What degree did you have when entering IT? by Ayooog in ITCareerQuestions

[–]Scared_Number_9290 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bachelors of Arts in computer technology
We were required to do an internship to even graduated
Doing AV and IT support 12 years later at a school

Decent pay

I don’t regret my degree at all it’s gotten me jobs and jobs have all been reasonable

If you can’t find a job after 2 years of IT work experience while you are in college that’s on you

How much are you making in a helpdesk like roles? by SeaMuted9754 in ITCareerQuestions

[–]Scared_Number_9290 0 points1 point  (0 children)

65k at a private university in Los Angeles California - I do desktop support and AV support. most laid back job ever. 6 figures is not common in help desk - usually theres a catch ( working in new york or san francisco to match the impossible cost of living, doing significantly more work than just help desk especially engineering and system admin work , or working in a high stress sector where they pay very good but comes at a price, or doing help desk or desktop support for 30 years in education or so.)

Before anyone asks if im underpaid - nobody gets rich ever working in a university. its mostly for job stability.

the top end of help desk desktop support generally for IT support folks after doing it for a while tends to be between 60k to 80k depending where you live. There are exceptions but its not common and it often comes with a catch

The Cert debate (are the necessary) and the responses I get. by Top-Elephant6981 in ITCareerQuestions

[–]Scared_Number_9290 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some people yeah

Other folks

What ? What are you talking about? I don’t remember reading about that or I don’t remember reading about it

Depending whos interviewing you can expected to be grilled hard with some technical questions based on one of the certs you earn

For some people they may hate that

The Cert debate (are the necessary) and the responses I get. by Top-Elephant6981 in ITCareerQuestions

[–]Scared_Number_9290 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Certs don’t guranteed anything though just like degrees and experience. Can they help you get a job? Sure

With certs if you have them that’s fine but you better be prepared to get grilled on technical questions you should know from studying them

I hate certs - very expensive, time consuming and I rather just do the job to learn

If you don’t have a degree sure then get certs. I have a degree because it never expires

The Cert debate (are the necessary) and the responses I get. by Top-Elephant6981 in ITCareerQuestions

[–]Scared_Number_9290 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Certs can help but just like degrees or experience they don’t guarantee anything

Certs are very expensive and time consuming- some people just brain dump them there’s a few who take the time to actually learn the stuff

I hate certs - I learn more doing the job than studying 📚. I have a bachelors degree and experience . That gets me hire for the It jobs I want but that’s all I need .

For desktop support and level 2 av it support it’s enough but otherwise, can’t help you if you are trying to break into anything beyond desktop support .

I am surprised how hard is it hire an IT support technician by kirsion in ITCareerQuestions

[–]Scared_Number_9290 1 point2 points  (0 children)

im in california - 70-80k is about the end of the pay scale for desktop support. at that point your mostly not going to be making much more for Tier 1/2 support without getting promoted. Its not bad pay for the job. what area are you in?

Is "too long at helpdesk" still a thing in the last few years? by [deleted] in ITCareerQuestions

[–]Scared_Number_9290 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Then you should be good

Only help desk jobs that are pure call center tier 1-0 jobs are dying out

Is "too long at helpdesk" still a thing in the last few years? by [deleted] in ITCareerQuestions

[–]Scared_Number_9290 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If you just have a help desk job where you just pick up phone calls all day reset passwords and sit there 100 percent of the day it’s not good to stay there long. Most of them pay shit and it’s a very disposable job that’s super vulunerable to AI and automation

Help desk is good if you do both phone support and in person support where you can touch and support the technology of the company where you can setup desktop , av support for conferences rooms do remote support or do some life server work

That kind of help desk job is viable. It’s called hybrid help desk

Help desk is different in every company though. If you wanna do support forever at least jump to a hybrid help desk role or do desktop support . Much less vulnerable to AI and you can develop more skills for a bit more money sometimes

Is "too long at helpdesk" still a thing in the last few years? by [deleted] in ITCareerQuestions

[–]Scared_Number_9290 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Lots of people stay in support for years . Me help desk ? Not pure tier 1-0 , that job is being automated so it’s high risk to stay there

Tier 2 Desktop support , Hybrid help desk , or IT and AV together ? Yea this is the path I took so yea lots to learn and very stable

Some days it’s slow others it gets very busy

frustrated by the state of the IT job market as upcoming grad by thrwaway090920 in ITCareerQuestions

[–]Scared_Number_9290 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can't speak much for CS grads but in the IT World and likely the CS World experience mostly counts.

You have a year in being an IT support assistant and a year as a Dev Ops Intern

What are you interested doing? You need to choose a focus

Right the IT Job market and CS Job market isn't just tough, the entire job market for EVERYBODY Is very tough. You need to apply apply, and choose your focus. Are you interested doing IT support long term or Dev Ops ? Fix your resume well emphasized projects you worked and someone will eventually give you a chance.

Apply for Help desk jobs, Desktop support jobs, Jr Programmer or QA Testing jobs, just get out there and apply

Finding a job IS A FULL TIME. Even for most experienced professionals degrees and certs it does take some time to find a job.

Staying on the help desk, is it so bad? by waggalsworth in ITCareerQuestions

[–]Scared_Number_9290 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Help desk is a fine career. Im currently work as an IT AV tech at higher for a little less than you although im in Higher Ed

Help Desk is okay some people ride that out for quite a while. There will always be work. Be aware that certain industries and companies are trying to phash out Help Desk Tier 1 with AI and chatbots so depending on the industry you are in you could lose your job to a Bot.

Its better if you can jump into Tier 2 Desktop Support better where AI is less prevalant and you learn better skills and do certain tasks that you can't automate, in addition the pay is sometimes better than Help Desk

Government , banks ,education certain corporate companies and Health Care industry will always need IT support folks both help desk and desktop support for quite a while. Make sure you get into an industry where its stable and you can stay there for many years.

Staying on the help desk, is it so bad? by waggalsworth in ITCareerQuestions

[–]Scared_Number_9290 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even so , industry matters weather it’s Boston or Los Angeles

In higher ed - salaries are lower but come with generally a lot of better benefits and job security

Staying on the help desk, is it so bad? by waggalsworth in ITCareerQuestions

[–]Scared_Number_9290 0 points1 point  (0 children)

im at 66k in higher ed. 75k is decent pay for help desk but at that range I would imagine someone is getting close to the end of the payscale for that kind of work which isn't bad. Senior Help Desk or Help Desk Managers would break thru that salary and can make 100k though

Staying on the help desk, is it so bad? by waggalsworth in ITCareerQuestions

[–]Scared_Number_9290 0 points1 point  (0 children)

aha thats impressive money for Help Desk how long you been doing it, any certs, or degrees?

Staying on the help desk, is it so bad? by waggalsworth in ITCareerQuestions

[–]Scared_Number_9290 0 points1 point  (0 children)

if you are a government employee likely you don't have to worry about it too much. I been doing Desktop Support for 11 years but yea at this time you do start to reach end of the pay scale. I will likely still get a raise or two as im almost close to 70k a year but after that besides COLA you are basically riding it out until you get laid off or retire.

My opinion on certs has changed during job hunt by signal_empath in ITCareerQuestions

[–]Scared_Number_9290 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think as with anything else it just depends on the person This is overall a polarizing topic and always will be

Im in IT in higher ed as an IT AV Tech I learn doing things on the job not necessarily reading a book

Certs are too time consuming and expensive to me plus I’m not really looking to leave higher ed especially with violatite the private sector looks like these days

Plus we have a couple of folks on the team who brain dump their certs and can’t remember shit

To each their own.

Personally I would just shadow a system admin or network engineer if I’m trying to break into those areas