Getting Beyond the Helldesk 474
An anonymous reader writes "I've been working as a helpdesk monkey for over a year in a small-medium sized law firm of around 200 users and I don't know if my patience and sanity can last much longer. I'd like to remain in IT, but in less of a front-line role where I can actually get some work done without being interrupted every five minutes by a jamming printer or frozen instance of Outlook. There isn't really any room for progression at my current employer, and with the weak job market it seems I can only move sideways into another support role. I've been considering a full-time Masters degree in a specialized Computer Science area such as databases or Web development, but I don't know if the financial cost and the loss of a year's income and experience can justify it. Do any Slashdotters who have made it beyond the helpdesk have any knowledge or wisdom to impart? Is formal education a good avenue, or would I better off moving back home, getting a mindless but low-stress job, and teaching myself technologies in my free time?"
That is your job. (Score:5, Insightful)
" I'd like to remain in IT, but in less of a front-line role where I can actually get some work done without being interrupted every five minutes by a jamming printer or frozen instance of Outlook."
Um. If you are on the helpdesk - unjamming printers and unfreezing outlook is your job. Your work isn't being interrupted every five minutes, but rather you are being called on to do your job every five minutes.
IT is a support function, deal with it or find a different career field.
Helldesk...heh heh (Score:2, Insightful)
My ignorant opinion is to get more education. It's worth it, if you want it.
If full time isn't possible, do it correspondence/distance education.
Helldesk really is HELL.
It's amazing what padding your resume does. You have to take the first step.
As for moving back home, I wouldn't do that.
But if you get along with your family, I guess its an option.
Run For Your Life. Now. (Score:5, Insightful)
You seem to be under the misapprehension that it gets better once you are out of the helpdesk. It only looks like it does. You get less stupid end-users, and more stupid bosses.
Get out, now, while you still can. Go get a degree in plumbing, or electrical work. (Heck, if you want to stay with computers, get certified to install fiber. It's only going to grow, and I've had trouble finding anyone to install it in the new house.) Something that doesn't expect you for the rest of your life to be answering the phone at 12:45am on random nights.
Got to run, the pager's going off...
Ugh (Score:5, Insightful)
Go back to school. Have sex with college girls while you still can. Go to any open lectures and take some off the wall classes. Study abroad or save your money for six months and party in Brazil. Meet some people who have lofty ideas, and try to get jobs at companies with the same.
You aren't going to learn anything but how to take shit and wallow in misery at your current job. If you think that's a valuable skill that you need to learn, then stay.
Go small (Score:4, Insightful)
You might consider pursuing a job at a smaller organization where the IT department consists of you, possibly a non-profit. Compensation will be lower but there are often other "benefits" of working non-profit, such as reduced hours or a rewarding culture. These organizations are looking for somebody with experience but realize they can't afford the most experience. You'll get a lot of experience with a wide range of administration, preferably including managing a few servers, although you will still be working with the end users. Variety is wonderful, though.
Due to the current job market this plan may still leave you in your current position for a while, but that could be a good thing for your marketability anyway, as it's good not to look too fickle when an employer doesn't want to have to hire a replacement for you again in another 12-18 months.
Re:It's not that bad, just stick with it! (Score:1, Insightful)
I've noticed that most people are getting smarter, understand technology, privacy, business, free enterprise, propoganda, and are becoming less reliant on help desks, friends, church groups, retailers, and especially the government for help.
Just stick with it, I'm sure it will get better! How bad can it really be, they are just lawyers?
That's definitely not the case here in Michigan, there's still a ton of stupid people in mixed into the general public.
School is for people who can't read (Score:4, Insightful)
There are a few excellent reasons to go to school:
- your field has you using multi-million dollar equipment that you simply cannot access outside of the academic world
- you don't know what you want, and need someone to plot a course through life for you
- you can't read and need to be taught the alphabet
In this field, help-desk, databases, web-development are all the same:
- exceptionally well and accurately documented
- always using very inexpensive or free tools
- catering to intelligent people
If you want to learn web development, grab as many books as you like, read through MSDN and your favourite firefox wiki. Read, tinker, play. Read the HTML specifications. Keep playing. In school, you'd simply have shorter hours, and someone telling you to read chapter 1, then telling you to read chapter 2, then telling you to read chapter 3. Oh yeah, and they'd tell you that you read only 92% of chapter 2.
If you want to learn about databases, install mysql with about ten clicks, and read the mysql documention. It's not a puzzle, it's just a process. By the time you've read the, what 500 pages of syntax, you'll be able to play forever.
You don't need someone else telling you how to do something when it's written down. After all, there aren't that many people who know more about mysql than is written in the documentation. Maybe six of the people who built it. Everyone else simply read the documentation before you. Professors included. The story would be different if your goal were to build databases for enormous applications. But like I tell all of my clients when they ask if my selection of mysql as a database can meet their company's needs: "your company has 500 clients and 10 employees, the database world is concerned with millions of records. we'll talk again after your widget takes over manhattan".
The biggest reason to dodge formal education in these types of areas is that the curiculum is set-in-stone well before you start the course -- actually well before your sign up for the course, and even well before they decide to offer the course. So you're guaranteed to be learning old technologies. In this industry, six months counts as old. This all means that when you're done, and out, you won't have any confidence in your skills simply because you will not have used them in the real world. Academic assignments are useless.
So in the end, you'll have a very valuable piece of paper. It has the following values: .H.R. departments, look for that stuff. These are the same .H.R. departments that wanted 6 years of Java from me when Java was 2 years old. It's actually quite funny, or would be if it weren't so very very sad.
- you spent time and money to acquire it. that alone is an achievement recognized not only by many but will certainly be a point of pride for you.
- some others, namely
Clients will never ask you for credentials, or certificates, or diplomas, or degrees. Clients ask for guarantees, and you don't supply those either in our industry.
So if you really want to do something about your skills, then the following is what you truly desire:
- assistance (not guidance) in acquiring the skills
- a forum for testing and experimenting with those skills
- confidence in those skills
- an understanding of the applications of those skills
Then what you want is a job in a company where you will learn those skills on your own. Offer to work for very little pay. Either for businesses outside of the industry where they will benefit from whatever you actually can produce as you learn to produce it; or for a company in the industry who will gladly help to train you in the hopes that eventually you'll be good enou
Options (Score:2, Insightful)
I have been in many different aspects of I.T. from the HP helpdesk to a mom and pop repair shop and a network admin at a bank (current). I can tell you the scenery may change but the actual job does not you will still have end users asking questions and expecting help for some pretty strange and annoying things sometimes. It's the nature of the beast. I seem to think that any faucet of this industry will have that as it is community driven IE: people asking questions.
Big fish, small pond (Score:5, Insightful)
With a 200 person law firm, you're probably the lowest of 2 or 3 people. Find a position somewhere where you're the jack-of-all-trades -- you do the tech support, server management, web development, purchasing, etc. You'll work long hours because the tech support prevents focused work on the other things, so be prepared. But you'll learn alot if you're driven and you can finally have "Server Administration" or "Web Design" on your resume. It won't get you into Google, but experience may get you a junior admin job.
To find this entry level everything job, look at 100 person or less businesses or colleges. Colleges will be easier as they aren't money driven.
Alternatively, in this job market, go to school.
Re:Learn a UNIX (Score:5, Insightful)
More relevant I think is to perhaps use a Unix to learn network related skills such as TCP/IP network design, DNS, mail routing, VOIP, etc.
Unix (or Windows) is a tool to accomplish a given task. Learn the fundamentals of what you are trying to do and how the protocols work together, and then you can apply this to whatever operating system you happen to get lumbered with by the bean counters or previous management/admin...
So yeah, download a free unix, but remember, its just a tool to achieve a desired service. Focus on the services (and how to diagnose them), rather than the actual particular software package so much. Knowing Linux's quirks (just for example) inside out won't do you any good if you're trying to support Windows or Solaris (or SCO or FreeBSD, etc)...
Keep your mind open, and get exposure to as many tools as possible, it will increase your opportunity for employment...
Depends on what you want to do (Score:3, Insightful)
It really depends - do you want to do a technical role? Or do you want to move into management. Here's assuming you want to stay in IT.
If you want to do a technical role, I'd second a few of the suggestions here that you should download a 'nix, install some tools and learn everything there is to know about that particular technology. Bonus points for picking something that can be carted cross-platform (SQL, XML etc).
Then you can start applying for junior roles in other companies "We require a junior DBA working on MS-SQL and Oracle...". If you're good enough, you won't stay junior for long. The software is out there and it's all free - start learning it!
If you want to move into management, you generally have two career paths - managing technology or managing people. Managing technology requires you to learn about things like data centre operations, Capacity Management, Availability Management, cost accounting and charging etc etc. All these things go into making the technology side hum ie "the hardware is working properly, and we know we can pay for it now, and in the future". Companies are screaming for this type of management as they realise that the old reactive model of bodging it up to get it working now, and panic buying stuff they don't really need isn't working. They're looking for people who can formulate an IT strategy and make it work in the real world.
If you want to manage people, then start looking at leadership books, guides and education. Do you want to manage a helpdesk (didn't think so). Maybe the relevant institute of management has a short course that you could do.
I made it past the helpdesk. I started off after high school building PCs and crawling under desks with CAT-5 between my teeth. I did that for 5 years, then was a sysadmin for a web hosting company for a year, then a service desk operator for 2, then a process specialist for another year. I've been in my current role as a process manager for just over a year making 6 figures.
It can be done, but you need to differentiate yourself. Lots of guys can fix a printer - but to really add value, figure out which companies are looking to extend themselves from a reactive environment to a proactive customer focussed one, and jump on board.
Re:Funny Helldesk story (Score:2, Insightful)
Fuck You (Score:1, Insightful)
You know what? My excellent karma be damned.
How about you help desk workers actually solve some shit for a change. I'm tired of calling the help desk (be it corporate or extra-corporate like my cellphone provider) and never getting anything fixed. I don't give a damn about where you want to get to or what (or who) you think you're supposed to be. That's precisely the problem. You're worried about where you think you're supposed to be instead of getting your fucking job done. Fuck you. To high holy hell. Solve some goddamn problems instead of whining. Or don't work the fucking helpdesk if that's not where you want to be.
Guess what. I don't give a fuck about you or your career, any more than I do the corner mechanic. Solve my fucking computer problems. That's it. That's what you're paid to do. That's what I call you for. That's your job. Goddamn fucking do it. For once. Okay?
Re:School is for people who can't read (Score:3, Insightful)
If the coursework is that dependent on specific tools/technologies and cannot be applied to what replaces them, that particular school is the problem, not school in general. What school did you go to that taught this way? Let us know so we can avoid it.
it depends. do you clock watch? (Score:1, Insightful)
Yes, the Helpdesk sucks. I started doing it 15 years ago at the school I went to making a whopping 7.50 an hour. Within a year I was administrating systems on the campus. Why? Because I busted my ass. An example, we had an old Vax that was crapping out and had to do an emergency upgrade to an Alpha server. I stayed up the entire night with the Admins and learned. I then cracked open the extremely dry manuals for VMS. Always take the time of crisis and turn it into an opportunity. If there is an Administrator who's going through a rough time, ask if you can watch / help.
Worst case, get some VM's set up and see if you can bogart some copies of various Microsoft titles off of TechNet, or set up your own linux box. Talk to your boss and tell him that you want to learn and ask him to create an environment for you to learn and test new skills. See if you have old Cisco equipment and learn how to configure it. With google as your companion, you can learn to do many different tasks and use them as a foundation to grow upon.
If your boss is not able to create that environment, then maybe it is not a right fit. I personally have taken marketing majors straight from college with no formal IT experience and flipped them into very good jobs as short as a year later. I don't think of myself as anyone special, but if you don't have someone who is invested in your growth, then you should look somewhere else for employment.
If certifications are your thing, then study for them. But please do yourself a favor and don't memorize the book, actually learn it. In the past I have interviewed people with certifications, particularly Microsoft and wind up dancing circles around them in a tech interview because all they did was memorize.
And it also comes down to what I like to call a clock watcher. I typically have three types of staff members. 1) The ones who are out the door by 5pm 2) The ones who will only stay when shit hits the fan and or have deadlines 3) The ones who are committed to learning as much as possible no matter what and will hang with me during a crisis to learn. I can assure you that if you are in the first category, you should rethink your career..because it is obvious that this is something you don't love.
Lastly, I hate to break it to you, but even after working 15 years in IT, the CEO will call you and ask for help with his Blackberry because he doesn't have time to deal with the help desk. It's the nature of the job.
Re:Take the shit to get the cream (Score:3, Insightful)
IT Manager has an opportunity to frame the IT function in terms of ROI when talking to the suits.
Do not underestimate the value of a perception among suits that your role reduces liability or generates revenue.
Re:Take the shit to get the cream (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll second this - my previous job wasn't in the IT sector, but it WAS call center and it DID involve a lot of IT; my company was developing new LOB software in-house for which I was consulting, and I was working on some of my own projects involving process-and-procedure documentation and some automation using Office to make up for some of the shortcomings of the new system which the developers could not/would not address.
I was promoted to supervisory status for my above-and-beyond work performance and contributions to the company. I was ecstatic at first - with the burden of constantly taking phone calls lifted, I was free to complete these projects I was working on faster...or so I thought. Managers often seem like idiots because they're dealing with everyone else's problems and have no time for their own. Be careful what you wish for.
...and then I got laid off, along with most of my team (save two people, who where able to relocate) and the entire rest of the building. Wheeeee economy!
Re:That is your job. (Score:5, Insightful)
IT is a support function, deal with it or find a different career field.
10. This
20. Goto 10
Seriously, having spent 15+ years in IT in one role or another (helpdesk, helpdesk manager, helpdesk product manager, presales support, operations manager, consultant) I've seen my fair share of things. I've been on top of the world and on top of my game. I've been burnt out and taken a year off to work in a coffee shop (best thing I ever did, by the way.) I've hired hundreds of support techs. And as I am sitting in a hotel room 1000 miles from home, have a raging case of insomnia and am feeling a little philosophical tonight, I have a word or wisdom or two that I want to share.
First of all: Why do you "want to remain in IT"? Is it because you enjoy technology? If that's the case, perhaps you should consider a different field? There's no law that says you have to make your hobby your job. In fact, you run the risk of spoiling the joy that drew you to it in the first place. If you are in technology because you love playing with what's new, keep reading Slashdot and buy the toys that interest you. Then go discover what you want to do with your life and do that.
Secondly: What do you want to do with your life? Does it involve serving other people? If it does: congratulations! IT is all about service. Seriously. Whether you are designing an application or supporting 200 lawyers/support staff, you are there to serve. You could get all gross and use old-fashioned phrases such as "cost center" or you could get all fancy and start to see the service you do as part of a larger path. This book changed some of my thinking on that. [lewisrichmond.com]. Either way, you can't escape the fact: IT is about service. Secret hint: Once you get this, you start to love your job.
Thirdly: Have you ever really thought about what you want to do with your life? I mean really thought about it? If not, perhaps you should take a year off and do something completely random. You talked about "moving back home" as an option which means you probably don't have a spouse/kids which means that you have the freedom to do something bold. Try something completely different. Work with your hands. I took a year off and worked in a coffee shop. It did wonders for my work ethic and sense of what service really is. (It also reminded me of what it is like to really make next to nothing.) Working with your hands is satisfying. You might just enjoy it more than you thought. This article [nytimes.com] in last month's New York Times makes the case for working with your hands. You should read it. Really.
Fourthly: Is it about the money? Be honest with yourself. Are you in IT because of the money? OK. In this field, we make more than people with equivalent amounts of education might make. At least a little more. For now. That probably won't last forever. But are you wanting to move into "databases" or "web development" because you think there will be more money there? Maybe if this was 1996 that would be true. Yes, there is still money to be made there. If you are talented and willing to work hard and be passionate about what you do. But that's sort of true of anything. A little luck and a lot of passion go a long way. (Or is it a lot of luck and a little passion?)
Finally: Relax. Unless you are extremely fortunate, you have no idea what you are going to do with the rest of your life. Few of us do. You'll bounce around and external situations and circumstances will dictate most of it. New inventions. Sick parents. A spouse or child who changes your perspective. Wars. Epidemics. The unknown. Who knows what will happen next? Stop thinking so much. Enjoy the ride. If you feel stuck, listen to yourself. Learn to listen to yourself. Ask yourself what you really want to
Re:Fuck You (Score:2, Insightful)
Monkey Graduation (Score:4, Insightful)
I personally would be happy if I could get a competent help desk monkey, but unfortunately after downsizing, I was lucky enough to have help desk monkey added to my network admin responsibilities. I'm going to make some assumptions here: You already have a bachelors degree, your work pays all or part of certification and/or formal education, and you actually like IT work.
First thing you need to do is get exposure to some of the things you think you may like to do in IT. Read about them, talk to admins, dba's, etc. in your own company, or find someone in another company you could talk to about their work.
Once you have a good idea what you want to do, start going to school or training courses for it. Whether you choose online training, night classes, etc. is up to you, but education will help you move out of help desk work.
You will also need hands on work aside from just learning about the trade you pick, so I would suggest (as other have) to load software at home and start working with it. Hands on work is an excellent complement to book learning, and will ensure you know the material.
As far as dealing with your current job while you are working towards your goal, it would help if you changed your attitude towards your work. Instead of getting pissed that you have to unjam paper or help someone with their software, try showing the person how they can fix it themselves. If they don't want to learn it, then that's fine. I think most people would rather not have to call someone and wait for help if they can fix the issue on their own. Get creative. If you are working towards being a DBA or web designer, try setting up a self-service web site where the user can type in a problem and your program lists common fixes. It would be a great way to get the experience you need and definitely something to put on your resume.
Remember that there are a lot of people without jobs, some with families, that would kill to just be getting a steady paycheck. Be thankful.
Re:Take the shit to get the cream (Score:2, Insightful)
I wish I could mod you up - but other people beat me to it.
turns out lots of people don't think of anything other than having minions... there's that phrase, "with great power comes great responsibility" well, ok, but what about "with mediocre power comes a huge pile of political bullshit" =)
Re:That is your job. (Score:2, Insightful)
That was a good read. Thanks a lot.
I am at the point where I have to chose a working field and my studies give me a broad range of choices.
I love IT, have studied it both for my studies and on my free time. I never considered doing anything else ... until recently.
Like you've said, because I enjoy technology and love programming doesn't mean I *have* to work in IT.
More precisely, I don't feel like it's a field where I could stay a nice guy for too long.
And I don't want to become a BOFH (or similar).
Yet, chosing not to work in IT is a much difficult choice because it means finding another field in which I could enjoy my working life...
Reading your optimistic answer helped me. Thanks.
PS : Hope this post doesn't look too stupidly emo. ^^
Re:Ugh (Score:1, Insightful)
undergrad at 25+ is a lonely and tiresome route.
Two things: 1. Not all colleges are created equally, and 2. You're doing it wrong.
^_^
Re:A few more options (Score:2, Insightful)
Because there's nothing sysadmins love more than training helpdesk people (or any people) to do sysadmin stuff.
Re:Fuck You (Score:1, Insightful)
What a whining bitch.
Just from your post I can tell the cause of most of your issues, but first I want to say that really you're just some fucking douchbag who thinks he know what's going on when in reality you don't have a goddamn clue. You know just enough about computers to really get one good and fucked up, but you don't know shit about getting it right again, otherwise you wouldn't be calling the help desk. If you're so fucking smart, fix it yourself asshole, you broke it. The reason nobody wants to help you is because you're a dick. And you think everybody owes you something. You're exactly the reason everybody hates working the helpdesk, and you're also exactly the caller that everybody on the helpdesk loves to fuck. The helpdesk is there to help, just look, it's even in the name, if you just want to bitch and whine and cry and scream and holler and complain, then get a fucking dog or go beat your wife again, because nobody at the helpdesk gives a shit. They will go out of their way to give you as little help and advice as possible, and then sit around laughing about it after they got you pissed off enough to hang up.
As far as your computer issues, I can state with 100% accuracy that the root cause of 95% of your problems sit squarely between the keyboard and the chair.
Problem solved, ticket closed.
Re:What degree do you have? (Score:5, Insightful)
One thing that may accumulate surprisingly good results: keep some track of who you have helped out and find the time to simply go ask, "Is it still alright?". Now they remember you fixed something for them (maybe even what it was), they re-associate you with the current no-problem state, and the smarter of them appreciate that you care enough about *their* work to actually come ask. People talk in any company, big or small.
BTW, some will see it as you care about the company's productivity, some will see it as you care about your fellow workers as people; both are a big addition to mere "good fixing tech problems". Don't expect much direct feedback though, it's easier if you keep it just a matter of professional pride and a (maybe quite refreshing) daily habit.
Just check before that there indeed is no problem when you go ask.
Re:That is your job. (Score:3, Insightful)
>Secondly: What do you want to do with your life?
You make some great points, but I disagree with this. This is baby-boomer baloney. It's rationalizing selfishness. There's no harm in it if "what you want to do with your life" is something worthwhile or even noble. But for most people, it's just a code word from socially acceptable narcissism. Me me me, is what it breaks down to.
But you give a lot of very heart-felt advice, most of it good. That's a nice thing to do for a guy who seems to be at his wits end at work.
Take pride in your work, even if it sucks. Not everyone get to customize their career to their exact liking. It's not important. Look everyday for problems at work that need to be solved, and in between calls come up with a way to solve them _permanantly_ -- as in, the problem never ever happens again or if it does we run this shell script from menu option 3 and poof it's fixed as if by magic. If you steadily work towards long-term solutions, not just putting out fires as they light, then the work gets easier and morale may even improve among the users.
I can relate to your frustration though. I worked at a place that fixed everything manually, did no scripting or automation, and never seriously did preventitive measures to head problems off before they start. That got old. I never figured out how to improve things, sadly. But if I had a chance to do it all over, I'd work harder on my own conduct, my own skills & expertise, and really buckle down on doing a 1st-rate job, even if the work situation wasn't 100% to my liking. Let me tell you, it never will be. There's always something wrong, otherwise there'd be nothing to fix!
Re:That is your job. (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm hating going to work each day for a little while now. It's not that I don't like it really, I like parts of my job, but I don't like dealing with the ingrates who look down on IT services. The good people understand that they cant do my job (and I cant do theirs) so we don't get in each others way, have respect for each other and just get along but there is about 30% of my co-workers that make me dread getting up in the morning because they are just arseholes who refuse to listen and expect me to make everything better.
I work in a smaller company so I do T1/T2 support and 1/2 the sysadmin work (exchange server, firewall, AV and content management and so on) so I'm not simply a helldesk monkey. What I'd like to do is continue to move up along the sysadmin path, eliminate the T1 support and probably 1/2 of the T2 support. Preferably I'd like to concentrate in Linux/Unix environments (not Mac, that is one of my biggest nightmares in T1 support, Mac's tend to attract the most illiterate of users and the biggest superiority complexes). What advice to people have for continuing down this path? useful skills to pick up? Joining/attending a LUG? Any advice is welcome.
Re:A few more options (Score:3, Insightful)
Good ones love it - they know that if helpdesk know how to do whatever needs doing, they don't have to get woken up at 2am to do it themselves.
That, and most geeks love to talk about the latest toys they're playing with.
Move to Alaska/Yukon (Score:4, Insightful)
Move to somewhere with very few people, like the Yukon Territory. That's how I started my IT career when it became obvious that in the big city it didn't matter how good I was, I was looking at doing my time in helpdesk. If you're serious about IT as a career, and can't stand doing your time on the line, that's one alternative. By the end of my 5 years up there I had run a regional ISP, and been the head network person for the Dept of Eduction. Also nothing makes you look good like being able to tell the cliche bear stories. My favorite though is the time the internet went out because a hunter with bad aim missed a moose and hit the waveguide on one of the microwave towers I was using!
Now here's the bad news: :)
I've been doing IT for almost 20 years, I manage the architecture team for a mid sized business with offices in 3 cities and 2 countries, I hold a CISSP and am responsible for the security of the company, and the owners/CEO/Execs STILL asks me to fix their computer. On the plus side I'd say my average between interruptions is down to about 20 mins. The interruptions tend to also be bigger problems. Some days I wish rebooting the PC would solve the tickets that get assigned to me, but my desktop support guy is good at that
Min
Re:That is your job. (Score:5, Insightful)
On one hand, you're doing a great job, so you get to keep your job in times of adversity. On the other, you do such a good job that the company can't afford to promote you out of the area.
Re:School is for people who can't read (Score:5, Insightful)
So you're guaranteed to be learning old technologies. In this industry, six months counts as old.
Java 1.5 was released after I took Introduction to Programming (with Java 1.4). Three years after taking the course, I was TA'ing said course, with Java 1.5. I don't know exactly how fast the course got upgraded, but I also used Java 1.5 in my compiler course (the year before TA'ing, two years after IntroProg).
Also, studying CS is not about learning ephemeral technologies but eternal principles. It's only incidental that we express the principles in the languages du jour.
I haven't seen the revolt against the Church-Turing thesis, or Rice's Theorem, or against search trees (in particular B-trees on the disk for file systems and DB indexes), or against regexp lexers and LALR(1) parsers, or against relational algebra, or...
Re:Learn a UNIX (Score:3, Insightful)
Er ...
https://www.redhat.com/training/ [redhat.com]
Re:What degree do you have? (Score:5, Insightful)
100% correct. Law Firms are hell holes to work for - and I'm an attorney! You only see the tip of the political iceberg in those operations.
I've represented over a dozen IT professionals out of the banking industry and age discrimination / outsourcing are so common that you might as well learn to speak Hindi.
Find a medium-sized 3'rd party tech support operation - go to school too - but contemplate broadening your skill set beyond pure IT - take a year to go to the Vancouver Film School and earn one of their computer-based degrees (animation, sound recording/transformation) and lateral into the production industry.
Re:Take the shit to get the cream (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What degree do you have? (Score:5, Insightful)
It really depends on the type of service desk you work at. If you are in a service desk that cares about metrics like time taken on a call, then get out. Now. If you are on a service desk that values root cause analysis and real problem resolution, then stick around and try to get promoted up levels. Most of these service desks have a lot of high value components that are important enough that they'll appreciate you figuring out the actual problem and advising or implementing solutions that prevent further issues in the future.
I work on a service desk for a multi-national corporation supporting one of their software products. However, this software interacts with a lot of cool technologies that make life interesting - directory services, databases, packet analysis, network discovery, etc. There are enough components to the product itself that problems reported can be very interesting to troubleshoot, and I've learned a lot on the job. It also gives me the opportunity to read up on technologies I've never heard of before, or that I'm interested in. I'm fairly certain I'm seen as a reasonably valuable member of the team, so I get a lot of job satisfaction from what I do.
The rule of thumb, IMO, is that if you aren't learning anything new, then you're stagnating and it's probably time to get out of the job.
Re:That is your job. (Score:3, Insightful)
he works at a lawfirm. they are probably still running wordperfect 4.2 on windows me
Re:That is your job. (Score:3, Insightful)
Job security is a double edged sword. ...
On the other, you do such a good job that the company can't afford to promote you out of the area.
That's a good edge. I'd rather pass up the extra $20k/yr than have to start speaking "Manager"
Re:What degree do you have? (Score:2, Insightful)
"Don't ask, what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." — Howard Thurman
Don't start, young, on a career that gives you no pleasure. Your mind doesn't naturally gravitate towards what computers can do. You have few enough responsibilities that you can get a little ahead doing work that doesn't require your degree, and you have a whole year's worth of savings. Use those. Something, somewhere, just naturally occupies your thoughts when they'd otherwise be idle; there's something you'd rather be contemplating. For your life: find that.
Re:What degree do you have? (Score:3, Insightful)
That said, if you find you like web development and DBA, my personal opinion is avoid the masters. The MS is *not* going to help you get an entry level position as a web dev or a DBA. You're risking overqualification here. (if you can even find a respectable MS in web development, that is.) A master's degree is not the magic bullet many people considering them think it is. And blowing (30k + living expenses? I don't know what a grad degree goes for in the UK) during questionable economic times on something that may or not pay off isn't a magic switch for your career either. You may find yourself a year or two from now with nothing but a ligher wallet and the same job prospects.
You say you want to make a clean break, do it. Start applying to positions in the field you're interested in, located in another city. Start doing some small projects on your own so you can provide some backup to your desires and prove a bit of competence in an interview. You're going to face a bit of a hurdle having gone School->unrelated job->Helpdesk, but if you can prove an interest in the job and the ability to handle basic related tasks and learn on your feet, you should have a pretty good shot.
Re:i've got some advice (Score:3, Insightful)
Or perhaps as if the mods were moderating entirely appropriately. Wait a minute, who disrupted the mods' crack supply?
Re:What degree do you have? (Score:3, Insightful)
I second this advice. Do what you love. If you love what you do, you will be passionate about it and continually strive to improve. This is HUGE for employers, good ones that can see past next quarter's earnings anyway. What you love to do needs to be useful to an employer, but the bottom line is if you love it you will be good at it. If you are good at it you will progress in your career.
It sounds like you're smart but have a very general degree. This is not a problem, but you should start getting some professional certifications - Microsoft, Cisco, what have you. This will do two things for you: it will help you decide what you like to do and what you don't, as they all require a good deal of study to pass, and they look really good on a resume. What certifications you put down will help focus the employer's attention on what you are capable of, as well as provide them with a baseline.
In truth, you should have started in helpdesk while you were still in school. Helpdesk positions are not the best place for breaking into the rest of the market any more (they used to be great for that, not so much now), but given enough time something might turn up.
I would stick with your current job, but work on those certs, and be constantly searching for an entry-level sysadmin or unix admin (very rare, but huge potential if you can get it!) position. Or, once you have some cableing/cisco (sorry, they've got the most widely transferable certs even if you don't like them) certifications you should be able to break into the entry level physical network market.
Valuable things to take away from your helpdesk position are customer relations, troubleshooting skills, and general industry familiarity.
Oh yeah, and make sure your writing and communications skills are up to par. Chances are non-techs will need to read and understand something you write at some point, and sucky writing can be a career limiter.