. As you all know IT is such a broad field so trying to figure out skills to add can become a challenge. Whether it be programming, networking, security etc… I have had 2 different jobs in IT. My first, a little over 5 years and my current about 6 months. Both have been small/medium size companies with about 150 - 250 employees with barely any IT staff. With my current job it is just my supervisor and I. Has anyone else been in my position? If so, what did you do? Do I simply need to just find a new job elsewhere? Thanks

12 Spice ups
2

IT jobs can often be short, certainly while starting out. I’ve been in IT for 8 years and spent either a year or 2 at each position. I started as a sole tech at a school and then moved to 3rd line installations - maybe look to something like that for variety and interest. It can really push you to know your systems inside and out when you are under a big deadline and you are being looked to as the expert.

If the job you have is pretty chilled and it isn’t demanding, use the time to get some certs or look into areas you want to do. Don’t put it off on the company and blame them if your experience isn’t where you want it. You career progression and knowledge is your own, it’s your investment and you will ultimately reap more rewards from it than your boss if you are already thinking of leaving.

Being an IT pro, you never fully graduate away from helping users (you never should either in my opinion as it keeps you humble and your ear to the ground) but work out what you want to see yourself doing rather than moves based on money and just lateral moves. I’ve now moved into a management role in my mid 20s because I was ambitious and applied for jobs I wasn’t sure I had a shot at. I always worked my butt off for the last 8 years and moved on from positions where it was killing my soul and was really boring. But I didn’t do this before putting everything I had into making the area I was responsible for the best I possibly could. Don’t slack off, work hard, don’t settle and you will do great.

5 Spice ups
3

Personally I just took on new responsibility as it became available. If I didn’t know how to do it, I learned.

Between that, and being honest with my boss about my career goals, it has always been pretty straight forward.

Have you talked to your boss about taking on new task, or where he needs you to grow?

1 Spice up
4

Yes, he wanted me to learn SQL so I purchased a course on Udemy and bought a couple of books on Amazon. I am no SQL pro by any means but now know how to Read, create tables, databases, much of the basics. By doing so he has allowed me to take on more tasks going into SQL but with it being a small company, there is only so much to do. I do have a lot of downtime throughout the day so I guess the best thing to do now is use more of that time to study for certs and areas of interest.

5

Knowing how to polish a car is a “skill.” That skill will get you a job at any number of car wash establishments.

Knowing the characteristics of auto paint and finishes, how they are affected by ultra-violet radiation, and the chemical properties of car wax is “knowledge.” That knowledge will get you a career in any number of fields.

No matter how many years you polish cars and no matter how good you are at it and no matter how many little tricks of the trade you know, you will always be just a car polisher until you start seeking knowledge instead of skill.

If you don’t want to be help desk all your life, start by learning things that will make you a more valuable employee. Then, trade that knowledge for employment.

9 Spice ups
6

I am in the same boat.

1 Spice up
7

You should also not be afraid of moving onward and upward. I always joke that most people fresh into IT won’t last a year or two because many take the experience and move on. You’re in the early phases of your career and it’s easy to settle into a ‘job’ and not a ‘career’ but the thing is, you need to be proactive in both learning new things and applying those. Don’t be afraid to polish up your resume and look around. If your employer won’t recognize your knowledge, look for someone who will.

There’s nothing wrong with this. I probably went through 10 different helpdesk jobs, slowly gaining more responsibilities and higher wages until I hit the sweet spot and settled into a role I was happy with.

Good luck!

2 Spice ups
8

I agree completely. The main problem that I have is trying to figure out the “learning things” part. I have done a lot of research on the various areas in IT to figure out what I would enjoy most but also something that will be worth. For example I took a course on web development then do some research and come upon articles that say in a few years it will be irrelevant as a lot of it will be replaced with automation tools and sites like wordpress so it kind of turned me off of continuing to pursuit it. Right now I am pursuing AWS certs since Amazon is not going anywhere anytime soon and have the most popular cloud platform so it seems to be the best decision. To compliment it definitely helps to have knowledge in various areas in IT so you can properly manage, set up systems on their platform etc… Hope I am making sense as you can clearly see I am undecided on what to do. Thanks for your answers!!

1 Spice up
9

Same. Maybe we should throw a party in this boat?

OP: We NEVER really know what will be the “right” or “best” path. There is NO guarantee we will pick the perfect path. What I’ve been basically leaning towards is the mentality to JUST PICK something and follow that. If after a while, it doesn’t settle with you, then pick the next thing that interested you. Of course, you run the chances that you will “waste” some time BUT ultimately, it’s your life. Finding something you actually enjoy doing and can do for a really long time will pay off in terms of satisfaction. So what if you are not earning 6 figure salary by the time you are 35? I don’t advice people to follow their passions, but rather follow what interests them and see where that can meet with financial rewards.

At least, this is what I’m doing.

2 Spice ups
10

And be prepared to change companies as many companies don’t hire from within (they all claim to, but don’t really) when it comes to moving up the corporate ladder.

11

I’m in the same boat as you. I just continually asked my boss for more work and he eventually gave me more control over our environment. Now, I pretty much handle everything except the budget and policy work. We’re a small non-profit so I have a lot of downtime that I can’t always fill so I spend time on here helping others or learning other areas of IT such as security and programming. If you’re bored in your current setting and there’s not much room for growth, you may want to try to get a position with a larger company that will have more work for you to do. I know that I’ve thought about it.

12

You guys need to read through the topics in this forum:

https://community.spiceworks.com/careers/general

It’s a very common question and the answers (and respondents) are generally the same. We’ve also talked often about the values of certification, training, and higher education. How to approach supervisors and senior peers for additional or different responsibilities, how to critically evaluate your own performance with objectivity and avoid a sense of entitlement (which is often centered around the “I’ve been at this job for ## years and…”).

And also how to recognize the end of the road at one’s particular organization.

How to deal with sudden job loss.

What to include in a resume/CV and more importantly, what not to include.

1 Spice up
13

Count me in.

I’m learning VMware virtualization technologies right now, I know this will matter in the future.

Long term goal

1 Spice up
14

The best and the easiest entrance to IT world is QA engineer, because it’s not so difficult as coding, but very good for start.

15

Amen. Though I’m 33. Started in IT at 31. And I’ll be damned if I don’t give it my best shot at being in the 6-figures within the next 2 years. Pretty sure I’m going to fall short, but not enough to actually care.

Good idea. If you have access to take the VSP and VTSP competencies it’ll at least get you familiar with the product line before you start diving into eSXI and the amazing amount of things you can do in their ecosystem.

I think it would be cool to see a newbies-helping-newbies thread where people can cheer each other on instead of getting the dozens and dozens of similar threads with similar advice.

1 Spice up
16

Man, I wish you would answer my posts and help guide me sometimes. You’re so knowledgeable and you are my chosen mentor. Offer me advice some day cause I trust you.

17

You’re undecided, I’m undecided. I can’t even troubleshoot a printer so maybe I ought to start there eh??

18

I mainly get paid to keep dust from settling on the seat between 8-4:30pm.

It’s miserable. I’m just working on learning what I can when there’s down time.