Apparently, I\u2019m a bit of a glutton for punishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After leaving my 1st help desk job out of exhaustion, I decided to make a second go at it. Before you start yelling at me, please hear me out with my (lopsided) reasoning:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-I needed full time \u201ctech\u201d experience if I wanted to apply for USAjobs.gov postings.\u00a0 Most of those jobs seemed to be looking for full time experience;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-I still felt like I didn\u2019t \u201cknow\u201d anything. The nature of my help desk experience did not prepare me for any of the tasks that I wanted to do, and wasn\u2019t relevant to the job titles that I was applying for. That\u2019s not the fault of the job, but I\u2019m observing that it\u2019s the nature of the beast: the help desk role is just a foot in the door. A way to acquaint you with basic tech if you\u2019re starting off. I really don\u2019t feel like the roles that I\u2019ve seen prepare you for anything more than higher tiered help desk positions. There\u2019s nothing wrong with that. I know so many people who love their help desk positions. I appreciate all the knowledge that they have, and learning from this is amazing. But\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-It\u2019s not for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was at the start of my social work career, I learned what I didn\u2019t want to do professionally by getting jobs and realizing \u201cI really don\u2019t like this kind of work.\u201d There are many social work positions that I WILL NOT apply to, just because I know that I (emphasis here on \u201cI\u201d) don\u2019t like them. The people who do those jobs are amazing, but I can\u2019t do them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a running joke between me and the nurses that I encounter. When I tell them I\u2019m a social worker, they respond by stating that it\u2019s a hard job that they couldn\u2019t\/wouldn\u2019t want to do. My response is always the same: I couldn\u2019t be a nurse. The job is too hard and stressful. We all laugh about it, but it\u2019s something we all understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s where I\u2019m at with help desk jobs: I respect it, but it\u2019s not something for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem is, what am I supposed to do in order to get into a tech field (preferably system administration with Linux) if I can\u2019t get past the seemingly hard gate of the help desk?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I like to think of myself as the pretty typical mid-life career changer: I have a M.S., I get great pay, freedom of my schedule, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I also have bills. And an 18 year old recent high school graduate that will be entering college for a double major in Engineering and Computer Science this fall. I can\u2019t take a reduction in pay, because I\u2019m going to pay the shortfall of her tuition. I do not want her to be enslaved with student loan debt like I am. So, for at least the next 4 years I have to maintain my current income, or figure something else out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s the very definition of being between a rock and a hard place. The bills can still be paid with the help desk job, but the tuition can not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I know that this is the position that a lot of career changers are in: for one reason or another we have to kill ourselves with this schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My question to those who have tread a similar path is this: is there a better way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I value working smarter, and not harder. So my brain has been in perpetual rebellion against the idea of working 2 full time jobs in order to make this transition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, if you have found a better way, could you please share it. I\u2019m sure that I wouldn\u2019t be the only person out here that would be enormously indebted to you for sharing your experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Otherwise, I guess I\u2019m going to try to keep my head above water for as long as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Apparently, I\u2019m a bit of a glutton for punishment. After leaving my 1st help desk job out of exhaustion, I decided to make a second go at it. Before you start yelling at me, please hear me out with my (lopsided) reasoning: -I needed full time \u201ctech\u201d experience if I wanted to apply for USAjobs.gov postings.\u00a0 Most of those jobs seemed to be looking for full time experience; -I still felt like I didn\u2019t \u201cknow\u201d anything. The nature of my help desk experience did not prepare me for any of the tasks that I wanted to do, and wasn\u2019t relevant to the job titles that I was applying for. That\u2019s not the fault of the job, but I\u2019m observing that it\u2019s the nature of the beast: the help desk role is just a foot in the door. A way to acquaint you with basic tech if you\u2019re starting off. I really don\u2019t feel like the roles that I\u2019ve seen prepare you for anything more than higher tiered help desk positions. There\u2019s nothing wrong with that. I know so many people who love their help desk positions. I appreciate all the knowledge that they have, and learning from this is amazing. But\u2026. -It\u2019s not for me. When I was at the start of my social work career, I learned what I didn\u2019t want to do professionally by getting jobs and realizing \u201cI really don\u2019t like this kind of work.\u201d There are many social work positions that I WILL NOT apply to, just because I know that I (emphasis here on \u201cI\u201d) don\u2019t like them. The people who do those jobs are amazing, but I can\u2019t do them. It\u2019s a running joke between me and the nurses that I encounter. When I tell them I\u2019m a social worker, they respond by stating that it\u2019s a hard job that they couldn\u2019t\/wouldn\u2019t want to do. My response is always the same: I couldn\u2019t be a nurse. The job is too hard and stressful. We all laugh about it, but it\u2019s something we all understand. That\u2019s where I\u2019m at with help desk jobs: I respect it, but it\u2019s not something for me. The problem is, what am I supposed to do in order to get into a tech field (preferably system administration with Linux) if I can\u2019t get past the seemingly hard gate of the help desk? I like to think of myself as the pretty typical mid-life career changer: I have a M.S., I get great pay, freedom of my schedule, etc. But I also have bills. And an 18 year old recent high school graduate that will be entering college for a double major in Engineering and Computer Science this fall. I can\u2019t take a reduction in pay, because I\u2019m going to pay the shortfall of her tuition. I do not want her to be enslaved with student loan debt like I am. So, for at least the next 4 years I have to maintain my current income, or figure something else out. It\u2019s the very definition of being between a rock and a hard place. The bills can still be paid with the help desk job, but the tuition can not. And I know that this is the position that a lot of career changers are in: for one reason or another we have to kill ourselves with this schedule. My question to those who have tread a similar path is this: is there a better way? I value working smarter, and not harder. So my brain has been in perpetual rebellion against the idea of working 2 full time jobs in order to make this transition. So, if you have found a better way, could you please share it. I\u2019m sure that I wouldn\u2019t be the only person out here that would be enormously indebted to you for sharing your experience. Otherwise, I guess I\u2019m going to try to keep my head above water for as long as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8,10,11,5,6,14,9,13],"class_list":["post-23","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-career-transition-to-it","tag-from-social-work-to-it-career","tag-help-desk","tag-it","tag-it-career","tag-looking-for-career-advice","tag-mid-life-it-career-transition","tag-working-2-full-time-jobs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24,"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}