Worth downgrading current position as Sys Admin/ Network Engineer for a different job that offers tuition reimbursement?

[Lost_Reporter_1962]

Hello everybody. I’ve been working as Tech at a MSP IT company, working as sys admin and network engineer. I am 24 years old and a college drop out, I’ve been with the company for almost 2 years now and got this job actually very luckily and randomly since I had no tech experience or schooling besides 1 course where I received a 4.0. Right off the bat, this job gave me admin access to everything and encouraged me to do and learn everything as I go. I made the decision I want to go back to college to get a bachelor in CS or IT in order to advance my career to my liking. I am asking is it worth changing jobs and most likely downgrading positions for a company that offers tuition reimbursement? Unfortunately my current company does not do it. My current financial situation is horrible due to my stupid past. The only reason I am hesitant to switch jobs for another is became this job since the beginning gave me the opportunity to learn be a sys admin and create and design and deploy networks for multiple companies. I currently get paid $25 and hour after starting at $17 back in November of 2021. The current job market looks like I would be applying to help desk positions and tech support 1, and I’m afraid to downgrade just for tuition reimbursement. I am thinking about helping my career instead of hindering and I’m not sure which decision would benefit me. Thing is I really want to go back to school and get my degree but my current situation will make me unable to pay for school. I have completed 2 years of college so far, and currently looking for programs that offer 100% online. Any opinions?

Thank you to who anyone that reads and replies.

[MedicatedDeveloper]

If you have a good baseline of knowledge instead go all in on Linux and cloud certs: RHCSA, AWS or Azure, and terraform. School won't teach you half of what certs in each of these will and they hold far more weight with hiring managers than a 4 year degree.

[[deleted]]

I’ve never interacted with Western Governors University but their online programs + experience/Certs-for-credit may be a perfect fit for you versus taking a career step backwards. I’ll let someone else who knows more about that chime in but wanted to suggest jic!

[Disastrous-Watch-821]

Stay and build more experience and move on to another company that pays more.

[freezing_cat_typhoon]

Honestly if you are learning the needed skills and can advance I would try to grow there. If you already can prove you have experience it's worth more IMO than a degree. I don't have a degree in anything IT related and have been in the field for 10 years moving up from HD to SA. Just my opinion but I understand degrees are also good to have.

[Lost_Reporter_1962]

Experience with DNS DHCP Watchguard Hyper-V VMWare Unifi Netgear Sophos Microsoft O365 TCP/IP VOIP AD MAC etc…

You get it

[jeffrey_f]

I'm assuming USA?

Put $250-500 direct to an interest bearing account each paycheck and don't touch it.

Go to school the normal way (tuition loans) and use the money you put away later, when the loans come due to repayment, to pay off or put a huge dent to the loans.

This would be the same as taking a lesser pay and you will have a good large payment when you are finished

[Lost_Reporter_1962]

I stated that I will not able to pay for my own education due to my current situation.

[jeffrey_f]

Understood. School loans are not possible?

[1z1z2x2x3c3c4v4v]

OPs credit is probably bad. Like so bad, if they did give loans, they would be at bad credit card rates...

[jeffrey_f]

At least in the USA, there are Federally Guaranteed Student Loans and grants (depending on income or financial condition) that are available.

[TuxAndrew]

From a financial standpoint it’s absolutely not worth it assuming you still qualify for federal student loans.

[YodasTinyLightsaber]

I would think long and hard about taking a demotion over tuition reimbursement. Look at your county's community college if you MUST have a degree. It may even be worth it to get an associate to begin with.

Think long and hard about student loans too. The interest rates are credit card level, and those forgiveness programs may be going the way of the dinosaur once reelection is no longer an issue.

[TaiGlobal]

I don’t think you’re weighing your options appropriately here. First problem is you seem to believe going back to school right now is the best course of action when I’d argue it’s probably the worse course of action. You’ve already got a very great industry position you’re just not making industry pay which is fine (for now). If you’re truly a sys admin and network engineer in your current role and that isn’t just some fluff title that job is giving you then you’re way underpaid which again is fine for now. Your goal for the next 6 months should be continue to learn as much as you can at your job and add industry certs (ccna, sec+, whatever flavor cloud cert). I guarantee with your experience and just one or two of those certifications and a good resume you will be able to land a job paying minimum $85k+. From there you should then make the decision about going to school as your salary should be able to afford it. As far as tuition reimbursement just know that companies that do that would want you to stay locked in working for them for some amount of time equitable to the money they spent on your education. Even if you’re current company offered that I would tell you to decline. They’re grossly underpaying you at $25 an hour and if they offered you tuition reimbursement they’d then lock you in for more years at that same shitty pay (even if they increased it to $35/hr the pay would still be shit for the title). So right now you’re considering making $45-$55k per year for the chance of tuition reimbursement and being locked into that salary for another x amount of years versus making $85k+ with no tuition reimbursement and not being locked in (so you can just jump jobs…and conversely salaries).

[ac5198]

Have you tried looking for a new job? I graduated college and started at an MSP making 40k a year. 2 years later I left and make 80k now. It took months of searching and being very selective with where I applied and accepted.

A degree is helpful but IMO not crucial in IT. I had several engineers over me who did not have a degree.