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Too long, didn't read version: 3 years in help desk, small IT dept, opportunity to craft my career into the field I desire as long as it's relevant to the company. Opinions/thoughts on what to look into?
the compilation of thoughts:
I am coming up on my third year in help desk here. I work for a medium sized business and our IT crew is pretty small. We have a large dev/it group, but really just me for helpdesk, a senior network admin, and a network ops manager.
time to advance my career a bit. I am going to be having a meeting with my boss next week, he wants to get a better feel for what I like and what I dislike in the IT world, and wants to expose me to more things etc.
I am trying to figure out where I want to take it from here. I love building things and solving issues. Help desk work = really my roots, I am damn good at resolving problems and I feel it's pretty rewarding. I haven't found any work that I find absolutely tedious yet, so I don't have a lot of negative feedback to give him
this year I've been getting a lot more involved, just recently became a domain admin, getting involved with server side work etc.. making life a lot easier, learning a lot of new things.
here's what my current work is like. doing some work in active directory (very basic stuff so far, users/exchange/minimal GP stuff.. still diving in), lots of data backup management, supporting some extra facilities in all aspects (retail stores that we own and their ancient software, corporate office, call center and distribution center), setting up new users in AD/exchange and setting up their work stations, viral/spy/malware monitoring and cleaning, desktop management, phone systems management.. where do I go next?
there are not a lot of positions really, so it's almost like as long as it's relevant and I could keep busy, I could essentially create that position as we grow more. I imagine we will hire on another help desk at some point, and I don't know if I want to be completely detached from help desk work. I don't think I ever will be - times always get busy and help desk needs a hand every now and then.. but eh? I am not going to stagnate my career advancement just because I like the help desk work / feel it is very rewarding to serve people in that way.
my boss has already approached me and told me he thinks my technical understanding will allow me to do a lot more then I do already, and he wants to move me from hourly to salary (hopefully that's a GOOD thing.. lol), get me on call one weekend a month.
would love to hear opinions and thoughts from my fellow my350z it nerds. I need to have a wealth of information to bring into this meeting, and I really need to hammer down what it is I'd exactly like out of the company, and where I would like to take my career. I am not all about chasing the highest paying position, it's just an extra perk to me, I like to be happy with what I do, and I can get by on the average paying positions - no problem.
Network admin? Systems admin?
any good reading materials or thoughts/opinions, entirely welcomed..
In my opinion, see if your boss will let you shadow different IT people in your company for a week at a time (while still keeping your helpdesk stuff up). Then, make a decision where you want to go next.
Remember: the more things you are familiar with when it comes to hardware/software, the more in-demand your skills will be. NEVER turn down a learning opportunity, even if it's something you aren't really interested in.
If I were you, I would try to learn every facet to every IT system you guys have in your business.
Word. I don't want to be specialized or sheltered in any way. not only does that make me less valuable to the company I work for, but it limits my ability and potential for future jobs.
I really only have our senior network admin, and network ops manager to work with/mirror. this might be a long process - we are currently extremely busy with our work load, holiday time is our busiest time of the year, I may not be able to dive too deep into it immediately.
my boss does recognize that I need more exposure to everything before I figure it out, at least.
Androgyny is the same reason David Bowie or Jim Morrison were ever popular so I say embrace it.
take it all in. metaphorically only. unless the attraction unleashes your inner queen.
you know what, I think my new research thesis is going to be 'how the internet brings out innate homosexual tendencies in people'. It's much more interesting then viral marketing tactics on social networking sites.
just saying, I have seen too much evidence that go both ways and the world may never know.
this is another great reason not to legalize gay marriage. this way you always know the way a person swings when they can say they are married (ala Cheshire, sorry to break the illusion dude).
unless they are canadian. I know a guy who says 'my boyfriend in america and my husband in canada'.
So another strike against gay marriage then.
Last edited by Motormouth; 10-15-2009 at 12:36 PM.
branching out from help desk - where to next?
