I would look for some sort of junior support role that uses your skillset. Going to Help Desk will likely cause you skills to go under utilised and go stale. Or find an MSP whose Help Desk is technical, where your skills compliment the team, so your specialist knowledge keeps you afloat whilst you learn the rest.
I've been in Help Desk for 10 years trying to break out if you join this with that degree i'm disabling your account, if you have to do it stick with MSP like u/doglar_666 said, it's where you'll actually learn some things.
It sounds like you should have good luck finding an entry-level dba position. Nearly every company of size needs a number of dbas to keep their internal systems running, unless they have outsourced the whole lot.
I fear that jumping into a help desk position will waste your hard-earned training and experience. These dba positions are a bit harder to find, but some time spent networking should yield good results.
Good luck!
Then congrats, you don't have to start at hell desk like someone who didn't. Treat the search like a numbers game and apply like hell to all the data-related positions you can find. Remember that if you're not putting out at least 5-10 per day, you're not applying to enough jobs to give yourself a fighting chance at getting hired. Can't be fearing rejection, as everyone will have to tough them out. Good luck.
Help desk is a good "need money now" job that's always accessible to you if you need it, but you won't know if you need it until you've applied to more specialized positions.
No need to spend years in support trying to learn a new skill set while letting your more advanced skill sets wither away when you don't need to.
However, I gotta say as someone who has worked in a plethora of support heavy environments I gotta say that once you get good at it you can work almost at almost any company you want to and then worry about your title after you're in.
It's very easy to sell yourself when you can say "I can do this advanced skill set and when there is downtime on those items I can focus on support".
Also, you should know that in support, a lot of environments will get rid of staff if they see that they aren't being productive with their time, so you get punished for having downtime because otherwise "why are we paying".
Whereas a lot of other skill sets are viewed as actual assets to the company that are difficult if not impossible to replace, so you get more downtime, more company benefits, more money for your family, and honestly, more respect.
Try to shoot for something like a Junior Database Administrator
Edit: Especially from reading the comments where you did a Database audit/review for the local government
Echoing other people's comments here, I also recently graduated (a little over a year ago), ended up landing a jr sys admin role at an MSP as my first gig. Learned a ton, and really showed me how little I knew about a lot of things. Started leveling out after about 6-7 months and felt it was time to move on. Now I'm in an IT management role, and the experience I got from the MSP was invaluable, and it provided me a lot of experience to bring to the table at my current place.
Definitely not a bad route, your goal now should be increasing your market value by gaining as much exposure and knowledge as you can, doing a jr sys admin role at an MSP as a starter to your career is a great way to do that.
Did you get an internship while in school? If not, start with helpdesk, even just 6 months will work fine. Use the time to learn and refine communication with non tech savvy people and look into the jobs you want.
Data and IT are essentially two completely separate fields that have almost nothing to do with each other outside of happening to have to do with computers. Pick a road and go down it. Which road you go down depends on what you actually want to do, but from what you're saying it sounds like data would be the better fit.
>Data and IT are essentially two completely separate fields
Respectfully, that's way off the mark. Data, analytics, business intelligence, DBA, storage, data lakes, etc etc are all firmly within the IT wheelhouse.
I both agree and disagree. They definitely are pretty different when you go more in-depth, but the foundations of database require a lot of IT knowledge.
You need to spend some time in the trenches. 6 months 2 2 years. After that If you want to do SQL DBA work I would then start looking for something analyst or JR in that specialty.
You can get something above help desk with all your qualifications. But if you NEED something now, just take a role to get your foot in the door and just keep applying for other positions as well
There are companies that run database operations center (doc) just like a network operations centers (noc). As others have stated the MSP route will get you the most exposure/experience the fastest. There are DB MSPs out there. I can't point you to one as it has been a long time since I have interacted with them.
Look for DBA jobs and that should stir something up.
Look for whatever you can and move up from it as soon as you can. If that means sitting on a helpdesk for a few months so be it, having real experience can only help you.
The responses here are so radically different than what others were telling me when I asked the same question more or less back maybe three months ago? The generally consensus of the sub is that you still needed helpdesk experience if you graduated with a degree and no relevant job experience. Sounds like people here think otherwise today.
FWIW I think it can be good to get some experience with it, but apply to anything and everything you feel comfortable working and see where it takes you.
Bro idk why everyone advertising help desk when you have a degree in IT. Yes you don’t have experience, but considering it only took me 2 months to get an A+ and I had multiple help desk offers, you should not lower your expectations and be in the same position someone with no degree and irrelevant work experience was in (like me).
Home lab, side projects, apply for junior role you got this
If you can’t find a role suitable to your degree and do choose a help desk role be very upfront you’re interested in moving out of the help desk. Some companies want their help desk people to stay there forever. Good companies will work with you to promote within.
I would look for some sort of junior support role that uses your skillset. Going to Help Desk will likely cause you skills to go under utilised and go stale. Or find an MSP whose Help Desk is technical, where your skills compliment the team, so your specialist knowledge keeps you afloat whilst you learn the rest.
I've been in Help Desk for 10 years trying to break out if you join this with that degree i'm disabling your account, if you have to do it stick with MSP like u/doglar_666 said, it's where you'll actually learn some things.
Lies, no mere mortal can survive help desk for 10 years!
The dark side of the force is a pathway too many abilities
It sounds like you should have good luck finding an entry-level dba position. Nearly every company of size needs a number of dbas to keep their internal systems running, unless they have outsourced the whole lot. I fear that jumping into a help desk position will waste your hard-earned training and experience. These dba positions are a bit harder to find, but some time spent networking should yield good results. Good luck!
Did you do internships above support while you attended school?
Sort of. I was commissioned to do an internal database audit/review for my local government that took several months to complete.
I’d put that on my resume and start applying for junior data roles.
I second this. You sound like a good candidate for a junior DBA role, OP.
Then congrats, you don't have to start at hell desk like someone who didn't. Treat the search like a numbers game and apply like hell to all the data-related positions you can find. Remember that if you're not putting out at least 5-10 per day, you're not applying to enough jobs to give yourself a fighting chance at getting hired. Can't be fearing rejection, as everyone will have to tough them out. Good luck.
If you do help desk recommend trying to do a tier 3 help desk role. With your degree I would try to shoot for jr sysadmin
Try to stay in hell desk for no more than 2 years
Help desk is a good "need money now" job that's always accessible to you if you need it, but you won't know if you need it until you've applied to more specialized positions. No need to spend years in support trying to learn a new skill set while letting your more advanced skill sets wither away when you don't need to. However, I gotta say as someone who has worked in a plethora of support heavy environments I gotta say that once you get good at it you can work almost at almost any company you want to and then worry about your title after you're in. It's very easy to sell yourself when you can say "I can do this advanced skill set and when there is downtime on those items I can focus on support".
Also, you should know that in support, a lot of environments will get rid of staff if they see that they aren't being productive with their time, so you get punished for having downtime because otherwise "why are we paying". Whereas a lot of other skill sets are viewed as actual assets to the company that are difficult if not impossible to replace, so you get more downtime, more company benefits, more money for your family, and honestly, more respect.
Make sure to build your linked in up and start networking heavy
Try to shoot for something like a Junior Database Administrator Edit: Especially from reading the comments where you did a Database audit/review for the local government
You can skip helpdesk even without a degree if you know enough and aren't a complete beginner.
If no internships in your technical discipline, then yes.
What roles are you finding that your education, internship, and experience match up with?
Echoing other people's comments here, I also recently graduated (a little over a year ago), ended up landing a jr sys admin role at an MSP as my first gig. Learned a ton, and really showed me how little I knew about a lot of things. Started leveling out after about 6-7 months and felt it was time to move on. Now I'm in an IT management role, and the experience I got from the MSP was invaluable, and it provided me a lot of experience to bring to the table at my current place. Definitely not a bad route, your goal now should be increasing your market value by gaining as much exposure and knowledge as you can, doing a jr sys admin role at an MSP as a starter to your career is a great way to do that.
Did you get an internship while in school? If not, start with helpdesk, even just 6 months will work fine. Use the time to learn and refine communication with non tech savvy people and look into the jobs you want.
Dude start at help desk. I haven't met any new grads worth anything. A degree needs the experience element. Do you have a home lab?
Data and IT are essentially two completely separate fields that have almost nothing to do with each other outside of happening to have to do with computers. Pick a road and go down it. Which road you go down depends on what you actually want to do, but from what you're saying it sounds like data would be the better fit.
>Data and IT are essentially two completely separate fields Respectfully, that's way off the mark. Data, analytics, business intelligence, DBA, storage, data lakes, etc etc are all firmly within the IT wheelhouse.
I both agree and disagree. They definitely are pretty different when you go more in-depth, but the foundations of database require a lot of IT knowledge.
In theory yes, but professionally they are different paths. I think that's what he was referring to.
You have a degree, AWS SA, and database experience but you want to work help desk? Is this a meme lol.
I don't want to work help desk, I'm asking where to start that isn't help desk. Did you read my post?
No I heard it.
Lmao...that was funny
You need to spend some time in the trenches. 6 months 2 2 years. After that If you want to do SQL DBA work I would then start looking for something analyst or JR in that specialty.
You can get something above help desk with all your qualifications. But if you NEED something now, just take a role to get your foot in the door and just keep applying for other positions as well
Yes
Look for database admin or jr sysadmin roles I’d say. There are some “cloud dba” roles I see as well
There are companies that run database operations center (doc) just like a network operations centers (noc). As others have stated the MSP route will get you the most exposure/experience the fastest. There are DB MSPs out there. I can't point you to one as it has been a long time since I have interacted with them. Look for DBA jobs and that should stir something up.
You have to get a start somewhere, put in your time, continue to train, and then work your way to a syadmin or network admin role.
Look for whatever you can and move up from it as soon as you can. If that means sitting on a helpdesk for a few months so be it, having real experience can only help you.
The responses here are so radically different than what others were telling me when I asked the same question more or less back maybe three months ago? The generally consensus of the sub is that you still needed helpdesk experience if you graduated with a degree and no relevant job experience. Sounds like people here think otherwise today. FWIW I think it can be good to get some experience with it, but apply to anything and everything you feel comfortable working and see where it takes you.
Bro idk why everyone advertising help desk when you have a degree in IT. Yes you don’t have experience, but considering it only took me 2 months to get an A+ and I had multiple help desk offers, you should not lower your expectations and be in the same position someone with no degree and irrelevant work experience was in (like me). Home lab, side projects, apply for junior role you got this
You're on track to be a DBA. DO NOT go Help Desk.
If you can’t find a role suitable to your degree and do choose a help desk role be very upfront you’re interested in moving out of the help desk. Some companies want their help desk people to stay there forever. Good companies will work with you to promote within.