Information Technology (IT)

my company asked me to move from dedicated agile/scrum dev effort to an IT acquisition/planning position. I liked the agile environment and the team was great but I guess it's on to new things.

Sounds like your company is down sizing and trying to combine jobs & roles to pay less and trim the employee fat.
 
Sifting and reading through the past pages on this thread. It seems like a lot of people don't know or understand what a level 1 help desk tech and a desktop support tech is.

-Level 1 help desk. Is a horrible job where people are literally chained to their desk and clock in & out of their cisco phone and are paid to answer the phone all day and mainly troubleshoot and also have to take a lot of the users/customers frustrations over the phone. They literally are the "front lines" or human shield war guys or grunt guys as the military refers to Marines or Army guys.Another stressful and horrible part in this job is that a manager and Q&A team will listen in and monitor your calls and you will have to follow the company scripts and be monitored to see if you are providing good over the phone customer service. Also in this work environment you will be graded on and subject to meeting certain metrics.

-Desktop support are really level 2 guys where they handle the escalations and whatever the level 1 help desk support team can't resolve over the phone or remotely. Desktop support guys usually deal with imaging and preparing pc's. Hardware and software related issues, network issues such as checking and patching network mod taps, checking cisco voip setups, checking and escalating network latency issues. Asset tracking pc's, printers, monitors, and other company assets. Usually in this role desktop support tech do have to interface and talk to users over the phone or in person, or through chat programs like MS Skype or MS Teams and also probably use remote software apps to support and resolve issues remotely. Big difference here is that the level 2 desktop techs aren't on the phone all day long.
 
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Where did you read or hear this? I hope you aren't paying attention to Linkedin.

I deactivated my profile and left that website years ago. That website is just a FB clone for head hunters who are really just used car salesmen.

WGU is on same level if not better than University Of Phoenix or National University. All fall in the catgory of "paper degree universities" which you will end up owing or spend at least 50K for that paper degree.
linkedin kinda a cesspool man
 
Sifting and reading through the past pages on this thread. It seems like a lot of people don't know or understand what a level 1 help desk tech and a desktop support tech is.

-Level 1 help desk. Is a horrible job where people are literally chained to their desk and clock in & out of their cisco phone and are paid to answer the phone all day and mainly troubleshoot and also have to take a lot of the users/customers frustrations over the phone. They literally are the "front lines" or human shield war guys or grunt guys as the military refers to Marines or Army guys.Another stressful and horrible part in this job is that a manager and Q&A team will listen in and monitor your calls and you will have to follow the company scripts and be monitored to see if you are providing good over the phone customer service. Also in this work environment you will be graded on and subject to meeting certain metrics.

-Desktop support are really level 2 guys where they handle the escalations and whatever the level 1 help desk support team can't resolve over the phone or remotely. Desktop support guys usually deal with imaging and preparing pc's. Hardware and software related issues, network issues such as checking and patching network mod taps, checking cisco voip setups, checking and escalating network latency issues. Asset tracking pc's, printers, monitors, and other company assets. Usually in this role desktop support tech do have to interface and talk to users over the phone or in person, or through chat programs like MS Skype or MS Teams and also probably use remote software apps to support and resolve issues remotely. Big difference here is that the level 2 desktop techs aren't on the phone all day long.

Yup. Help desk here. Wanna get out of it but gat damn the teleworking is awesome.

but it’s not stressful, at least where I work. That depends on your management and company. Sounds like you may have had a bad ex

we remote in and assist as much as possible but we’re limited since we don’t have admin credentials to make changes to the computer.

managers are super chill where I work.
 
Yup. Help desk here. Wanna get out of it but gat damn the teleworking is awesome.

but it’s not stressful, at least where I work. That depends on your management and company. Sounds like you may have had a bad ex

we remote in and assist as much as possible but we’re limited since we don’t have admin credentials to make changes to the computer.

managers are super chill where I work.

I worked in level 1 call center jobs a long time ago when I was in my early 20's. These companies were out sourcing companies who specialized in getting contracts for companies like Gateway PC, Hughes Net DSL. I thought getting paid $20 back then late 90's early 2000 was making big money :lol: . Oh so young and naive :lol: . Heck I bought a gaming console with money I earned on my own on the OG PS2 with one of my pay checks :pimp:

But yeah NEVER AGAIN will I do that work.
 
I worked in level 1 call center jobs a long time ago when I was in my early 20's. These companies were out sourcing companies who specialized in getting contracts for companies like Gateway PC, Hughes Net DSL. I thought getting paid $20 back then late 90's early 2000 was making big money :lol: . Oh so young and naive :lol: . Heck I bought a gaming console with money I earned on my own on the OG PS2 with one of my pay checks :pimp:

But yeah NEVER AGAIN will I do that work.

Where did you go next after the help desk? Desktop support?
 
I worked in level 1 call center jobs a long time ago when I was in my early 20's. These companies were out sourcing companies who specialized in getting contracts for companies like Gateway PC, Hughes Net DSL. I thought getting paid $20 back then late 90's early 2000 was making big money :lol: . Oh so young and naive :lol: . Heck I bought a gaming console with money I earned on my own on the OG PS2 with one of my pay checks :pimp:

But yeah NEVER AGAIN will I do that work.
I had a call center job during that time for AT&T DSL. Some of the craziest callers and some of the best advice I ever received. A customer told me to buy Apple stock. 😢 I didn't buy until 2006.
 
Sounds like your company is down sizing and trying to combine jobs & roles to pay less and trim the employee fat.

pretty much this. My billable is on the higher end of the labor category and they want to bring in someone cheaper. ‘Tis life in contracting though.

I’ve done IT policy/planning (which includes acquisitions) work before so I know the environment, lots of personalities/politics. Going to use any down to start my PMP application and study up (and take a boot camp).
 
Where did you read or hear this? I hope you aren't paying attention to Linkedin.

I deactivated my profile and left that website years ago. That website is just a FB clone for head hunters who are really just used car salesmen.

WGU is on same level if not better than University Of Phoenix or National University. All fall in the catgory of "paper degree universities" which you will end up owing or spend at least 50K for that paper degree.

WGU? Nah.

One...you obtain professional certifications which are regarded in the industry. The Network Admin degree I got had the MCSA 2008 (at the time), CCNA, Net+, Sec+, Project+ and a few others. Along with a bachelors degree, it’ll provide a good return on investment versus the schools you mentioned. Plus, you can progress complete as many courses as you can within a term. The degree is technical a validation of what you know. If you know the ish or have the certification, you progress quicker. You grind...late nights...you can finish early. It’s not everyone’s tea. No class room. No class participation dynamic. Etc.

Is its degree going to be as regarded as Carnegie Mellon, Penn State, Yale, Columbia, Georgia State, etc? No.
 
Im thinking about learning web development on my own. How long would it really take me to learn and get a job. I have no degree and 0 experience.

Or would it be better for me to learn something else in IT to get a job? Like ios development? I need a decent paying job and I took a class on c++ when I was in college and did well and liked it.
 
I’ll bite it. It’s never wrong to take any source of IT skill. Web development is cool if you’re working on the integration side and/or mobile development. I suggest finding out overall what it is you want to do - back end coding; front end development? Full stack development? E-commerce? Web-programming? API’s? It’s a lot of specialization in that field. Narrow it down.

Once you feel that you’re proficient in this field, then build your portfolio. Take freelance contract jobs. There’s ton of free lancer posting sites and contractors that are looking for temporary hires for projects.

Another recommendation is look at working for a startup. They’re flexible and small enough to give you an opportunity to learn in your skill sets.
 
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Im thinking about learning web development on my own. How long would it really take me to learn and get a job. I have no degree and 0 experience.

Or would it be better for me to learn something else in IT to get a job? Like ios development? I need a decent paying job and I took a class on c++ when I was in college and did well and liked it.

A lot of people that are in IT don’t have degrees or have a degree in the field. You will be fine.
 
^word thanks. I’ve learned SQL before so I’m thinking about revising that and learning Tableau to get an entry database developer job but I’m not sure if that’s even realistic.
 
I take my first cert exam tomorrow, Network+. I only got a 4 day course but I’ve been scoring 800+ on the practice tests and the instructor has a pretty high pass rate. Oddly enough, I’m excited to take the test.

I also have Security+ at the end of the month.
 
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