Back at help desk after job searching for 2 years and bored outta my mind. Which jobs in this industry are actually fun?

I finally had done it. Today I snapped and had a mental breakdown due to high levels of stress. It’s affecting my personal life and relationships.

I can’t disconnect from work. It’s constant firefighting, management that prioritises speed vs planning and building stable solutions. Accumulating tech debt, high pressure, on calls. I came to to realise how this is a thankless and ungrateful line of work.

We became the hub for everyone’s problems. Even devs have grown accustomed to throw every single problem over the fence to us because this company fostered this chat ops, always available culture. As a result, devs don’t even bother troubleshooting their own applications, it’s always on us to debug and gather evidence it’s not infrastructure problem. We now deployed tools and gave them more permissions but it’s useless. Devs just won’t take ownership of their problems now, it’s too late.

I despise and hate all the tools SRE engineers manage: YAML is horrible and all the ecosystem built around it to make it even more horrible. It’s a monster being used for things it was never supposed to be used for in the first place. Terraform is clunky, static, slow. I hate monitoring and debugging the 800th performance issue and latency of the day. I don’t like kubernetes and I’m tired of pretending this over complicated mess makes life easier, it does not, it’s bloated, complex and hard to maintain.

Don’t even get me started with that helm templating abomination. All in all I came to the conclusion that I’m so done with this line of work, it makes me miserable. It makes me regret having built a career spanning a decade in this area. I wish I went into software engineering, life is so much easier as a dev. High paying salaries, low stress and everybody congratulates you when you deploy a new feature. As an SRE? People only remember you when things break and they point a finger to blame you.

Money is not worth it. If you are going this career path, don’t do it for the money. You will regret it. As for me, I don’t know how I am going to reinvent myself. But I’m done.

End of complaint.

I'm 31F, transitioning into IT and currently learning ServiceNow. I'm looking for someone experienced in the ServiceNow ecosystem who could guide me on becoming job-ready, choosing the right skills, and navigating my first job search.

I'm learning on my own and could really use some practical career guidance.

Please be kind, guys. The world is already cruel enough out there.

Any advice or mentorship would mean a lot. Thank you!

As the title states, it was my first interview process for this part of my career. I'm a student pursuing Cybersecurity and this meeting had me so frazzled because its so different compared to working food service jobs as I'm used to. I knew that it was going to be different and I know it won't be the last. I just wanted to come talk about it with people.

We had a brief phone interview two days ago and they emailed me asking for me to come in for an in person interview. So I prepared, but I know I could've prepared better. They asked me some simple questions to gauge my collaborative ability and technical knowledge. I've only just begun practicing what I've learned in hands on labs within my own personal VM and since I'm fairly new, I felt so under prepared!! Of course this role is aimed at students wanting to learn, but my lack of hands on experience made me lose confidence mid interview. I felt comfortable again once I just started answering how my previous jobs working in the food industry put me in situations of problem solving, team collaboration, and the skills I learned through that.

So even though I'm beating myself up about it a little, I'm happy to have gotten the interview and real practice in the situation. I want to take it upon myself to do even more hands on work on my free time. I already have a couple projects I want to start on. It's just figuring out where to start was confusing, I felt kinda lost. But after this experience I feel like I just have to keep learning, practicing, applying. I'm not dreading it but I definitely learned unforgettable things from my feelings after this interview.

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk

I got an interview on Microsoft Teams to meet the IT team. I will be talking with 4 of the IT staff on the call which is the entire team. And it is supposed to be an interview to see if they like me, not really technical. So does anyone have advice for this? I thought vibes interviews were usually in person and resulted in an offer if they like you. But this is on Teams. The recruiter said it’s just an interview to see if they like me and see if I can make small talk and be outgoing. This is only the third real interview I’ve gotten besides just talking with recruiters on the phone.

So what usually happens after this interview and what’s some advice you have for doing well? I’m an awkward person because I’m autistic… I got to find ways to be more confident.

I've noticed that some individuals get many interviews but ultimately not the job. I've always asked for reasons why I didnt get the job after a failed interview and have worked on improving myself.

I see posts from people who get multiple interviews, but rarely an explanation as to why they weren't selected. Hoping this thread feeds my curiosity and can highlight any pitfalls that are common when job junting

Hardware Support

Software Support

Introduction to Networking Communications

Linux 1

This will be about my second DE class. The previous class was on IT basic fundamentals, but that was so long ago Im pretty sure i forgot a good amount. I (think) i want to enter something networks or systems administration or something along those lines, but im not 100% sure. As long as its not super programming or math heavy, I dont think i mind. I also dont mind the idea of help desk, but ive heard it can be very deadend. Also I can only take one due to my class schedule.

Looking for ways on my résumé to professionally show off my skills better. I have an associates degree in cyber security currently working on a bachelors degree in cyber security and information assurance. I also have the A+ net+ and working on sec+

I worked helpdesk for a year, then was in a project/break fix position in healthcare for about three years where I started as a contractor got hired on with the company and then got promoted within the company after that. I was laid off due to a merger that was taking place and I’m struggling to get a job somewhere else after several months of not hearing anything back. The biggest problem is that even though I was technically on paper break, fix my skill set from before that and then also during that job far out pace what the normal position does such as I was the immediate person helping on multiple SysAdmin projects and was the direct field liaison for the cybersecurity team. Nobody seems to take home lab stuff seriously, my previous job the manager said he didn’t care about certs and degrees.

I’m on LinkedIn, indeed, zip, multiple recruiter companies, a few local IT discords, and a local IT slack all of which are posting job openings but im not even getting a first call back. I was told to go to local meetups and job fairs to network my way into a position but what do I do, just show up “hey my name is x and im currently looking for work, here’s my skill set”, thats what literally everyone else is doing so wouldnt it make sense to stand out? Also my niche is clearly cyber but I’ve been applying to ANYTHING entry to mid level just to get SOMETHING, remote, hybrid, on site, up to an hour commute away, all of it

I’m deciding between two junior tech support jobs and could use some outside opinions.

First one:

(small IT company, around 15-30 people)

• They say it’s a mix of system + helpdesk
• Longer hours (8:30–18:00) + on-call weekends once in two months
• About an hour commute each way
• Lower salary, but they mentioned it can go up after a few months if I do well..

Second one:

Second one (much bigger company, a few hundred people)

• Straight helpdesk (Windows, Office 365, AD, hardware, etc.)
• Better hours (8–17) + on-call weekends
• Very close to home
• Higher salary

I’m just starting out, no real system experience. I care about learning proper technical/system stuff so I can grow later, but I also care about having a life outside work (gym, friends, etc.). The commute + longer days seems harsh..

i've worked helpdesk at a hospital call center (hell) for a year and a half and afterwards a noc for half a year (couldn't manage the 24/7 swing shifts)

What would you pick and why?

Thanks..

Is anyone working side gigs for a little extra income? I have a fairly decent job but kind of tapped out and not really interested in going the management route.

I have 20 plus years experience in IT, both MSP and internal roles. Anyone else taking on remote support jobs for 10/20 hours a week?

Humanities/journalism/psychology people who switched: how did you rewrite your CV so recruiters stopped seeing your “old identity” and started seeing someone who can do the job? Curious what clicked for you, or what you still haven’t figured out.

Hello all, I recently just did a 2-round interview with a small but growing company who was looking for a sysadmin to build and run their entire IT infrastructure. To give a better perspective, they quite literally have little to no IT infrastructure and want some random college kid to build it from scratch. I asked why the requirements for this position were so low because I thought this shit was fucking crazy knowing that being a sysadmin isn't a walk in the park even for someone who has actual experience. Essentially, what I was told was that with the rise of AI, they said everything is learnable and doable even for a kid straight out of college which i can agree with for the most part but certainly not going to be easy.

Salary is 75k-85k. I will be the ONLY IT person there handling everything and the cherry on top is me supporting 70-80 users myself.

How big of a red flag is this? I know this job is going to be straight up hell but I really do want this opportunity so I can propel myself a bit more

My background for context, 26, IT support(2 years) and IT Network Technician (5 months) part time with some administrative work once in a while. A+, sec+, and graduating with bach in cis: cybersec this semester.

I dont have the job yet ofc but just any thoughts, opinions, or advice? Ty

I've done some thinking, and i've figured out how I want my career to proceed. I am currently unemployed.

First, I've spent 8 years in infrastructure and cyber security total. Most of my career was infrastructure related, with bits of security spread around. When I get a new job, I'm aiming for security, but I think overall I'm aiming for something to do with Blue team, information forensics and something to with OSINT. I'd really like to join NSA, or INTERPOL. I should also mention that I already have a B.S. in IT.

Any advice?

Just something with what i can step my game up in LinkedIn :)

Thanks.

I wanna start going into IT for my career but need/want some help and advice for starting, I want to start at help desk and learn exactly what I want to do from there after getting my foot in the door

CONTEXT: I’m 20 and have worked retail at Walmart for 3 years and doing customer service with a TPA insurance company for a couple months on contract but it’s now ending and I want to think of an actual career. Ive just got the interest in IT since I’m already around my computer playing games or on it doing other things. So im wanting some advice for starting in this field, some starting certifications or things to help learn. I know for now I do not wanna go the schooling route for now

And so far, I’m just taking the Google Corsera IT course just to give me a refresher on most things but to see if there is anything new to learn and get that certification because why not. I’ll be done with that in like 2 weeks or so. But after that idk what I should do next?

Hey everybody! I've been wondering if there are any websites or programs that let you practice some real-world applications like dealing with tickets and helpdesk related things? Or if there's a way that I can practice this myself?

I’ve seen much shorter resumes and realized that mine is most likely way too long. Would appreciate any advise on what to cut and what to keep, thanks! https://imgur.com/a/lj3DB4A

I have a little under a year of help-desk, CCNA, CompTIA trifecta, and a BSIT. I understand that GRC isn't technical so the certs wouldn't have as much. I'm wondering if it's reasonable to pivot straight into GRC from my position by just studying the frameworks or do I need anything else as well?

EDIT: Oops meant to say it's not as technical as many other IT paths, not necessarily it's not technical at all

Hey all

Relevant background: Bachelor's degree, 3 years of IT experience,

certifications: CompTIA Trifecta, CCNA, Microsoft Azure: AZ900, 104, 305

I recently got laid off from a junior sysadmin position and after some searching I landed into a desktop support role that pays about the same.

My main question is: should I wait a year before applying out or should I just keep applying? I'm worried how another year of end user support would look for me career wise. The job itself is good and as far as I'm aware there's no opportunity for lateral mobility.

I started with 50k USD in 2025, wondering if salaries are still around that.

Have been going back and forth with I guess a recruiter from an overseas company. After a few questions and an aptitude test they eventually offered 90k for remote helpdesk. The paperwork seemed legit and the company checks out but I never actually had a meeting with anyone. It just seems odd and the way the recruiter spoke definitely seemed like A.I

I have 5 years MSP experience so I feel qualified but never seen something like this in the job market. Seems weird?

Edit: It was 100% a scam, so easy to let your guard down when you send out 100 applications

Hi all,

May be a long read but I have week to prepare myself so appreciate any fresh advice.

I've recently made it through to the second stage for an Infrastructure Operations Engineer role at a financial services company. The first stage was with HR, and the next stage is a 1-hour technical and competency interview with the hiring manager.

I'm pleased to have got this far, as there something must be there if the actually manager want to see me.

My current role is officially IT & Web Services Lead Engineer within a multi-site organisation supporting around 500 users across 13 locations. As we're a relatively small team, I wear a lot of different hats and there is a lot of collaborative work. Depending on the day, I could be working on Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Exchange Online, SharePoint, Intune, websites and DNS management, infrastructure projects, supplier management, user onboarding/offboarding, hardware deployments, or general IT support.

The challenge is that while I do get exposure to infrastructure, networking, cloud services and troubleshooting, it's only one part of a much broader role rather than something I focus on every day.

I've also been studying CCNA in my own time for the last 2 months - mentioned this on my CV

For those already working in Infrastructure Roles:

• What does a typical day look like?
• How much is BAU support vs project work?
• Have any of you moved from a broad IT role into infrastructure?
• Does my background sound like a realistic step into this type of position?
• Do you have any advice to help sell myself?

I'm a very eager learner and genuinely enjoy getting stuck into new technologies, regardless of how challenging they are. I know there will be gaps in my knowledge compared to someone already working in a dedicated Infrastructure role, but I'm keen to prove that I have the right attitude, transferable skills, and willingness to learn.

Any advice on how to communicate that effectively during the interview would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, I hope you are all well.

I have been trying to get a 1st Line IT role for 2 years. I am young, married, and it has been really hard in the current job market to find something sustainable, pays the bills, and contributes towards a long term professional career. I have worked extremely hard to improve my interview skills, CV, experience etc in the meantime. I have done countless interviews, and lost count of applications and networking attempts.

I have finally passed the first stage of an interview, and now have a “competency test” which will be the final assessment before I find out if I have got the job. I’m actually really passionate about this role, not just because I’m desperate to get into IT, but because I genuinely love the company and what it’s about. I would give anything to land this role, and I’m really nervous about the assessment.

My question is - what kind of questions would I expect for a “competency test” for a 1st Line IT analyst role?

It is in a busy warehouse for a large company. I’m assuming situational questions, and some technical skills. I really struggle with nerves and losing my train of thought under pressure during interviews, after so much rejection and with so much riding on this job role. If anyone could give any insight as to what questions would be expected, I can do my absolute best to prepare.

Thank you in advance, I really appreciate it.

TLDR - What kind of questions would I expect for a “competency test” for a 1st Line IT analyst role in a busy distribution centre?