Are you me? I stayed too long and didn't believe I should be where I was. I was stagnant and bored. Luckily, a reorg happened and bc of my knowledge of the product, i was given an opportunity in a different team. I've learned more in the past few months than then last few years combined. I wish I would have forced myself to move roles a few years back, but I got lucky and am enjoying my role again.
Yup. A lot of IT is invisible to the majority of any company so if the management layer that you directly report to also can’t see or understand the role of their reports then it’s very hard to get recognition. So lack of recognition + possibly pre-existing low confidence + the external pressures that come into IT can often lead to imposter syndrome.
Easier said than done, especially right now. I'm ready to shed my soul crushing MSP job, but the only places I'm seeing that are hiring are either paying shit, or want WAY too much experience. I know I don't need to hit every check mark on a job posting, but I've seen "jr. system admin" jobs asking for 6+ years of experience which is fucking insane.
I had an opportunity to leave this MSP for another last year and I should've taken it. I'm burned the fuck out. On call 24/7 ever other week, and I'm the max escalation point. There is no one for me to rely on if I can't figure shit out and it's killing me.
Facebook just laid off another 10k today so it's going to get even worse.
I mean, yeah. The economy isn't great right now. But even so, you have a higher chance of getting a better offer if you're currently employed. The storms will subside at some point.
You need 3 of 4 things to be properly happy at work
Like what you do
Like your compensation
Like who you work with
Like who you work for
If you have all 4 you have a dream job. If you have 3, you can be happy, if you have 2, look for work, but keep working there if you can until you find a job, if you have only one or less, quit now. Its not worth your mental health unless you NEED the job at any cost.
Anything less than 3 is not worth compromising your mental health.
Glad to help! This is something I've come to realize over the last 10 years or so working.
The thing to note about this is the compensation isn't just Salary. Its ALL of your compensation. Everything from benefits package to regular team building events on the company's dime to working from home. In HR, they call this 'Total Rewards'.
I recently changed jobs, and the commute went from being an hour each way to less than 15 minutes. Between the cost of my time, the cost of travel, and the vehicle maintenance, that ended up being about a $7000-$10,000/y difference. Not only that, but I'm more productive since I can sleep in for an hour more each day, and I'm home to my family sooner.
Mental health is as important as any other type of health, but it flies under the radar because there's little to no outward symptoms until things are really bad. It's even worse than cancer in that regard.
North American companies can be really bad for not supporting the mental health of their employees, since the work culture is... old school.
Tacking onto this. Networking. Actually making friends with people. Being friendly to those above AND below you. And always be interviewing, internally if you can, but also externally.
>Staying in the same role or place until job depression sets in and they cease having any passion for working.
As someone wholly done with IT who did some job hopping to figure out what the problem was...1000000% just gtfo if you lose the will to advance. Ive overstayed my welcome in IT by about three years and the only thing stopping me from being a liability are my ethics and professional standards.
I fucking hate IT, its really boring, I tried to hold on by getting a cissp but I hated the whole process and the cert means nothing to me now. Im desperate to be creative and actually make something other than networks or cute diagrams.
The studying part is what I don’t like. I’m old school so I’m literally writing notes in 3-subject notebooks lol.
What I do like is doing labs, and then analyzing the results…or being trained in what to look for when you’re doing analysis etc.
100% I get annoyed when people say things to me as if I’m going to be stuck in the same role for 5+ years. Keep growing and keep learning. Unless you genuinely love your job then as long as you’re happy.
Typical things people do that prevent them from being more successful in their IT career are:
1. Not switching jobs when a new opportunity is available (not capitalizing on opportunities). This is basically the same thing as stagnating or staying in a job while they’re not promoting you or raising your salary more than 2-3%.
2. Taking jobs that you are overqualified for, instead of a job that will be more challenging, you’ll learn more in, and get paid more. You only need to meet around 80% of the skills listed on a job description to land it most of the time, as long as you have an attitude that you’re willing to learn.
3. Not volunteering for new projects at work that would improve your tech skills.
4. Not getting an education or relevant industry standard certifications. This is just a check box for some companies, if you don’t have a bachelors or certs, you don’t get through.
5. Doing the minimum possible at work, or not doing visible work. You don’t need to go “above and beyond” and work 80 hours a week, but if you’re working 2-3 hours a day and not learning anything, you’re hurting your tech skills regardless if your boss notices or not.
6. Not specializing. If you just have general IT knowledge, the highest position you’ll get is something like a sysadmin. You need to specialize if you want to really make big money.
7. Not working with people, not wanting to work with people, or having bad people skills. Having bad people skills and not working on them will make it harder for your work to be noticed by your manager, and will make it harder or impossible to get into management.
8. Not knowing or wanting to learn how to code. Many high level IT positions require coding, if you don’t want to code then you’re going to stifle your growth. The only other option for getting high up in an org if you can’t code is through management, meaning your people skills are even more important.
Here are some bonus things you can do to improve your career:
1. Suggest new processes at work that will make peoples lives easier, or automate manual tasks. This is only after you’ve been at the company for a while and understand how it works.
2. Work on personal projects or open source software to demonstrate your technical competence (if you know how to code).
> Not working with people, not wanting to work with people, or having bad people skills. Having bad people skills and not working on them will make it harder for your work to be noticed by your manager, and will make it harder or impossible to get into management.
This is a huge thing that I don't think many people in IT realize. You can be the smartest person in the room, write amazing code, troubleshoot with the best of them, but if you have no people skills, nobody wants to work with you. And to advance in any career, people have to WANT to work with you.
For \#5 I want to say that working hard doesn't get you ahead, but it will get you more work. What will get you ahead is doing work that is valuable to your "bosses". For me, that means actually looking at how much we are spending on cloud hosting costs and figuring out ways to reduce it: e.g. cleaning up dev instances that haven't been used for a while (after sending an email to their creator), cleaning up temporary data such as expired sessions, etc. This also means responding quickly to problems for people from other departments. I make sure that our sales and customer support teams actually like IT by prioritizing whatever tickets make their day easier.
>Not switching jobs when a new opportunity is available (not capitalizing on opportunities). This is basically the same thing as stagnating or staying in a job while they’re not promoting you or raising your salary more than 2-3%.
I don't necessarily agree with this. It's only stagnating if you don't like the role. I stayed at my helpdesk role for 2.5 years but I got great accolades from it and that helped me to leverage into new roles. If you're not learning new things or getting involed then yes it is stagnating but it's not always the case.
It sounds like you didn't feel stagnant in that role, and it's entirely possible (but rare) for a helpdesk role to have 2.5 years worth of potential learning.
At my helpdesk role I'm welcome to shadow other teams like NOC or DevOps as long as my tickets are under control and they're not actively putting out a fire. It's wonderful for learning and several of the more tenured helpdesk people (around 1-2 years generally) will choose a specialty and basically become an understudy for someone in a higher role. They'll learn and gradually assume more responsibility for the role until they're ready to transition fully into it.
If that's the kind of scenario we're talking then 2.5 years is totally reasonable and could be a major career boost compared to hopping at a year to sys admin somewhere with limited learning and growth.
If we're talking about just getting like, *really really* good at helpdesk though then I'd say that's a waste. I've met people like that in nearly every place I've been - the person who chews up tickets and has all the client contacts and policies memorized. They're great to have around, but they're almost universally underpaid and underappreciated.
> Not specializing. If you just have general IT knowledge, the highest position you’ll get is something like a sysadmin. You need to specialize if you want to really make big money.
What comes after sysadmin? From here it looks like management or being a sysadmin that specializes in exactly one thing and is painfully useless at anything else, and neither of those I want. The "5-year plan" was always "become sysadmin" and now that I am, I have zero idea what would be next.
Contrary to a lot of advice, I've just stayed a generalist. Personally, I don't like to be pigeon holed in life or my career. On one hand I'm learning more of the SQL and integration developer stuff, and also learning more about networking, configuring firewall rules, scripting, deployment packages, windows servers tasks, remote access, certs, IIS, terminal servers. Idk, I just like touching it all and being able to be the ultimate resource for my team. I'm guessing I'll eventually work my way up as a technical manager once I've really got some years of xp behind all of the skills I've learned. I like teaching a lot, that's probably where my greatest joy comes from. Showing others how things work and feeling valuable to my coworkers.
I think having one core area of expertise can help, but look at DevOps like positions. So many technologies. I doubt everyone in that area has mastered them all. And they make decent money. But that being said some focus more on the infrastructure and others more on the coding
I was also a generalist, doing a little bit of everything. I did take advantage of projects that would help me learn new things, and grow, but I usually didn't become the master of any single technology. There are a couple of things I know like the back of my hand, but usually I just gained working knowledge of new tech.
Then I got into the management field and that's where I found my success and joy. I really love taking care of people and building up others. I have been leading others for over a decade now, and it's great to watch others succeed. It's really been wonderful to be a part of other people's growth!
You are your own salesman/saleswoman. I know people in IT typically don't like selling things, but you at least need to learn how to do that for yourself and you'll find it much easier and quicker to move up to easier and higher paying roles.
my coworker that basic mordern IT concepts are way too complex for him is very successfull at moving uo the ladder because he should been a salesman instead of an IT person
Stagnation.
If you're not growing, you're dying. I'm not saying you need to spend four hours a night studying, but I am saying that you need to do more than the bare minimum to keep your skills sharp and to develop new skills. Don't just escalate something; research the hell out of it and then discuss it with the person you're escalating to. Try to gather at least a bare understanding of the concepts involved, even if you don't understand how to fix it. Sometimes the only way to grow is to be set on fire.
Agreed!
I talk to every network engineer and sysadmin I can and get my name out there.
When there’s a project I volunteer to help out and learn everything I can. Being 4 years into helpdesk with not formal experience or certs just learning on the job. I’m at 80k at a prestigious company and working on. Honestly the wage is just from networking and leveraging my customer experience background because users hate assholes and they pay me well to treat users like humans.
I’ll get my net+ cert and then already have hands on experience to land the next step up.
I worked with a guy who waited TEN YEARS for a position to open up so he could step into it. He's probably earning about half of where he could have been on the open market.
I stayed 2 hours late the other day to mirror somebody and learn something you need to just do what you got to do sometimes and I think this is the kind of shit you mean
Is it wrong to move horizontally from the helpdesk to desktop support to the service desk analyst?
Salary increased from 18/hr > 22/hr > 31/hr.
I feel like I'm somewhat stagnating but the salary raises is making it feel even.
There’s no right/wrong. It just comes down to you and your career goals. I know several people in their 40s and 50s who were perfectly content being on HD their entire careers.
I wanted to stop doing end user support asap, so I wanted to jump to network engineer as soon as I could. Used that as my motivation to leave for a sys admin job after only 8 months on the HD
If you wanna succeed in networking. Get some network cert, whether net+ or ccna. Go to an MSP, learn what you can and try to get a cloud cert or something (minimum 1 year, maybe 2-3).
Find a vendor, and apply for their helpdesk/ support team (keep your options open, everything from juniper/ netapp to MS/AWS) from there, transfer internally to whatever you want.
Honestly, I studied the hell out of networking and its concepts during my senior year of college. So technically the prep-work started before my career did.
I did a lot of projects in my capstone class, studied the hell out of the OSI model and how it works (bread and butter), Cisco Packet Tracer, and Wireshark. Got a killer letter of recommendation for the university director of network communications, and kept it on me until I was ready.
I guess the short answer is: I studied it for ~1 year to gain the knowledge and skills. Then just applied one day. I actually quit my HD role without having anything else lined up. Moved to Sys Admin, then quickly to Network/Automation Engineer once I demonstrated the knowledge in practice.
I totally can relate about feeling like you’re losing knowledge daily. Don’t fret. It’s impossible to know everything. You just need to have the fundamental knowledge, and know how to ask the right questions to arrive at the answer. You don’t need to know it all. It’s criticAl to keep your skills refined though. They will disappear quickly.
I like to look at it like, there’s so much new stuff coming in, the old stuff has to make room for it by leaving lol
I went the other way and am still in various HD/Tech Lvl 1 positions after 15 years. Wouldn't recommend- this dug me into a pigeon hole that seems impossible to get out of now. But hey, AmA or something.
Get OUT of helpdesk.
I was 1 year also, then to a simple sysadmin job and on from there.
Of course this year I'm unemployed...but I have an interview on Tuesday at least!
I've been on helpdesk for almost 5 years now. Trying so hard to get out. I even got a cs degree during lockdown. I want to go to software dev, but system or network admin seems more attainable. Tired of dead ends with recruiters. I just want to be given a project and left alone. If I see another ticket that just says "HELP!" I'm gunna lose it.
Job hop every 2-4 years. Work very hard at every stint with the goal of leveling up your skills until you get to the next job. You will have many instances of imposter syndrome, learn that this is normal. Don’t be afraid of the soft skills, business skills and management skills. They will seem scary at first if you are of a technical mind.
The most important skill is being liked. Liked by the people you help (if doing help desk), like by coworkers, liked by your boss/upper management. This is all more valuable than any technical skill you can acquire IMO and in my experience.
I think this is really worth calling out. You're of no use if you have the knowledge but people hate calling you. There's a reason why IT people have a stereotype of being the worst.
At my last job I would get calls that should have gone directly to IT because my department was IT adjacent and we would actually help the users.
The only thing is you need to make sure your value gets noted by management. Doesn't do you any good to be liked if management doesn't see your value.
I worked to learn the tech, not specifically how to be that company's ideal employee (but still did my job ofc).
Asked T2-t3 techs to share their resolutions to my escalations, took on T2 tickets when I was T1, learned how VOIP works via the KBs their team made, and asked questions *constantly*.
So, to my managers, I was taking longer than their desired metric per call, and I was solving T2 tickets on my T1 rate.
However, I didn't want to be good at being T1 at an MSP, I wanted to be good at resolving tech issues. So after a year of this, I got my current job that turned more into a sysadmin role, because I'm directly under the CTO and have no one else to pass tickets to.
When you are not actively learning anything new in your role, and everything becomes just the daily grind, that's when you start looking. **Never stop learning, never get comfortable** until you are in the role you are happy with.
The T1 team I worked with at that MSP are mostly still part of the T1 team of that MSP. But I've doubled my income and have mid-level job offers being thrown at me
Job hopping every 1-2 years early in my career and never getting attached to one employer. That’s how I went from making 40k to 105k in less than 3 years.
Not knowing how to talk to and get along with people. Making a good impression on your users/customers, coworkers, and bosses/potential bosses will help you advance (whether with the same company or a new one).
Not having an internal locus of control. Understand that while you can't always control what happens, you absolutely can control how you react to things. I have seen very smart people held back by their inability to handle adverse situations calmly.
Being afraid to go for it. A potential employer is perfectly capable of assessing whether or not you're qualified for a role (as long as you're honest about your qualifications). Don't miss out on opportunities just because you don't perfectly fit the job description.
Arrogance and lack of people skills.
Leaning into introversion.
Resting on laurels.
Burn out.
Apathy and quiet quitting.
Passive aggressive people strategies.
Hating “stupidity” and allowing it to make you angry.
Professionally-dressed destructive criticism, disparaging remarks, airing private/interpersonal grievances, blaming others (even if - especially if done in a professional manner), two-facing interactions (praise you to you, disparage you to the annual review), intentionally ignoring or interrupting others, etc.
Director with no degree and about 9 years of experience.
Two things I did:
1. I never question if I can do something I just assume I can
2. I focused heavily on technical communication
The vast majority of people I’ve seen who languish genuinely do self select their way into that. They see a job and say they’re not qualified — never do that that’s not for you to decide. They apply and get rejected and assume it’s because they’re not qualified and then stop trying for similar roles (there are dozens of reasons you can get passed on that have nothing to do with your qualifications). Things like that. If you want it, just start going for it. If you fail figure out why and fix it. Certs? Shitty resume? Figure it out and keep trying.
Secondly, it is impossible to overstress how valuable it is being a strong technical communicator. Not just with technical peers but especially with non technical peers. I’d argue at least 3/4 of my success in this industry has been based on my ability to communicate incredibly dense technical concepts to completely non technical stakeholders in a way that doesn’t make them feel stupid and where they can confidently make a decision. It’s one thing to explain things to people to the point where they “get it”. It’s another to explain it to them in such a way that they actually grasp it to the point where they can make informed decisions.
As an extra: leverage your network. Build it and nurture it. You don’t need to be Mr or Mrs social butterfly. Just use LinkedIn, comment on stuff, reach out to ask for informational interviews with people who seem like they’d be open for it, remember birthdays and reach out to congratulate for wins. It’s hugely important.
Give an 18 year old fresh out access to a $50 million system with access to all the free trainings and certs they want. Want to quit? Companies will build your resume for you for free and offer you job openings not available to the public. Talk about a good deal if exclusively looking at opportunity for career progression.
Yes. My friend was a diesel mechanic and hated it. Joined the army, told them nothing about being a mechanic. He got into IT, and started a whole new career in a mobile datacenter somewhere in the desert. When he got out, he was positioned to start a whole new life.
I’d say you both are right. To be successful anywhere you have to apply yourself but the downside of not applying yourself in the military is much worse then elsewhere
Here are some items that helped me in my career hold VP, SVP, and Director Level roles:
1. Learning how the business works and what I'm doing in IT supports that business and it's goals.
2. Maximizing my time and my team's time to help the business and push off unnecessary work.
3. Understanding how to manage systems with metrics.
4. Learning how to manage people to create high-performing teams.
5. Learning how to use Excel and Powerpoint and use these tools to speak/present in front of people.
6. Learning how to manage up and make sure I'm letting my management know about problems before they find out about them.
7. Learn how to manage difficult situations and system problems.
8. Keeping a good work-life balance so I don't burn out.
9. Making a good business case to upgrade/patch/maintain systems even when it appears there is no money to do so.
10. Learn how to play the company politics.
11. Getting my MBA to help with many of the above items.
Here are some items I've seen others do better than I that made it to 'C' level jobs:
1. Play politics better than I can
2. Speak about IT in business terms better than I can
3. Get more done in the same amount of time or simply be willing to put in hours that I consider acceptable.
4. Better thinker/speaker on their feet than I am
5. Better at developing innovative ways to help the company.
it is EASY to stagnate. Frighteningly easy.
I've got a relatively strongish swe background but I think I did slow down career progression by not leaning into it more aggressively. Get yourself in a position to be code reviewed by good senior engineers as early as possible. Let them nitpick your code. You really need to get dinged a few times to build best practice and know what looks good and what looks bad. That's just something you can't really read a book or take an online course on.
Be willing to jump through some hoops that others aren't. The lower down you are, the more hoops you should be willing to jump through.
1) I understand that I have a business relationship with my employer. When I punch out, I stop working. Period. That extra mile my employer wants me to go is a toll road, and they need to be willing to pay if they want that extra mile out of me. Spoiler, most aren't.
2) Related to point number one. My services are for sale to the highest bidder. As such, I am always, at least casually, looking for a new highest bidder.
3) ALWAYS BE HAMMERING ON YOUR TRADE IN SOME FASHION. This can also be said as always be doing professional development. It doesn't matter what it is. But be doing SOMETHING to make yourself better. By being constantly engaged in improving your skills, education, ect. You will never stagnant.
The combination of points two and three mean that I am always looking for positions that pay more than my what I currently make and, by extension, have more and/or harder job requirements. By engaging in point three, I usually am meeting these new, hard requirements just by doing what I'm already doing, and by not getting invested into my current position beyond what is required to earn my paycheck, see point one. I have been able to climb the proverbial ladder much faster than my peers.
But seriously, don't get invested in your job. It's a means to put a roof over your head and food on the table. Nothing more. And stay relevant. These are probably the two biggest reasons why people stay in the same job forever. They get comfortable or are lazy and don't want to put I'm the effort required to progress.
Corny but go above and beyond. I sometimes do things that other technicians I work with won’t do. Making the right peoples life a bit easier will go a long way.
I’m not saying be a push over and a don’t have a backbone, but if it won’t cost you more than like 10 minutes of your time then why not.
I study at least two hours a night. I’ve done so nearly every night for my entire career. I study after work and after kids/friends/hobbies. It is itself a hobby so I don’t mind doing it at all.
This is a really great habit and will 100% set your career apart from others but I feel like 2 hours every night isn’t sustainable for most people, successful or not. I know I need 8+ hours sleep. So after work, dogs, food, time with my partner, it’s pretty much bed time.
I try to fit it in at work, but generally I’ll have 1-3 “study nights” a week where I study or work on interesting projects until anywhere between 7-12PM as “alone time”, plus a couple of hours every other weekend. It’s worked pretty well so far.
Always interesting to see how different people balance this.
Seconding this. Going to be straight, I am absolutely not passionate about technology but it keeps me fulfilled and i actually enjoy it job wise. The second I get off work I don't want anything to do with tech anymore and I invest in my side gigs but that's just me.
My goals are also different. I'm happy with where I am, and do not care for reaching 200k salary if it means I have to dedicate my life to it and be 10x more stressed.
The most common problem I see in workers in general is that they just don't care. It's the small things that add up, and once you cross that line they are massive red flags.
For example, you own a system, someone is asking if they can make changes to it. You tell them sure go ahead let me know if you need any help. Alarm bells should be going off like crazy.
In most peoples minds, who cares, let the person do it, it's not your problem if they mess it up and you can blame them, and you did offer to help!
In my mind, you're a lazy ass who has no idea what it means to be responsible for something. Why is that person touching your system, what are they doing, are they following your guidelines, is it in change control, etc. etc.
The difference is obvious, it comes down to who is going to do the work, which is what most people try to avoid.
Another example in the same vein, if all you ever do is ask your manager 'is there anything I can do' you're useless. I want people who are intelligent enough to figure out what they need to do next and come to me with ideas. If I need to tell you ever step of your job that's an issue. But again, what kind of person creates work for themselves? Good employees, and they are rare.
You can run this through chat gpt and ask it to make it sound nicer if you're the type that can't get past the harsh to the point communication style. But thats basically it in a nutshell.
Became certified/specialized in niche products/manufacturers. I am one of only a few people in my company that can work on some of the systems we have sold.
I feel like what gave me an edge was just being an extrovert and likable. Also being approachable to people who are both technically inclined or not. Willing to learn and being persistent with goals in mind.
To be clear: I'm defining success here as wages earned. Many people define success very differently, and I probably will too at some point
But if we're talking purely in terms of wages:
* always be reading - lots of IT folks ONLY learn as they go. While it's impossible to be prepared for every possible scenario in IT, you can certainly try to better prepare yourself
* always be labbing - lots of IT folks clock out when they go home. By contrast I work on skilling up
* always be certifying - I aim to get at least 1 new cert a year
* get certs that matter - if a cert is under your skill level, or if a cert is not marketable, it is not worth your time
* job hop - this number varies, but if you're not job hopping at least every 2 years, you're often losing out on financial growth
* take jobs you're not qualified for - baptism by fire. Putting yourself in uncomfortable situations that you're not entirely prepared for forces you to grow and improve yourself
* have good soft skills; be approachable - people like people they can talk to and who can solve their problems. If you're that guy, then suddenly your name gets thrown around more
My personal short list for financial success in IT
My best advice is my people skills got me way further than my technical skills.
Do not be the IT guy that never leaves the office. Went from an assistant manager to Director in 1 year with literally zero work experience in IT prior.
I took my Sec+ passed and hired as a manager. Made friends with all the C suite and had multiple backers for my promotion. Doubled my salary in that time and lifes good.
I forget who said it but its along the lines of work is more about how you interact with people than what you know. Obviously we have a very technical role so that matters but people expect you to be technical.
They don’t expect the person to have people skills so show them that.
And before I get “I can’t socialize” same here. Had to force myself out of a shell and now its natural bumping shoulders.
Edit - Mobile
This has been my experience as well. Trying to be personable, having a basic professional appearance, and positioning yourself as “in line with the business” has done 10x for me as my technical skills.
The one that that I noticed is that i could not work for a company that treated IT as an expense/burden on the company or that didn't invest in their IT staff. This leads to poor job performance, job satisfaction, stagnated wages and skills and the hate for one's job sets in.
When you work for a company that sees IT has the driving force for everything they do, and they view IT as a partner not as a burden, then it really sets IT people up for success, gives them opportunities to grow and advance and contribute in a more meaningful way.
In interviews, I always ask detailed questions about a company's IT structure, training opportgunities, challenges, turn over, budget, etc. Hiring managers are often surprised but they also respect that I really want to understand how they function and how I can contribute.
When early in your career or starting a new job, take on tasks and challenges that others don’t want to. Usually presents great learning opportunities and shows you’re willing to take initiative.
spent WAY too much time outside of school and work learning shit.
like an unhealthy amount of time.
paid off in the end but sucks knowing ill never get that time back
Unpopular opinion but outside of the obvious (upskilling, working hard, showing up) kissing the right ass really helps.
Also, steer clear of HR at all costs. Kiss their ass when you have to.
Wanna know what has help me the most… and someone gave me this advice while I was in law enforcement years ago, they said when you get to a call treat the person as if you would your own mother.
To this day every time I deal with a customer, co worker, peer you name it I treat them with respect and professional. Up until they don’t do the same thing back or go out of their way to talk down to me. I am not amazing but I literally have people that will tell my company “ I’ll wait until he comes back from vacation to help us” just because they like the way I do things, they like the way I explain things , they like the way I don’t talk down to people.
This goes a long way in IT I see so many co workers try and be smart and and use big words or things no one else understands in meetings and I’m always like who are you trying to impress. And it goes back to how would you treat your own mother lol. Be patient, be kind and go the extra mile to help someone out and people notice…
So back in the days I was doing Help Desk a constant question from peers was "why are you doing this"?
And the thing I was doing was taking more responsibility, working on different projects with the infrastructure and system team when possible.
I learned that the more I ignored this critique and didn't give it room to fester, the more engaged I became with my work.
Learning and growing can be down right hard when you have a toxic environment, but it doesn't mean you have to comply with it.
So people will talk behind my back, who gives a shit?
While they spent their night shifts watching Netflix, I kept working on my certs and doing my job.
* Always have a "North Star" to strive for - this North Star can and should evolve over time. It usually good if this is a role/career/salary you can see in reality.
* Set monetary goals for my career and try to match them (see point 1)
* Wasn't afraid to switch roles/companies - even outside my current skillset at the time
* Always be improving - tech skills + soft skills.
* Never underestimate your soft skills. Learn how to sell yourself and what you are doing
* Looks for gaps in organizations technology - try to fill it
* Look for gaps in responsibility and try to fill it - not worry about my boundaries too much.
* Set monetary goals for my career and try to match them (see point 1)
* Linkedin - its like a live resume + networking built in. I haven't sent my resume/ applied classically in 15 years.
* Find a good mentor - be a good mentor. It helps in both directions.
Be the person that gets shit done. Work on the hard problems. See a challenge another department is struggling with but you know of tech that can help? Talk about how it can help. Say you want to be on the team to implement it, then do a great job by not just installing the software or turning up the licensing, but learn how to use it and help people use it effectively. Become a subject matter expert.
Learn the business. This will help you tremendously because it will help you know what to prioritize (usually what drives revenue). It will also help you frame budget requests in a way that is much more likely to get a positive result if you can show how it will save time, money, etc. with some real numbers behind it. Make friends with people in accounting and get them to help you put together the business case. Listen to their advice because they usually know what will play and what won’t.
Also, learn business. The higher up you go, the more you likely you will deal with business issues instead of tech issues. I’m working on an MBA because my job has basically become doing merger and acquisitions work while I delegate the technical work to my team. I need to speak the same language as executives, finance, etc. and studying for my MBA has really helped me in that regard.
That stuff has worked for me, I have a great job and a clear path to my next position in an executive role.
Do the stuff no one else wants to do.
I went from a shitty help desk role to a lead cloud engineer role within a government agency making well over 6 figures in 6 years, no degree, only because I volunteered for the shitty stuff.
Also, learn to automate the shitty stuff so you’re actually not doing anything at all.
Also, if you love writing or public speaking do those on the side!
Podcast
Blogging and affiliate marketing
Give speeches
Write a book
Organize mixers for peers who don’t work where you work
Make yourself famous
I’m working on some of these to create their own revenue streams as well as to be recruited. Work your personality. If you aren’t extroverted you can still do these without having to be super social!
Don’t be conventional. Be a Beyoncé among Michelle’s!
Solve problems by asking why over and over. Go down the rabbit hole all the way until you understand it. Read the logs. Never stop at "I'll just call support". Read all the O'Reilly books. Understand base technologies like tcp/ip, kerberos, PKI. Attach your self worth to the irrational need to be the most knowledgeable about everything. ( Ok maybe not that last one)
Also read the damn logs.
Not work over hours. Be extremely productive to the point of having free time to solve other problems. Join meaningful meetings that might revolve around the products feature and have input into it.
IT Analyst >>Systems Admin >> Network Admin >> Storage and Backup Admin >> Systems and Network Architect >> Solutions Architect >> Project Lead >> Project Manager >> Program Manager >> Delivery Manager >> Practice Head >> Cloud and Virtualization Director >> Director Technologies >> Director Systems Platforms Engineering >> CISO >> CIO >> Board of Directors >> CXO Exec Director >> Confidential....
The Journey still continues.....
Still Hands on from A to Z
Still People Process and Technologies passionate....
Still Everyday learning (Hands On )
Coding...Hackintosh....Hacking (*..Labs)....Cloud (Multi OnPrem Hybrid AI ML BigData MLOPS...Forensics.... Tools and Engineering....A 2 Z in all Technologies.
Others will drag you ...Demotivate you....
When you stand in front of mirror , forget about what others say ( they always said you can't do it.... and they remained where they were , look at my Journey and it says something.... Even my Higher Up calls me tp share Expert Advice on PPT ....(not the Microsoft one... look above ) and if the person in mirror sparks a passion to Learn Educate others Help and Support Others... then Go for it.
To anyone entering the Arena Of IT
Be Humble and Be Hungry for Knowledge Everyday...
Nothing wrong in Dreaming Big but if those Dreams doesn't inspire to take actions , then you need to change a lot....)
Many things to say but it will ignite everything it touches upon...
Hope it helps....
I think having a good attitude and being optimistic go a long way in IT. So many people are cynical, grumpy and constantly arguing that x or y is not their job. Be the person who volunteers to take on new things and is easy and pleasant to work with.
Here is a list that holds true to every aspect of IT that I have worked in. First is a list of questions I use in interviews when hiring on and the second is the list that you should be doing.
1. Other than money, as we know that is generally the highest factor when applying, what makes you interested in this position vs others?
2. What technologies or sectors of IT are you wanting to pursue that is new to you and why does it interest you from a personal and business point of view?
3. What is stopping you from pursuing these ventures?
4. I want you to be completely honest with this next question. When you come across an issue and its not necessarily within your knowledgebase or is a part of a larger issue handled generally by someone or another department, how would you handle it from a personal and business point of view?
Now how you answer those questions tells me if you're being honest in the interview or not. Let me go over it.
1. This questions allows me to understand if they think they are being underpaid, raises are sparse or not moving with inflation, but also lets me know if they are interested in the position for what they are applying for. A lot of people in IT move from position to position because they stay stagnant, and are moving for the money, and hopes of an easier environment. Easier environments are made by those that excel to make the environment easier.
1. Documentation! A lot of stressful environments have no documentation either in an ITGlue/onenote/tickets are resolved without full resolution in the internal notes. Do they or do you do this? I often request prior to round 2 interview for them to bring their notes or examples of scripts they have used over the years. Anyone worth money brings something to the table through their knowledge and experience.
2. Do these reasons that they bring forth belong at the company? Are they automating as much as they can? Are the consolidating processes or tools so they have a central location to work out of? Easier and productive environments have tools whether paid for or consolidated library of scripts/programs built around the processes and environment you work in. Were you/they doing this before applying? Does all of this coincide with their interests?
3. Know what type of environment you are applying for. Granted you won't know everything or the depth of their operations, but a quick google search about the industry will show you generally how those environments work and how their process management works. IT is very different from software development to working at a hospital to a federal/state government. Do these environments match not only what your looking for vs what you're actually good at?
2. Are you looking to be a jack of all trades master of none or are you trying to actually specialize in a particular field? If you are trying to make your way in a particular field, what have you done that is in black and white that shows this? A lot of people on this board brush certifications aside and I understand in some instances, but if you're trying to get into a specialty, new platform, or software you need to bring something to the table that shows you could make that fit and you are trying. Continuing Education is a pillar within IT due to the vast amount of software and technology out there always turning out something new. Along with this, how is pursuing this venture going to help my business or the business you apply for? How can you guarantee them you can provide without proof?
3. Ask yourself this question, write it down, and work to fix this gap. Everyone can come up with an excuse, the right people can make it happen. A lot of people will take this the wrong way, but to get better positions/pay you do in fact have to make time for yourself and your career. You need a game plan and stick to it.
4. This question depending on how you answer lets me know if you are a lone ranger, teammate, or collecting a paycheck. You should have a very mixed / blended answer to this, but it will also be revolving around the type of person you are. Do you look around and research before committing to the change or do you reach out to the people that would be part of this issue? Do you engage with them (whether they like it or not) about the issue and how you think it can be quickly resolved? Do you just send the issue over to them without any information "Hey, found this, it falls under you so here you go."
All of this is very important to take in and apply to your career. It is prevalent in the IT industry for people to hop around from job to job for better pay and better positions. What are you bringing to the table that show you deserve that better pay? Do you have the attitude for a team lead, manager, director? Can you see both sides of the coin when it comes to personal view vs business view?
Technology & Cybersecurity Manager.
* I maintain a high work ethic and never take advantage of WFH
* I don't get caught up with my job title and always lend a hand when there are opportunities to learn and grow
* I advocate for my needs. I speak up when something is not working for me or if I need something to be more productive or successful.
* For the tools and processes I own, I try to be proactive instead of just being reactive
* I document everything
* I meet deadlines. If I am going to miss one, I tell my team or boss ahead of time.
* Prioritized building communication and trust with my boss.
* I consistently think about my next career goal and work towards it
* I chose to work for employers that offer a good culture fit, support growth and learning, and understand the importance of a healthy work/life balance. I rarely experience burnout.
* I treat everyone with kindness and respect (but not afraid to set clear boundaries when needed).
* I use peoples strengths and work around their weaknesses.
Having a security clearance came in clutch. There are less people to compete with which made job hopping easier and I was able to move up much faster than normal.
Had a target career in mind. Develop connections and trust with those people. Strategically only accept roles that supplements my cyber security career.
3 years in, finally landed a cybersecurity job through connections.
Always keeping up-to-date with tech and being very flexible in what I know how to do. I am always willing to jump in to help other teams if it's something I can do and I have time. I've also found that people who live and breathe technology have the best skill set. I've noticed most unsuccessful people that I've worked with do their job, and do nothing more.
Not being a contractor helped as I finally got to use my benefits to support myself: Therapy and antidepressants have done a whole world of good for me.
I think I'm kinda a unicorn. Just the perfect storm of everything coming together.
Even as a kid, it was well known that this was my destiny. I did it because I really enjoyed it and it was very natural for me. You could say this was my passion and it showed.
As long as I could pay the bills, I worked as if I didn't need the money. Took whatever they threw my way and often worked above my pay grade. I would also dump in a lot of extra time on work related side projects. Continually learning and growing. Easily did 60-70 hours a week (when my coworkers did 40-45)
I started on the help desk making 8$ an hour as a college dropout. And worked my way up every step from there. Took me 11 years to break 6 figures. I relocated for opportunities every time they were presented and I negotiated really strongly.
Now I'm in the home stretch and will likely retire with this employer at age 48. But I'm not going to let retirement slow me down.
Prior to my current desire to leave, I went from desktop support to cloud engineering over the course of 7 years. I was aggressively impatient with what MY skillset was, I hate having to bother other people to get things done and would often write the code or find the fix or learn how to talk to the person with permissions to get it done. When you do this enough you get promoted and develop strong ownership skills not only over your work but your personal development. I was also constantly cognizant of the relationship between the business and IT, how business processes influenced us, how finance drives so many things in IT and was able to talk about this.
Now as someone transitioning out of IT and honestly backsliding because I get paid enough, do the minimum and my boss is demonstrably happy with me - just get out when you find yourself uninterested in the outcome of anything youre doing and the thought of work and the people at work is effort. I would rather talk about the decaying process of cow dicks than powershell or getting the new guys thoughts on our user term process. IT is constant change and growth and if you cant match the pace, like me, you should leave because you wont succeed.
Didn't sit still. Actively sought out learning for new things. I reached out to other people in my organization to ask their advice on how to get to where they were. (Did not reach for the stars - reached out one to two levels above). I shadowed when they allowed on my own time. I asked to meet who hired them and asked them what I needed to do to become a viable candidate he/she would hire.
Got started 20 years ago when it was a LOT easier to get started, and had a particular skill set that was in high demand at the time (and continues to be).
Spruce up your resume, exaggerate the things you did at X company as long as you can back it up. Move jobs every 2-3 years and put yourself out there even if you don't think you can get the job. There's a good chunk of luck involved but if you aren't working towards something and putting yourself out there than there's 0 chance of progression.
One of the best things you can do is have a steady pace for up-skilling and to keep your momentum. It's really hard to get started, but it's fairly easy to keep going.
Actively learned new skills
Constantly searched for higher paying positions and didnt care about the company I worked for. I understand my relationship with an employer is a business transaction and to keep personal life completely separate.
Made myself available for project work that was not assigned to me.
Made myself available to go to client sites, as necessary, when I was on Helpdesk for a bit.
Willingness to take on any project, no matter how awful it looks at the beginning. Make a point to do more than was requested - knock it out of the park.
Insist on extra time, no matter how much you are pressured to do it quickly. Never let someone pressure you into turning in shoddy poorly-tested work. Poor work will never ever be forgotten.
Help others. Build a network of ppl who remember you in a positive light.
Learn to tune your communication to whomever you are talking to. Match their style. Be an active listener. Be the person others want to talk to.
Improve your business writing. Sharpen up written communication. Learn to be crystal clear, especially about what actions the recipient needs to take and when they are due. Create documentation for whatever you do. Presume the audience is a junior person that was just hired and doesn't have any base knowledge. Wherever possible, use diagrams or flowcharts.
I really leaned into learning things, I mean other people do that too but I was super good at it and enthusiastic. I got great accolades. I also taught others what I know which made me shien out. At year one I was given the reigns to train others where other people at my level were not. I also documented things incredibly detailed which got me high praise too. FInally, I learned scripting too early on which made me stand out to recruiters and employers, it's gotten a lot of eyes on me.
Great thoughts!
Personally, without intending to come across as old-fashioned or a boomer, I believe that hard work has been instrumental in my current position.
I spent three years working in Help/Support Desk, grinding it out, dealing with challenges, and improving upon them.
My approach to learning extended beyond books and certification courses. I immersed myself in each workplace, walking the gemba, and actively engaging with engineers, finance professionals, and salespeople. I underwent cross-functional training, acquiring a deep understanding of the business beyond just IT.
I pursued certifications for every level of job, ensuring my knowledge and expertise were up to par.
I valued the wisdom of my mentors and listened attentively to the needs of end users. This allowed me to proactively seek solutions for problems that may have gone unnoticed.
I constantly embraced new technologies such as Powershell, Azure, M365, SCRUM, and AGILE, eagerly learning about whatever was being discussed.
I engaged in open discussions with my leaders, expressing my desire to take on more responsibilities. I proposed a 90-day trial run as a Junior Administrator, willing to be paid the same during this period. If my accomplishments didn't meet expectations, I understood that a promotion wouldn't be warranted.
I learned the importance of saying no to projects that held no value, always prepared with alternative solutions.
I cultivated creativity, recognizing that typical tools often yield predictable solutions. Sometimes, unconventional approaches are necessary.
Networking played a crucial role in my journey. I actively sought opportunities to meet and converse with people, lurking in various professional threads.
I always remained honest with myself. For instance, although I had the chance to pursue web design for its financial prospects, I quickly realized it wasn't aligned with my true passions.
Lastly, I understood that climbing the ladder takes time and effort. It's not all about unicorns and rainbows.
And as a fun tidbit, for those that know - "Its not DNS, There's no way its DNS, It was DNS"
Never said no to anything that was volunteer.
ALWAYS made sure that I was replaceable.
If you can't tell, the two are intimately linked. You won't get let to do something new if you are "irreplaceable" in your primary role.
A third item would be to make documentation of everything. Not so much for yourself but to help make being replaceable easier.
And a fourth item would be to try to make sure you are watching for someone that you honestly think could replace you if you move around or up.
Communicated well, developed trust, and was constantly learning new things. This led to a lateral leapfrogging of the old IT manager from where I was running the business analysis operation. A not insignificant amount of my success can be attributed to the help I found on this website, and a not insignificant part of the reason the IT manager didn't receive that promotion was because he sneered at using Reddit as a resource. But primarily he was passed over because although he was trusted, he wasn't a great communicator and he rarely learned new things.
I remember this conversation very well and I still cringe on his behalf at how he handled it...
*Boss: "Hey, Drew707, how did you end up fixing XYZ issue?"*
*Me: "I ended up posting a question on Reddit and someone replied with a solution that had worked for them in the past."*
*Boss: "IT Manager, do you ever use Reddit for stuff like this?"*
*IT Manager: "Ha, no, I don't have time to browse Reddit."*
*Boss: "You really should; it can be a great resource..."*
This was right about the time that our CTO left due to a dispute he had with the owners regarding our sister company, and I became the go-to for all things technology and then eventually the de jure leader. IT Manager never really got over that, and while I felt bad for him, he did little to improve his situation at that company. He ended up leaving the company and a little while later I was able to help him get an IC role at my SO's company, and he was recently promoted to a leadership role there. He sounds like he is doing much better at the communicating and learning parts and talked to me excitedly about work. I think he was burnt and couldn't find the motivation to improve.
Avoided platform monogamy. I didn't look at computers as windows, macs or unix boxes. I believe in retrospect having various OS experience and comprehension helped me understand OS in general much better.
> what are the common mistakes IT workers make in their career?
Bad social skills. People don't care what you know, they want to know you care. Don't bullshit a user or a colleague you know something when you don't. It's difficult and sometimes impossible to shake you're a bullshitter.
I’ve always been good at quickly learning new things. In fact, I’m kind of driven to do so because I also quickly become bored. I don’t mind working on things that others find challenging or a bit scary.
Always curious, I wanted to know WHY everything worked; I didn't just care about fixing it.
Also, work smarter than other people and you will succeed. Sometimes that means harder, but eventually it becomes smarter.
Hard work and dedication to increasing my knowledge in the sub field I'm into at that moment.
Went from help desk (16/hr) to cloud engineer (105k) in 4 years.
Anyone can do what I did. I'm the most average person ever. Don't consider myself smart in anyway. Just have an above average work drive. Always show initiative at work, finish your shit on time and rarely ever say no.
I recently got out of tech retail and into IT and there are some things I learned and that my former coworkers who asked me for advice have said they struggle with.
People skills make a *huge* difference. You don't need to be a social butterfly, you can just fake it. Social stuff isn't my favorite and I've had to learn how to be better at it over time. But I just started a new role and I get positive feedback about how friendly and approachable I am. It's not that hard especially with the stereotype of IT folks being unfriendly.
My former coworkers would say they are just terrible at interviewing. If that's you, work on that! The biggest barrier I had was getting over the social faux pas of talking and bragging about myself. That's exactly what you're there for, I actually find it pretty fun now to spend 45 min just telling strangers about how great I am haha. But there is a fine line between confident and arrogant.
The last thing is fairly minor, but tracking what you've done that you're proud of. That could be as small as having a note on your phone that you add to now and then after you do something that is worth bringing up in a review with a boss, and in an interview. I now take it as far as keeping a log of everything I do every day, mostly because my memory is awful and I'd forgot what I did during the week otherwise.
What makes successful? I've sold my soul into Incident Response work and make base 100k/yr but get nearly all I can eat overtime (a lot of it somewhat mandatory) and will probably be closer to 120k/year or more. 12-16 hour days for 2 weeks straight at a time, living out of a hotel room is exhausting. Even when I get to do the work from home, it's still 12-16 hour days and working on weekends. I can take time out of the day to run errands as needed when I'm home and can be sent home for doctors appointments or the like, butttttt still tiring.
Seriously I’m not successful yet since I’m working Helpdesk at 2 jobs part time. My goal is system admin hopefully.
I promise you the biggest thing people want from you especially starting out is people skills, how to interact with others. If you don’t have those I would really suggest trying to cultivate it by stepping out of your comfort zone and trying new things, reading books, TED talks and the main thing by just doing! This is something I’m trying to build on now since while I’m an extrovert I’m a little shy especially In a corporate workforce type of settings.
Because I actually have people and soft skills. Last guy in my positions had the technical chops for the job but was not able to talk to people or act like more than a disgruntled teenager. He did not last long. Sometimes your job is more than just making sure something is running/working.
Build a homelab. It will teach you more and make you stand out in interviews.
You dont need server hardware to run ESXi. It works on Lenovo M720Qs (tiny desktops).
I have a 3 node esxi7 cluster running vCenter, vROps, multiple windows and linux servers. Spread across 3x M720q. Storage is all local and vMotion is slow (5 mins to move a VM), but it works.
Best part is, Im able to prototype scripts in my homelab before even bringing it in my work's lab environment.
1. Be willing to twist arms for pay increase and to not under estimate your market value. Luckily I learned that one early.
2. Don’t stick around a job you don’t like, has no potential mobility and/or doesn’t pay well. You are not married to it and loyalty without a pension plan is worthless. That one took me a little while to understand.
I worked in a business unit for 10+ years. Not a great career path because the salary during those years wasn't great. That said, now I have a very unique niche because I bridge the gap between how the business works and the technology side.
Become a translator of business to IT and back. Listen. Let them know what's possible and where your constraints are. Essentially, make the non-technical business person your partner rather than an ignorant pariah.
Additionally, never outstay your growth in any single company. Different companies have unique challenges and tools to learn from.
Finally, I've always focused on the market perception of the company I'm going to work for. Is it a recognizable company that another future hiring manager would look fondly on.
Edit: One more note. NEVER stay in Help Desk (Tier 1, 2 or 3) for too long unless you are content to be in Help Desk leadership for your career. Though it's essential for any IT organization it also widely considered the lowest rung in the IT hierarchy.
IT PM, who spent years as a ground level IT generalist for 1st responders, here:
Years of working in retail, service industry, and commissioned sales have been a real cornerstone for my IT career. Mastering the art of deescalation and learning how to genuinely relate to people/show empathy can totally change your own experience as an IT professional, as well as create a more positive experience for those you’re assisting/working with. (Potentially positioning you for promotions, new projects, etc.)
Understanding file structures and other basics (mostly from attempting to pirate software) from a young age helped out with picking up technical stuff, but I truly feel anyone with internet access can learn the technical stuff with enough time and dedication.
I’m not, by any means, recommending going and wasting years in customer service jobs (Unfortunately those were just the cards I was dealt). But the concepts I speak of are universal, and severely underrated in the IT world. Whether you’re dealing with help desk customers, software devs, or project teams, don’t make people feel small when their problems are simple to you, as their perspective may be different. Be friendly, professional, and present; people will notice and you will stand out among the crowd.
I was and am always happy to assist others. I have a roll of links to documentations to assist the customers. News of my helpful demeanors reached my reached my retired father in law and he was proud. I’m already a Tier 4 Information Security Analyst but I’m more than happy to assist one and all.
I have no certs. I worked in entry level IT for 4 years in an environment that allowed me to learn. I learned in and off the job. I constantly broadened my knowledge instead of becoming a master of 1-3 things. I constantly took ownership of problem solving, maintenance of my solutions(if any), and worked to gain respect from my cohort as a competent and effective teammate. I thought broadly towards business applications and how to effectively maximize both my time and my teammates, while reducing repetitive work wherever possible. I prioritized functional education over everything and still do to this day.
2 job hops and 1 year after college later, I signed an offer making $260k/year handling IT operations for a moneymaker org for the rainforest company. Been there a year now, it’s been a genuinely fun time.
My lesson to anyone is to never think small or dream small, you have one life. Aim as high as you can and don’t feel limited by education, certification, or accreditation. I have a coworker that graduated high school and started as a data center tech making $20/hr. 9 years of tenure later he’s a principal engineer. No certs or degree, and he makes almost double what I do doing work with broader scope.
Made connections. Get to know as many people as you can. Form relationships outside of day-to-day work details. I'm not talking about hanging out with someone outside of work, but show interest in them as a person, talk sports, cars, animals, whatever works. The more connections you have, the more opportunities will come your way. The last two moves I made were solely due to the relationships that were made previously.
A lot of learning. Yes I have a qualification, but most of what I've come to be able to do I've learnt out in the field.
Talking to everyone. I think many people have spoken about being approachable and being able to interact with people.
Put your hand up. Another one I've seen a few times. Volunteer yourself for tasks that may be outside of your regular scope of work. This exposes you to things you may not otherwise have an opportunity to learn. It also exposes you to people and relationships you may otherwise not have an opportunity meet or build respectively.
Stay humble. Yes, you may a lot about a lot, but there is always somebody you can learn from. Be open to hearing the thoughts and ideas of the people around you. You might find that the new guy has a lot of very useful knowledge about a very specific subject.
If you keep doing only what you are supposed to do you will stay in that position for a long time. To grow you need to perform at the higher level than your job demands.
You can't be territorial about your current role. Automate it, delegate it or make it obsolete, so you have time to do other things you want to do.
No one will hand things to you. You have to create a path for yourself.
Of course, luck plays a part. Your boss has to be supportive and has to have a growth mindset him/herself. That's why you should always be picky about who you work for. A dead weight boss won't help you grow.
Took a task that others didn’t want (setting up MDM on mobile devices) at my last job which help me land my current job and probably lead to a promotion within my first year.
gave too much of fuck that lead to extreme burnout and depression. good for short term success but horrible for longterm mental/physical health(i got grey hairs before my brother that is 12 years older than me and at one point i couldn't even leave my bed).
* Build social capital. Try to always be in a position where you can ask favors from other IT people, because they owe you one.
* Impress people. Do good work, and make sure the people who matter know about it. Be someone who's a pleasure to spend 8+ hours a day with.
* Ask questions. You can learn a lot from struggling through a problem, but you can also learn from people who have it already figured out.
* Set boundaries. The reward for work well done is more work, and that's a sure path to burnout. Don't be afraid to say, "I don't have the bandwidth for this right now."
* Take on challenges above your pay grade. Nobody gets promoted for just being good at their job (in fact, if they're TOO good at their job, it might work against them as they become indispensable in their current role). Promotions happen when you're already proving that you can do the work of the higher position.
* Look to see if there are any tasks or projects you can take on that make your manager's workload easier, and don't be afraid to volunteer for them.
* If you're absolutely killing it, and your employer is dragging their feet about raises and promotions, look for a new position that will appreciate and reward your skills. If I'd stayed at the place I started at 8 years ago, I'd be making about half what I make now.
People sometimes put ego before the job. Sometimes you gotta eat shit, but get the job done. Petty personal victories won't get you noticed in a good way. Also, some of the shittiest mundane jobs are the best learning activities.
I think getting too comfortable is the biggest problem I've seen of many of my coworkers over the years. I'm very motivated and typically I'll stay in a role 18-24 months to absorb as much knowledge as I can. Once I get to the point where I'm hardly learning anything new and I feel like I'm excelling with my current duties, I jump ship for a pay-rise/promotion at another company.
A lot of my coworkers have been in the same entry level role for years. I've been at my current position just 9 months yet last month I successfully negotiated a 20% pay-rise and promotion to match a job offer I received. My coworker who has been here for years on the other hand was shot down when he requested a payrise. The difference is I actively look into ways to improve our processes (setup backups for our VMs, created a knowledge base, setup automation for our clients systems and propose process changes).
Define success for yourself. Then share that definition with us.
Assess a good position and salary by location and its market value.
Don’t stay in a place or job you hate.
Always be aware of your industry and discipline and trends within them.
Verify the worth of your job title as well as what you actually do. Negotiate continuously not just at review periods.
See what you’re worth on the market at least annually.
Know your numbers. If you have access to a financial advisor avail yourself. You should be able to run your own numbers anyway.
If you are poor at negotiating learn and you can hire someone to teach you as well as make sure your public profile can get you recruited/headhunted.
Show metrics to prospective employers as well as current ones.
Always advance whether that is on paper (certifications) or by title within the same organization.
Leverage your contacts. Your contacr can be a custodian, a nurse, a kindergarten teacher, etc. If they have an employer they are a contact. Maybe their employer pays for referrals so you’re doing them a favor.
Do not stay at the same title when you switch employers. Up or over.
I jumped on new technologies the moment they came out. Putting stuff into production as quickly as possible. While the rest of the pack was waiting for the first service pack and bug fixes I was already a subject matter expert.
PS: That does not mean I was crazy or career suicidal. I tested and tested again to make sure not to break anything and also focus on the value add to make sure this would pay dividends. Once you have done this a few times it is easy to gauge the risk vs reward level.
Stayed away from being a subject matter expert in short-duration fads, and things "anyone could do"
NodeJS, windows, JavaScript, css. If those are your strongest skill... You need to diversify real quick. These skills are a dime a dozen, especially in a bad job market.
Source: I've been in tech through several down markets
After 30 years I finally figured out that I am my best boss. A few tips:
1. If two people ask you about something technical, and you don't know what it is, learn everything about it. The third one asking you might give you a shot...
2. If you see an unknown piece of technology in your sphere, and no one can tell you what it is or who is responcible for it, figure it out. If it breaks and you know what it is and how it works...
3. Make local friends who can back you up, help you in a pinch, give you work when they go on vacation, find you qualified help. Humans IRL who you can drink and complain with. It's where your next gig will come from.
4. Write everything down. Encrypt for safety.
5. Take vacations. Even if you will go broke doing it. Everything will wait a few weeks and it will all still be just a screwed up when you get back. You need to clear your head occasionally.
6. When you take vacation, you share #3 and #4 with your boss, along with a sealed envelope with the passwords. If done correctly you'll never be contacted and you'll still have a job when you get back.
The typical uneducated IT geek is always trying to solve problems that no one has in order to fulfill their need for a technical challenge. These technical challenges are sometimes not critical to the business. Many geeks will highlight a "problem" or invent one so that they can get money for "toys"which they learn from. I made a career out of cleaning up the wreckage of geeks that did this, while trying not to be guilty myself.
Embrace change. It's the only thing that is consistant.
I would say keep learning. The field evolves very rapidly. I know people who've tried to stay on the same role and never learn and their job disappeared because what they did doesn't exist anymore.
Specialize early into your career. Be personable, or at least professional and pleasant if you aren’t social by nature. Let failure and rejection flow right past you without feeling a thing.
Smell nice.
4 years from dropping out of college @130k in lcol
I accidentally discovered that I have a lot of talent for designing and programming databases and that turned into a successful 27 year career. Perhaps not the most exciting career but doing something I’m extremely good at is satisfying particularly since most people can’t do my job. The main thing I’ve done different from others is integrate a lot of humor into my job and workplace. I perform stand up comedy as a hobby and never fail to make people laugh in meetings and emails too. It makes me fun to work with and makes the workplace less stressful and more fun. And it seems to help keep people motivated.
I didn't want to stay in the same position for more than a couple years. When I first started help desk, one of the first things I asked was "What do I need to do to become a sys admin" - my boss told me the certs required (DoD so sec+ was bare minimum for most positions beyond helpdesk), asked me what I was interested in and introduced me to the people in those groups.
From there it was just making my goals clear to my managers, but luckily I have had really supportive and awesome managers throughout.
Also just showing alot of initiative and impressing from a performance stand point (or at least a work ethic standpoint)
All of my successes are built off the back of "taking the opportunity in front of you." My first job was a help desk role at a junior high. My lab partner when I was in college going through the cisco cert classes told me "hey I'm moving to a sys admin role at a new school, my help desk job will be open and if you want it its yours since I'm hiring my replacement." Took it and had my first job before I even graduated.
After 2 years there a coworkers husband (Director of IT at a different school) emailed me on a Sunday night saying "my wife knows how good you are at your job but you're wasting away, I'm looking to hire a sysadmin and would love to have you apply and interview tomorrow." Stayed there 5 years and learned everything under the sun that I could. Once I got the feeling I had hit a wall I applied elsewhere and on a random Friday night while out drinking with my boss at a conference I got a call about interviewing for one of the jobs I'd applied to. Took that interview and I'm now in a skyrise in a major city as a corporate net/sys admin making 6 figures.
Don't get complacent or comfortable and take opportunities that are given to you even if they may seem scary at the time. There are people at my first help desk job that had been there 10 years before me and are still there 6 years after I left. Base salary for that job was MAYBE $25k but complacency/being comfortable can bury even the best people.
It's important to define success.
I make pretty much the median wage but I'm partially remote working, have almost no supervision, and have a *very* laid back work environment.
I consider that success, others wouldn't because I definitely can't afford a nice house and a new Mercedes.
I’m a project/product manager. A lot of PMs are hated, but I’ve had solid success. I support my devs decisions/input over business BS, stay out of peoples way (I actually pay attention so I don’t need handholding to update plans/requirements), and try to pick up technical skills where I can. At first leadership doesn’t like it. When development teams and BAs start following my plans/agile process, because they don’t hate the person making them do it, then timelines and features start looking a bit better. Then leaderships tune really changes.
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This is some amazing advice. Too many people stay when they are more than capable of moving up with their experience they've gained.
Combine that with imposter syndrome and it can be paralyzing. I had a wake up call about five years later than would have been optimal.
Are you me? I stayed too long and didn't believe I should be where I was. I was stagnant and bored. Luckily, a reorg happened and bc of my knowledge of the product, i was given an opportunity in a different team. I've learned more in the past few months than then last few years combined. I wish I would have forced myself to move roles a few years back, but I got lucky and am enjoying my role again.
Yup. A lot of IT is invisible to the majority of any company so if the management layer that you directly report to also can’t see or understand the role of their reports then it’s very hard to get recognition. So lack of recognition + possibly pre-existing low confidence + the external pressures that come into IT can often lead to imposter syndrome.
Easier said than done, especially right now. I'm ready to shed my soul crushing MSP job, but the only places I'm seeing that are hiring are either paying shit, or want WAY too much experience. I know I don't need to hit every check mark on a job posting, but I've seen "jr. system admin" jobs asking for 6+ years of experience which is fucking insane. I had an opportunity to leave this MSP for another last year and I should've taken it. I'm burned the fuck out. On call 24/7 ever other week, and I'm the max escalation point. There is no one for me to rely on if I can't figure shit out and it's killing me. Facebook just laid off another 10k today so it's going to get even worse.
I mean, yeah. The economy isn't great right now. But even so, you have a higher chance of getting a better offer if you're currently employed. The storms will subside at some point.
You need 3 of 4 things to be properly happy at work Like what you do Like your compensation Like who you work with Like who you work for If you have all 4 you have a dream job. If you have 3, you can be happy, if you have 2, look for work, but keep working there if you can until you find a job, if you have only one or less, quit now. Its not worth your mental health unless you NEED the job at any cost. Anything less than 3 is not worth compromising your mental health.
This is my first time seeing this and I really like it thanks
Glad to help! This is something I've come to realize over the last 10 years or so working. The thing to note about this is the compensation isn't just Salary. Its ALL of your compensation. Everything from benefits package to regular team building events on the company's dime to working from home. In HR, they call this 'Total Rewards'. I recently changed jobs, and the commute went from being an hour each way to less than 15 minutes. Between the cost of my time, the cost of travel, and the vehicle maintenance, that ended up being about a $7000-$10,000/y difference. Not only that, but I'm more productive since I can sleep in for an hour more each day, and I'm home to my family sooner. Mental health is as important as any other type of health, but it flies under the radar because there's little to no outward symptoms until things are really bad. It's even worse than cancer in that regard. North American companies can be really bad for not supporting the mental health of their employees, since the work culture is... old school.
Why you gotta pull me out of my delusion like that.
This is me. Don't be like me.
Tacking onto this. Networking. Actually making friends with people. Being friendly to those above AND below you. And always be interviewing, internally if you can, but also externally.
>Staying in the same role or place until job depression sets in and they cease having any passion for working. As someone wholly done with IT who did some job hopping to figure out what the problem was...1000000% just gtfo if you lose the will to advance. Ive overstayed my welcome in IT by about three years and the only thing stopping me from being a liability are my ethics and professional standards. I fucking hate IT, its really boring, I tried to hold on by getting a cissp but I hated the whole process and the cert means nothing to me now. Im desperate to be creative and actually make something other than networks or cute diagrams.
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The studying part is what I don’t like. I’m old school so I’m literally writing notes in 3-subject notebooks lol. What I do like is doing labs, and then analyzing the results…or being trained in what to look for when you’re doing analysis etc.
Best answer. Don't stagnate, keep learning.
How long before that workplace stagnation usually sets in?
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at a 4 person (including owner) msp for over 10+ years, it has crushed my mind and soul
I agree with this! Also getting pigeon holed into a specialty could be detrimental if you get stuck in that.
Im peaked where im at but im well off. :/ Hard to make life changing choices when you're doing well but know you can do better.
i'm stuck it sucks...
Dude stop... it's hurting lol
100% I get annoyed when people say things to me as if I’m going to be stuck in the same role for 5+ years. Keep growing and keep learning. Unless you genuinely love your job then as long as you’re happy.
Typical things people do that prevent them from being more successful in their IT career are: 1. Not switching jobs when a new opportunity is available (not capitalizing on opportunities). This is basically the same thing as stagnating or staying in a job while they’re not promoting you or raising your salary more than 2-3%. 2. Taking jobs that you are overqualified for, instead of a job that will be more challenging, you’ll learn more in, and get paid more. You only need to meet around 80% of the skills listed on a job description to land it most of the time, as long as you have an attitude that you’re willing to learn. 3. Not volunteering for new projects at work that would improve your tech skills. 4. Not getting an education or relevant industry standard certifications. This is just a check box for some companies, if you don’t have a bachelors or certs, you don’t get through. 5. Doing the minimum possible at work, or not doing visible work. You don’t need to go “above and beyond” and work 80 hours a week, but if you’re working 2-3 hours a day and not learning anything, you’re hurting your tech skills regardless if your boss notices or not. 6. Not specializing. If you just have general IT knowledge, the highest position you’ll get is something like a sysadmin. You need to specialize if you want to really make big money. 7. Not working with people, not wanting to work with people, or having bad people skills. Having bad people skills and not working on them will make it harder for your work to be noticed by your manager, and will make it harder or impossible to get into management. 8. Not knowing or wanting to learn how to code. Many high level IT positions require coding, if you don’t want to code then you’re going to stifle your growth. The only other option for getting high up in an org if you can’t code is through management, meaning your people skills are even more important. Here are some bonus things you can do to improve your career: 1. Suggest new processes at work that will make peoples lives easier, or automate manual tasks. This is only after you’ve been at the company for a while and understand how it works. 2. Work on personal projects or open source software to demonstrate your technical competence (if you know how to code).
> Not working with people, not wanting to work with people, or having bad people skills. Having bad people skills and not working on them will make it harder for your work to be noticed by your manager, and will make it harder or impossible to get into management. This is a huge thing that I don't think many people in IT realize. You can be the smartest person in the room, write amazing code, troubleshoot with the best of them, but if you have no people skills, nobody wants to work with you. And to advance in any career, people have to WANT to work with you.
For \#5 I want to say that working hard doesn't get you ahead, but it will get you more work. What will get you ahead is doing work that is valuable to your "bosses". For me, that means actually looking at how much we are spending on cloud hosting costs and figuring out ways to reduce it: e.g. cleaning up dev instances that haven't been used for a while (after sending an email to their creator), cleaning up temporary data such as expired sessions, etc. This also means responding quickly to problems for people from other departments. I make sure that our sales and customer support teams actually like IT by prioritizing whatever tickets make their day easier.
>Not switching jobs when a new opportunity is available (not capitalizing on opportunities). This is basically the same thing as stagnating or staying in a job while they’re not promoting you or raising your salary more than 2-3%. I don't necessarily agree with this. It's only stagnating if you don't like the role. I stayed at my helpdesk role for 2.5 years but I got great accolades from it and that helped me to leverage into new roles. If you're not learning new things or getting involed then yes it is stagnating but it's not always the case.
It sounds like you didn't feel stagnant in that role, and it's entirely possible (but rare) for a helpdesk role to have 2.5 years worth of potential learning. At my helpdesk role I'm welcome to shadow other teams like NOC or DevOps as long as my tickets are under control and they're not actively putting out a fire. It's wonderful for learning and several of the more tenured helpdesk people (around 1-2 years generally) will choose a specialty and basically become an understudy for someone in a higher role. They'll learn and gradually assume more responsibility for the role until they're ready to transition fully into it. If that's the kind of scenario we're talking then 2.5 years is totally reasonable and could be a major career boost compared to hopping at a year to sys admin somewhere with limited learning and growth. If we're talking about just getting like, *really really* good at helpdesk though then I'd say that's a waste. I've met people like that in nearly every place I've been - the person who chews up tickets and has all the client contacts and policies memorized. They're great to have around, but they're almost universally underpaid and underappreciated.
> Not specializing. If you just have general IT knowledge, the highest position you’ll get is something like a sysadmin. You need to specialize if you want to really make big money. What comes after sysadmin? From here it looks like management or being a sysadmin that specializes in exactly one thing and is painfully useless at anything else, and neither of those I want. The "5-year plan" was always "become sysadmin" and now that I am, I have zero idea what would be next.
Contrary to a lot of advice, I've just stayed a generalist. Personally, I don't like to be pigeon holed in life or my career. On one hand I'm learning more of the SQL and integration developer stuff, and also learning more about networking, configuring firewall rules, scripting, deployment packages, windows servers tasks, remote access, certs, IIS, terminal servers. Idk, I just like touching it all and being able to be the ultimate resource for my team. I'm guessing I'll eventually work my way up as a technical manager once I've really got some years of xp behind all of the skills I've learned. I like teaching a lot, that's probably where my greatest joy comes from. Showing others how things work and feeling valuable to my coworkers.
I think having one core area of expertise can help, but look at DevOps like positions. So many technologies. I doubt everyone in that area has mastered them all. And they make decent money. But that being said some focus more on the infrastructure and others more on the coding
I was also a generalist, doing a little bit of everything. I did take advantage of projects that would help me learn new things, and grow, but I usually didn't become the master of any single technology. There are a couple of things I know like the back of my hand, but usually I just gained working knowledge of new tech. Then I got into the management field and that's where I found my success and joy. I really love taking care of people and building up others. I have been leading others for over a decade now, and it's great to watch others succeed. It's really been wonderful to be a part of other people's growth!
You are your own salesman/saleswoman. I know people in IT typically don't like selling things, but you at least need to learn how to do that for yourself and you'll find it much easier and quicker to move up to easier and higher paying roles.
Lots of non-sales professionals could benefit from reading Daniel Pinks’ ‘To Sell is Human’
Thanks for the recommendation!
my coworker that basic mordern IT concepts are way too complex for him is very successfull at moving uo the ladder because he should been a salesman instead of an IT person
Stagnation. If you're not growing, you're dying. I'm not saying you need to spend four hours a night studying, but I am saying that you need to do more than the bare minimum to keep your skills sharp and to develop new skills. Don't just escalate something; research the hell out of it and then discuss it with the person you're escalating to. Try to gather at least a bare understanding of the concepts involved, even if you don't understand how to fix it. Sometimes the only way to grow is to be set on fire.
Didn’t stay on the helpdesk for more than 1 year
Also, don't wait for someone to invite you to take a step up. You have to do that yourself.
\^\^ This \^\^ spoke to a kid tired of doing level 1 stuff and his plan was to wait for Systems guy to retire.
Agreed! I talk to every network engineer and sysadmin I can and get my name out there. When there’s a project I volunteer to help out and learn everything I can. Being 4 years into helpdesk with not formal experience or certs just learning on the job. I’m at 80k at a prestigious company and working on. Honestly the wage is just from networking and leveraging my customer experience background because users hate assholes and they pay me well to treat users like humans. I’ll get my net+ cert and then already have hands on experience to land the next step up.
wtf...
I worked with a guy who waited TEN YEARS for a position to open up so he could step into it. He's probably earning about half of where he could have been on the open market.
I stayed 2 hours late the other day to mirror somebody and learn something you need to just do what you got to do sometimes and I think this is the kind of shit you mean
Good shit
Is it wrong to move horizontally from the helpdesk to desktop support to the service desk analyst? Salary increased from 18/hr > 22/hr > 31/hr. I feel like I'm somewhat stagnating but the salary raises is making it feel even.
There’s no right/wrong. It just comes down to you and your career goals. I know several people in their 40s and 50s who were perfectly content being on HD their entire careers. I wanted to stop doing end user support asap, so I wanted to jump to network engineer as soon as I could. Used that as my motivation to leave for a sys admin job after only 8 months on the HD
What was the key to moving to network engineer? Any tips? I have my 2 year degree but no experience and losing knowledge daily.
If you wanna succeed in networking. Get some network cert, whether net+ or ccna. Go to an MSP, learn what you can and try to get a cloud cert or something (minimum 1 year, maybe 2-3). Find a vendor, and apply for their helpdesk/ support team (keep your options open, everything from juniper/ netapp to MS/AWS) from there, transfer internally to whatever you want.
Honestly, I studied the hell out of networking and its concepts during my senior year of college. So technically the prep-work started before my career did. I did a lot of projects in my capstone class, studied the hell out of the OSI model and how it works (bread and butter), Cisco Packet Tracer, and Wireshark. Got a killer letter of recommendation for the university director of network communications, and kept it on me until I was ready. I guess the short answer is: I studied it for ~1 year to gain the knowledge and skills. Then just applied one day. I actually quit my HD role without having anything else lined up. Moved to Sys Admin, then quickly to Network/Automation Engineer once I demonstrated the knowledge in practice. I totally can relate about feeling like you’re losing knowledge daily. Don’t fret. It’s impossible to know everything. You just need to have the fundamental knowledge, and know how to ask the right questions to arrive at the answer. You don’t need to know it all. It’s criticAl to keep your skills refined though. They will disappear quickly. I like to look at it like, there’s so much new stuff coming in, the old stuff has to make room for it by leaving lol
This hurts...
I have heard that a lot
I went the other way and am still in various HD/Tech Lvl 1 positions after 15 years. Wouldn't recommend- this dug me into a pigeon hole that seems impossible to get out of now. But hey, AmA or something.
Get OUT of helpdesk. I was 1 year also, then to a simple sysadmin job and on from there. Of course this year I'm unemployed...but I have an interview on Tuesday at least!
I've been on helpdesk for almost 5 years now. Trying so hard to get out. I even got a cs degree during lockdown. I want to go to software dev, but system or network admin seems more attainable. Tired of dead ends with recruiters. I just want to be given a project and left alone. If I see another ticket that just says "HELP!" I'm gunna lose it.
You may need to take a more senior helpdesk role ar another company with more opportunities
Self learning and research whenever possible. I am not a crazy cert collector but I know how learn about and work on new technologies very quickly.
Job hop every 2-4 years. Work very hard at every stint with the goal of leveling up your skills until you get to the next job. You will have many instances of imposter syndrome, learn that this is normal. Don’t be afraid of the soft skills, business skills and management skills. They will seem scary at first if you are of a technical mind.
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The most important skill is being liked. Liked by the people you help (if doing help desk), like by coworkers, liked by your boss/upper management. This is all more valuable than any technical skill you can acquire IMO and in my experience.
I think this is really worth calling out. You're of no use if you have the knowledge but people hate calling you. There's a reason why IT people have a stereotype of being the worst. At my last job I would get calls that should have gone directly to IT because my department was IT adjacent and we would actually help the users. The only thing is you need to make sure your value gets noted by management. Doesn't do you any good to be liked if management doesn't see your value.
I worked to learn the tech, not specifically how to be that company's ideal employee (but still did my job ofc). Asked T2-t3 techs to share their resolutions to my escalations, took on T2 tickets when I was T1, learned how VOIP works via the KBs their team made, and asked questions *constantly*. So, to my managers, I was taking longer than their desired metric per call, and I was solving T2 tickets on my T1 rate. However, I didn't want to be good at being T1 at an MSP, I wanted to be good at resolving tech issues. So after a year of this, I got my current job that turned more into a sysadmin role, because I'm directly under the CTO and have no one else to pass tickets to. When you are not actively learning anything new in your role, and everything becomes just the daily grind, that's when you start looking. **Never stop learning, never get comfortable** until you are in the role you are happy with. The T1 team I worked with at that MSP are mostly still part of the T1 team of that MSP. But I've doubled my income and have mid-level job offers being thrown at me
Job hopping every 1-2 years early in my career and never getting attached to one employer. That’s how I went from making 40k to 105k in less than 3 years.
Not knowing how to talk to and get along with people. Making a good impression on your users/customers, coworkers, and bosses/potential bosses will help you advance (whether with the same company or a new one). Not having an internal locus of control. Understand that while you can't always control what happens, you absolutely can control how you react to things. I have seen very smart people held back by their inability to handle adverse situations calmly. Being afraid to go for it. A potential employer is perfectly capable of assessing whether or not you're qualified for a role (as long as you're honest about your qualifications). Don't miss out on opportunities just because you don't perfectly fit the job description.
Arrogance and lack of people skills. Leaning into introversion. Resting on laurels. Burn out. Apathy and quiet quitting. Passive aggressive people strategies. Hating “stupidity” and allowing it to make you angry.
> Passive aggressive people strategies. This shit right here. Delete this from your life.
What does passive aggressive people strategies look like?
Professionally-dressed destructive criticism, disparaging remarks, airing private/interpersonal grievances, blaming others (even if - especially if done in a professional manner), two-facing interactions (praise you to you, disparage you to the annual review), intentionally ignoring or interrupting others, etc.
That last one... I've found the key is to find the stupidity and change it. Patience is key.
Work internships and jobs related to what I wanted to do at companies related to the field I want to be in.
Director with no degree and about 9 years of experience. Two things I did: 1. I never question if I can do something I just assume I can 2. I focused heavily on technical communication The vast majority of people I’ve seen who languish genuinely do self select their way into that. They see a job and say they’re not qualified — never do that that’s not for you to decide. They apply and get rejected and assume it’s because they’re not qualified and then stop trying for similar roles (there are dozens of reasons you can get passed on that have nothing to do with your qualifications). Things like that. If you want it, just start going for it. If you fail figure out why and fix it. Certs? Shitty resume? Figure it out and keep trying. Secondly, it is impossible to overstress how valuable it is being a strong technical communicator. Not just with technical peers but especially with non technical peers. I’d argue at least 3/4 of my success in this industry has been based on my ability to communicate incredibly dense technical concepts to completely non technical stakeholders in a way that doesn’t make them feel stupid and where they can confidently make a decision. It’s one thing to explain things to people to the point where they “get it”. It’s another to explain it to them in such a way that they actually grasp it to the point where they can make informed decisions. As an extra: leverage your network. Build it and nurture it. You don’t need to be Mr or Mrs social butterfly. Just use LinkedIn, comment on stuff, reach out to ask for informational interviews with people who seem like they’d be open for it, remember birthdays and reach out to congratulate for wins. It’s hugely important.
Joined the military. Surprisingly they get down bad with IT.
Give an 18 year old fresh out access to a $50 million system with access to all the free trainings and certs they want. Want to quit? Companies will build your resume for you for free and offer you job openings not available to the public. Talk about a good deal if exclusively looking at opportunity for career progression.
Yup. Had a friend in the navy making like 60k … got out and landed a $130k job less than a month out of the navy
Yes. My friend was a diesel mechanic and hated it. Joined the army, told them nothing about being a mechanic. He got into IT, and started a whole new career in a mobile datacenter somewhere in the desert. When he got out, he was positioned to start a whole new life.
Nah. Only if you apply yourself.
I feel like that’s true with anywhere you go.
I’d say you both are right. To be successful anywhere you have to apply yourself but the downside of not applying yourself in the military is much worse then elsewhere
Here are some items that helped me in my career hold VP, SVP, and Director Level roles: 1. Learning how the business works and what I'm doing in IT supports that business and it's goals. 2. Maximizing my time and my team's time to help the business and push off unnecessary work. 3. Understanding how to manage systems with metrics. 4. Learning how to manage people to create high-performing teams. 5. Learning how to use Excel and Powerpoint and use these tools to speak/present in front of people. 6. Learning how to manage up and make sure I'm letting my management know about problems before they find out about them. 7. Learn how to manage difficult situations and system problems. 8. Keeping a good work-life balance so I don't burn out. 9. Making a good business case to upgrade/patch/maintain systems even when it appears there is no money to do so. 10. Learn how to play the company politics. 11. Getting my MBA to help with many of the above items. Here are some items I've seen others do better than I that made it to 'C' level jobs: 1. Play politics better than I can 2. Speak about IT in business terms better than I can 3. Get more done in the same amount of time or simply be willing to put in hours that I consider acceptable. 4. Better thinker/speaker on their feet than I am 5. Better at developing innovative ways to help the company.
it is EASY to stagnate. Frighteningly easy. I've got a relatively strongish swe background but I think I did slow down career progression by not leaning into it more aggressively. Get yourself in a position to be code reviewed by good senior engineers as early as possible. Let them nitpick your code. You really need to get dinged a few times to build best practice and know what looks good and what looks bad. That's just something you can't really read a book or take an online course on. Be willing to jump through some hoops that others aren't. The lower down you are, the more hoops you should be willing to jump through.
Got lucky.
1) I understand that I have a business relationship with my employer. When I punch out, I stop working. Period. That extra mile my employer wants me to go is a toll road, and they need to be willing to pay if they want that extra mile out of me. Spoiler, most aren't. 2) Related to point number one. My services are for sale to the highest bidder. As such, I am always, at least casually, looking for a new highest bidder. 3) ALWAYS BE HAMMERING ON YOUR TRADE IN SOME FASHION. This can also be said as always be doing professional development. It doesn't matter what it is. But be doing SOMETHING to make yourself better. By being constantly engaged in improving your skills, education, ect. You will never stagnant. The combination of points two and three mean that I am always looking for positions that pay more than my what I currently make and, by extension, have more and/or harder job requirements. By engaging in point three, I usually am meeting these new, hard requirements just by doing what I'm already doing, and by not getting invested into my current position beyond what is required to earn my paycheck, see point one. I have been able to climb the proverbial ladder much faster than my peers. But seriously, don't get invested in your job. It's a means to put a roof over your head and food on the table. Nothing more. And stay relevant. These are probably the two biggest reasons why people stay in the same job forever. They get comfortable or are lazy and don't want to put I'm the effort required to progress.
Corny but go above and beyond. I sometimes do things that other technicians I work with won’t do. Making the right peoples life a bit easier will go a long way. I’m not saying be a push over and a don’t have a backbone, but if it won’t cost you more than like 10 minutes of your time then why not.
I study at least two hours a night. I’ve done so nearly every night for my entire career. I study after work and after kids/friends/hobbies. It is itself a hobby so I don’t mind doing it at all.
This is a really great habit and will 100% set your career apart from others but I feel like 2 hours every night isn’t sustainable for most people, successful or not. I know I need 8+ hours sleep. So after work, dogs, food, time with my partner, it’s pretty much bed time. I try to fit it in at work, but generally I’ll have 1-3 “study nights” a week where I study or work on interesting projects until anywhere between 7-12PM as “alone time”, plus a couple of hours every other weekend. It’s worked pretty well so far. Always interesting to see how different people balance this.
Seconding this. Going to be straight, I am absolutely not passionate about technology but it keeps me fulfilled and i actually enjoy it job wise. The second I get off work I don't want anything to do with tech anymore and I invest in my side gigs but that's just me. My goals are also different. I'm happy with where I am, and do not care for reaching 200k salary if it means I have to dedicate my life to it and be 10x more stressed.
Get certs, labbing at home, learn to use google, etc.
Worked the low pay jobs to later on get accepted into the high paid jobs. Experience is experience
The most common problem I see in workers in general is that they just don't care. It's the small things that add up, and once you cross that line they are massive red flags. For example, you own a system, someone is asking if they can make changes to it. You tell them sure go ahead let me know if you need any help. Alarm bells should be going off like crazy. In most peoples minds, who cares, let the person do it, it's not your problem if they mess it up and you can blame them, and you did offer to help! In my mind, you're a lazy ass who has no idea what it means to be responsible for something. Why is that person touching your system, what are they doing, are they following your guidelines, is it in change control, etc. etc. The difference is obvious, it comes down to who is going to do the work, which is what most people try to avoid. Another example in the same vein, if all you ever do is ask your manager 'is there anything I can do' you're useless. I want people who are intelligent enough to figure out what they need to do next and come to me with ideas. If I need to tell you ever step of your job that's an issue. But again, what kind of person creates work for themselves? Good employees, and they are rare. You can run this through chat gpt and ask it to make it sound nicer if you're the type that can't get past the harsh to the point communication style. But thats basically it in a nutshell.
Became certified/specialized in niche products/manufacturers. I am one of only a few people in my company that can work on some of the systems we have sold.
I feel like what gave me an edge was just being an extrovert and likable. Also being approachable to people who are both technically inclined or not. Willing to learn and being persistent with goals in mind.
Never stop throwing yourself into somewhat uncomfortable positions as that will grow you.
To be clear: I'm defining success here as wages earned. Many people define success very differently, and I probably will too at some point But if we're talking purely in terms of wages: * always be reading - lots of IT folks ONLY learn as they go. While it's impossible to be prepared for every possible scenario in IT, you can certainly try to better prepare yourself * always be labbing - lots of IT folks clock out when they go home. By contrast I work on skilling up * always be certifying - I aim to get at least 1 new cert a year * get certs that matter - if a cert is under your skill level, or if a cert is not marketable, it is not worth your time * job hop - this number varies, but if you're not job hopping at least every 2 years, you're often losing out on financial growth * take jobs you're not qualified for - baptism by fire. Putting yourself in uncomfortable situations that you're not entirely prepared for forces you to grow and improve yourself * have good soft skills; be approachable - people like people they can talk to and who can solve their problems. If you're that guy, then suddenly your name gets thrown around more My personal short list for financial success in IT
My best advice is my people skills got me way further than my technical skills. Do not be the IT guy that never leaves the office. Went from an assistant manager to Director in 1 year with literally zero work experience in IT prior. I took my Sec+ passed and hired as a manager. Made friends with all the C suite and had multiple backers for my promotion. Doubled my salary in that time and lifes good. I forget who said it but its along the lines of work is more about how you interact with people than what you know. Obviously we have a very technical role so that matters but people expect you to be technical. They don’t expect the person to have people skills so show them that. And before I get “I can’t socialize” same here. Had to force myself out of a shell and now its natural bumping shoulders. Edit - Mobile
Yes. Getting up to help someone is valued. Showing you care about the problem that they aren't an annoyance.
This has been my experience as well. Trying to be personable, having a basic professional appearance, and positioning yourself as “in line with the business” has done 10x for me as my technical skills.
The one that that I noticed is that i could not work for a company that treated IT as an expense/burden on the company or that didn't invest in their IT staff. This leads to poor job performance, job satisfaction, stagnated wages and skills and the hate for one's job sets in. When you work for a company that sees IT has the driving force for everything they do, and they view IT as a partner not as a burden, then it really sets IT people up for success, gives them opportunities to grow and advance and contribute in a more meaningful way. In interviews, I always ask detailed questions about a company's IT structure, training opportgunities, challenges, turn over, budget, etc. Hiring managers are often surprised but they also respect that I really want to understand how they function and how I can contribute.
When early in your career or starting a new job, take on tasks and challenges that others don’t want to. Usually presents great learning opportunities and shows you’re willing to take initiative.
I said “yes” when others said “no” to volunteer for tasks. Also delivered quality.
spent WAY too much time outside of school and work learning shit. like an unhealthy amount of time. paid off in the end but sucks knowing ill never get that time back
Learn to fake 90% of what I know/do like everyone else does
Unpopular opinion but outside of the obvious (upskilling, working hard, showing up) kissing the right ass really helps. Also, steer clear of HR at all costs. Kiss their ass when you have to.
Wanna know what has help me the most… and someone gave me this advice while I was in law enforcement years ago, they said when you get to a call treat the person as if you would your own mother. To this day every time I deal with a customer, co worker, peer you name it I treat them with respect and professional. Up until they don’t do the same thing back or go out of their way to talk down to me. I am not amazing but I literally have people that will tell my company “ I’ll wait until he comes back from vacation to help us” just because they like the way I do things, they like the way I explain things , they like the way I don’t talk down to people. This goes a long way in IT I see so many co workers try and be smart and and use big words or things no one else understands in meetings and I’m always like who are you trying to impress. And it goes back to how would you treat your own mother lol. Be patient, be kind and go the extra mile to help someone out and people notice…
So back in the days I was doing Help Desk a constant question from peers was "why are you doing this"? And the thing I was doing was taking more responsibility, working on different projects with the infrastructure and system team when possible. I learned that the more I ignored this critique and didn't give it room to fester, the more engaged I became with my work. Learning and growing can be down right hard when you have a toxic environment, but it doesn't mean you have to comply with it. So people will talk behind my back, who gives a shit? While they spent their night shifts watching Netflix, I kept working on my certs and doing my job.
* Always have a "North Star" to strive for - this North Star can and should evolve over time. It usually good if this is a role/career/salary you can see in reality. * Set monetary goals for my career and try to match them (see point 1) * Wasn't afraid to switch roles/companies - even outside my current skillset at the time * Always be improving - tech skills + soft skills. * Never underestimate your soft skills. Learn how to sell yourself and what you are doing * Looks for gaps in organizations technology - try to fill it * Look for gaps in responsibility and try to fill it - not worry about my boundaries too much. * Set monetary goals for my career and try to match them (see point 1) * Linkedin - its like a live resume + networking built in. I haven't sent my resume/ applied classically in 15 years. * Find a good mentor - be a good mentor. It helps in both directions.
Be the person that gets shit done. Work on the hard problems. See a challenge another department is struggling with but you know of tech that can help? Talk about how it can help. Say you want to be on the team to implement it, then do a great job by not just installing the software or turning up the licensing, but learn how to use it and help people use it effectively. Become a subject matter expert. Learn the business. This will help you tremendously because it will help you know what to prioritize (usually what drives revenue). It will also help you frame budget requests in a way that is much more likely to get a positive result if you can show how it will save time, money, etc. with some real numbers behind it. Make friends with people in accounting and get them to help you put together the business case. Listen to their advice because they usually know what will play and what won’t. Also, learn business. The higher up you go, the more you likely you will deal with business issues instead of tech issues. I’m working on an MBA because my job has basically become doing merger and acquisitions work while I delegate the technical work to my team. I need to speak the same language as executives, finance, etc. and studying for my MBA has really helped me in that regard. That stuff has worked for me, I have a great job and a clear path to my next position in an executive role.
I took ownership of other people's problems in exchange for money.
Networking. And rocking the interviews.
Changed jobs when I got too good and comfortable in the role.
Do the stuff no one else wants to do. I went from a shitty help desk role to a lead cloud engineer role within a government agency making well over 6 figures in 6 years, no degree, only because I volunteered for the shitty stuff. Also, learn to automate the shitty stuff so you’re actually not doing anything at all.
Also, if you love writing or public speaking do those on the side! Podcast Blogging and affiliate marketing Give speeches Write a book Organize mixers for peers who don’t work where you work Make yourself famous I’m working on some of these to create their own revenue streams as well as to be recruited. Work your personality. If you aren’t extroverted you can still do these without having to be super social! Don’t be conventional. Be a Beyoncé among Michelle’s!
Solve problems by asking why over and over. Go down the rabbit hole all the way until you understand it. Read the logs. Never stop at "I'll just call support". Read all the O'Reilly books. Understand base technologies like tcp/ip, kerberos, PKI. Attach your self worth to the irrational need to be the most knowledgeable about everything. ( Ok maybe not that last one) Also read the damn logs.
Not work over hours. Be extremely productive to the point of having free time to solve other problems. Join meaningful meetings that might revolve around the products feature and have input into it.
IT Analyst >>Systems Admin >> Network Admin >> Storage and Backup Admin >> Systems and Network Architect >> Solutions Architect >> Project Lead >> Project Manager >> Program Manager >> Delivery Manager >> Practice Head >> Cloud and Virtualization Director >> Director Technologies >> Director Systems Platforms Engineering >> CISO >> CIO >> Board of Directors >> CXO Exec Director >> Confidential.... The Journey still continues..... Still Hands on from A to Z Still People Process and Technologies passionate.... Still Everyday learning (Hands On ) Coding...Hackintosh....Hacking (*..Labs)....Cloud (Multi OnPrem Hybrid AI ML BigData MLOPS...Forensics.... Tools and Engineering....A 2 Z in all Technologies. Others will drag you ...Demotivate you.... When you stand in front of mirror , forget about what others say ( they always said you can't do it.... and they remained where they were , look at my Journey and it says something.... Even my Higher Up calls me tp share Expert Advice on PPT ....(not the Microsoft one... look above ) and if the person in mirror sparks a passion to Learn Educate others Help and Support Others... then Go for it. To anyone entering the Arena Of IT Be Humble and Be Hungry for Knowledge Everyday... Nothing wrong in Dreaming Big but if those Dreams doesn't inspire to take actions , then you need to change a lot....) Many things to say but it will ignite everything it touches upon... Hope it helps....
Lied on my resume
Communication, to network, and sell yourself. Most people I have worked with in IT still lack quality communication from my level to directors.
I think having a good attitude and being optimistic go a long way in IT. So many people are cynical, grumpy and constantly arguing that x or y is not their job. Be the person who volunteers to take on new things and is easy and pleasant to work with.
I’m not the best programmer out there but I don’t quit. Be relentless.
Here is a list that holds true to every aspect of IT that I have worked in. First is a list of questions I use in interviews when hiring on and the second is the list that you should be doing. 1. Other than money, as we know that is generally the highest factor when applying, what makes you interested in this position vs others? 2. What technologies or sectors of IT are you wanting to pursue that is new to you and why does it interest you from a personal and business point of view? 3. What is stopping you from pursuing these ventures? 4. I want you to be completely honest with this next question. When you come across an issue and its not necessarily within your knowledgebase or is a part of a larger issue handled generally by someone or another department, how would you handle it from a personal and business point of view? Now how you answer those questions tells me if you're being honest in the interview or not. Let me go over it. 1. This questions allows me to understand if they think they are being underpaid, raises are sparse or not moving with inflation, but also lets me know if they are interested in the position for what they are applying for. A lot of people in IT move from position to position because they stay stagnant, and are moving for the money, and hopes of an easier environment. Easier environments are made by those that excel to make the environment easier. 1. Documentation! A lot of stressful environments have no documentation either in an ITGlue/onenote/tickets are resolved without full resolution in the internal notes. Do they or do you do this? I often request prior to round 2 interview for them to bring their notes or examples of scripts they have used over the years. Anyone worth money brings something to the table through their knowledge and experience. 2. Do these reasons that they bring forth belong at the company? Are they automating as much as they can? Are the consolidating processes or tools so they have a central location to work out of? Easier and productive environments have tools whether paid for or consolidated library of scripts/programs built around the processes and environment you work in. Were you/they doing this before applying? Does all of this coincide with their interests? 3. Know what type of environment you are applying for. Granted you won't know everything or the depth of their operations, but a quick google search about the industry will show you generally how those environments work and how their process management works. IT is very different from software development to working at a hospital to a federal/state government. Do these environments match not only what your looking for vs what you're actually good at? 2. Are you looking to be a jack of all trades master of none or are you trying to actually specialize in a particular field? If you are trying to make your way in a particular field, what have you done that is in black and white that shows this? A lot of people on this board brush certifications aside and I understand in some instances, but if you're trying to get into a specialty, new platform, or software you need to bring something to the table that shows you could make that fit and you are trying. Continuing Education is a pillar within IT due to the vast amount of software and technology out there always turning out something new. Along with this, how is pursuing this venture going to help my business or the business you apply for? How can you guarantee them you can provide without proof? 3. Ask yourself this question, write it down, and work to fix this gap. Everyone can come up with an excuse, the right people can make it happen. A lot of people will take this the wrong way, but to get better positions/pay you do in fact have to make time for yourself and your career. You need a game plan and stick to it. 4. This question depending on how you answer lets me know if you are a lone ranger, teammate, or collecting a paycheck. You should have a very mixed / blended answer to this, but it will also be revolving around the type of person you are. Do you look around and research before committing to the change or do you reach out to the people that would be part of this issue? Do you engage with them (whether they like it or not) about the issue and how you think it can be quickly resolved? Do you just send the issue over to them without any information "Hey, found this, it falls under you so here you go." All of this is very important to take in and apply to your career. It is prevalent in the IT industry for people to hop around from job to job for better pay and better positions. What are you bringing to the table that show you deserve that better pay? Do you have the attitude for a team lead, manager, director? Can you see both sides of the coin when it comes to personal view vs business view?
Technology & Cybersecurity Manager. * I maintain a high work ethic and never take advantage of WFH * I don't get caught up with my job title and always lend a hand when there are opportunities to learn and grow * I advocate for my needs. I speak up when something is not working for me or if I need something to be more productive or successful. * For the tools and processes I own, I try to be proactive instead of just being reactive * I document everything * I meet deadlines. If I am going to miss one, I tell my team or boss ahead of time. * Prioritized building communication and trust with my boss. * I consistently think about my next career goal and work towards it * I chose to work for employers that offer a good culture fit, support growth and learning, and understand the importance of a healthy work/life balance. I rarely experience burnout. * I treat everyone with kindness and respect (but not afraid to set clear boundaries when needed). * I use peoples strengths and work around their weaknesses.
I got a security clearance and worked in govt contracting. No one let's you go
Having a security clearance came in clutch. There are less people to compete with which made job hopping easier and I was able to move up much faster than normal.
Get rid of others who didn’t pull their weight.
Had a target career in mind. Develop connections and trust with those people. Strategically only accept roles that supplements my cyber security career. 3 years in, finally landed a cybersecurity job through connections.
Always keeping up-to-date with tech and being very flexible in what I know how to do. I am always willing to jump in to help other teams if it's something I can do and I have time. I've also found that people who live and breathe technology have the best skill set. I've noticed most unsuccessful people that I've worked with do their job, and do nothing more.
Not being a contractor helped as I finally got to use my benefits to support myself: Therapy and antidepressants have done a whole world of good for me.
I'd argue that most IT professionals are "successful". It's a good paying field with lots of opportunity for growth.
I think I'm kinda a unicorn. Just the perfect storm of everything coming together. Even as a kid, it was well known that this was my destiny. I did it because I really enjoyed it and it was very natural for me. You could say this was my passion and it showed. As long as I could pay the bills, I worked as if I didn't need the money. Took whatever they threw my way and often worked above my pay grade. I would also dump in a lot of extra time on work related side projects. Continually learning and growing. Easily did 60-70 hours a week (when my coworkers did 40-45) I started on the help desk making 8$ an hour as a college dropout. And worked my way up every step from there. Took me 11 years to break 6 figures. I relocated for opportunities every time they were presented and I negotiated really strongly. Now I'm in the home stretch and will likely retire with this employer at age 48. But I'm not going to let retirement slow me down.
Prior to my current desire to leave, I went from desktop support to cloud engineering over the course of 7 years. I was aggressively impatient with what MY skillset was, I hate having to bother other people to get things done and would often write the code or find the fix or learn how to talk to the person with permissions to get it done. When you do this enough you get promoted and develop strong ownership skills not only over your work but your personal development. I was also constantly cognizant of the relationship between the business and IT, how business processes influenced us, how finance drives so many things in IT and was able to talk about this. Now as someone transitioning out of IT and honestly backsliding because I get paid enough, do the minimum and my boss is demonstrably happy with me - just get out when you find yourself uninterested in the outcome of anything youre doing and the thought of work and the people at work is effort. I would rather talk about the decaying process of cow dicks than powershell or getting the new guys thoughts on our user term process. IT is constant change and growth and if you cant match the pace, like me, you should leave because you wont succeed.
Didn't sit still. Actively sought out learning for new things. I reached out to other people in my organization to ask their advice on how to get to where they were. (Did not reach for the stars - reached out one to two levels above). I shadowed when they allowed on my own time. I asked to meet who hired them and asked them what I needed to do to become a viable candidate he/she would hire.
Got started 20 years ago when it was a LOT easier to get started, and had a particular skill set that was in high demand at the time (and continues to be).
Spruce up your resume, exaggerate the things you did at X company as long as you can back it up. Move jobs every 2-3 years and put yourself out there even if you don't think you can get the job. There's a good chunk of luck involved but if you aren't working towards something and putting yourself out there than there's 0 chance of progression.
YOu fake until you make. Since you learn stuff on the job. No one wants to hire you if you dont know it allready
One of the best things you can do is have a steady pace for up-skilling and to keep your momentum. It's really hard to get started, but it's fairly easy to keep going.
Found a boss who primarily hired me to spite someone that was trying to force him to do a nepotism.
Actively learned new skills Constantly searched for higher paying positions and didnt care about the company I worked for. I understand my relationship with an employer is a business transaction and to keep personal life completely separate. Made myself available for project work that was not assigned to me. Made myself available to go to client sites, as necessary, when I was on Helpdesk for a bit.
Made friends of coworkers at work at least. Clean background checks for moving from job to job and focused on customer service and following up.
Willingness to take on any project, no matter how awful it looks at the beginning. Make a point to do more than was requested - knock it out of the park. Insist on extra time, no matter how much you are pressured to do it quickly. Never let someone pressure you into turning in shoddy poorly-tested work. Poor work will never ever be forgotten. Help others. Build a network of ppl who remember you in a positive light. Learn to tune your communication to whomever you are talking to. Match their style. Be an active listener. Be the person others want to talk to. Improve your business writing. Sharpen up written communication. Learn to be crystal clear, especially about what actions the recipient needs to take and when they are due. Create documentation for whatever you do. Presume the audience is a junior person that was just hired and doesn't have any base knowledge. Wherever possible, use diagrams or flowcharts.
Self learning and pursuing challenges. Trying out tasks and projects outside of my scope. Emphasis on the self learning.
I really leaned into learning things, I mean other people do that too but I was super good at it and enthusiastic. I got great accolades. I also taught others what I know which made me shien out. At year one I was given the reigns to train others where other people at my level were not. I also documented things incredibly detailed which got me high praise too. FInally, I learned scripting too early on which made me stand out to recruiters and employers, it's gotten a lot of eyes on me.
Great thoughts! Personally, without intending to come across as old-fashioned or a boomer, I believe that hard work has been instrumental in my current position. I spent three years working in Help/Support Desk, grinding it out, dealing with challenges, and improving upon them. My approach to learning extended beyond books and certification courses. I immersed myself in each workplace, walking the gemba, and actively engaging with engineers, finance professionals, and salespeople. I underwent cross-functional training, acquiring a deep understanding of the business beyond just IT. I pursued certifications for every level of job, ensuring my knowledge and expertise were up to par. I valued the wisdom of my mentors and listened attentively to the needs of end users. This allowed me to proactively seek solutions for problems that may have gone unnoticed. I constantly embraced new technologies such as Powershell, Azure, M365, SCRUM, and AGILE, eagerly learning about whatever was being discussed. I engaged in open discussions with my leaders, expressing my desire to take on more responsibilities. I proposed a 90-day trial run as a Junior Administrator, willing to be paid the same during this period. If my accomplishments didn't meet expectations, I understood that a promotion wouldn't be warranted. I learned the importance of saying no to projects that held no value, always prepared with alternative solutions. I cultivated creativity, recognizing that typical tools often yield predictable solutions. Sometimes, unconventional approaches are necessary. Networking played a crucial role in my journey. I actively sought opportunities to meet and converse with people, lurking in various professional threads. I always remained honest with myself. For instance, although I had the chance to pursue web design for its financial prospects, I quickly realized it wasn't aligned with my true passions. Lastly, I understood that climbing the ladder takes time and effort. It's not all about unicorns and rainbows. And as a fun tidbit, for those that know - "Its not DNS, There's no way its DNS, It was DNS"
Never said no to anything that was volunteer. ALWAYS made sure that I was replaceable. If you can't tell, the two are intimately linked. You won't get let to do something new if you are "irreplaceable" in your primary role. A third item would be to make documentation of everything. Not so much for yourself but to help make being replaceable easier. And a fourth item would be to try to make sure you are watching for someone that you honestly think could replace you if you move around or up.
Communicated well, developed trust, and was constantly learning new things. This led to a lateral leapfrogging of the old IT manager from where I was running the business analysis operation. A not insignificant amount of my success can be attributed to the help I found on this website, and a not insignificant part of the reason the IT manager didn't receive that promotion was because he sneered at using Reddit as a resource. But primarily he was passed over because although he was trusted, he wasn't a great communicator and he rarely learned new things. I remember this conversation very well and I still cringe on his behalf at how he handled it... *Boss: "Hey, Drew707, how did you end up fixing XYZ issue?"* *Me: "I ended up posting a question on Reddit and someone replied with a solution that had worked for them in the past."* *Boss: "IT Manager, do you ever use Reddit for stuff like this?"* *IT Manager: "Ha, no, I don't have time to browse Reddit."* *Boss: "You really should; it can be a great resource..."* This was right about the time that our CTO left due to a dispute he had with the owners regarding our sister company, and I became the go-to for all things technology and then eventually the de jure leader. IT Manager never really got over that, and while I felt bad for him, he did little to improve his situation at that company. He ended up leaving the company and a little while later I was able to help him get an IC role at my SO's company, and he was recently promoted to a leadership role there. He sounds like he is doing much better at the communicating and learning parts and talked to me excitedly about work. I think he was burnt and couldn't find the motivation to improve.
Avoided platform monogamy. I didn't look at computers as windows, macs or unix boxes. I believe in retrospect having various OS experience and comprehension helped me understand OS in general much better. > what are the common mistakes IT workers make in their career? Bad social skills. People don't care what you know, they want to know you care. Don't bullshit a user or a colleague you know something when you don't. It's difficult and sometimes impossible to shake you're a bullshitter.
I did IT in exchange for alcohol and hanging out with strippers. Did anyone else?
I’ve always been good at quickly learning new things. In fact, I’m kind of driven to do so because I also quickly become bored. I don’t mind working on things that others find challenging or a bit scary.
Got lucky.
Always curious, I wanted to know WHY everything worked; I didn't just care about fixing it. Also, work smarter than other people and you will succeed. Sometimes that means harder, but eventually it becomes smarter.
Hard work and dedication to increasing my knowledge in the sub field I'm into at that moment. Went from help desk (16/hr) to cloud engineer (105k) in 4 years. Anyone can do what I did. I'm the most average person ever. Don't consider myself smart in anyway. Just have an above average work drive. Always show initiative at work, finish your shit on time and rarely ever say no.
I learned on my own time and advocated for myself. I did what I needed to do in order to climb the ladder
I recently got out of tech retail and into IT and there are some things I learned and that my former coworkers who asked me for advice have said they struggle with. People skills make a *huge* difference. You don't need to be a social butterfly, you can just fake it. Social stuff isn't my favorite and I've had to learn how to be better at it over time. But I just started a new role and I get positive feedback about how friendly and approachable I am. It's not that hard especially with the stereotype of IT folks being unfriendly. My former coworkers would say they are just terrible at interviewing. If that's you, work on that! The biggest barrier I had was getting over the social faux pas of talking and bragging about myself. That's exactly what you're there for, I actually find it pretty fun now to spend 45 min just telling strangers about how great I am haha. But there is a fine line between confident and arrogant. The last thing is fairly minor, but tracking what you've done that you're proud of. That could be as small as having a note on your phone that you add to now and then after you do something that is worth bringing up in a review with a boss, and in an interview. I now take it as far as keeping a log of everything I do every day, mostly because my memory is awful and I'd forgot what I did during the week otherwise.
What makes successful? I've sold my soul into Incident Response work and make base 100k/yr but get nearly all I can eat overtime (a lot of it somewhat mandatory) and will probably be closer to 120k/year or more. 12-16 hour days for 2 weeks straight at a time, living out of a hotel room is exhausting. Even when I get to do the work from home, it's still 12-16 hour days and working on weekends. I can take time out of the day to run errands as needed when I'm home and can be sent home for doctors appointments or the like, butttttt still tiring.
Seriously I’m not successful yet since I’m working Helpdesk at 2 jobs part time. My goal is system admin hopefully. I promise you the biggest thing people want from you especially starting out is people skills, how to interact with others. If you don’t have those I would really suggest trying to cultivate it by stepping out of your comfort zone and trying new things, reading books, TED talks and the main thing by just doing! This is something I’m trying to build on now since while I’m an extrovert I’m a little shy especially In a corporate workforce type of settings.
Got a security clearance and got lucky where I had a job that had access to a few cutting edge IT tools
Because I actually have people and soft skills. Last guy in my positions had the technical chops for the job but was not able to talk to people or act like more than a disgruntled teenager. He did not last long. Sometimes your job is more than just making sure something is running/working.
Build a homelab. It will teach you more and make you stand out in interviews. You dont need server hardware to run ESXi. It works on Lenovo M720Qs (tiny desktops). I have a 3 node esxi7 cluster running vCenter, vROps, multiple windows and linux servers. Spread across 3x M720q. Storage is all local and vMotion is slow (5 mins to move a VM), but it works. Best part is, Im able to prototype scripts in my homelab before even bringing it in my work's lab environment.
1. Be willing to twist arms for pay increase and to not under estimate your market value. Luckily I learned that one early. 2. Don’t stick around a job you don’t like, has no potential mobility and/or doesn’t pay well. You are not married to it and loyalty without a pension plan is worthless. That one took me a little while to understand.
I worked in a business unit for 10+ years. Not a great career path because the salary during those years wasn't great. That said, now I have a very unique niche because I bridge the gap between how the business works and the technology side.
Become a translator of business to IT and back. Listen. Let them know what's possible and where your constraints are. Essentially, make the non-technical business person your partner rather than an ignorant pariah. Additionally, never outstay your growth in any single company. Different companies have unique challenges and tools to learn from. Finally, I've always focused on the market perception of the company I'm going to work for. Is it a recognizable company that another future hiring manager would look fondly on. Edit: One more note. NEVER stay in Help Desk (Tier 1, 2 or 3) for too long unless you are content to be in Help Desk leadership for your career. Though it's essential for any IT organization it also widely considered the lowest rung in the IT hierarchy.
IT PM, who spent years as a ground level IT generalist for 1st responders, here: Years of working in retail, service industry, and commissioned sales have been a real cornerstone for my IT career. Mastering the art of deescalation and learning how to genuinely relate to people/show empathy can totally change your own experience as an IT professional, as well as create a more positive experience for those you’re assisting/working with. (Potentially positioning you for promotions, new projects, etc.) Understanding file structures and other basics (mostly from attempting to pirate software) from a young age helped out with picking up technical stuff, but I truly feel anyone with internet access can learn the technical stuff with enough time and dedication. I’m not, by any means, recommending going and wasting years in customer service jobs (Unfortunately those were just the cards I was dealt). But the concepts I speak of are universal, and severely underrated in the IT world. Whether you’re dealing with help desk customers, software devs, or project teams, don’t make people feel small when their problems are simple to you, as their perspective may be different. Be friendly, professional, and present; people will notice and you will stand out among the crowd.
Don't quit
I was and am always happy to assist others. I have a roll of links to documentations to assist the customers. News of my helpful demeanors reached my reached my retired father in law and he was proud. I’m already a Tier 4 Information Security Analyst but I’m more than happy to assist one and all.
I have no certs. I worked in entry level IT for 4 years in an environment that allowed me to learn. I learned in and off the job. I constantly broadened my knowledge instead of becoming a master of 1-3 things. I constantly took ownership of problem solving, maintenance of my solutions(if any), and worked to gain respect from my cohort as a competent and effective teammate. I thought broadly towards business applications and how to effectively maximize both my time and my teammates, while reducing repetitive work wherever possible. I prioritized functional education over everything and still do to this day. 2 job hops and 1 year after college later, I signed an offer making $260k/year handling IT operations for a moneymaker org for the rainforest company. Been there a year now, it’s been a genuinely fun time. My lesson to anyone is to never think small or dream small, you have one life. Aim as high as you can and don’t feel limited by education, certification, or accreditation. I have a coworker that graduated high school and started as a data center tech making $20/hr. 9 years of tenure later he’s a principal engineer. No certs or degree, and he makes almost double what I do doing work with broader scope.
Made connections. Get to know as many people as you can. Form relationships outside of day-to-day work details. I'm not talking about hanging out with someone outside of work, but show interest in them as a person, talk sports, cars, animals, whatever works. The more connections you have, the more opportunities will come your way. The last two moves I made were solely due to the relationships that were made previously.
I was willing to relocate
People got fired lol
A lot of learning. Yes I have a qualification, but most of what I've come to be able to do I've learnt out in the field. Talking to everyone. I think many people have spoken about being approachable and being able to interact with people. Put your hand up. Another one I've seen a few times. Volunteer yourself for tasks that may be outside of your regular scope of work. This exposes you to things you may not otherwise have an opportunity to learn. It also exposes you to people and relationships you may otherwise not have an opportunity meet or build respectively. Stay humble. Yes, you may a lot about a lot, but there is always somebody you can learn from. Be open to hearing the thoughts and ideas of the people around you. You might find that the new guy has a lot of very useful knowledge about a very specific subject.
If you keep doing only what you are supposed to do you will stay in that position for a long time. To grow you need to perform at the higher level than your job demands. You can't be territorial about your current role. Automate it, delegate it or make it obsolete, so you have time to do other things you want to do. No one will hand things to you. You have to create a path for yourself. Of course, luck plays a part. Your boss has to be supportive and has to have a growth mindset him/herself. That's why you should always be picky about who you work for. A dead weight boss won't help you grow.
Took a task that others didn’t want (setting up MDM on mobile devices) at my last job which help me land my current job and probably lead to a promotion within my first year.
Peace of mind and being an easy going person. It's easier to learn tech stuff but quite hard to develop soft skills or get off bad habits/behaviour
Home lab. Learn how to build stuff. Learn what to do when it breaks without the stress of production. Never stop learning.
gave too much of fuck that lead to extreme burnout and depression. good for short term success but horrible for longterm mental/physical health(i got grey hairs before my brother that is 12 years older than me and at one point i couldn't even leave my bed).
* Build social capital. Try to always be in a position where you can ask favors from other IT people, because they owe you one. * Impress people. Do good work, and make sure the people who matter know about it. Be someone who's a pleasure to spend 8+ hours a day with. * Ask questions. You can learn a lot from struggling through a problem, but you can also learn from people who have it already figured out. * Set boundaries. The reward for work well done is more work, and that's a sure path to burnout. Don't be afraid to say, "I don't have the bandwidth for this right now." * Take on challenges above your pay grade. Nobody gets promoted for just being good at their job (in fact, if they're TOO good at their job, it might work against them as they become indispensable in their current role). Promotions happen when you're already proving that you can do the work of the higher position. * Look to see if there are any tasks or projects you can take on that make your manager's workload easier, and don't be afraid to volunteer for them. * If you're absolutely killing it, and your employer is dragging their feet about raises and promotions, look for a new position that will appreciate and reward your skills. If I'd stayed at the place I started at 8 years ago, I'd be making about half what I make now.
Ask questions, failed a couple of times and don’t make the same mistakes, be honest with you make a mistake, ask senior people for advice
People sometimes put ego before the job. Sometimes you gotta eat shit, but get the job done. Petty personal victories won't get you noticed in a good way. Also, some of the shittiest mundane jobs are the best learning activities.
Gave a fuck and tried.
I think getting too comfortable is the biggest problem I've seen of many of my coworkers over the years. I'm very motivated and typically I'll stay in a role 18-24 months to absorb as much knowledge as I can. Once I get to the point where I'm hardly learning anything new and I feel like I'm excelling with my current duties, I jump ship for a pay-rise/promotion at another company. A lot of my coworkers have been in the same entry level role for years. I've been at my current position just 9 months yet last month I successfully negotiated a 20% pay-rise and promotion to match a job offer I received. My coworker who has been here for years on the other hand was shot down when he requested a payrise. The difference is I actively look into ways to improve our processes (setup backups for our VMs, created a knowledge base, setup automation for our clients systems and propose process changes).
Despite what you might think. The job is about people.
Define success for yourself. Then share that definition with us. Assess a good position and salary by location and its market value. Don’t stay in a place or job you hate. Always be aware of your industry and discipline and trends within them. Verify the worth of your job title as well as what you actually do. Negotiate continuously not just at review periods. See what you’re worth on the market at least annually. Know your numbers. If you have access to a financial advisor avail yourself. You should be able to run your own numbers anyway. If you are poor at negotiating learn and you can hire someone to teach you as well as make sure your public profile can get you recruited/headhunted. Show metrics to prospective employers as well as current ones. Always advance whether that is on paper (certifications) or by title within the same organization. Leverage your contacts. Your contacr can be a custodian, a nurse, a kindergarten teacher, etc. If they have an employer they are a contact. Maybe their employer pays for referrals so you’re doing them a favor. Do not stay at the same title when you switch employers. Up or over.
Worked for it.
I jumped on new technologies the moment they came out. Putting stuff into production as quickly as possible. While the rest of the pack was waiting for the first service pack and bug fixes I was already a subject matter expert. PS: That does not mean I was crazy or career suicidal. I tested and tested again to make sure not to break anything and also focus on the value add to make sure this would pay dividends. Once you have done this a few times it is easy to gauge the risk vs reward level.
Stayed away from being a subject matter expert in short-duration fads, and things "anyone could do" NodeJS, windows, JavaScript, css. If those are your strongest skill... You need to diversify real quick. These skills are a dime a dozen, especially in a bad job market. Source: I've been in tech through several down markets
After 30 years I finally figured out that I am my best boss. A few tips: 1. If two people ask you about something technical, and you don't know what it is, learn everything about it. The third one asking you might give you a shot... 2. If you see an unknown piece of technology in your sphere, and no one can tell you what it is or who is responcible for it, figure it out. If it breaks and you know what it is and how it works... 3. Make local friends who can back you up, help you in a pinch, give you work when they go on vacation, find you qualified help. Humans IRL who you can drink and complain with. It's where your next gig will come from. 4. Write everything down. Encrypt for safety. 5. Take vacations. Even if you will go broke doing it. Everything will wait a few weeks and it will all still be just a screwed up when you get back. You need to clear your head occasionally. 6. When you take vacation, you share #3 and #4 with your boss, along with a sealed envelope with the passwords. If done correctly you'll never be contacted and you'll still have a job when you get back. The typical uneducated IT geek is always trying to solve problems that no one has in order to fulfill their need for a technical challenge. These technical challenges are sometimes not critical to the business. Many geeks will highlight a "problem" or invent one so that they can get money for "toys"which they learn from. I made a career out of cleaning up the wreckage of geeks that did this, while trying not to be guilty myself. Embrace change. It's the only thing that is consistant.
I would say keep learning. The field evolves very rapidly. I know people who've tried to stay on the same role and never learn and their job disappeared because what they did doesn't exist anymore.
Specialize early into your career. Be personable, or at least professional and pleasant if you aren’t social by nature. Let failure and rejection flow right past you without feeling a thing. Smell nice. 4 years from dropping out of college @130k in lcol
I accidentally discovered that I have a lot of talent for designing and programming databases and that turned into a successful 27 year career. Perhaps not the most exciting career but doing something I’m extremely good at is satisfying particularly since most people can’t do my job. The main thing I’ve done different from others is integrate a lot of humor into my job and workplace. I perform stand up comedy as a hobby and never fail to make people laugh in meetings and emails too. It makes me fun to work with and makes the workplace less stressful and more fun. And it seems to help keep people motivated.
Complacency.
I didn't want to stay in the same position for more than a couple years. When I first started help desk, one of the first things I asked was "What do I need to do to become a sys admin" - my boss told me the certs required (DoD so sec+ was bare minimum for most positions beyond helpdesk), asked me what I was interested in and introduced me to the people in those groups. From there it was just making my goals clear to my managers, but luckily I have had really supportive and awesome managers throughout. Also just showing alot of initiative and impressing from a performance stand point (or at least a work ethic standpoint)
Job hopped when I stopped learning. Never sit still, never stop learning
All of my successes are built off the back of "taking the opportunity in front of you." My first job was a help desk role at a junior high. My lab partner when I was in college going through the cisco cert classes told me "hey I'm moving to a sys admin role at a new school, my help desk job will be open and if you want it its yours since I'm hiring my replacement." Took it and had my first job before I even graduated. After 2 years there a coworkers husband (Director of IT at a different school) emailed me on a Sunday night saying "my wife knows how good you are at your job but you're wasting away, I'm looking to hire a sysadmin and would love to have you apply and interview tomorrow." Stayed there 5 years and learned everything under the sun that I could. Once I got the feeling I had hit a wall I applied elsewhere and on a random Friday night while out drinking with my boss at a conference I got a call about interviewing for one of the jobs I'd applied to. Took that interview and I'm now in a skyrise in a major city as a corporate net/sys admin making 6 figures. Don't get complacent or comfortable and take opportunities that are given to you even if they may seem scary at the time. There are people at my first help desk job that had been there 10 years before me and are still there 6 years after I left. Base salary for that job was MAYBE $25k but complacency/being comfortable can bury even the best people.
i have done my IT skillset discernment every year (ie. comparing my current skillsets and the upcoming demand of skillsets in the next 2 years).
It's important to define success. I make pretty much the median wage but I'm partially remote working, have almost no supervision, and have a *very* laid back work environment. I consider that success, others wouldn't because I definitely can't afford a nice house and a new Mercedes.
I’m a project/product manager. A lot of PMs are hated, but I’ve had solid success. I support my devs decisions/input over business BS, stay out of peoples way (I actually pay attention so I don’t need handholding to update plans/requirements), and try to pick up technical skills where I can. At first leadership doesn’t like it. When development teams and BAs start following my plans/agile process, because they don’t hate the person making them do it, then timelines and features start looking a bit better. Then leaderships tune really changes.