Can you SKIP the Helpdesk?

[rickm]

I'm a network engineer, but I put my time in at the help desk too. There are some people who skip helpdesk work because they stay in school and end up with a network support technician/engineer job, but they don't have exposure to server and domain environments. They don't understand the hierarchy of inheritance of GPO's and how that can be blocking access to things that their clients needs etc etc. Basic things that one can miss if you are just in school and too narrowly focused.

[ALee-DAnimator]

I've been in tech for 5yrs.. I was a technologist at the Naval Postgraduate I don't think Help Desk gets the proper respect... We fall victim to what looks cool on the internet.. However, when you are crushing helpdesk. You are doing a decent amount of security and networking, even Sys. Admin .. etc .. If we taught people how to truly break down what being on help desk provides.. There would be a different song... Much like the A+ ... The A+ provides a great amount of knowledge. However, no one wants to get it due to stigma... I love that I found this channel...

[Linux]

When you get a call that blames the network for being the problem, having help desk experience makes you life so much easier because you’ll be able to better explain why the problem is not network related and assist in trouble shooting the problem. Help desk teaches you systems administration but also how to troubleshoot basic IT problems, imagine skipping that lol bad idea

[treslacks]

So I'm infrastructure cable technician, I have no helpdesk experience. But I want to get like a network technician job do you think I still need to get my A+ or study for the Network+?

[BrayanRodriguez-mwiw]

*I think you could skip it for sure, however, depending of your way to learn and fast you learn etc, I would say a helpdesk position to start is the best way to start in the IT field.

[grandnagus]

You can, but I think from a foundational level, working help desk is beneficial because you get to see how the actual technologies from networking, infrastructure and even cloud is utilized in day-to-day operations. Just learning about active directory is good but then actually using AD gave me way better understanding of Its purpose, what servers are for, how to support them etc. And by default you're learning more about windows environments and learning more about Linux and so much more.

[alfredopino]

How about landing a job in the US after having 10+ years of experience in IT abroad? Does that experience counts when applying for a position at any level?

[codyyarger]

You can.... But what's going to happen when someone walks up to you onsite while you're working (it happens) with their laptop in hand and says my outlook profile won't load