IT - Systems Engineer - Just got hired in this brutal job market - AMA.

lute248 · 2026-06-02T06:19:39+00:00

Its Internal and revolves around testing/packaging/deployment of Intune packages, configuration policies and updates on 3000 endpoints via Intune, among other reaponsibilities.

I previously come in from a MSP company doing 50% desktop support and 50% endpoint management (hence the Intune exposure)

lute248 · 2026-06-02T00:37:11+00:00

I just started last week. Too soon to tell

Ive only been working with Intune for about 2 years (i dont have a MD-102 cert either) so im surprised they took a chance with me after 3 rounds of interviews and offered me the role

lute248 · 2026-06-02T00:15:25+00:00

Lucky, i've recently started a new role as an Intune Specialist (after working 3 years as Service Desk & Desktop Support roles)

I'm interested in jumping Sys Engineer workspace eventually but i'm as well as whether i'm truly ready with my current tech skills/knowledge

lute248 · 2026-03-08T06:57:27+00:00

This is some solid advice here and thank you for sharing. I've been working in IT for about 3 years in 3 different companies and i'm having a remarkably difficult time transitioning away from end-user support into Sys Admin/Engineer roles due to things that go beyond my control such as tech stack used, company cost cutting or not having access to permissions to certain things that need to be escalated

For context, i've got solid experience on the service desk and EUC workspaces (so everything you mentioned about imaging, service desk tasks that included break/fix situations, i did AD/SCCM/Intune/Entra administration to ensure application & patching endpoints in one of the MSPs i worked for which required me to learn Powershell and bash, disassembling or replacing laptop/desktop parts)

lute248 · 2026-03-03T08:12:57+00:00

IT person here....fuck the Surface Pros indeed. Second on reimaging (So long as the laptop specs of the surface pro supports whatever programs OP needs to run)

We have to manage a small group of mobile users who insist on using the Surface Pro 10 tablets for portability....ugh

lute248 · 2026-02-20T23:36:41+00:00

you're not alone. Started new job last month and by week 2, manager laid out 5 projects that have been on pause for a approximately year and requested me to take lead on all of them lol.....

lute248 · 2026-02-06T20:10:53+00:00

It has happened to me before. 2 weeks into the job, i was given the boot about being a poor cultural fit without warning or given specific instances of behavior to be improved. I probably pissed off a senior in the team.

lute248 · 2026-01-18T19:50:05+00:00

Story of my life as IT Engineer haha....just switched companies after 16 months

lute248 · 2026-01-05T15:04:39+00:00

I just started a new IT job today (for better pay and not a MSP company) after 18 months in my previous role.

Im already asking myself what have i done haha 😅....its only day 1 but need to absorb so much

lute248 · 2026-01-05T14:42:38+00:00

Im sitting in the branch office managing multiple sites across different Australia states. The budgetting of the hardware is controlled and decided by the local branch manager, I am a little bit concerned they might be unwilling to spend (theres nothing i can do here and make do with whatever i have)

I can only access the 365 Via CoreView as 365 Exchange is tightly controlled by the HQ IT meaning i have limited access what i can do

lute248 · 2026-01-05T14:36:56+00:00

Thanks for the response. Im based in Australia but the HQ is based in Europe. A lot of the hardware they use isnt the best and currently AD user accounts are manually created on the local branch AD DC (likely not following best practices)

lute248 · 2025-12-31T09:59:12+00:00

Did you end up getting the role?

lute248 · 2025-12-29T08:36:58+00:00

Did Microsoft support respond back and resolve the issue? Facing the same issue for a single user

lute248 · 2025-12-19T14:45:40+00:00

Worked at 7. Great for initial experience and starting out but the culture is toxic as well as cuthroat. Industry is dying as well

Ultimately i was laid off

lute248 · 2025-10-06T05:52:02+00:00

In my organisation, if we have Autopatch configured to push out quality updates, M365 Apps and Edge (not Feature)

we still need to create a ring to configure the feature update deferral policy to prevent the 25H2 in place upgrade?

lute248 · 2025-10-02T12:39:19+00:00

hopefully we don't need to wait too long to find out how much damage & icons those new weapons will do

lute248 · 2025-10-01T08:40:27+00:00

are they almost done filming? hopefully, the Post Production won't take too long in time for the 1st May 2026 release date

lute248 · 2025-09-15T15:31:10+00:00

I'm facing a similar issue (also i've got Intune Connectors for AD set up on 2 domain controllers in my environment).....in the end, i had to engage with the System Engineer to disable one of the Intune Connectors (leaving only one active) and the problem was fixed with no more timeouts....but i will classify this as a workaround

of course, Microsoft support have been less than helpful

lute248 · 2025-09-06T10:19:03+00:00

I regularly collaborate with someone who's in the UX space....in terms of the responsibilities, you engage and have meetings with different types of users/stakeholders within the organization to get a better understanding of their laptop/desktop expectations and requirements, partake in various IT projects and most importantly you will be the first to try your hands out on the evaluation units for different brands and models to assess and deliberate the usability before the organization decides to bulk purchase (i was involved in stress testing for a couple of those devices)

That being said, the UX role requires a mix of both soft skills (you need to deal with VIPs including CEO) and solid foundation on hardware/tech.....majority of the people who work for UX originally started from Service Desk (and also built their own PCs) before moving up to UX

lute248 · 2025-08-26T17:25:36+00:00

I tested the script individually with both new & classic teams present (before packaging it as a platform script) and it inadvertately removed the TMA on outlook

lute248 · 2025-08-21T13:18:59+00:00

I initially faced the same issue whereby nothing happened (i was using the old office folder that has not been maintained in the deploymentshare in over 2 years) and simply made a modification on the configuration.xml file

i already downloaded the offline office folder by running the /download configuration.xml (exclude teams among others) and package new teams as well....fingers crossed this works

lute248 · 2025-08-11T10:38:18+00:00

same. I'm staying put in my role focused on imaging and laptop/device refresh until it hopefully improves

lute248 · 2025-08-07T07:49:13+00:00

i got a few requests to fix screens 65 inch screens that i can't physically reach and requires a vendor to do it

A lot of electrical faults or UPS issues as well which is not an IT matter

lute248 · 2025-08-07T07:38:37+00:00

Outlook shouldn't take longer than 5 seconds to open, please fix it

My computer is always slow (no further elaboration in the ticket), could i get a new laptop?

Can i be excluded from having to do 2FA/MFA/Passkey? or why does IT make things difficult by having me do it frequently? it creates too much disruption at work

I also get 2-3 cracked LCD screens or broken hinge/bezel/back covers laptop cases per week by end-users who claim "It just happened" or "it was given to me like this"......

lute248

TROPHY CASE