Oct. 22, 2023, Post by Curtis
If you work hard and study, you can expect to get a better job in 1 to 2 years. Many factors affect this time, notably experience, technical skills, soft skills, education, how well you interview, and many more factors that I will cover in this article.
If you want to get a Help Desk job and not study, you can still move up, especially if you are smart and/or make good connections. How long it will take is going to be a lot more variable, as you will need a little luck to move up. Maybe an opening in a department where you work where the people in that department think that you'll be a good fit, or a friend putting in a good word for you somewhere. This approach could take a while, and some people who don't study or work hard never leave Help Desk.
First, let's look at some different starting points to see what best describes your current situation to find out how long it will take to get past Help Desk.
If you've never worked in a customer service job or an office, and you have no technical skills whatsoever, it will probably take you 2 years from right now to move past Help Desk.
You might not even be able to get a Help Desk job as the prerequisites are usually either some IT education, customer service experience, or some type of experience that had exposure to tech.
The first thing you should do before even looking for a job is to start studying. This will be very valuable in the interview process and the faster you learn key IT skills, the sooner you will get past Help Desk, even if you haven't started yet.
I would start by looking for entry-level IT positions. These jobs, like most IT jobs, come with many different types of titles. Titles might be IT Technician, IT Field Technician, PC Technician, etc. The main thing is to look for IT jobs that have very basic minimum requirements but do expose you to something IT-related.
After about 6 months of working hard at your entry-level IT job, you should be able to get into a Help Desk role.
If you have enough experience to get a Help Desk job now, you should be able to get a better job after about 12 - 18 months after starting at Help Desk. Do you have enough experience to start now?
Customer Service Experience may be enough to get you into a Help Desk role although it would help if you could find a way to pad that experience with something technical. Maybe you're good with a certain technology or type of software. Also, make sure to talk about what you're currently studying in any interviews.
Office Experience should be enough to get a job at Help Desk, combined with the fact that you are currently studying.
High School IT Course probably won't be enough to get you started at Help Desk unless it was an advanced course or a series of courses. If that is all you have you will probably be in the no-experience category described above.
Certifications can get you through Help Desk much quicker, depending on which cert/s you have. If you have a higher level cert, or multiple certifications, you should be able to get a Help Desk job now and get through Help Desk in 6 - 18 months.
College Degree in an IT field should get you through Help Desk very quickly. If you have a college degree you may look to go straight into your chosen field right out of college, but many people find it difficult to get these more advanced IT jobs with no experience.
If your having trouble getting a job right out of college, it would be a good idea to take a Help Desk job so you can at least make some money and more importantly, get some experience and make connections. You should start looking for another job immediately and should expect to find something in 6 - 12 months.
If you do have ambitions for a job better than Help Desk, it's best if you don't stay any more than a few years. It just doesn't look good that you're not moving up. It may make someone think that you are not motivated or that there is something about you that people don't want to hire you. This is not a deal breaker though, but something worth considering as you strategize your future.
But while you're at Help Desk, make the most of it. Make an effort to get good at the job as the more you learn there, the better prepared you will be for your next job and you may be able to move up from withing your company. Read my article about How To Excel At Your Help Desk Job.
With persistence, anything is possible. One thing to keep in mind when looking for any job is that you may need to apply to a lot of companies (100+) and take a lot of interviews. That's just how it is.
Don't get discouraged during this process and use every interview as an opportunity to improve your interview skills, which will help so much throughout your life.
Many people struggle to get past their entry-level job in any career field. They get discouraged the interviews are not converting into a better job and eventually give up.
Creating an efficient plan of action will help you so much. Knowing what the next job you are looking for early will help you save time by only studying for the things that will get you exactly where you want to be, instead of studying a bunch of random things just because they will look good on your resume.
I understand why someone would want to get through Help Desk as soon as possible. When I was first wanting to get into IT I knew that I didn't want (or need) to go to college, since there are entry-level Help Desk jobs that can get me in the door. But I was personally dreading the thought of working at Help Desk, so much so that I messed around with some other career paths before giving in. After working a few jobs that really weren't a good fit for me, knowing that I wanted to work in Information Technology, I just didn't want to go to college or work at Help Desk. I decided to suffer through a Help Desk job and work as hard as I can to get through as quick as possible.
The job was very hard, especially for the first few months, but knowing what I know now, I didn't need to let it stress me out as I did. People calling me to solve problems that I didn't have the answers to was very awkward. But they knew when they hired me that I didn't know much and they were willing to invest a lot of time in getting me up to speed.
It took me a little over 2 years to get my current Network Support role but I wasted some time getting a couple of certs that probably didn't help me get the next job.
The company I worked for expected a lot from their Help Desk staff, more than most companies. It took me about 6 months to get to where I didn't fear coming into work everyday. The better I got at the job the more I enjoyed it. A lot of my fear came from thinking I was going to get fired and being the greenest guy on the team didn't help. Once we hired some new people who knew less than I did, my "imposter syndrome" started to disappear. Once the stress was gone I could start to enjoy the problem solving and teamwork aspects of the job. Now that I no longer work at Help Desk sometimes I miss it. Help Desk was a skill that was hard to get good at I miss not using that skill.
Read my article about How Difficult Are Help Desk Jobs?
Help Desk is truly a blessing from a career point of view. So many career paths have huge barriers to entry. Help Desk is a relatively easy entry into some of the best and most in-demand careers that will be growing as far into the future as I can see.
While you are in your Support role, you will learn a ton. Not just about tech, but about problem-solving and incredibly valuable people skills. Not just from your interactions with the user, but also by depending on your colleagues as well as them being able to depend on you. IT is very much a team sport and learning to work with others will help you throughout your IT career. You will also make connections, and get the experience that you need to move on. And if you do a great job, you may move up from within the company you are at.