@acri1, have you made the transition yet? If you dont mind me asking what is your pay + experience + certs like? How is the job market in the D?I'm still trying to figure out how to escape the helpdesk.
But you're right, I've come to the conclusion that I'll have to job hop. I don't particularly dislike where I work but there's just no room to move up; nobody ever leaves and nobody trains anybody.
Breh...if you think reinventing the wheel is reading a thread for your own benefit, go head and start slangin dope cause this ain't for you.
Ain't nobody gonna hold your hand through this process breh. nikkas is in here telling y'all how to get to the point where you can make 300k a year and y'all got the audacity to ask "How come we don't got an FAQ?"
). Pay is a little over 40k (which ain't shyt compared to coli ballers, I know, but decent considering the cost of living in MI..my rent is less than $500/mo). I haven't escaped helpdesk work yet but I'm getting there. 
Good shyt man. Dont worry about the salary. Its not what you make, its what you keep. Is the gig at a small or big company?Job market in the D sucks, though I've never lived outside of Michigan so I don't have much to compare it to.
As far as where I'm at now...I started a new job last November. Job title is "Systems Technician". It's still a lot of helpdesk shyt (answering phones, swapping hard drives, resetting passwords, etc.), but I also get to deal with network/server stuff significantly more than at my previous job (which tended to be mostly phone support). For example occasionally I'll be assigned to do things like create/modify AD groups, create mailboxes in Exchange, make changes on the firewall, do backups, etc. It's a decent gig.
The nice thing is have RDP and VNC setup on all the computers (which all have easy hostnames such as PC382,PC383, etc), so I can usually remote in to fix things. Plus I was recently assigned a project where I have to install and configure some new network monitoring software on a server, which I'd never have gotten to do at my old job.
As far as experience, I have A+, Net+, a degree, and a couple years experience (been slacking on certs
Setting up a virtual lab at home is one of the best strategies for learning. Don't waste your time or worry about no triple boot anything. Nobody does that in businesses today. You want to do whatever they do in the real world which is VMware (and now HyperV somewhat). Learn VMware first and foremost. How to install it on a box, how to manage it, how to create VMs on a ESXi host and then create a Windows box, osx box, linux box, etc. in a bunch of VMs.
Setting up a virtual lab at home is one of the best strategies for learning. Don't waste your time or worry about no triple boot anything. Nobody does that in businesses today. You want to do whatever they do in the real world which is VMware (and now HyperV somewhat). Learn VMware first and foremost. How to install it on a box, how to manage it, how to create VMs on a ESXi host and then create a Windows box, osx box, linux box, etc. in a bunch of VMs.
There are multiple ways to do the home lab setup too. depends mostly on money you have to spend and space you have at home. What it boils down to is two ways, you could get one of those big beefy servers that you see in data centers, but those are typically: A) more expensive B) sound like jet engines in your room when constantly running C) up your electricity bill D) take up a lot of space in your room. I upgraded my cheap ass $300 hp desktop last year and put 32GB ram (ram is mad cheap these days) in it and an SSD drive. I just use a Windows application called VMware workstation and I can load up any VMs with any OS or software on it. With this I can learn any cisco software I need or Microsoft or Citrix as well as VMware by default in setting it up. My setup is probably a total of $500. It may not be as powerful performance wise as a true server, but for a lab environment to learn the ins and outs of a software, it more than gets the job done just fine.
The other way to do it is to buy maybe two dell/hp/cisco servers and install VMware ESXi on them as the bare-metal hypervisor and then manage those two with your laptop and install any software you want to learn on VMs on those two boxes.
get started with these and
Welcome to vSphere-land! » The why and how of building a vSphere lab for work or home
Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab – Part 1: The Story | Boerlowie's Blog
Just going through the process of actually figuring out the purpose of the home lab, the different ways to build one, and how to build it will help you learn a ton. you probably already have questions like what is a VM? what is ESXi? what is vSphere? etc. This is how u will learn those things. Youll read shyt you dont understand and be forced to research.
Once you've done this you can put it on your resume as "I'm competent in AD, or I'm competent in X technology". In an interview, you dont have to say i did it in a home lab unless they ask, just be truthful at all times but dont be so pressed to let them know you have little experience in a production environment, you just want to show them you understand the technology and can pick things up quickly.
I got a phone interview for this job
IT Help Desk [12122012] - Puryear IT, LLC - Job Board
Pay is more than what im making now and its supposed to be entry level but more complex than the tier 1 i do now which is what i want
But they asking about remote solutions and helpdesk software that i aint never heard about. I figure they wouldnt expect someone to come in knowing everything, or would they?
Job market in the D sucks, though I've never lived outside of Michigan so I don't have much to compare it to.
As far as where I'm at now...I started a new job last November. Job title is "Systems Technician". It's still a lot of helpdesk shyt (answering phones, swapping hard drives, resetting passwords, etc.), but I also get to deal with network/server stuff significantly more than at my previous job (which tended to be mostly phone support). For example occasionally I'll be assigned to do things like create/modify AD groups, create mailboxes in Exchange, make changes on the firewall, do backups, etc. It's a decent gig.
The nice thing is have RDP and VNC setup on all the computers (which all have easy hostnames such as PC382,PC383, etc), so I can usually remote in to fix things. Plus I was recently assigned a project where I have to install and configure some new network monitoring software on a server, which I'd never have gotten to do at my old job.
As far as experience, I have A+, Net+, a degree, and a couple years experience (been slacking on certs
? How the fukk you get your coli account approved making so little?
For those of you getting into IT understand the money starts coming when you LIVE I.T.
If you plan on making IT an 8hr a day job and forgetting about till the next day you are in the wrong business.
Dream big and think complex scenarios, ambition drives innovation....what will happen if I do this or that?
Challenge yourself....You have to be a dynamic person to survive this industry because what you know yesterday could be irrelevant today.
That's just how the business is...never stop learning.
I just finished reading this book for like the 5 time...almost 500 pages....I know almost everything in there but I read it anyway. That's how good engineers are made
