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First, there are no tech jobs that require no experience. MAYBE if one is a developer and has a decent github, they could get in straight out of college. Otherwise, recent grads and career changers are locked out.
Second, there is a huge amount of outsourcing. People lose their jobs all the time in tech.
Third, we got IT people getting laid off by their companies, forced to train their H1B visa replacements. Look at what happened in Disney, SunTrust, Abbot Labs, Cengage Learning, etc.
Fourth, massive age discrimination in tech exists. Older workers are stereotyped as out of date and antiquated, even if they keep their skills up to date.
Fifth, 75% of tech jobs in Silicon Valley are held by H1B/L1/OPT visa holders and those who transitioned from those visas. How do you expect locals to get these jobs there? Importing lower wages as 75% of Silicon Valley
I'm not the one "pushing American workers away from high paying IT jobs" - the tech field is doing a great job all by itself.
I'd heard about Disney and Abbot but where did you hear about SunTrust and Cengage Learning? (Not saying you're wrong, you're probably right, but I just want to know more about it. I'm not a big fan of Suntrust for them attacking the Georgia Religious Freedom bill. As for Cengage, I've been fighting them in my push against Common Core, so don't have any love for them either.)
I'd heard about Disney and Abbot but where did you hear about SunTrust and Cengage Learning? (Not saying you're wrong, you're probably right, but I just want to know more about it. I'm not a big fan of Suntrust for them attacking the Georgia Religious Freedom bill. As for Cengage, I've been fighting them in my push against Common Core, so don't have any love for them either.)
There is no excuse for that one. They have lists of unemployed techies who they could hire straight off the unemployment rolls and save lots of money in benefits. But nooooooooooooooo.
First, there are no tech jobs that require no experience. MAYBE if one is a developer and has a decent github, they could get in straight out of college. Otherwise, recent grads and career changers are locked out.
Second, there is a huge amount of outsourcing. People lose their jobs all the time in tech.
Third, we got IT people getting laid off by their companies, forced to train their H1B visa replacements. Look at what happened in Disney, SunTrust, Abbot Labs, Cengage Learning, etc.
Fourth, massive age discrimination in tech exists. Older workers are stereotyped as out of date and antiquated, even if they keep their skills up to date.
Fifth, 75% of tech jobs in Silicon Valley are held by H1B/L1/OPT visa holders and those who transitioned from those visas. How do you expect locals to get these jobs there? Importing lower wages as 75% of Silicon Valley
I'm not the one "pushing American workers away from high paying IT jobs" - the tech field is doing a great job all by itself.
First, there are no tech jobs that require no experience. MAYBE if one is a developer and has a decent github, they could get in straight out of college. Otherwise, recent grads and career changers are locked out.
Second, there is a huge amount of outsourcing. People lose their jobs all the time in tech.
Third, we got IT people getting laid off by their companies, forced to train their H1B visa replacements. Look at what happened in Disney, SunTrust, Abbot Labs, Cengage Learning, etc.
Fourth, massive age discrimination in tech exists. Older workers are stereotyped as out of date and antiquated, even if they keep their skills up to date.
Fifth, 75% of tech jobs in Silicon Valley are held by H1B/L1/OPT visa holders and those who transitioned from those visas. How do you expect locals to get these jobs there? Importing lower wages as 75% of Silicon Valley
I'm not the one "pushing American workers away from high paying IT jobs" - the tech field is doing a great job all by itself.
There are some employers where you can start at a help desk and work your way up. I worked for a Boston-based tech company in an associate level role. The role was geared toward new IT grads.
There are some employers where you can start at a help desk and work your way up. I worked for a Boston-based tech company in an associate level role. The role was geared toward new IT grads.
OK, let's say someone gets one of these level 1 helpdesk roles. What's the career trajectory? Level 2, level 3 and maybe supervisor.
From those roles:
How to transition into BA? Or project management? Or UX Designer? Or product management? Or automated QA?
Someone gets training and education in one of those fields. They apply for jobs. Employers see "help desk" in experience and stop there.
"This candidate is applying for a business analyst role. Cover letter highlights recent training as a BA. Experience is help desk. Unfortunately, we have no help desk roles, so rejection letter."
OK, let's say someone gets one of these level 1 helpdesk roles. What's the career trajectory? Level 2, level 3 and maybe supervisor.
From those roles:
How to transition into BA? Or project management? Or UX Designer? Or product management? Or automated QA?
Someone gets training and education in one of those fields. They apply for jobs. Employers see "help desk" in experience and stop there.
"This candidate is applying for a business analyst role. Cover letter highlights recent training as a BA. Experience is help desk. Unfortunately, we have no help desk roles, so rejection letter."
You do know working in Help Desk and Desktop Support is how most people get started in thier IT careers right?
Especially if you do not hone any other skills or have no experience
There are lifer help desk guys ( like me) who just enjoy the easy job and collect a paycheck you don't have to be in help desk all your life but breaking out of help desk/desktop support is pretty tough without any additional certs or proven skills.
OK, let's say someone gets one of these level 1 helpdesk roles. What's the career trajectory? Level 2, level 3 and maybe supervisor.
From those roles:
How to transition into BA? Or project management? Or UX Designer? Or product management? Or automated QA?
Someone gets training and education in one of those fields. They apply for jobs. Employers see "help desk" in experience and stop there.
"This candidate is applying for a business analyst role. Cover letter highlights recent training as a BA. Experience is help desk. Unfortunately, we have no help desk roles, so rejection letter."
I'm not saying it's common to move up from a help desk, though some places do allow it.
I work for a large organization. We've probably had five people move up from the help desk into various other roles in the past year.
I've worked for places where nothing else was done on site, and advancement opportunities didn't really exist.
There are some employers where you can start at a help desk and work your way up. I worked for a Boston-based tech company in an associate level role. The role was geared toward new IT grads.
+1; bobsells link was about silicon valley which is notorious for age discrimination. my xperience is that other locations are much more sane (except for off-shores/h1-b's - its probably more like 33%).
remember in defense contracting, healthcare informatics, academic research, ... many roles require t.l.s.
It really depends. Help Desk can be repetitive until it isn't, and you're on a call with someone for an hour trying to figure out a problem. You may want to transfer the call to a Tier 2 person because you were on the line with that person for so long. As soon as you do and you realize what the answer to that problem was (or Tier 2 tells you what they did to solve the issue) you'll wish that you hadn't. Because of the grind, you actually want those calls. Some companies discourage them and want to get it done as soon as possible but then you're fielding 12 calls an hour and you're burned out by lunch time. A lot of companies like that you're just developing customer service skills, but you may not actually be that effective as a technician. There are companies like this.
One good thing about Help Desk is that once that last call is over you're done. There are no projects. Some Help Desk requires you to upsell. If you find yourself in that position quit your job immediately because there are always jobs that do not. It isn't worth the minuscule commission you'll get on the sale. That money is not reliable you'll win some and lose some.
Problem with Help Desk is moving up the ladder without any paper. They almost always want some certification, degree, who you know, something to move up. They'll hire anyone that can image a hard drive or install a hardware driver, depending on the job. But I wouldn't call it a sweatshop, if it is straight troubleshooting and customer service.
OK, let's say someone gets one of these level 1 helpdesk roles. What's the career trajectory? Level 2, level 3 and maybe supervisor.
From those roles:
How to transition into BA? Or project management? Or UX Designer? Or product management? Or automated QA?
Someone gets training and education in one of those fields. They apply for jobs. Employers see "help desk" in experience and stop there.
"This candidate is applying for a business analyst role. Cover letter highlights recent training as a BA. Experience is help desk. Unfortunately, we have no help desk roles, so rejection letter."
I've been able to transition into PM from another area. Having help desk experience would have made the transition much easier.
Help desk + CAPM= junior PM, project coorinator, project analyst job. Put in a few years and become a full PM.
BA track is similar. Get a BA certification to get the first junior BA role.
It takes a bit of time but It's possible.
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