How to move up from Help Desk.

Help desk is often the first role many people start with in their IT career. Help desk is a great starting point because you get to learn a lot about many different aspects of technology within a company, as well as expose yourself to different roles within an IT department.

Essentially, a help desk role really does prepare you for the next level, whether that be system or network administration…

The problem that people find is, this is often easier said than done.

Many people start in a help desk role, thinking maybe it will be for a year or two, just until they get enough experience and certifications to be promoted or be able take a job in a different company in an administrator role.

What they find is that instead of their company promoting people from within, their company is hiring administrators from outside the organization with previous administration experience. They also find that it’s difficult to apply to administrator roles at other organizations because they require previous administrator experience.

So how do you get out of this help desk trap and actually move up in the world of IT?

Well, you have come to the right place and picked the right article.  I’m going to give you the knowledge you need to escape the help desk trap.

Company size

I’ve talked about this before in a different article, but especially when you’re just starting out, you should try to work for a smaller company. Small companies provide so much value especially to newcomers in the IT field. The barrier of entry is often lower to get in as well and when you do get in, you must become an “IT jack of all trades” which is exactly the experience newcomers need.

Larger companies tend to be more compartmentalized, which means its harder to get involved in anything that is “outside” of the help desk role.

One of the first companies I worked for in IT was a rather small but growing organization. The entire IT staff consisted of just three people including myself. My titles was “IT Technician” (basically another name for Help Desk) and because the company was so small, everyone on the IT staff had to do everything.

There was no ONE person doing network administration, or systems administration, or desktop support… Everybody had to pitch-in, learn and do EVERYTHING.

Smaller companies often have this type of structure, which is great for IT newcomers because you have to learn by actually doing it and you get that real hands on experience that gets you promoted.

And If the company grows and more defined roles become available (network and sysadmin); you will be more apt to actually get promoted to that role because you have already been doing the job.

If you are currently working help desk at large company and feel stuck in your position; don’t feel discouraged because you can always take another help desk role at a smaller company first, before trying to move up… And who knows it may even pay more. Once you are in a smaller company, moving up the ranks becomes significantly easier as your experience grows.

Let your goals be known from the start

As I’ve stated above, ideally you will want to start your IT career working for a smaller company. But regardless if you are working for a smaller company or a larger company; from the very beginning, even in the interview process, you need to make it known that your goal is to work in either system or network administration.

It can never be a secret to your manager or anyone in the company that even though you are starting in IT support, you have bigger aspirations and the drive to move up and have more responsibilities.

And this doesn’t end at the beginning, every day you need to show, not just through what you’re saying but what you do that but you want to be an administrator.

You would be surprised how quickly your manager will forget these are your aspirations unless you are constantly doing and saying things that show this is your goal.

I’ve seen too many times people say that they’ve told their manager that this is what they want to do… But come review time they are never thought of for a promotion.

You can tell you manager again at review time that you want to be in administration, but don’t be discouraged when they act surprised at what your goals are… Keep being quiet and your manager will look just as surprised next year at review time as well.

YOUR GOALS TO BE AN ADMINISTRATOR CAN NEVER BE A SECRET

Every day through your words and actions you need to make your goals in the company a reality.

Provide Value

If you want to move up, you will need to put in the extra time and effort even outside of your normal working hours to show that you mean business.

This means doing your job duties and then some.

Part of being a network or system administrator means working on projects after hours, staying late after everyone else in the office has gone home, coming in at 2 in the morning to fix a problem, sacrificing your nights and weekends for projects, etc. (but hey, that’s why we make the big bucks right??)

Usually help desk is just 9 to 5… You come in, do your job, leave, and you are done.

Actions speak louder than words.

In addition to making it known via your words that you want to be in administration, you need to show it through your actions. This means asking to come in and help the system and network administrators after hours whenever possible.

And yes, you probably won’t get paid for putting in this extra time, but that’s OK because you are doing it for the experience, not the money. The money will come later.

And you need to let your manager know that you are completely OK with not being paid for this, because they may decline to let you assist because they cannot pay you for it.

If you can finish what you need to do for your help desk job and your manager approves it, you should spend time with the administrators during the day as well if possible. The more time you can spend doing admin level tasks the better.

VERY IMPORTANT.

When you are requesting from your manager or the administrator if you can assist in admin level projects, NEVER Pose it as though they would be doing YOU a favor.

Administrators are very busy and often under a lot of pressure. They don’t have time to train you during these projects and your manager knows this. Your manager and the administrator simply want to complete the projects they are working on, as simply and quickly as possible.

Therefore you must pose your request in a way that shows the value you will add to the project to make it go more simply and/or quickly. Not the other way around.

For example, there are often tedious tasks that the admin has to do for the projects they are working on. If you can offer to do those tasks and save him time, that’s something both your manager and the administrator can agree that you would add value to.

Even though you are doing remedial tasks for the admin, not only are you freeing up his time to be able to train you, but just by being involved you are going to learn a lot. And not just about “systems” in general, but the specific systems and how they are configured in your company.

Knowing about the specific high-level systems, how they are configured, and how they communicate with other systems on your network is value that no one outside the company, no matter how much experience they have can provide… Because they did not set up in configure the systems.

Anyone can be a systems expert, but no one will know the intricacies of how these systems work IN YOUR ORGANIZATION like the people who configured them.

Can you say  JOB SECURITY??

Don’t I just need certifications?

The most common response on how to escape the help desk trap, is to just work on your certifications in which ever field you want to go in… Whether that be systems or network.

And while certifications are certainly a good thing and can only help by showing you are willing to put in the effort to learn some new things, alone, they will not be enough to get you into an administrator role.

I’ve seen too many times people in help desk roles study their butt off getting different certifications, and then just sit there in the same help desk role while their certifications go stale..

Why? Because the people that really care about certifications are IT people, not the people that do the hiring. They care about relevant experience.

Everyone just thinks about themselves, but you need to put yourself in the manager’s shoes.

Why would somebody want to hire you or promote you to network or Sysadmin?… Just because you studied for a certification so they feel bad for you?

Sorry, not gonna happen.

Systems and network administrators hold a lot of responsibility on their shoulders within a company. Every day they prove through their actions that they have the ability to maintain the systems that the company runs on.

If there is a network outage and the business is losing money by the second, is the company going to look for the guy with the most certifications? No. They want the guy who has been in this situation before and knows what to do to get back to production.

If anything, what certifications do is provide both the employer and the employee who holds the certification additional peace of mind, that an accredited IT vendor thinks they are at least knowledgeable enough on paper to get certified.

So then how do I get that administrator position?

As I stated earlier, you need to provide value in the position you want… BEFORE you can get promoted to that position.

You won’t get promoted because YOU think you deserve it… You will only get promoted if you provide the value that DESERVES a promotion.

So are certifications not important?

Certifications are important, you just need to understand their value and where that value can be applied.

It’s a common misconception in the IT community, that if you just study for a certification and pass it.. you will then have that knowledge and skill set to be able to get a higher level job such as a Network or sysadmin… and most of the time this simply isn’t the case.

This is what is called “Paper Certified”

You passed the exam and got that fancy piece of paper that says “You are certified”, but you have never put that knowledge into practice… You simply just have a piece of paper, with no experience to back it up.

While studying for and passing a certification can expose you to new technology and make you more knowledgeable in theory; most companies won’t think this is enough.

The real value of a certification is verification from the vendor that offered the cert that you have the theoretical knowledge to be able to put your skills to work… It does not mean you actually HAVE put the skills to work.

For instance, you wouldn’t let a pilot fly a plane having only passed a pilot’s exam. You would want to know he or she has had experience flying planes before and knows what to do in an emergency because they have been there before.

Just like you wouldn’t hire someone to maintain your network having only passed a certification test. You would want to know they have been in the trenches before and know what to do when push comes to shove.

Experience trumps all.

Obtaining a certification is never a bad idea, it can only help. But if your goal is be promoted or hired in an administrator role, you should focus more of your efforts on experience. You can always obtain your certification after you have some experience under your belt. It’s also so much easier to study and grasp the information for a certification if you already have real world experience working with these systems on a daily basis.

To sum it up

Help desk is a phenomenal starting point for EVERY IT pro, no matter what path you plan to take. I firmly believe this.

You get to get your hands in so many different things that you are likely to find out which aspect of IT really appeals to you…  The problem is, you may not be able to pursue those higher IT aspirations if you get stuck in the Help Desk trap.

If you can remember nothing else from this article, try and take away these four tips.

  • The size of the company you work for is very important. You can get lost in the weeds in a large company.
  • Be vocal about your goals within the company from day 1!
  • No one is going to do you any favors and let you sit in on some network projects… If you do get lucky enough to assist in projects it will be because you are PROVIDING VALUE to the project, not because someone is doing you a favor.
  • Certifications are important, just not as import as experience.