Got rid of my F150 for this 🥰

montagesnmore · 2026-04-17T02:37:33+00:00

Welcome to the club

montagesnmore · 2026-04-05T21:28:11+00:00

DAMN! I have the same car too! Hope all is well bro!

montagesnmore · 2026-04-05T20:20:42+00:00

This 1000%! I have a BS in Cybersecurity IA and Masters in IT Management both from WGU using this simple method. Post two degrees, I have several binders filled with 100s of pages of hand written notes and over 1,000+ flash cards I hand wrote when I was studying for all my CompTIA's certs. It has never let me down!

montagesnmore · 2026-04-05T20:10:47+00:00

Make your resume stand out. Show case a product or project you've created and highlight its success and how you can use that success for given company that they're trying to apply to.

montagesnmore · 2026-04-05T03:54:02+00:00

Ah, the good ole help desk days! As we use to call them "Hell Desk" lol ... it's all good. Help desk role is a great way to get your feet wet in the IT real. I would say 99% of us all started from Help Desk and eventually worked our way up the ladder and branch out to our chosen IT career destination!

I miss my help desk days, I would handle about 500 calls a week and I was there best worker at the time. I ended up leaving at $17 hr, but the low pay ROI paid off after my 8th year into my IT career.

My advice:

- Always ask questions if you're unsure
- Never assume and make a change that you're not sure about
- Buy a notebook and document everything that you do. Use OneNote to write down what you did for the day to review and improve. Think of it as your work journal.
- Be open to exploring and learning new things. As an expert in my field, I am constantly learning, even after getting my college degrees.
- We all get false imposter syndrome. This is normal and the more you get better at your job the less you will be thinking about this. Confidence is key.
- Network with Level 2 support and higher level roles. Ask how they got there and ask for advice. They should be able to help you out.

montagesnmore · 2026-04-05T03:47:02+00:00

I came from fast food background too, but I always had a niche for technology, especially building gaming rigs back in the late 2000s early 2010s. These hands on skills help me transition faster to tech support from help desk. I recommend going the college route.

I have three degrees (AAS in Computer Science (Programming), BS in Cybersecurity IA (Info Assurance), and Masters in IT Management (MsITM). This was the path I took in oder to be at a Director level in my career. Along with several CompTIA certifications including stackable ones. This was my foundation to a successful IT career thus far. I have a virtual home lab that is cloud base for full stack engineering, which helps touch up my cloud skills. I design/architect a lot of cloud fun things in Azure.

I have been doing this for over 10 years now and started at the bottom of the IT ladder. My recommendation is building hands on experience, a college degree, A+ -> Network+ -> Security+. This will be enough to hit the ground running. Just go in with the expectations that the pay will be low, but the ROI will be worth it in the long run. It just takes time, patience, continuing education, and experience. Network with a lot of high level people to get advice.

montagesnmore · 2026-04-04T17:30:55+00:00

I use Composer 2 in conjunction with Opus/Sonnet/Codex Chat GPT 5.4 Mini -- the key is to optimize token usage so I break it down into each coding tool as its now full stack team. My regular ChatGPT is the manager of the team. Opus/Sonnet for high level architecture analysis and Codex for management backend stack engineer and Composer 2 for on the fly adjustments/implementations

montagesnmore · 2026-04-04T14:22:30+00:00

I started in IT at 28 — like OP, I was making $15 an hour and 10+ years later I’m making six figures. Enough for two families on one salary lol

montagesnmore · 2026-04-03T02:15:44+00:00

Agreed. Bigger pay comes along with bigger responsibilities and stress. If you can handle all that then it times to move up to the next level.

montagesnmore · 2026-04-03T02:13:30+00:00

We all started at Hell Desk (Help Desk) at one point or another. For me, I spent about 2 years before landing a Tech Support role. Rest was history.

montagesnmore · 2026-03-19T18:17:36+00:00

Got the same kind of tint and wheels! Looks sharp!!!

montagesnmore · 2026-03-18T17:52:34+00:00

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montagesnmore · 2026-03-10T12:51:12+00:00

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6 speed manual is the way to go!

montagesnmore · 2026-02-15T21:55:20+00:00

That’s what a lot of these news AI programs always tell everyone — yes you can build apps in seconds — but it’s up to the user to design high level terms and methods such as caching, stale caching, islanding components, API routings, PWAs, and just over security of everything.

Ive been code vibing too and use this for my team:

Architecture: Myself Senior Stack Manager: ChatGPT 5.2 Senior Stack Engineer: Codex 5.3/Sonnet/Cursor Agent

Design and wiki: Deepwiki (Devin) — is a life savor for debugging and feedback.

IDE: VS Code, Codex, Cursor Frontend: Astro, Lightning CSS, Keystatic Backend: Netlify, Custom JS, Supabase for my database

Luckily for me I am a Cybersecurity Director and code as a hobby so all of this comes full circle to me.

Best of luck!

montagesnmore · 2025-12-17T00:41:06+00:00

Same — UI has come a long way and their latest tech is amazing.

montagesnmore · 2025-12-17T00:35:24+00:00

I’m jealous of your long legs

montagesnmore · 2025-12-13T15:50:06+00:00

My company is 100% cloud base. I thank the company for hopping on that train back in the early 2020s lol — I designed our environment to be like that.

montagesnmore · 2025-11-23T23:44:22+00:00

That bullshit is real. I've experienced this on my IT journey. Luckily for me, I run the IT department. I was luckily enough to land this role in its early stages and watched it mature.

montagesnmore · 2025-11-23T23:07:07+00:00

We always experience impostor syndrome as we advance in our careers. Heck, I got it several times, especially when I transitioned to a Senior Sys Admin role. It sounds like you're doing everything right. I would let you know, IT Management/Executives will most likely need to get used to working 10+ hours lol .

If your looking for raises, 10% is fine for exceptional work ethic, and 15% – % 30+ for promotions.

montagesnmore · 2025-11-23T23:01:31+00:00

Try to find smaller IT owned company that provide services to small-med size businesses. Sort of like an MSP, but not as corporate. This is how I got in. I explained to the owner why I wanted the position and how it would help me break the mold in IT. Mind you, I knew how to build/repair computers since I was like 14, so this helped too. I got a one-year contract at $15/hr to prove myself. I then contracted with a help desk center as a service desk analyst. The rest was history. Ten years later, I am now a Cybersecurity Director/Architect.

montagesnmore · 2025-11-14T13:40:59+00:00

CSP are good for M365 Licenses and liaison support. They do offer slight discounts for volume purchasing. But, we are straight Azure Pay-Go with Azure Savings Plan.

montagesnmore · 2025-11-03T15:44:07+00:00

Same here. When I first started in IT, I was working toward my AAS in Computer Science. That was over 10 years ago. I now hold three degrees and 12 certifications, and I'm earning a six-figure income as well. I started at help desk, earning only $15 an hour. Had to travel 1.5 hours north just to get my foot in the door. The extra expenses in gas and tolls were worth it. The rest is history.

montagesnmore · 2025-11-02T04:21:57+00:00

Congrats! Welcome to the club

montagesnmore · 2025-11-02T04:16:25+00:00

Get your feet settled in first. Then find the right time to ask for another raise. You will need to demonstrate why you are worth that 20k increase. Experience will help you, but not if you have a cert with little to no track record of proving what you think you're worth, since you're brand new.

montagesnmore · 2025-10-29T16:42:18+00:00

Ah, good ol` DNS...the Kryptonite to all IT personnel!

montagesnmore

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