Question:
For those of you new to the tech world looking to get a foot in the door
for
some experience to put on a resume I have A word of warning about Help
Desk.
It is VERY easy to get STUCK in doing only help desk work for your entire
career. If you do this type of work I suggest not doing it for more than
6
months!
I have been STUCK doing help desk for years now. I have built servers,
desktop machines ran a multi-line BBS building the whole network, I have
gone to college for Programming and Computer Applications and I have a
couple of certs to my credit.
But yet I am still stuck doing help desk and not being able to break out
of
it into 2nd or higher level support because of my resume showing nothing
but
help desk experience.
I have a family with all the usual bills, mortgage etc etc and try and try
to find a job doing desktop support, network admin or other types of tech
jobs but always in the past ended up having to take a help desk position
to
pay the bills. Even while working I have always looked for a job upgrade
and have yet to find one.
About a year ago I was laid off from the help desk I was working on (lower
level people always get laid off first) because the company was reorging.
I
decided once and for all I would never work help desk again, initially
after
I was laid off a couple of help desk jobs came along and I passed them up
hoping to hold out for a better job while collecting.
The better job never came, the economy died, Sept 11 happened and here in
New England the tech field is dead dead dead. My resume is posted on all
the right sites and every once in awhile I get a call about a job, I
answer
the questions correctly show them what I know but never end up getting the
job because of my work experience only being Help Desk for the past few
years hurts me.
I just cannot get my foot in the door doing anything other than Help Desk
and for a long time now even Help Desk jobs are not available here! So
please be careful so that you don't end up like me!
Answer:
-I started in a help desk capacity for an ISP for 6 months. I agree that
most people that start with a help desk, stay with a help desk.
-These two sentences spell it all out. You're stuck, but not because
of the job, the resume or the employer. It's because you keep taking
help desk jobs.
Since you seem to have had several help desk jobs, your resume shows
that you've never been capable of doing more and can't even stick with
the same position, you just hop sideways to a new one. This signifies
an employee that *may* be problematic, so you need to explain these
jumps in a cover letter or interview.
The best way out of help desk jobs is to not take them anymore. In
your case, you need to save and cut your expenses so you can afford
the jump. It becomes a matter of priorities.
router administrator for the same company. It is all in what you make it.
