Wintel career path advice. 1

[PJamesD]

In terms of infrastructure, so far in my career, I have worked on 1st & 2nd line support, and team led a busy 1st line support desk. I am now providing 3rd line support for a Wintel farm of computers, although saying this, a lot of my time is spent configuring and deploying new releases of our application our Wintel farm hosts.

This obviously includes scripting much of the configuration, plus I am involved in the upgrades, implementing new active directory policies, and I am have got a fair amount of admin exposure from looking after our test environments on the project.


Anyway, what I am actually asking, is what is the typical career path for someone like me? Ie, - how do I become more involved/exposed in higher-level role? How do I move on? Presumably I need to find a project at the beginning so i can become more involved in the design stage of things? That can be difficult given my lack of experience in this area?


I would be interested to hear of how you got to where you are now, how you got there etc, - and what you think I should be looking to do & how I should progress my career?

Sorry, bit of a vague question, I realise, - any help / advice appreciated.

Regards

 

[porkchopexpress]

I think if you post in this forum "My own development as a professional" you might get some good advice the people who post there seem to enjoy offering in depth advise.

forum654

 

[kmcferrin]

That's true, but a good piece of general advice is to get some certifications if you're looking to step up. It sounds like you have a fair amount of experience, and what you want is something on paper that helps quantify that experience. That's where certs can help.

I personally have not been a big fan of certs in a lot of cases, because people will read a couple books and pass a certification test, and then think that makes them qualified for a particular job even though they have no experience. But if you have experience in a certain field, I think that certification can be helpful. Not only are you likely to learn something new during the certification study process, but having certs helps you stand out among a group of candidates.

So to rank thing (IMHO):

1. Experience + certification in a field is the best.
2. Experience in a field is good, and often times enough.
3. Certification in a field without any work experience in that field isn't very helpful. It might get you past an HR person screening candidates, but you'll have trouble closing the deal in a technical interview.

 

[PJamesD]

Hi,

thanks for your comments. I've actually started this year studying towards a W2K3 MCSE, - so far i've passed 270 & 290. At the very least I would like an MCSA for the exact reasons you have stated.

Thereafter, - what is the normal career track for climbing the technical ladder?

What is the natural progression?

I'm looking for some sort of framework to aim for really, in terms of what sort of opportunities etc

cheers

 

[kmcferrin]

Well, if you're going that route anyway, start with the MCSA. The MCSE is basically all of the same exams as the MCSA, plus a few more that are more design and engineering related. So you can start with the MCSA right away, then take three more exams and "upgrade" to the MCSE. Just as long as you're still gainging relevant work experience you should be in good shape.

The bigger question though is where you want to go. A lot of IT people end up asking what their career path is without first deciding what their goal is. Is your goal to make $100,000 a year? Is it to be a senior engineer? Is it to be a department manager or director? All of those things are possible, but the steps to get there obviously very different.

I think that this happens a lot more often where someone has started at an entry-level position and moved up once or twice within the same organization. The key will be whether you can find more opportunities in your current organization or whether you have to look outside the organization.

In my experience, the biggest pay bumps come from switching companies. But with a good company you may be able to move up the chain more quickly if you don't jump ship. The problem there is that if you started as a tier 1 tech, then worked your way up to tier 2 and then tier 3 then you are probably making near the bottom of the salary range for a tier 3 tech. At that point people either get resentful and leave, or try to negotiate a big pay raise.

Just keep in mind though, it's not "the typical career path" that you should be shooting for. It's what makes you happy.