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Also look for internships, it's that season right now, don' t miss the boat.
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Maybe I'm in the minority, but I always liked the Tier 2 Help Desk positions. The way it was structured on the Army side didn't involve a phone queue though (Air Force does and that was miserable and they did everything in their power to make it miserable-er), I don't know I just liked getting up and out some, dealing with users/people, solving problems, and using Dameware. Of course, that maxes out salarywise pretty quickly but I mean over being like a Server or Sys Admin where you're just sitting running scripts, pushing updates, etc
If you need abreak, you can always grab a ticket out the q that requires you to go on site, stop by and get a snack on the way, etc. Position your remotes before and after lunch, beginning, and end of days and buy yourself some more time . But yea typically you'll start Tier 1, just taking the calls and putting them into like Remedy or Service Now, solving the easy ones, escalating the rest to Tier 2. Then get to Tier 2, then from there it's up to you really to figure out your out from that level.
If you need abreak, you can always grab a ticket out the q that requires you to go on site, stop by and get a snack on the way, etc. Position your remotes before and after lunch, beginning, and end of days and buy yourself some more time . But yea typically you'll start Tier 1, just taking the calls and putting them into like Remedy or Service Now, solving the easy ones, escalating the rest to Tier 2. Then get to Tier 2, then from there it's up to you really to figure out your out from that level.
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In the general world, that's L2, desktop support, which is indeed much better than help desk. When you say "helpdesk" most places are going to be a phone queue. Pass on that, if it is indeed more a desktop role than actual phone queue help desk then definitely go for it.
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Has anyone here taken the Cysa+ exam, looking to take it next. I already have a B.S. in Cybersecurity and Sec+ so the material shouldn't be too foreign just want to get some insight on if it's worth it?
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Thankfully I was able to skate(avoid) the helpdesk role. However, everyone isn't as lucky. It definitely is a way to get your foot in the door. Just don't sit in too long.
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yea phone all day was miserable. These kats were so ridiculous, they mentioned in a meeting that people were going to the bathroom too often and they were legit mad, were like, "It's a bodily function, you can't control it, we're not saying don't go to the bathroom, but we're just saying... you get a 30 minute lunch and 2 15 minutes breaks, we're not saying, we're just saying.." and that was my first week, so I guess the girl who they were reffering to in particular said something to like the DOL and got the company reprimanded or whatever, so the next meeting they had the same passive aggressive language and they made a code on the status ticket for "bathroom" so we had to be at our desk 100% of the time, always showed on the screen James- On a Call, Chris- Lunch, Mike- 15 min break, etc and there was no general unavailable code so now it'd be like Derrick- Bathroom on the screen and I know they were running reports on it. We also had to have a 1 to 1 phone calls taken to Remedy tickets submitted ratio which was impossible with our network speed and the amount of tools we had to use so you'd get behind and have to put tickets in on your break or beg or trick people to stay on the phone. Luckily I did well and got promoted out of there pretty quick back into an office and regular desktop support tier 2 kind of role where i can just pull out of a remedy q
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That's another thing, those roles come with micro-managers for some reason even though it's impossible for you to not work.
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That sounds like a bad work environment.
da r entertainment
Supporter
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Wow this sounds pretty bad. I've never been a fan of micro managing. I'm thankful that my previous manager and current manager trusted/trust me to do my job. Any other way and I wouldn't handle it well.
MakeNTGreatAgain
Supporter
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Man i've had some bad interviews.
dude in the beginning of the interview is like we are looking for a diffeernt kind of candidate like bruh wtf
honestly idk if yall feel the same but im sick and tired of getting interviewed by YT folks.
this is fire thanks for sharing
MakeNTGreatAgain
Supporter
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im actually gearing up to take that this month
da r entertainment
Supporter
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I respect the honesty, but tell me this before we start talking and we can just hang it up. That the was weirdest interview ever.
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First day as a Help Desk Specialist and it is a lot to take in.
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Good luck.......hopefully you’re not stuck on phones all day.
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congrats on the gig man, idk if you’re remote but that’s a rough way to learn a new job
I did the help desk for a year, and at the company I worked for we were treated like trash.Soon as an opportunity to move departments came up I was all over it
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Appreciate it. From the looks of it, it doesn’t seem like I’ll be on the phone too much. I didn’t hear many calls. A decent amount of tickets and moving around.
Appreciate it.
No remote work for me I’m being trained at a location and will be sent to another. Not looking forward to that but it is what it is. I’m definitely not trying to be here for no more than 1.5 - 2 years[/quote]
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How’d you move up? I’ve got 2 years of help desk and a few months of Jr sys admin experience and then got into a dif field. I’m looking to get back into IT
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Whatever you do don’t get stuck in Helpdesk. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. I started there and as long as you’re willing to learn and catch on quick it’ll be an easy gig. I’m in the DMV and was making $65k and supporting 150ish users at an agency so it wasn’t as bad being stuck at that helpdesk. Not bragging just saying that’s why I was able to tolerate it. Dealing with incompetent people everyday is stressful. It actually makes your life miserable 
Always be applying, always... Something will come along and you’ll have to be trained for that position anyway. Just don’t embellish too much
Always be applying, always... Something will come along and you’ll have to be trained for that position anyway. Just don’t embellish too much
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Beruseruku Desu
Supporter
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Whatever you do don’t get stuck in Helpdesk. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. I started there and as long as you’re willing to learn and catch on quick it’ll be an easy gig. I’m in the DMV and was making $65k and supporting 150ish users at an agency so it wasn’t as bad being stuck at that helpdesk. Not bragging just saying that’s why I was able to tolerate it. Dealing with incompetent people everyday is stressful. It actually makes your life miserable
Always be applying, always... Something will come along and you’ll have to be trained for that position anyway. Just don’t embellish too much
Where did you go next after help desk?
Also is python worth learning right now?
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I went on to SCCM Engineer. The Sys Admin at the helpdesk position was really encouraging and helpful. Like I said we were small so I was able to stop in ask a million questions and took advantage. I also worked with SCCM a lot so I could answer basic/intermediate questions on it and appear more knowledgeable. Just don’t get over your head, because in IT most interviews can be technical and then you’ll be exposed lol. Job descriptions can be scary/overwhelming but I knew I wouldn’t build their SCCM environment, but just come in and manage it. There’s other SCCM engineers plus my “boss” aka a guy who’s been there for a min is someone who loves to show off his knowledge so I kinda stroke his ego to get answers.
I don’t work with Python but always hear people encouraging it. My job uses more Powershell so now I gotta get my skills up in that.
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A position in our cloud Ops team opened up and I was cheaper than hiring someone from outside the company. Took me 3 years of promotions and performance increments to finally earn what my coworkers do, but it was worth it. Now they are paying for me to get AWS certified, before I become a Sr Cloud Specialist.
Like other dudes have said in here, don’t get stuck at the help desk or tech support. We have dudes that have worked there for 10+ years and they have no upward mobility at all. If you’re lucky, you’ll become a team lead or manager, and that’s the end of the road.
Whatever you do don’t get stuck in Helpdesk. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. I started there and as long as you’re willing to learn and catch on quick it’ll be an easy gig. I’m in the DMV and was making $65k and supporting 150ish users at an agency so it wasn’t as bad being stuck at that helpdesk. Not bragging just saying that’s why I was able to tolerate it. Dealing with incompetent people everyday is stressful. It actually makes your life miserable
Always be applying, always... Something will come along and you’ll have to be trained for that position anyway. Just don’t embellish too much
For sure. I’ll get some more certs and start applying.
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Have you looked Into government contracting? I’m in rn and I’m about to do a career change into IT (starting with Sec +) and see where it takes me
Anynof you gov contractors in here with any insight in the IT field and would like to shed any experiences or what to expect, I would like to know. TIA!
raider5
Supporter
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i work for local IT government (county). not bad. benefits are okay, pay is decent. lots of work and not as slow in terms of keeping up with tech trends
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Started a new position supporting a NASA contract, will be working in CloudOps, doing BA/technical communication deliverables (likely tech writing/editing - I think all parties are still trying to figure out lol). Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
