Help desk support can be brutal. I've done it. You often go home exhausted and belittled by abusive callers. You are not in the mood when you get home to crack a book and learn about desktop support or system admin. My advice is to skip the help desk step if you can and go straight to desktop support (or even system admin). The desktop techs at my last job were very busy to the point of being a bit frazzled, but they were typically pretty happy and appreciated. The system admins sat around all day doing very little but were treated like 'heroes'. But the help desk staff, who frequently did the most work, was very unappreciated and abused daily by both callers and other IT staff who the help desk would call from time to time when next level support was required.
Also, you'll hear "Oh, it can't be that bad" hundreds of times from others with happy-go-lucky jobs. Newbies, if you can handle being the first target for a bunch of ANGRY ppl and taking the heat for every fck up and malfunction of any type of the company's shitty products and services, feel free to go this rout. If not, run!!
T Marginau We used to joke that the stress was so bad, we should have looked for jobs as 911 operators instead. At least they get a little respect, and better pay.
+Hans Zarkov So the stories of helpless desk are true then? I was thinking of going into help desk or desktop support out of school. They are teaching us Active directory DNS and DHCP as well but I thought we were supposed to work our way up.
Kev The Gamer Not necessarily. A lot of calls people on a help desk take are 'how to' calls answering questions about proprietary software. For example, many hospitals run an expensive program called 'Epic' that can be customized by each hospital. It's a deep product with many bells and whistles. You won't learn anything about products like these at school. You must be taught at the company that hires you.
i'm currently a desktop support for 7 months right now. it really helps me to become more knowledgeable on the IT field. I really dont have an idea on what to do in my first day but as time goes by, it made me polished to desktops and made me explore the sys admin and the network side. network engineers and sys administrators collaborate to the desktop support groups if the workstations are really working. in that collaboration, it adds me knowledge about their field. now, i'm currently studying networking (R&S) and planning to take a ccna cert. I want to be on a networking field someday.
After working as a Service Desk Analyst for a year and a half with no prior experience, im super happy i did not skip this step as the experience is everything and lots of the work you do in this translates over. It also shows you have some experience as most places are not going to hire a network admin, sys admin, with no experience
I was similarly thrown into the deepend of IT. I actually got expelled from highschool at 15 and my dad did networking so he made me work for him and had me dealing with a multi million dollar contract for VOIP commercial rollout at 16, and it was rediculous like you said how over my head my job was up until I was 18 but hey now I'm a 25 year old IT senior tech lol.
Eli, great advice... I started as a Junior Network Administrator. I finished my CCNA while doing that and my first year there we went from a T1 line with Wireless Yogi's between buildings to a Fiber connections connecting 8 buildings and a new Cisco Phone VOIP system. I was scared out of my pants but it got me ready for the next project and the next and the next after that...
I didn't mind it. It's one of the reasons why I packed a bag full of stuff on tickets. Some people, I had them put in tickets as I was fixing the problem. Some people put in tickets later. If I couldn't fix it then and there I'd let them know why and tell them to put in a ticket. Sometimes with the "Oh, IT guy! While you're here..." comes free food, dept parties, helpful people, back rubs and that scared look on that one worker who tried to treat you like a slave when you're all chummy with their boss, because you got their IPHONE fixed fast.
Times are a lot different than they were decades ago. Companies are more reluctant to provide on the job training and generally expect you to be highly experienced with what your position entails. Yeah they might train you how to use their software, but they aren't many situations like yours anymore. It's not like the 50's where companies will just hire people out of the army and give them all the training they need- now have to take initiative yourself to learn, get certified, etc. Even with the proper certifications, degree, etc, it's highly unlikely you can jump straight into a sysadmin job with no prior technical work experience. The only way I can see such a thing happening is if you had an internship or other experience while in school, or if someone within a company knows you, and can use their position to get you a job.
Excellent video...I'm going to start with my basic certifications and just dive right in once I have Windows and Cisco down with my network plus, security plus, and a few others!
Helpdesk and desktop support (1st and 2nd line) are the boots on the ground. You can never truly appreciate what they do until you've done it yourself. As a Sys admin you can never truly understand the gravity of your system changes unless you've been the person who has had to visit a user's machine because of those changes.
im still in this helpdesk phase. just started last 3 months. damn life is boring here but hey compensation is not that bad lol. maybe in a year or 2. might have to leave and find higher rank job if they wont promote me
oh man, I am so agree with you about the troubleshooting part I was working last year in some company and they had a USB microscope cameras that were REALLY old and worked only with windows XP drivers , and we upgrade all the desktops in the company to windows 10. I was like allright screw this I'm installing Virtual machine of windows XP over that desktop with windows 10. and it was worked completely fine :)
Hello! My name is Kimberly and I've been a preschool teacher for 8 years (2010) but prior to that, I worked at a software company for about a year and a half as a QA tester and customer support for a survey business software that was only 5 years old at the time. I had to laugh at 6:36 where you mentioned that the company you drove to hadn't had support in a few months. Anyway, I stumbled across your video after searching for how to become a network systems administrator. I realized that I use to do a lot of computer user support for friends, family and that survey company way back when and I kind of miss it. Anyway, I enjoyed this video and have subscribed to your channel. Take care.
Ha, I think that's exactly why I was hired at my initial IT job (help desk)--I was the cheapest option. At the time it worked out for me, but it kind of sucks that this is how businesses operate.
I can't express how much I relate to this video at my current job as of right now. I actually work as a System Administrator and everything you described right here is basically what happened to me. Lol
I'm almost 33 now and changed careers 1 year ago, from mechanical engineering to IT, I like my job now, even as a help desk, it feels easier to rise, and its cool, interesting and more importantly, it's very useful for day to day life
I started out as pure desktop support and eventually moved on to "Infrastructure Engineer" which is a system admin, network, security and help desk combined role at my current employer. Having to answer phone calls and fix petty little issues is annoying, especially when you're responsible for maintaining the data-center and applications for a multi-billion dollar company, only serving as a drain and distraction, but the up-side is I get a lot of experience in other areas with this role. To anyone looking into the IT industry or already in it, skip help desk roles unless you're looking to get your foot in the door at companies like Google. IBM, etc.
Ghostman80 If you're a developer and not doing support for external clients (as that is essentially a help desk role) then yes, way better. The main issue I see with web development/programming nowadays is that they expect you to know every language under the sun, but hey...when you're making $100k-$150k+ you can excuse having to learn multiple languages. When you get coding jobs companies are pretty lenient about letting you work from home as well while us Infrastructure/Desktop Support guys have to be in the office every single day, even on supposed holidays. There have been many a time where the office closed early and/or everybody went to happy hour, but I had to stay and do my full time.
+Killngorillas I just started a desktop support role(part time), been there little over a month now, I walk around a building and help employees with their computer issues. Sometimes I dont know what to do and I just panic internally when their Microsoft surface has blinking video. I wanted to get into IT in the first place cause I thought I didnt I'd have to interact with people that much, but its the opposite lol. I have to update a lot of machines to windows 10 right now, and install all their apps shit like that. They call their web developers "programmers" there. It seems like they treat them better. I work with two system admins and I m their bitch pretty much, but they are pretty cool overall. I can see myself doing this for a year but after that, hopefully I gain enough knowledge to get into a better IT role or just learn web development/design. I just want to feel confident in whatever I m doing, and right now its kind've awkward. I feel like I know enough to get my foot in the door, but thats about it.
Ghostman80 I think the first mistake I made was going against people's advice and leaving my first job 2 years in. I should've stuck it out a couple more years. In the end it worked out, as I tripled my salary after a year, but if I had 5 solid years of experience under my belt the transition and job search would've been easier (you can write your own check as they say.) If you're eyeing programming though it might be better to start learning now and quickly switch jobs since that's a different field (unless you're eyeing to be a systems admin which does do coding.) Although learning how a computer actually works and the basics of troubleshooting will help you TREMENDOUSLY in your career and throughout life. Keep going to school and getting certifications too during your first couple years, it helps a lot.
+Killngorillas I m thinking about school again. The community college here offers certs(trade programs) here. I just have a issue with working for someone else, I would like to get into freelancing or being self employed in IT or web dev or whatever, but for now I m going to stick with this desktop support job as long as I can. I just hope I learn enough at this job to move on to something better. Either at my current company or somewhere else or just do 1099 work that pays well, seems pretty flexible.
If you get lucky, yes you can land a sysadmin job if your half way competent in the job interview. They can teach you if they're looking to go down that road. I was lucky and was hired straight out of college as a sysadmin. Only had a 2 year degree and drive.
ive always wanted to be a network admin, started my first job after college as a software engineer, but the program we were dealing with re-awakened my network admin desire, so i took up cisco hoping it'd get me to where i want to be, now im a network and systems admin, i love my job and yes this video now made me realize to go swim and not sink :)
Hey, yea sure. so they hired me. I didn't knew anything by that time, but they said to me , we are not expecting from you a lot , you gotta keep listening and learning. So first days at work i was just reading stuff on company's intranet, preparing workplaces for other new people. drawing tables in excel and so on. Now they are giving me bigger jobs, with more resposibility. I do all those jobs 2-3 times longer , but i'm learning. And my boss see that I'm tryng and his positive about that. If you have more questions , so go on.
First of all thanks for the reply. Got 1 question - how many sysAdmins are specialisations are there? I mean we have Admin for network and security, desktop and so on. Can you share opinion about them?
Great video Ely ! i am 21 years old and started working as a systems administrator a year ago, and just like you, i didn´t had any experience in the field and i can resemble my self in your history because i kinda happened to me too :) keep up with your great work !!
+KkGerman00 Nice! How did you get the job may I ask? Personally I'm working towards being a linux admin and studying to go get my RHCSA cert and setting up a homelab, any advice would be much appreciated!
I know this video is a few years old now, but I can relate on so many levels. I did cyber ops in USAF for 4 years, had a contract desktop support job for HP/NMCI a couple years after , but left IT all together after that to pursue some “adventure” jobs. Now after like 8 years I’m back (because combat jobs/ fitness jobs have terrible pay) trying to get re acquainted with all the IT changes that of happened since I’ve left. And now I realize for most of the requirements higher paying IT jobs have, my little bit of previous IT training really wasn’t enough
Subbed! Awesome video! I can totally relate, been in the IT industry for around 4 years now, i did start at the bottom pit as an Apple Technical Support, and now, wintel sys admin. I even had the desktop support and help desk roles lol.
Thanks. I have a third interview with a company as a Junior Sysadmin next week even though I have only 1 year of part time helpdesk experience and reading reddit was freaking me out. The IS managers specifically mentioned that they liked my drive and github projects, didn't ask 1 thing about my completely unrelated degree or the fact that I had no certs. I was getting real scared because they want me to interview with the whole team next and I was terrified they'd ask me some tech question I couldn't answer, but this made me feel a lot better.
@@AnotherPersonStoppingBy Haha, funny story. I got the job but some internal politics happened on their end (hint: it was a private US insurance company and it was looking like republicans were going to lose the election, lol.) and it fell through. The next week I got an offer as a network Engineer at an ISP, and they were one of the clients! I built a relationship with them through there, and they were really apologetic about the whole thing. I ended up leaving the isp 1.5 years later for a job as an internal network admin, and they tried to hire me when they got word I left but it was too late because I was 2 weeks in at my new job and they weren't really offering more. It worked out in the end because my best friend happened to be job hunting at the same time and they ended up giving the job to him when I referred him. Sometimes life works out really funny.
Great video, I climbed the ladder, but when I finally became Sysadmin, I learned more in 1 year than I did in past 5 years climbing that ladder. Basically main sysadmin left and I had to put out fires.
I think it's GREAT all the information YOU offer free for learning to Anyone Interested. Thank You .Ps.Pray That Those INTERESTED WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE Of All You GOT TO OFFER. Thks. Again. Name Unknown but Greatful
lol..Thanks for sharing..I had a similar scenario. I was only building game desktop at home. This one large office IT guy quit..and one of the staff knew me and out of their desperation called me in..and omg, I had a crash course in DC, firewall etc..Anyways, several months later the office manager said.." our staffs really like you...would you respond to our calls when needed. I'll start with $3500/month guaranteed and you don't have to be onsite". It's something like that.
This sounds pretty much like me, you nailed the part where you said they don't necessarily offer you the job for your experience, it was also motivation and lots of dedication in my case that made me their guy to consider, although i hope i figure it out quickly how to go on about my role.
I got directly into a sysadmin role. However I was preparing myself for that throughout my bachelors and masters degree in IT. It is the job I wanted for years. And I have a senior that I think is pretty solid.
Eli, I'm in the same position! I have my network+ and working on my MCSA Server 2016. I just got hired as a systems administrator for a car dealership that has 13 locations. I'm in WAAAY OVER MY HEAD! I have no idea how I'm gonna do this. My first task will be deploying AD so the computers on their main campus network can be managed.
Yep, that's how I got in. I could barely setup an RLL hard drive and was sent on a call for a NetWare 2.10 server crashing. It was me, a large greenhouse company, a crashed server and a big stack of red manuals. I figured it out and got them back up. That was 30 years ago.
It is in some places that are small or don't have in house support. Help Desk is where the customer calls and you walk them through them or remote in. Desktop Support is when you go to the customers desk and do it for them and play around with Active Directory and imaging.
Love this video! Straight talk no Bull. parts of Eli's story made me lol, thanks for the vide Eli. I have a interview with Amazon and this put me at ease really.
Each path is different and equally interesting. I started out pushing main frames around a warehouse floor in Germany in 1990. Then In 1992/ 93 testing IBM AS400 and PC's. In 1999 installing workstations for GM in the Y2K update craze. An finally in 2001 sys admin for unix and windows servers. I left the game in 2009, now I'm trying to get back in. Hopefully not pushing main frames around a warehouse floor...😇😇😇
😂 The same thing I am facing it now, I am passing through hell now but what most important I am so excited with the hope that I will not be kicked out after few weeks 😂😅... and thanks for sharing your case indeed it is motivational 🙏
as a help desk is it worth your skills what your college is teaching you because I'm pretty sure "IT" is not a scale industry But I love helping clients out and communicating with clients and fixing computer. I'm a newbby still learning how these servers work and networking work. some people might think why don't you just work at geek squad but the reason I chosen this program is I want to go further then just fixing client computers.
it depends... I'm sysadmin where I work, but our IT dept is pretty small, 1 sysadmin (me) and a programmer. Which means the sysadmin does the IT job as well... So having a background in tech support helps immensely.
Eli - 100 % true - Take the highest possition avalible, I wanted an administrator job off the bat but stumbled along the path(education). If possible dont go the long way like me - assisting janitor(3 years), to IT-support(4 years) to IT-Administraor(6 years), to IT-manager(2 years). If possible go to administrator directly and get some understanding of it-support later. I was white in the face a couple of times and had a few dog years (lots), but that gave me 2-6 x the experiece of my elders, and a few years later I had most experience in the company although I had least years in the company and youngest- which gave me the chance to apply for manager - also not a job for anyone - I have come to realise that you need lots of other skills for IT-manager. Wide experience in IT. People skills which you might not need as sysamin depending on the size of company. Able to listen, able to take shit for the team, able to dish out shit to the team.... And one standout thing, be able to prioritize, and lay the puzzle that is peoples workassignments/ vaccations/ take people for what they are and give and so forth.
I have experience of 3 months as IT technician 7 months as service desk and 9 months as call center. All from 2009 and 2015, should I put it in the resume? Spent 2 years off on a volunteer job as a missionary. I’m asking because my current experiences are as Dock Clerk and Administrative assistant. So my resume doesn’t have that much to do with what I want. 😅🤣
But the problem is when you get entry level job the only available is tobe a desktop support or help desk firts bec on IT support jo they need a 2 or more years of experience, i thinkits your skills where yo wanna go to far in IT
Hey Eli, What are the topics of the books on the shelf behind you? I see some of them but many are so blurry I cant see them. Still trying to get my CCNA
Good Video thank you. I was lucky enough to skip to a SAN Analyst without any server/networking/vmware/vsphere, etc experience. I get very good pay but with this type of luck you are scared to lose your job. How can you not be scared? can you help.
VERY...VERY...VERY...VERY...SIMILAR EXPERIENCES WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. Needless to say, imagine being thrown at both NIPRNET and SIPRNET systems "as a noob" as a Cybersecurity Systems Support Engineer. With that being said, I learned a lot during my love and hate relationship. However, I am fortunate I kept swimming - that would place me at my current role today; earning double the rate I earned. P.S. Benjamin I don't know why, but for some reason I feel like I know you. Like, it's almost as if you worked with me here in the Washington, DC/Maryland/Virginia area; as if we shared brews at a happy hour somewhere laughing about our "experiences in IT" lol.
Yes you do. No company will hire you as a SysAdmin without helpdesk AND desktop support experience. You have to crawl before you walk. That is the chain of command.
You will be crawling a long time in the IT field...not worth the headache.A Surgical tech cert can be done half the time & twice the pay. Even truckers make better money within the first year vs 5-10 years in IT
Nope. I was just hired as a System Admin with no degree, certs, or help desk on my resume. As Eli said, I'm also way in over my head but I skipped to the top. Now if I can only keep my head above the water...
+Quietsoul180: It depends. Everywhere I've worked (unless you're the lone ranger), you've got 3-6 weeks to really learn the swing of things and get acclimated. You've always got to learn new workflows, documentation, culture, etc. Some places do a good job of onboarding, others not so much. Source: current sysadmin
Hello all, I am now working in Helpdesk Support and I plan to take MCSA courses. After taking these courses, leave helpdesk, am I gonna land as a server admin? Thanks for the advices
I actually did tier 2 and some network. Last contract I did tier 1 help desk. Honestly not that bad. Even with overwhelming calls etc. The worst part was my tier 1 boss low key had it in for desktop and network people. Because 2 managed to escape her. So she decided to take out all her bullshit on me and then tried to throw the desktop in my face for almost the whole shift. Before that point I was helping out her dept a lot. So I bounced. Cause anything I did or say to her wasn't going to help my case and she knew that. But the mentality of tier 1 people people in general towards clients is horrible. Yeah clients are frantic etc their shit's broke and they can't do their job. Or ticket info put in, isn't accurate. But as tier 2 we're facing the pent up rage from them dealing with automated and tier 1. I've actually encountered a tier 1 person being rude to a nice client. One of the guys I was training was from tier 1 and the shit he talked and his behavior towards clients was bad. And he was one of the better Tier 1.
Wow how did you manage to do that? I been doing desktop support for over 14 years so I’m pretty well versed but coding interests me. Maybe not sql database but I’d like to get away from having to do so much physical and complaints from users for various PC related issues. DbA is am excellent role and surely any IT angle away from IT support will be a much more lucrative career! Especially when you specialize in your trade that not too many can understand. That’s when they pay you the big big bucks.
Same here... I got hired for a help desk role in a health care system environment. Way to much technology, that when someone calls to create a ticket, they expect me to know the answer. Also all of the KB look more like white papers than actual KB's. .. So for now I'll struggle but it will get better soon??
It’s simple really. Don’t do Helpdesk/desktop support (level 1-2) more than 1-5 years otherwise you’ll get stuck in that rabbit hole cycle of despair and misery and never get out and wonder where the last 10+ years of your career aspirations went.
I'd say the same as Hans Skip the help desk role sucks I hate customer service too I like to do more hands on work.... So guys become a System admin try to start off as NOC or a technician or Network Analyst or Systems analyst.... I did desktop support and got job after as a network technician now I'll be promoted to a higher position finally Network Analyst it all depends on what your looking for as well and keep your certs up to date.... I can't wait to move my way up to Network Specialist then Admin and engineer then finally Network Architect :) !!!!
So your answer to do you need to be in helpdesk before becoming a sysadmin is: No, just work a really stressfull job with low pay, lots of resposibility, no training and figure it all out from there.
"Skip as far ahead as they are stupid enough to let you go." Amen to that brotha!
some real ass talk right there
love that too and i am a old school guy. 42 bs in computer info systems. technical specialist basically doing desktop support
@@thegreatessendi why don't you apply for sys admin job bro
That feeling of "I'm an IT guy!" Gets dashed so quick when you run into real problems.
Help desk support can be brutal. I've done it. You often go home exhausted and belittled by abusive callers. You are not in the mood when you get home to crack a book and learn about desktop support or system admin. My advice is to skip the help desk step if you can and go straight to desktop support (or even system admin). The desktop techs at my last job were very busy to the point of being a bit frazzled, but they were typically pretty happy and appreciated. The system admins sat around all day doing very little but were treated like 'heroes'. But the help desk staff, who frequently did the most work, was very unappreciated and abused daily by both callers and other IT staff who the help desk would call from time to time when next level support was required.
Also, you'll hear "Oh, it can't be that bad" hundreds of times from others with happy-go-lucky jobs.
Newbies, if you can handle being the first target for a bunch of ANGRY ppl and taking the heat for every fck up and malfunction of any type of the company's shitty products and services, feel free to go this rout. If not, run!!
T Marginau
We used to joke that the stress was so bad, we should have looked for jobs as 911 operators instead. At least they get a little respect, and better pay.
+Hans Zarkov So the stories of helpless desk are true then? I was thinking of going into help desk or desktop support out of school. They are teaching us Active directory DNS and DHCP as well but I thought we were supposed to work our way up.
Kev The Gamer
Not necessarily. A lot of calls people on a help desk take are 'how to' calls answering questions about proprietary software. For example, many hospitals run an expensive program called 'Epic' that can be customized by each hospital. It's a deep product with many bells and whistles. You won't learn anything about products like these at school. You must be taught at the company that hires you.
i'm currently a desktop support for 7 months right now. it really helps me to become more knowledgeable on the IT field. I really dont have an idea on what to do in my first day but as time goes by, it made me polished to desktops and made me explore the sys admin and the network side. network engineers and sys administrators collaborate to the desktop support groups if the workstations are really working. in that collaboration, it adds me knowledge about their field. now, i'm currently studying networking (R&S) and planning to take a ccna cert. I want to be on a networking field someday.
This story makes me feel really good about going into IT not going to lie, gives me hope I appreciate it and your service as well.
After working as a Service Desk Analyst for a year and a half with no prior experience, im super happy i did not skip this step as the experience is everything and lots of the work you do in this translates over. It also shows you have some experience as most places are not going to hire a network admin, sys admin, with no experience
17 minute eli video means 14 minutes of backstory
Come for an answer, stay for the story
I was similarly thrown into the deepend of IT. I actually got expelled from highschool at 15 and my dad did networking so he made me work for him and had me dealing with a multi million dollar contract for VOIP commercial rollout at 16, and it was rediculous like you said how over my head my job was up until I was 18 but hey now I'm a 25 year old IT senior tech lol.
You're so lucky 😒
Eli, great advice... I started as a Junior Network Administrator. I finished my CCNA while doing that and my first year there we went from a T1 line with Wireless Yogi's between buildings to a Fiber connections connecting 8 buildings and a new Cisco Phone VOIP system. I was scared out of my pants but it got me ready for the next project and the next and the next after that...
6:21, YES!!! This is the life of EVERY IT PERSON! "Oh, IT guy! While you're here..."
I didn't mind it. It's one of the reasons why I packed a bag full of stuff on tickets. Some people, I had them put in tickets as I was fixing the problem. Some people put in tickets later. If I couldn't fix it then and there I'd let them know why and tell them to put in a ticket. Sometimes with the "Oh, IT guy! While you're here..." comes free food, dept parties, helpful people, back rubs and that scared look on that one worker who tried to treat you like a slave when you're all chummy with their boss, because you got their IPHONE fixed fast.
We used to refer to that as the OBTW (oh by the way...)
saying no is key but I just goootttta be the hero...3 hours later.
Never fails
Welp, on-the-job training that's what you ask for.
Times are a lot different than they were decades ago. Companies are more reluctant to provide on the job training and generally expect you to be highly experienced with what your position entails. Yeah they might train you how to use their software, but they aren't many situations like yours anymore. It's not like the 50's where companies will just hire people out of the army and give them all the training they need- now have to take initiative yourself to learn, get certified, etc.
Even with the proper certifications, degree, etc, it's highly unlikely you can jump straight into a sysadmin job with no prior technical work experience. The only way I can see such a thing happening is if you had an internship or other experience while in school, or if someone within a company knows you, and can use their position to get you a job.
Even more true today than it was when you wrote this
@@marklampo8164 what a stupid thing to say.
I can relate to this story . Once hired IT specially as junior they expect you to know everything once it incudes a circuit board.
If it plugs in, you support it
Excellent video...I'm going to start with my basic certifications and just dive right in once I have Windows and Cisco down with my network plus, security plus, and a few others!
Helpdesk and desktop support (1st and 2nd line) are the boots on the ground. You can never truly appreciate what they do until you've done it yourself. As a Sys admin you can never truly understand the gravity of your system changes unless you've been the person who has had to visit a user's machine because of those changes.
+Firstname Lastname I've been there... It sucked!
im still in this helpdesk phase. just started last 3 months. damn life is boring here but hey compensation is not that bad lol. maybe in a year or 2. might have to leave and find higher rank job if they wont promote me
love the real message! We are so stuck in building up the multiple skills that we stuck in one place for years. Thank you!
oh man, I am so agree with you about the troubleshooting part
I was working last year in some company and they had a USB microscope cameras that were REALLY old and worked only with windows XP drivers , and we upgrade all the desktops in the company to windows 10.
I was like allright screw this I'm installing Virtual machine of windows XP over that desktop with windows 10.
and it was worked completely fine :)
Hello! My name is Kimberly and I've been a preschool teacher for 8 years (2010) but prior to that, I worked at a software company for about a year and a half as a QA tester and customer support for a survey business software that was only 5 years old at the time. I had to laugh at 6:36 where you mentioned that the company you drove to hadn't had support in a few months. Anyway, I stumbled across your video after searching for how to become a network systems administrator. I realized that I use to do a lot of computer user support for friends, family and that survey company way back when and I kind of miss it. Anyway, I enjoyed this video and have subscribed to your channel. Take care.
Ha, I think that's exactly why I was hired at my initial IT job (help desk)--I was the cheapest option. At the time it worked out for me, but it kind of sucks that this is how businesses operate.
I can't express how much I relate to this video at my current job as of right now. I actually work as a System Administrator and everything you described right here is basically what happened to me. Lol
I'm almost 33 now and changed careers 1 year ago, from mechanical engineering to IT, I like my job now, even as a help desk, it feels easier to rise, and its cool, interesting and more importantly, it's very useful for day to day life
Quite unusual!
From engineering to IT support?
Why so if I may ask?
I started out as pure desktop support and eventually moved on to "Infrastructure Engineer" which is a system admin, network, security and help desk combined role at my current employer. Having to answer phone calls and fix petty little issues is annoying, especially when you're responsible for maintaining the data-center and applications for a multi-billion dollar company, only serving as a drain and distraction, but the up-side is I get a lot of experience in other areas with this role. To anyone looking into the IT industry or already in it, skip help desk roles unless you're looking to get your foot in the door at companies like Google. IBM, etc.
What about learning java script html, and CSS? Do they treat those guys better?
Ghostman80 If you're a developer and not doing support for external clients (as that is essentially a help desk role) then yes, way better. The main issue I see with web development/programming nowadays is that they expect you to know every language under the sun, but hey...when you're making $100k-$150k+ you can excuse having to learn multiple languages.
When you get coding jobs companies are pretty lenient about letting you work from home as well while us Infrastructure/Desktop Support guys have to be in the office every single day, even on supposed holidays. There have been many a time where the office closed early and/or everybody went to happy hour, but I had to stay and do my full time.
+Killngorillas I just started a desktop support role(part time), been there little over a month now, I walk around a building and help employees with their computer issues. Sometimes I dont know what to do and I just panic internally when their Microsoft surface has blinking video. I wanted to get into IT in the first place cause I thought I didnt I'd have to interact with people that much, but its the opposite lol. I have to update a lot of machines to windows 10 right now, and install all their apps shit like that.
They call their web developers "programmers" there. It seems like they treat them better. I work with two system admins and I m their bitch pretty much, but they are pretty cool overall. I can see myself doing this for a year but after that, hopefully I gain enough knowledge to get into a better IT role or just learn web development/design. I just want to feel confident in whatever I m doing, and right now its kind've awkward. I feel like I know enough to get my foot in the door, but thats about it.
Ghostman80 I think the first mistake I made was going against people's advice and leaving my first job 2 years in. I should've stuck it out a couple more years. In the end it worked out, as I tripled my salary after a year, but if I had 5 solid years of experience under my belt the transition and job search would've been easier (you can write your own check as they say.)
If you're eyeing programming though it might be better to start learning now and quickly switch jobs since that's a different field (unless you're eyeing to be a systems admin which does do coding.) Although learning how a computer actually works and the basics of troubleshooting will help you TREMENDOUSLY in your career and throughout life.
Keep going to school and getting certifications too during your first couple years, it helps a lot.
+Killngorillas I m thinking about school again. The community college here offers certs(trade programs) here. I just have a issue with working for someone else, I would like to get into freelancing or being self employed in IT or web dev or whatever, but for now I m going to stick with this desktop support job as long as I can. I just hope I learn enough at this job to move on to something better. Either at my current company or somewhere else or just do 1099 work that pays well, seems pretty flexible.
i just watched your video and it was so helpful the way you tell us that every person its able to do what pursuits.... happy to know you Eli
If you get lucky, yes you can land a sysadmin job if your half way competent in the job interview. They can teach you if they're looking to go down that road. I was lucky and was hired straight out of college as a sysadmin. Only had a 2 year degree and drive.
ive always wanted to be a network admin, started my first job after college as a software engineer, but the program we were dealing with re-awakened my network admin desire, so i took up cisco hoping it'd get me to where i want to be, now im a network and systems admin, i love my job and yes this video now made me realize to go swim and not sink :)
I got a mis and about to start my first it job as a sysadmin. I was nervous until i saw this video
After 2 hours , gotta go for SysAdmin job interview. Now i feel a lot better after your video!
Hey, yea sure. so they hired me. I didn't knew anything by that time, but they said to me , we are not expecting from you a lot , you gotta keep listening and learning. So first days at work i was just reading stuff on company's intranet, preparing workplaces for other new people. drawing tables in excel and so on. Now they are giving me bigger jobs, with more resposibility. I do all those jobs 2-3 times longer , but i'm learning. And my boss see that I'm tryng and his positive about that. If you have more questions , so go on.
First of all thanks for the reply. Got 1 question - how many sysAdmins are specialisations are there? I mean we have Admin for network and security, desktop and so on. Can you share opinion about them?
Aurimas Makšeckas hey! What’s your salary looking like??
1:03
I know I'm not the only one that heard it...
No, you are not the only one. Lol
+Lich Lord 7:22 as well!
+Lich Lord Cheese cut!
Add 13:46 to that.
Add 16:45 to that. this guy is on a roll, LOL
This has been the cure to my imposter syndrome. Thank you.
Great video, I am a firm believer of every job adds to your resume, being thrown in the deep end gave you the experience you need.
Still relevant in 2020!! I love this guy!
"uhhh okay" lol my first day as a Field Technician
ThaShadowKing hahaha 😂
Great video Ely ! i am 21 years old and started working as a systems administrator a year ago, and just like you, i didn´t had any experience in the field and i can resemble my self in your history because i kinda happened to me too :) keep up with your great work !!
+KkGerman00 Nice! How did you get the job may I ask? Personally I'm working towards being a linux admin and studying to go get my RHCSA cert and setting up a homelab, any advice would be much appreciated!
Lol, when you told about that guy telling you to go to the shared folders (neighborhood), i already new what's to come! hilarious!
I know this video is a few years old now, but I can relate on so many levels. I did cyber ops in USAF for 4 years, had a contract desktop support job for HP/NMCI a couple years after , but left IT all together after that to pursue some “adventure” jobs. Now after like 8 years I’m back (because combat jobs/ fitness jobs have terrible pay) trying to get re acquainted with all the IT changes that of happened since I’ve left. And now I realize for most of the requirements higher paying IT jobs have, my little bit of previous IT training really wasn’t enough
Subbed! Awesome video! I can totally relate, been in the IT industry for around 4 years now, i did start at the bottom pit as an Apple Technical Support, and now, wintel sys admin. I even had the desktop support and help desk roles lol.
I like you Eli. You are very helpful.
Thanks. I have a third interview with a company as a Junior Sysadmin next week even though I have only 1 year of part time helpdesk experience and reading reddit was freaking me out. The IS managers specifically mentioned that they liked my drive and github projects, didn't ask 1 thing about my completely unrelated degree or the fact that I had no certs. I was getting real scared because they want me to interview with the whole team next and I was terrified they'd ask me some tech question I couldn't answer, but this made me feel a lot better.
How'd it go?
@@AnotherPersonStoppingBy Haha, funny story. I got the job but some internal politics happened on their end (hint: it was a private US insurance company and it was looking like republicans were going to lose the election, lol.) and it fell through. The next week I got an offer as a network Engineer at an ISP, and they were one of the clients! I built a relationship with them through there, and they were really apologetic about the whole thing. I ended up leaving the isp 1.5 years later for a job as an internal network admin, and they tried to hire me when they got word I left but it was too late because I was 2 weeks in at my new job and they weren't really offering more. It worked out in the end because my best friend happened to be job hunting at the same time and they ended up giving the job to him when I referred him. Sometimes life works out really funny.
@@zachsilva6201 Wow! What a ride, haha. Glad it all worked out for you!
Great video, I climbed the ladder, but when I finally became Sysadmin, I learned more in 1 year than I did in past 5 years climbing that ladder. Basically main sysadmin left and I had to put out fires.
In the same boat! Thanks for sharing your experience.
Thank you SO much for your videos. They've been invaluable in helping me understand and plan out my career path.
This was SUPER HELPFUL
This is a great story. Your struggles and thoughts are so understandable. Good advice too.
Man your way of talking is just dam taking everything easy and thanks for this wonderful words this motivated me alot thanks bro
I think it's GREAT all the information YOU offer free for learning to Anyone Interested. Thank You .Ps.Pray That Those INTERESTED WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE Of All You GOT TO OFFER. Thks. Again. Name Unknown but Greatful
lol..Thanks for sharing..I had a similar scenario. I was only building game desktop at home. This one large office IT guy quit..and one of the staff knew me and out of their desperation called me in..and omg, I had a crash course in DC, firewall etc..Anyways, several months later the office manager said.." our staffs really like you...would you respond to our calls when needed. I'll start with $3500/month guaranteed and you don't have to be onsite". It's something like that.
Thank you for sharing these worthy experiences !
first vid i watch on this channel, and just got hooked up... great storytelling, and really educating
This sounds pretty much like me, you nailed the part where you said they
don't necessarily offer you the job for your experience, it was also
motivation and lots of dedication in my case that made me their guy to
consider, although i hope i figure it out quickly how to go on about my role.
I got directly into a sysadmin role. However I was preparing myself for that throughout my bachelors and masters degree in IT. It is the job I wanted for years. And I have a senior that I think is pretty solid.
Great advice that when applied strategically is invaluable. Thank you.
i am seeing my self in your past thanks it was the best video in my carrier
I dont normally watch these kinds of videos to their entirety.
but man this was good. it's just so relateable! hahaha
Eli, I'm in the same position! I have my network+ and working on my MCSA Server 2016. I just got hired as a systems administrator for a car dealership that has 13 locations. I'm in WAAAY OVER MY HEAD! I have no idea how I'm gonna do this. My first task will be deploying AD so the computers on their main campus network can be managed.
Congrats bro. Hope you already figured everything out
4 years later... how'd it go?
Yep, that's how I got in. I could barely setup an RLL hard drive and was sent on a call for a NetWare 2.10 server crashing. It was me, a large greenhouse company, a crashed server and a big stack of red manuals. I figured it out and got them back up. That was 30 years ago.
Help desk and desktop support is the exact same thing
It is in some places that are small or don't have in house support. Help Desk is where the customer calls and you walk them through them or remote in. Desktop Support is when you go to the customers desk and do it for them and play around with Active Directory and imaging.
Great story, thanks for sharing. :-) Love it when you share your experiences.
Wow, I definitely agree 100 percent!
Thank you so much for this motivational and funny 😄 Story. Your knowledge is priceless, we appreciate you sharing your thoughts and wisdom.
Love this video! Straight talk no Bull. parts of Eli's story made me lol, thanks for the vide Eli. I have a interview with Amazon and this put me at ease really.
Each path is different and equally interesting. I started out pushing main frames around a warehouse floor in Germany in 1990. Then In 1992/ 93 testing IBM AS400 and PC's. In 1999 installing workstations for GM in the Y2K update craze. An finally in 2001 sys admin for unix and windows servers. I left the game in 2009, now I'm trying to get back in. Hopefully not pushing main frames around a warehouse floor...😇😇😇
2018 and still I found a lesson. Thank you
😂 The same thing I am facing it now, I am passing through hell now but what most important I am so excited with the hope that I will not be kicked out after few weeks 😂😅... and thanks for sharing your case indeed it is motivational 🙏
Im only planning on doing helpdesk for 1 year or less and keep moving up as fast as I can lol
How is it going?
It's all about troubleshooting baby!!!!
as a help desk is it worth your skills what your college is teaching you because I'm pretty sure "IT" is not a scale industry But I love helping clients out and communicating with clients and fixing computer. I'm a newbby still learning how these servers work and networking work. some people might think why don't you just work at geek squad but the reason I chosen this program is I want to go further then just fixing client computers.
Cant believe I watched all of this. Helps that you're funny
This was a great listen, I can relate so much.
it depends... I'm sysadmin where I work, but our IT dept is pretty small, 1 sysadmin (me) and a programmer. Which means the sysadmin does the IT job as well... So having a background in tech support helps immensely.
That's an experience I wanted to go thru!
Wow... this so painfully accurate--down to the very last detail.
LMFAO.... Dude this is so damn good!!
That's why I enjoy watching The Eli Computer Guy......
Eli - 100 % true - Take the highest possition avalible, I wanted an administrator job off the bat but stumbled along the path(education). If possible dont go the long way like me - assisting janitor(3 years), to IT-support(4 years) to IT-Administraor(6 years), to IT-manager(2 years).
If possible go to administrator directly and get some understanding of it-support later.
I was white in the face a couple of times and had a few dog years (lots), but that gave me 2-6 x the experiece of my elders, and a few years later I had most experience in the company although I had least years in the company and youngest- which gave me the chance to apply for manager - also not a job for anyone - I have come to realise that you need lots of other skills for IT-manager.
Wide experience in IT. People skills which you might not need as sysamin depending on the size of company. Able to listen, able to take shit for the team, able to dish out shit to the team....
And one standout thing, be able to prioritize, and lay the puzzle that is peoples workassignments/ vaccations/ take people for what they are and give and so forth.
This is really a very good life experience of the Desktop engineer.
Help, I skipped too much and I am now the server. What can I do?
13:44 nice fart! 😂😂
:)
I have experience of 3 months as IT technician 7 months as service desk and 9 months as call center. All from 2009 and 2015, should I put it in the resume? Spent 2 years off on a volunteer job as a missionary.
I’m asking because my current experiences are as Dock Clerk and Administrative assistant. So my resume doesn’t have that much to do with what I want. 😅🤣
Great advice!
Can I land a network Job with AAS in computer network from a community college with no prior experience?
But the problem is when you get entry level job the only available is tobe a desktop support or help desk firts bec on IT support jo they need a 2 or more years of experience, i thinkits your skills where yo wanna go to far in IT
I directly became a junior sysadmin. However I finished a IT masters degree at the top of my class.
Why is my mouse not working?
FIX IT SON OF A B....
I like the robot arm in the back, I had one as a kid
Hey Eli, What are the topics of the books on the shelf behind you? I see some of them but many are so blurry I cant see them. Still trying to get my CCNA
Hi Eli I have the interest in system administrator, what am I suppose to do and become perfect like you.
I remember AOL being a pain in the ass. That's around the time I was starting to mess with computers as a kid.
Good Video thank you. I was lucky enough to skip to a SAN Analyst without any server/networking/vmware/vsphere, etc experience. I get very good pay but with this type of luck you are scared to lose your job. How can you not be scared? can you help.
VERY...VERY...VERY...VERY...SIMILAR EXPERIENCES WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. Needless to say, imagine being thrown at both NIPRNET and SIPRNET systems "as a noob" as a Cybersecurity Systems Support Engineer. With that being said, I learned a lot during my love and hate relationship. However, I am fortunate I kept swimming - that would place me at my current role today; earning double the rate I earned.
P.S. Benjamin I don't know why, but for some reason I feel like I know you. Like, it's almost as if you worked with me here in the Washington, DC/Maryland/Virginia area; as if we shared brews at a happy hour somewhere laughing about our "experiences in IT" lol.
Same experience with being thrown on nipr sipr. Definitely had to learn to swim
video make me crack up. Love you videos man, thanks for the story
Yes you do. No company will hire you as a SysAdmin without helpdesk AND desktop support experience. You have to crawl before you walk. That is the chain of command.
Not every time! ;)
Lol, I did
You will be crawling a long time in the IT field...not worth the headache.A Surgical tech cert can be done half the time & twice the pay. Even truckers make better money within the first year vs 5-10 years in IT
Nope. I was just hired as a System Admin with no degree, certs, or help desk on my resume. As Eli said, I'm also way in over my head but I skipped to the top. Now if I can only keep my head above the water...
What is the difference between help desk and desktop support?
Did they pay for your mentorship for 3 weeks??? do computer tech jobs pay for training or orientation???
Quietsoul180 I would like to know this as well.
+Quietsoul180:
It depends. Everywhere I've worked (unless you're the lone ranger), you've got 3-6 weeks to really learn the swing of things and get acclimated. You've always got to learn new workflows, documentation, culture, etc. Some places do a good job of onboarding, others not so much.
Source: current sysadmin
Hello all, I am now working in Helpdesk Support and I plan to take MCSA courses. After taking these courses, leave helpdesk, am I gonna land as a server admin? Thanks for the advices
I actually did tier 2 and some network. Last contract I did tier 1 help desk. Honestly not that bad. Even with overwhelming calls etc. The worst part was my tier 1 boss low key had it in for desktop and network people. Because 2 managed to escape her. So she decided to take out all her bullshit on me and then tried to throw the desktop in my face for almost the whole shift. Before that point I was helping out her dept a lot. So I bounced. Cause anything I did or say to her wasn't going to help my case and she knew that.
But the mentality of tier 1 people people in general towards clients is horrible. Yeah clients are frantic etc their shit's broke and they can't do their job. Or ticket info put in, isn't accurate. But as tier 2 we're facing the pent up rage from them dealing with automated and tier 1. I've actually encountered a tier 1 person being rude to a nice client. One of the guys I was training was from tier 1 and the shit he talked and his behavior towards clients was bad. And he was one of the better Tier 1.
Went straight to L3 SQL DBA. If I had to work my way through an L1 helpdesk, I would have quit.
Wow how did you manage to do that? I been doing desktop support for over 14 years so I’m pretty well versed but coding interests me. Maybe not sql database but I’d like to get away from having to do so much physical and complaints from users for various PC related issues. DbA is am excellent role and surely any IT angle away from IT support will be a much more lucrative career! Especially when you specialize in your trade that not too many can understand. That’s when they pay you the big big bucks.
Same here... I got hired for a help desk role in a health care system environment. Way to much technology, that when someone calls to create a ticket, they expect me to know the answer. Also all of the KB look more like white papers than actual KB's. .. So for now I'll struggle but it will get better soon??
It’s simple really. Don’t do Helpdesk/desktop support (level 1-2) more than 1-5 years otherwise you’ll get stuck in that rabbit hole cycle of despair and misery and never get out and wonder where the last 10+ years of your career aspirations went.
thank you sir!!!!!
I'd say the same as Hans Skip the help desk role sucks I hate customer service too I like to do more hands on work.... So guys become a System admin try to start off as NOC or a technician or Network Analyst or Systems analyst.... I did desktop support and got job after as a network technician now I'll be promoted to a higher position finally Network Analyst it all depends on what your looking for as well and keep your certs up to date.... I can't wait to move my way up to Network Specialist then Admin and engineer then finally Network Architect :) !!!!
That is what happened to me. I went straight into the sys admin position.
Is network and systems administration part of computer science or IT?
Very informative.
So your answer to do you need to be in helpdesk before becoming a sysadmin is:
No, just work a really stressfull job with low pay, lots of resposibility, no training and figure it all out from there.
This is really encouraging! Thanks for posting