I’m just wondering if this is maybe the area I’m in but most of the IT jobs in my area pay max 35k to 40k. I could have sworn just a few years back helpdesk salaries were around 50-60k but I’m seeing helpdesk jobs paying as little as 13-14 an hour in my area. Even for higher level roles I’m seeing system administration roles pay 45-50k (which I think is pretty good for my first role) which is what I’m making now as a technician. Is this due to the influx of entry level employees causing salaries to drop? I’m just wondering if I’m crazy or if anyone else noticed this. I go to look for other jobs in my area but it seems for entry level that I’m not going to get anything that pays more than where I’m at.

Do you prefer working for an IT company or a non-IT company but in an IT role?

What are the pros and cons of each?

I have done 1 of each and prefer working in the IT department of a non IT company. Much fewer people to have to communicate with.

I’m the office IT specialist for an office place that supports in-office and remote workers. I am very busy all day every day. My supervisor wants to get me an intern, and I should be excited for that, but I’m concerned about appearing no longer needed.

Has anyone else gone from bottom of the totem pole to having to give up some responsibility? I know I would enjoy having some time to breathe and plan things ahead, but that seems too good to be true. Am I crazy?

I’ve heard a lot of jokes about how project managers in other fields (mostly software engineering) are essentially useless and don’t know anything about the field they are in. My current PM is a CCIE and my previous PM has been in technical roles for about 30 years give or take, is this common or have I just been lucky?

Hey everyone, was just wondering what’s with the IT industry paying its employees bottom feeding salaries when some of them are major corporations. I’m not quite sure I know of many fields where people with bachelor degrees, certifications, projects, desire to learn are offered $15/hr or $20/hr if the IT universe smiled at you. How do they expect people to survive and want to work for them? I know of some people who stand at the door at Walmart that make that kinda of money and barely do the job they are required to do. My assumption is that all this IT industries have caught on to the desperation of people wanting to get into IT therefore know they can feed us anything and we will jump at it.

I mean I don’t know of someone with a bachelor degree in Nursing making $15/hr. Mind you we work just as hard if not even harder to impress this employers.

Your two cents will definitely be appreciated.

Need to vent. Just getting tired of the constant whining and complaining from end users about how hard things are on the computer, how dumb developers are because the software doesn't do their whole job in one click, and thinking I'm some kind of wizard any time I fix even the most basic of issue. The knowledge gap between end-user and IT professional is so astounding and I think it's the number one reason for burnout in this industry. Working help desk or with end-users in any capacity as an IT pro is exhausting. They're never going to understand why you think about things the way you think about them because they don't understand just how little they know about your world. Just think about how many times a day you get interrupted by a "can you look into this?" only to point out to the user that they forgot to read something or the thing the thought was something is really nothing. This is one example of thousands but just the other day I got asked "can you see if these phone lights will still be compatible when me move to our new building?" Like what kind of fucking question is that? You know so little about technology that you think the building has any bearing on whether a USB busy indicator light will still function after we move? Really?! And this is someone in a management role that I've been forced to assign superuser privileges to for certain pieces of software we use. Yeah...guess how much time I've wasted undo stupid shit that they've tried to configure themselves. Again the knowledge gap is FUCKING ASTOUNDING. And I'm not even anywhere near the top of the heap when it comes to IT knowledge, I may not even be in the top half. I've been in 6 years (sounds like I'm talking about a prison sentence) and I came super excited, ready to learn all the things, happy to help people. Now I just sit at my desk cynically, secretly hating everything about my work life. I feel like I've gotta get out but I've got a family to support so options are limited. I'd love to say I could try looking for a new company but I honestly work for a great company, it's just the burnout of dealing with end users. Part of me wants to try to organize a worldwide help desk strike so some of these idiots will wake up but that's just a pipe dream. Although it sure would be great if people could realize how much IT people get shit on purely because of how much the end users doesn't know and refuses to learn. End rant.

From what I am aware of there is a decent amount of jobs in this in my city. Does anyone know the specific type of name this job title might be?

I (18M) am currently studying at uni for cybersecurity (started mid last year) and working a fast food job. My job isn’t the worst in the world but I really want to earn money from an IT or tech position. I can only do part time but I’m not sure if that’s hugely important. I was just wondering how I can break into the tech industry or if there’s a way to earn a bit of money with this niche. I still feel like I know nothing about tech so I think a job would also hugely boost my knowledge. Is there any certifications I should be studying for? Or should I just wait to graduate? I don’t have many friends in this industry so I’m not sure what I should do. Thanks for your time

Hello everybody! So I have an associates in science and was doing a job that was very people oriented. I have been doing it for about 5 years, but my body cannot handle it anymore so I wanted to try getting a job in IT so I can have a sitting down type of job. The question is with my experience working with people for 5 years, could I get a helpdesk job with no certs? If that's not the case what do you recommend i start with? I wanted to try getting a degree in CS, but it's too expensive sadly and I hear most just end up with debt and low paying jobs. It's really been making me not want to pursue another degree. Also what is the pay like for these entry level jobs? I don't mind the pay being 20+. Thanks!

Hello everyone,

I’m 25yo, degree in CS from WGU, transitioning from SWE to IT and I received two offers here in Vancouver after 3 weeks of applying:

1) from an AI startup that focuses on vulnerabilities and security for $8xxxxCAD as an “Technical Support Engineer”. A lot of python, and working with their main platform helping clients know about vulnerabilities in their AI usage.

2) from an IT solutions company (Kaseya) as a “Technical Support Expert - Level 1” for $6xxxxCAD. All things Kaseya and their softwares. Linux focused, virtual machine, a little network and cloud stuff (I think).

This will be my first IT job and I don’t exactly know which direction to take my career into (Windows sys-admin vs. DevOps, automation/scripting and Linux), but I am currently studying for my CCNA before I eventually plan to move on to obtaining a large number of Azure certs. If you guys could help me decide which one is better to start out with and which one would help me more in the long run, as well as judging my general career directions and certificate route - that would be awesome. Any questions you guys have, I’ll be sure to answer them ASAP.

Hey everyone so little background,

I have 7 years of IT experience (5 Helpdesk, 1 System Administrator, 1 Help Desk Manager, and 4 months of being a Security Control Assessor)

Being in this SCA role has made me sorta not want to do it anymore. It’s just pretty boring and I really like to be hands on while this role isn’t.

I have two major questions:

1. Is being an ISSO more hands on than being a SCA? My end goal was to become an ISSO but not too sure how hands on they are

2. I found another IT Manager position that I was thinking about applying for. Do y’all think that would be a dumb move? I know it kind of feels backwards in a way but when I was a manager I had a lot more joy in the job than my current one.

Any and all advice is appreciated

Hello reddit, I'm applying for a job offering 18.50 with a 46 hr work week. I need/want more. Any suggestions to my counter email?

Hello [HR],

Thank you for sending over the job offer for the [1st Assistant manager] position at your [City, state] location. I am very excited for the opportunity to join the [company]'s team.

Before I accept the offer, I would like to address the proposed compensation.

As I shared with the hiring manager, I bring over 10 years leadership experience with 5 years as an Assistant and a year as Store Manager. In my previous role, I increased customer reward capture 25%+ YoY and reduced attrition. I excell in data analysis, investigation, and training/coaching by the book. I know that I can bring a firm, yet understanding, leadership style to support my store manager, improve operational excellence, and ensure customer satisfaction. From my research, the regional average for this role is approximately $17-$25 an hour. I'm looking for an hourly rate in the range of $20-$24 to more closely align with my previous Assistant Manager roles.

I would love to schedule a time to discuss this further.

Respectfully,

[OP]

I'm taking my bachelors in IT through WGU. For those who don't know, this university REQUIRES you to pass CompTIA A+, S+, N+ , ITIL v4, and a few others.

I have the CompTIA trifecta and ITIL v4 already. Working on the Amazon AWS Practitioner and LPI Linux essentials.

I am on my third year as a construction project management intern in the same company but I have been doing some basic setup like fixing the printer, setting up docks, TVs. And since the IT department is out of state, I have become the pseudo liaison for them in my office.

I have a homelab running proxmox just to gain some Active Directory and Group Policy experience. With other things like truenas, plex etc.

I have listed these experiences, homelab/projects, and certifications in my resume but I can't seem to land a job after hundreds of applications here in Southern California. Been applying since mid last year and I can't seem to break into IT. Not a single interview or call back.

EDIT: I have been applying for level 1 help desk jobs. Will post redacted resume after work

I need to get this off my chest. I'm the sole IT person ("Tech Director") at a public charter high school after 4 years of corporate T1/T2 work. I took this job after getting laid off last September - the tech job market has been brutal, and I was just grateful to find something after only a month of unemployment. The pay is the same as my previous corporate role , but the responsibilities are more intense.

When I arrived, the place was a complete disaster:

• No lifecycle management, fleet of Win10 devices that can't upgrade to 11
• Zero MDM/device management for Windows environment
• No standardized onboarding/offboarding
• Found all passwords in plaintext
• Chromebook management was a mess
• No ticketing system whatsoever
• Extremely messy office and server room
• Still finding things tbh about all this time. Always fun surprises.

I'm simultaneously trying to:

1. Audit everything
2. Work on tech refresh + MDM
3. Handle daily helpdesk
4. Implement basic security practices
5. Document literally everything
6. And other projects that pile up.

I just came back from a week off, and it's been too much. I'm bombarded non-stop. Sometimes I can't find time to go to the bathroom because the requests keep coming. People don't have much patience. Today the front desk was pressing me about a teacher's printing issue when I was already swamped with other critical tasks.

I'm so tired of working with teachers and admin tbh. If I'm somewhere in the building helping someone, someone else is wondering why I'm not in my office. Then admin wonders where I am. Then I have people complaining that I'm hard to reach.

The job is giving me tons of hands-on experience across everything IT-related, and I'm working on my CCNA to hopefully move up someday, but it is too much for one tech. I miss having a team of IT colleagues to bounce ideas off of and share the load.

I have this weird love/hate relationship with the job - and this week I definitely hate it. The plan was to stick with it till the end of the year. If I'm able to get the school in a better position and complete some meaningful projects, it'll look good on my resume, in interviews, and help me land better work.

On good days, I appreciate the autonomy. The hands-on experience across every aspect of IT is valuable. But right now, I'm just exhausted and feeling underappreciated.

Just needed to vent.

I mean this HVAC guy wondered why he could no longer access our VPN. He sent his VPN credentials in clear text to me over email, including info on how to access our VPN. I didn't even know he had access and I am currently reviewing our VPN situation with a specialist from the state to make things more secure.

I'm drowning tbh and tired of this job. Its been nonstop BS. I would like to work for a company where things are just not a mess based on past staff decisions.

Aloha Everyone,

I wanted the opinion of the experienced Mid-Senior level IT professionals out there. In your experience:

1. How hard is it to get a job once you have established yourself with 2-5 years of experience, respected certifications, and secret clearance? (Without a degree) I know more experienced roles can be more niche, but how saturated is it compared to the entry level job market?
2. how hard is it to get Remote work in IT as well?
3. Do you believe outsourcing to 3rd world countries (like helpdesk india) will destroy the job market for USA workers and salary?
4. Do you see AI reducing a lot of the common IT roles we have today?
5. Is a Associates worth anything?

I’m out in Hawaii, just got my SEC+ looking to get my secret clearance. Just hoping to get some insight from all you foreman out there while on my Journey. God bless Mahalo. Appreciate everyone who takes time out their day for advice

Couple months ago I started my first official job in IT and I knew from the start that I wasn’t learning much here and management was utterly useless. Manager wouldn’t teach me anything and I self taught myself my job responsibilities. Was studying Net+ on my downtime but got told I’m being let go next week because of budget cuts.

I still feel new in the IT field and been mass applying since I joined this job. Since I’m relatively inexperienced do yall feel I should utilize my time during unemployment to focus on Net+ and Sec+ or practice more Linux in this job market?

Long term I want to become a Sys admin and consider cybersecurity.

I’m located in the San Francisco Bay Area

Is the RHCSA a pretty good certification for impressing HR and Hiring Managers? Ive heard a lot of good things about it but was wondering how it stacks up (HR Clout wise) vs the CCNA or CISSP.

So I’ve been seriously considering going back to school to get another master’s degree. I already have a Master’s in Public Administration, which is a broad degree. I’ve been working for the federal government for over five years now, but I feel like I’ve hit a ceiling. I’m ready to take a leap and explore more lucrative opportunities, ideally in the tech industry.

I’ve looked into several career paths like project management, business analysis, even data analytics, but I keep running into the same issue. I don’t have direct experience in these areas. And if I try to jump into the private sector right now, I’d be taking a big pay cut compared to what I’m making as a fed. So I’ve been thinking that maybe going back to school is the best option for me.

I recently found a 100 percent online Master’s in Management and Information Systems program at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. I know it’s not a top-tier school, but I’ve seen people get this degree (or something similar) from other schools and end up at good companies, even Big Four firms. I’m not saying that will be my path, but I want to give it a real shot.

The program is only one year long. I know I’ll still have to network, gain experience, and learn outside of the classroom, but I’m hoping the degree could open some doors. For those of you who are working in this field or who have this degree, was it worth it? Did it help your job prospects?

Also, if the end goal is to break into tech, do you think it would make more sense to go for a more technical degree like a Master’s in Information Systems instead of Management Information Systems?

I’d really appreciate any honest advice or tips. Just trying to make the smartest move for my future.

Hello, I am currently a college student working on a project for my class. I need to interview professionals who are working in the business workforce and then present a summary of the interviews. More specifically if you are working in data analytics, information system managers, computer system analysts, or a role that fits the Business MIS degree.

I would just ask basic questions based on your job such what a typical day looks like or any advice you would give to someone wanting to work in the same industry.

It would take 10-15 minutes, over zoom, Microsoft Teams, or a phone call. Please let me know if you’d be interested in getting interviewed. Thank you.

I want to learn more about cloud computing and I'm considering these two programs. Any thoughts on which of these or even another cloud program/bootcamp is superior? Thank you for any and all suggestions.

https://www.wgu.edu/online-it-degrees/cloud-computing-bachelors-program.html

https://www.umgc.edu/online-degrees/undergraduate-certificates/cloud-computing-networking

Just received the offer this morning. As someone born in the 2000s, I also graduated during a shitty job market, but this is now my 4th IT job, so maybe I'm doing something right and I figured I'd make a post sharing my job search experiences.

Attached is my resume: https://imgur.com/a/y8UEW8Y

This is the link for the resume template: https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/jakes-resume/syzfjbzwjncs

To summarize, my junior year of school I was looking for an internship and landed a full-time role instead, I was laid off because the market went to shit. It did take a year after graduation to find a new job, but the competition was just so high. I had at least 10 interviews, I like to think I nailed at least half, but in all of them, someone with more experience got the job. Went through two contracts, then I interviewed for a NOC Technician role nearby and got the job. Here are a few quick comments:

• No one has ever asked me about my two-year job gap, However, maybe it was the reason I didn't get called back sometimes.
• Don't be afraid to go through a staffing agency for contracts, I did it, paid my dues with shitty pay and no benefits, now I'm out with 1 year+ experience. If anything, when I get asked "why are you leaving your current company" in interviews, I just say "Contract Ended" and that shuts down any notion of me being a job hopper, etc. So being a contractor gives you a nice cop out answer.
• I've never had any certs and even though I'm nearly ready to take the CCNA, I don't list it on my resume as "expected". I don't think having the Trifecta would've helped me in 2023, I was always passed up for someone with real experience anyway, in a hypothetical situation where no one with experience applied, I guess it would've helped. For some extra info, in this job's "preferred but not required" qualifications, certs were dead last.
• In two of my interviews I was told at some point "if it's on your resume I'm gonna ask you about it". I pride myself in keeping my Skills list short, only listing things I'm very confident speaking about, like 15 skills or less. I sometimes see resumes on here with zero experience and their Skills section is bigger than mine. Hiring Managers can probably tell if you have an uninspired laundry list of everything you ever heard of, and not everything you're skilled in.
• The Discord Bot is a really nice icebreaker. I feel it's a nice professional middle ground rather than saying "Hobbies: Video Games", in fact for my third job, the Hiring Manager told me he liked Halo growing up, and I spent 5 minutes talking about Bungie's API Payload for Destiny. I got the job.
• The most controversial part, lying, if you can sell it do it. On my 2nd job I listed some tasks my System Admin did and sold them as my own. I felt very confident about the subject and we actually would have two weekly status meetings, where our System Admin would report his progress. Hiring Managers were free to continue to ask questions or dig deeper if they thought I was lying, I would've kept firing back with all the knowledge shared in our 100+ meetings. If the FBI can't even reliably tell if someone is lying, then a Hiring Manager wouldn't. It worked for landing my next 2 jobs. For any behavioral questions regarding a difficult time with a coworker, a weakness I have, just lie and sound convincing.

This is how the NOC Technician interview went, in case anyone looking for NOC jobs wants to get an idea, I omitted questions specific to my experience and education:

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Any issues regarding background checks etc?
3. Difference between a Router and a Switch?
4. What is the role of DHCP?
5. If DHCP isn't available how would you assign IP, DNS etc?
6. Do you know how many OSI Layers there are?
7. What is the top one?
8. What is its purpose?
9. What is the role of a gateway?
10. What is a subnet mask?
11. What is subnetting?
12. Any questions for us?

As with anything, there surely was some luck involved in landing my jobs, however I am just happy to break out of Help Desk/Support and wanted to share my resume and my path there.

Hey all, I’ve got a bit of an unusual situation and would appreciate some input.

My mom’s husband (not my father or adoptive parent) runs a small private school. He asked me to help modernize the IT setup before he retires and sells the business.

Here’s what the job would include:

• Upgrade one office PC to Windows 11 (including a hardware swap)

• Migrate 7 student PCs off Windows 10 (either to Windows 11 or Linux)

• Buy and configure 3 new student PCs

• Set up a new NAS

• Configure VPN access for remote work

• Replace expired antivirus software with something more cost-effective

I’m not a professional in IT, but I’ve got a decent homelab setup at home (Proxmox, Home Assistant, Nextcloud, etc.), and I mainly work with Linux (Mint, currently Kubuntu). So I’m comfortable with most of this.

Since he wanted everything official (with proper invoice and taxes), I figured: "Sounds fun, great learning opportunity, I’ll do it for 600€."

But he wanted maximum of 500€. He was actually rather pissed that I asked for that much. (In his words: "irritated")

Now I’m wondering:

• Did I overestimate the value of the work?

• Is 600€ fair or too much for this scope?

• Will he actually find someone else cheaper who does all this?

I even thought 600€ for all that is rather cheap.

So far I’ve already spent ~8–10 hours researching and prototyping a student PC setup – fully aware that I might not get paid for that.

To be clear: The 500–600€ would be just for my labor. He would buy the hardware himself based on my advice.

Would love to hear how you'd approach this.

And am I in the right sub for this question?

P.s. I live in Germany

Edit: Formating

I am 33, have an AS degree in networking, 15 credits short of a sociology degree, I'm currently about 3-4 semesters from finishing a CS degree. I'm just lost and confused. I spent a year learning SQL and another learning Python trying to get a data analysis, or a SWE role but kept hearing "we want a bachelor's degree.

Im about 3.5 weeks away from finals and I'm going to pass all my classes, but I'm super burnt out from taking a 15 credit load with a physics & discrete math class in the same semester

I have about 4 YOE in real estate photography but there just isn't enough money in the field so I tried to pivot. I honestly don't know what to even think anymore. I don't know what my passions are anymore either. I wonder if I was imagining the tech field to be something it wasn't, and that I'm just a another scrub reaching for something that doesn't exist.

I'd ideally like some good well-researched information from industry veterans about how they see the job market for cyber security looking over the next 10 years.

I am in the process of transitioning into cyber security from 20 years in software engineering/devops, and want to do everything to make sure I can be continuously employed in a mostly WFH capacity for at least the next 10 years, which should see me through to retirement.

I have done my research, and am upskilling in areas that should result in me being able to find cyber security work, I'm more interested in the continued job security of the industry, how you expect it to grow and change over the next decade or two, and how much ageism may be a factor (I'm 42).

In particular if you can identify any specific sub-areas in cyber security that are a 'safe bet' please let me know.

Many thanks!

I’m a junior in college as well in the army national guard. I’m looking for Help Desk and Entry level positions in the cyber security field. Anything I can do to my resume?

https://imgur.com/a/WGY9dmD