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Hey guys. I am 20, working my very first IT helpdesk position, and need advice.

We have three people working as IT in 2 different states. I am the only IT guy in my state, however I feel like I need more work. I need advice on how to prove myself to the director of IT, so he may hand me more work.

Normally, we should be able to check on all the tickets, however I am blocked on seeing all tickets, only the ones directly assigned to me. Also a couple weeks ago after i kept bugging, managed to get local admin rights to user PC.

I have been working at this place for a little less then 6 months.

Any advice spiceheads?

52 Spice ups
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Ask for more if they aren’t willing to give you more, leave.

Most you can do in your capacity is ask for more responsibility - if they aren’t willing or don’t want your role (read role, not you as a person) to do more, you have the option to leave. My advice? Stick it for a year regardless and bounce. Your first IT position should be between 1-2 years. If asked why you left, because racecar (in reality, “seek new challenges and opportunities”)

15 Spice ups
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Sounds like a bit of micromanagement. I would be brushing up the resume. In any interview you can mention that there does not seem to be enough work at your current position.

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Well, ask for more work / responsibility?

Ugg for me…

I feel like I need more work.

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28 Spice ups
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I would simply ask my boss for more projects/responsibility or how you can be of more use; it shows initiative. They may still have you on limited access depending on how their onboarding process is.

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If this is your first IT job, you haven’t yet proven what you’re capable of after 6 months. If your boss doesn’t want you to have more responsibility and you don’t like that, it’s certainly your prerogative to look for something else.

10 Spice ups
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Haha yea, however alot of the time, I sit idle and create work for me to do, (check printer ink levels, check the inventory, walk around and ask people if they need anything, ect…)

I feel kinda lazy, and I hate that

1 Spice up
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It is my first official IT position on a corporate level. I have worked as an admin at my town hall, as well as worked repairing computers for a few years.

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First, be patient. Do your primary job first and do it in the best way possible. Visit with your users if possible and follow up after the job is done. This almost always gets back to the boss when people start talking about you in a highly positive manner. Just sitting at your desk all day is a sure way to fail. I can’t stress enough the importance of getting around the office and interacting.

Put in your time, work hard and continue to ask for additional responsibilities once you show how well you handle you existing duties.

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Keep asking for more work but also complete what you’re given. If you have local users, find out more about what they need from IT and see what you can do to help them (without violating company policies). Document what you’re doing.

Finally, start updating your resume as well - you’re in an entry level job and doing the above should give you a body of work that you can use to move on in a year or so, either up in this company or to a different company.

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Holo Said it pretty well.

Your First IT job should be about 1-2 years as help desk tech then its normal and acceptable to move on or stay.

Everyone is different, my First I.T. Job was 1 year and 3 months, ive been asked why i left. and i said “they hired me as a help desk tech, and i had no opportunities for advancement, and i had gotten to where i was stagnant in my job, i wasnt learning anything new to help me advance. work was slowing down to where i didnt have much to do. so it was just time for me to move on so i could improve myself and learn more about technology and how to use it to help another company.”

my Second I.T. job wen a little over 2 years. (company downsized and laid off entire I.T. Department)

My current I.T. job is right at 2 years on the 18th of this month. but i will be leaving this job august 1st to go work for the local Sheriffs department as a jailor (more money, better benefits. [Higher Risk=Higher Reward])

hopefully i will be able to advance to Homicide detective one day and i can scratch that off of my list of childhood dreams and goals. (2 goals for careers as a kid, a Computer Tech/Sys admin and Police man, currently a Jr Sys Admin.)

4 Spice ups
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If you don’t have access to many things it limits your options. I wouldn’t recommend quitting right away though if this is your first IT job. Get some experience and prove yourself.

How good is your documentation? Do you have procedures you follow that aren’t written down? Sometimes thorough clean documentation is a good way to prove to the boss you can take on more work.

5 Spice ups
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As others have mentioned, keep this up. Building relationships with your users is very important and word will get around that you are helpful and people like working with you.

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If you have a lot of time on your hands, work on advancing your knowledge. Not having a lot of actual work to do may end up being a benefit to you because you can spend some time learning on your own while getting paid. You probably have a bunch of parts laying around the shop, build a linux lab, play with something that you have been interested in.

Ask your users what would make their life easier, go over your tickets and see if there are any consistent issues that keep coming up. Figure out what you can do to permanently fix it, make some proactive suggestions to your boss.

Ask your boss if they would be willing to send you to a training class or pay for you to get more certs. Some places just won’t care to have you advance because they look at IT as a sunk cost and won’t invest in it. That just means you should find another place to continue your career.

I don’t necessarily think that there is a magic number that you “have to be employed for” at your first job. Ask them why they won’t give you more work, maybe your boss does not think the quality of your work is all that good and you need to work harder to convince them. If you don’t like their answers, start looking for another position. You are still young and have a lot of options. Just make sure you’re not hopping from job to job every couple of months.

4 Spice ups
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This is the way it works. You start out on the bottom of the food chain and work your way up. It takes more than six months.

If you feel like you can handle more workload, and showing off that ability to your supervisor is your goal, then just flat out tell him that you want more work. Trust me… theres always more IT work that needs done.

In my own experience, heres how I climbed up the ladder.

IT job 1: Low end bench technician, no field work, 1 year

IT job 2: remote technician with limited field work, 1 year

IT job 3: remote technician (call center), no field work, 6 months

IT job 4: Tried running my own IT company doing low level end user support, closed to take job 5. 6 months

IT job 5: fake it til you make it - senior systems engineer for an IT company, doing a combination of remote and field work. 3.5 years - I was so overpaid and underqualified for this job when I first started, but I grew into the role quickly and this job paid for my certs. By the time I left this job, I was underpaid. This was like that “once in a lifetime” chance to climb up the ladder a few rungs all at once.

IT job 6: Director of Information Systems, currently here but only been here a few months. I run the IT department for a company with multiple offices in multiple markets.

So, like I said… just climb up the ladder. You’re going to work a few low-level helpdesk positions or bench tech positions before you get into more significant work, but if you keep at it that “once in a lifetime” opportunity will come. Also, find a valuable skill within IT and make it a hobby… like coding or security for example. My “hobby” was cloud computing, and now I run the IT department for a company that works solely off of cloud infrastructure.

4 Spice ups
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^^^^^That!!!^^^^ " how you can be of more use" is an excellent way to phrase it

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And That…Documentation not only helps you, but anyone who has spent a fair amount of time in IT will see that as gold!

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Another +1 for documentation, and not just documenting the stuff you are doing. Document anything that isn’t already documented, and improve the current documentation too.

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Lot’s of good advice here.

Try not to sweat being low man on the pole. You have to put your time in. Do your job, do it well and it usually works out in the end.

One thing I forgot in my first post was to be careful with job hoping. Generally, it sticks out to HR & hiring managers as a red flag. Having three or four jobs in a year or two will catch up with you.

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Slow down there…

Take your time, don’t rush it. I’m sure more will come and you’re probably still under an evaluation period. So don’t cause any waves. Mistake that so many people make anymore, especially at your age, is they always feel the need to push the envelope so to say. Relax and just enjoy learning more and being prepared as more will arrive your way and/or if you wind up getting another job elsewhere. Patience. It’s like the #1 virtue you can ever have in IT

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