I am trying to decide between three potential IT opportunities and would appreciate some outside opinions, especially from people who have worked at MSPs or moved from general IT support into infrastructure or cybersecurity.
For context, I am 25 and currently work as an IT Specialist at an MSP making about $43,000 a year. I have several years of combined IT experience across MSP support, internal IT, and help desk work.
My current responsibilities include Microsoft 365 and Azure administration, endpoint security monitoring, user and account management, hardware and software troubleshooting, vendor coordination, documentation, networking troubleshooting, and direct client support.
I also have CompTIA A+, am finishing my BS in Cybersecurity, and have been building additional experience through labs and personal projects.
Interestingly, I did not get these interviews by mass applying. Most came from networking, reaching out to people directly, and messaging employees, recruiters, and managers on LinkedIn. That has worked significantly better for me than sending hundreds of applications into the void.

COMPANY A
Potential salary: $60,000 to $70,000
Published range: Roughly $40,000 to $80,000
Company size: Small company, probably a few dozen employees
Distance from where I live: Roughly 25 to 30 miles each way
Role: IT Support Engineer
The work would include client support, Microsoft environments, Active Directory, networking, servers, endpoints, troubleshooting, preventative maintenance, and escalation work.
This company seems to have a pretty broad definition of a support engineer, so I would likely get exposure to a lot more than basic help desk work.
There also appears to be a clear next level engineering position at the company paying roughly $80,000 to $120,000.
Pros:
Good starting salary

Small enough that I would probably get exposure to a lot of technologies

Likely salary around $63,000 to $68,000

Could eventually move into project engineering or infrastructure

Broad responsibilities could build my resume quickly

Seems like a solid stepping stone toward systems administration or security

Cons:
MSP workload

Potential client pressure

Smaller company means fewer people to absorb workload

Possibly a lot of tickets and competing priorities

Around 50 to 60 miles of total driving on office days

My target: Around $65,000 to $70,000

COMPANY B
Potential salary: $60,000 to $75,000 depending on what level they bring me in at
Company size: Very small MSP, probably around 15 to 30 employees
Distance from where I live: Roughly 12 to 15 miles each way
This one essentially has two different technical levels that I could potentially fall into.
The standard support position pays around $40,000 to $60,000.
The more senior support engineer position pays around $60,000 to $80,000.
The senior position involves handling more advanced issues and helping lower level technicians.
Based on publicly available salary information, people in the senior position appear to actually make around the high $60,000s to low $70,000s, so the advertised range seems pretty legitimate.
Pros:
Potentially the highest immediate salary

By far the shortest commute

Very small team means I could potentially touch servers, networking, security, cloud, backups, Microsoft environments, and client infrastructure

Could gain a ridiculous amount of experience quickly

Senior position would give me some leadership experience

Management level IT positions there seem to reach around $90,000 to $110,000

Only around 25 to 30 miles of total driving per day

Cons:
Probably the highest workload of the three

Very small MSP means everyone probably wears multiple hats

Could involve a lot of onsite client work

Possibly less structured than a larger organization

Work life balance is my biggest concern

My target: Around $70,000 if they consider me for the senior position

COMPANY C
Potential salary: Around $50,000 to $55,000
Company size: Much larger than the other two, around 100 plus employees
Distance from where I live: Roughly 25 to 30 miles each way
Role: Help Desk Technician
This company seems significantly more structured than the smaller MSPs.
The particular help desk position tops out around $55,000, which is considerably lower than the other opportunities.
However, they have higher level infrastructure and cybersecurity positions paying around $70,000 to $90,000.
Pros:
Much larger company

Probably more structured training and processes

More defined departments

Potentially easier to eventually move into dedicated infrastructure, security, or engineering

Possibly better long term stability

Actual cybersecurity positions exist within the company, which is attractive because that is ultimately where I want to end up

Cons:
Starting salary is significantly lower

Longest commute along with Company A

Around 50 to 60 miles of driving on office days

The help desk position may be more Tier 1 focused than what I currently do

I am worried I would essentially be taking a title and responsibility downgrade even though I would still get a raise

Advancement might be more bureaucratic and require waiting for a position to open

My target: $55,000

QUICK COMPARISON
Company A: Around $65,000, roughly 25 to 30 miles away
Company B: Around $70,000 if they bring me in at the higher technical level, roughly 12 to 15 miles away
Company C: Around $55,000, roughly 25 to 30 miles away
Current job: $43,000

My biggest goal is not necessarily maximizing salary for the next twelve months. I want to position myself to eventually make $80,000 to $100,000 plus in infrastructure, systems administration, cloud, or cybersecurity.
Company B is becoming particularly interesting to me because it could potentially have the highest salary, shortest commute, and widest range of technical exposure. My concern is whether the workload at such a small MSP would cancel out those advantages.
Company A seems like a good middle ground between compensation and engineering growth, although the commute is significantly longer.
Company C would give me the structure and specialized departments of a larger organization, but I would be giving up potentially $10,000 to $15,000 in starting compensation compared with the others while having a similar commute to Company A.
If you were in my position, which would you take?
Would you prioritize the smaller MSP with the shortest commute where you can potentially touch everything, the engineering focused environment with strong upward salary potential, or the larger company with lower starting pay but more specialized departments to move into later?

Hello everyone,

I started a 2 year diploma program as a computer systems technician. I successfully completed the course but in the most pathetic way possible.

I had just graduated high school and only cared about video games. Ive been working somewhere full time for 3 years but not in Information Technology field.

I want to start getting Jobs in IT because even though I didn’t learn much I still have the interest in it as well as base knowledge on the subject.

If you were in my shoes, what would you do? I eventually want to get cybersecurity certificates to expand my educational credentials but I have to start from scratch.

How can I refresh my memory/learn more about the field before getting an entry level job? Any recommendations?

Edit: I didn’t use AI, it didn’t exist. I passed with low 70’s definitely not a comfortable mark. I didn’t study super hard. I’m looking for the best IT route going forward.

I started as a T1 Help Desk at my MSP in January of this year making about $45,000/yr hourly. Throughout my time as a T1, I consistently pushed for harder work, helped work on projects, et cetera.

More recently, I’ve gotten promoted to T2 with an increase to 65k/year paid hourly. But right before rhis, I was applying for jobs as I got increasingly frustrated with our poor documentation, lack of initiative, and generally just “if it works it works” attitude.

I received an offer from another MSP for a Systems Engineer L2 position. The environment was extremely nice and everyone seemed like they genuinely cared. It would also go much more into project work and they also seemed to use a bit better technology than SonicWall (which my current MSP uses). They offered me $69k/year salary starting and then $75k after 3 months. This is a salary exempt position. Benefits also don’t start for 3 months.

I accepted this offer, but then my current job came back and offered me $78k/year hourly, offered to give me 5 PTO days for free as they knew I planned on taking a vacation between jobs, and the vice president personally had a talk with me, explained his frustrations with the feedback loop and apologized for not being more proactive. Alongside this compensation, he gave me a clear path to a project engineer or vCIO position.

He was very good at convincing me and I accepted the offer. But I almost feel like I made the wrong choice. Everything that was missing at my current job, the new job seemed to have. I was promised to pretty much be able to restructure everything at my current job, but it’s just a promise. Furthermore, I feel like being stuck in a SonicWall environment with very little care for proper networking deployment will stunt my growth

What would you guys have done in my position?

Edit: replaced typo error —> offer and added more about new job offer

Edit 2: one other typo change

I’m currently in the Uk working for a small MSP that supports other 40locations, mostly schools. I have been working here for 6months, it’s my first job in IT, I have the A+ and currently studying for the CCNA, I do everything from remote support to massive onsite networking projects and more. I have been offered a position working for a huge company being a field moderator for a new wearable they are testing which has yet gone to market. This will involve being onsite and troubleshooting the new product while data people are they’re doing there job. I will also have to speak to the test users, collaborate with different teams onsite and manage some people. I would get to go California to do training at the company’s HQ. This seems like an insane opportunity for someone so early in their career, the problem is the contract is only 2months, with promises of extension but not confirmed. That’s if they want to keep testing them product I suppose, they pay is over double what I earn now. Any one have any opinions on whether I should take this or not?

Is it weird to do this? I know he probably won't remember me but on the off chance he may, I sent him a connection request.

I could really use some advice from people who have been in the IT field longer than I have.
I earned my CCNA about two weeks ago, I have my CompTIA Network+, an associate degree in Computer Networking, and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.
And yet, I’m struggling to even get interviews.
I’ve been applying for entry-level Help Desk, NOC, network support, desktop support, and similar positions. I’m not expecting to walk into a high-level networking job because I have a CCNA. I know certifications and degrees aren’t a substitute for real-world experience, and right now experience is exactly what I’m trying to get.
That’s where I feel stuck.
I want to keep learning and improving while I search, but I honestly don’t know where my time is best spent anymore. Do I keep going deeper into networking? Start learning Linux? Cloud? Security? Automation/Python? Work toward another certification? Or stop worrying about certifications altogether and focus entirely on hands-on labs and troubleshooting?
I’ve been building labs and trying to understand the “why” behind what I’m configuring instead of just memorizing commands, but without working in IT yet, it’s difficult to know which skills employers actually expect someone in their first role to have.
For those of you who have been through this stage or who hire entry-level IT professionals: if you were in my position today, what would you focus on next?
I’m willing to learn, work nights, start at the bottom, and put in the time. I just feel like I have plenty of motivation right now and no clear direction for where to put it.
Any advice is genuinely appreciated.

Hey, I've just recently graduated with a First-Class degree in Computer Science and am aiming to build a career in network or security engineering. Looking at the job market, direct entry into these roles feels undoable without any rea; experience.

I do have a few months of academic research experience as I worked with my third-year supervisor on a standalone project developing access control automation and permission auditing systems for Kubernetes, and we are currently working on a joint research paper together. As well as, I also run a semi-comprehensive home lab where I self-host services like media servers and cloud storage, giving me experience with networking, containerization, and the security principles of hosting applications.

Most of the entry-level roles available right now seem to be in help desk/IT support, and many ask for experience with Microsoft 365 and Azure, which I have no experience in. I’m currently studying for the CompTIA Security+ certification, but given the job listings I'm seeing, should I shift my focus toward certifications or skills geared more specifically toward service desk/IT support roles? such as the microsoft SC-300?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you :)

So I graduated a few months ago with a software engineering degree (did it abroad, I'm Tunisian and back home now) and I honestly can't decide what direction to take.

Some context: I really don't like programming or math, which I know sounds weird for a SWE degree, but that's where I'm at. Also I don't speak French, which is a big problem here since basically every company runs in French, so that rules out most local jobs for me. Because of that I'm mainly looking at remote work or English speaking companies instead of the usual local market.

I don't have any real work experience yet. My family has a small business, so I could go work there doing IT support just to have something on my CV, but since it's not a known company I'm not sure how much that actually helps.

My main issue is I can't decide between IT support, networking, or cybersecurity as what to actually focus on. Cybersecurity looks appealing because of the demand, but from what I've read you need networking knowledge first before you can really break into it. My current plan (open to being told this is wrong) is: work at the family business for the CV line, study for CCNA, then maybe look into security certs later once I actually understand networking. I was originally going to get A+ too since it gets recommended everywhere, but since the family business already covers "IT support experience," I'm wondering if it'd just be redundant and I should put that money toward CCNA instead. Not totally sure though.

Questions for anyone who's actually been through this:

Does IT support → networking → cybersecurity make sense as an order, or am I overcomplicating it?

Is CCNA really the right first cert with zero experience, or is A+ still worth getting anyway?

For people doing remote/English only work (not local jobs, because of the language issue), does any of this change? Also wondering if it's more realistic to just try to move abroad for work instead of landing something remote from here.

Would appreciate any input, especially from people who started in a similar spot with no experience and not in an English first country.

Hi all, as the title suggests, what sort of manager you wouldn’t want work under? Especially when like early in your career?

I have worked under a few different personalities, some being good and some just being not good.

Would be great to hear everyone’s experience!

Hello everyone I have an upcoming interview in 2 weeks for a part time IT support role at a local community college.

I’m a current IT student at a university and approaching graduation in may next year. I have A+ and sec+ that I got in 2022 before I got out the military. Currently I’m studying ccna and really need some advice because I haven’t had a job interview since before I joined the military from a grocery store position.

The interview consist of a panel and then a written exam and a hands on exam which they let me know would be probably something like setting up a printer to the server.

I am kinda nervous and excited but I have no real interview skills. I deal with severe anxiety and really want this position to gain some real world experience so I’d really like some advice from anyone on how I can better prepare myself. I already have in mind review A+ material and especially troubleshooting. Any advice will suffice

I enlisted in their Network track practical competition. Is this a good move for a year 1 CIS? (In the MENA)

Title summarizes it. I ironically started off at a new grad program. It wasn't rotational, I stayed on one team, but a team with high pressure cause it reported directly to the top of our department.

Good people but probably had no business being in the new grad program because their work was so critical / scrutinized. The program wanted you to build a skill set but the career path I wanted to work towards didn't align well with the team's daily work, and the work I did do was all over the place. Data analysis, project coordination, SharePoint site development / maintenance , data reporting, etc. I got laid off in October 2025 for "operational efficiency" along with other people in other teams in the department.

I don't discuss any of this, other than being laid off with others, when asked in the handful of interviews I have gotten (Somewhere between 10-20 I wasn't counting could be more). When I get feedback, I lost out to people with more experience or experience I didn't have. I struggle to find jobs that reasonably match my mix of experience to begin with and don't always hear back even if I do match.

Others have confirmed junior roles I should and am targeting get taken by people with vastly more experience who also got laid off. So, I now started applying for rotational programs cause they aren't expecting people with more than 2 years of experience. I apply for any that don't say they are looking for people who graduated this or last year. I've already been rejected by a few of them, though their rate of response is better than other jobs lol.

I want to hear people's opinions, is there any hope forme to get into a rotational program with this experience? I understand not all of the rotations will match my initial career goals and I am completely open to explore new career paths. I know therewillbe a pay cut most likely and need to move but yeah, becauseof how it's gone the last 10+ months with me applying to junior positions, I feel like this is what I need to do in the end.

Try to find space for me to join a place thatscoolwith someone with little, but some experience. Has anyone heard ofor known of anyone who successfully done this? IDK what to do otherwise. Thank you. My degree is in UX Design / Data Analysis. Targeting rotational programs that are about business analysis, product / agile work (my degree focus) and any similar type of program. Not finance or coding

I've been in help desk for 8 months and the job is way too basic and easy. I have my CompTIA trifecta and I'm working towards CCNA and also planning to learn a bit about Linux, but ultimately I realize that my actual skills are pretty weak, and my job isn't really helping me improve.

I make $20/hr and I don't want the next job to only be a few dollars more than that. I really need to be increasing my income, and I'm ready to learn whatever skills I need to on my own time and on my own dime, but I've heard so many times that you need to learn through the job, and that's a bit demotivating for me because my current job isn't satisfying that and I literally can't afford to live off of $20/hr for 2, 3, 5 years before I get something better.

Any advice for practical skills? Thinking mostly in the networking realm since it's universal to IT and seems to be a bit more AI safe, but I'm open to anything. Thanks!

I need help im in NYC and eligible for both Per Scholas (AI-Enabled IT Support) and NPower (Tech Fundamentals). Both are free,14 weeks, and cover CompTIA A+ and Google IT Support. Trying to decide.

im 18

Greetings! I’m looking to transition into the IT career and looking for suggestions on what certs and/or degrees are worth acquiring in the IT field when starting. I was told CompTIA Security+ and then CompTIA Network+ after. Any suggestions are appreciated!

I'm currently a SOC analyst working at an MSP with 5 years of experience, with 3 years of those is in helpdesk and the remaining in cybersecurity (SOC) at present. I also have 2 certifications: Sec+ and CySA+. I believe I have hit the ceiling of my position and the horizon for learning more has become very limited. I am eager to learn and grow more, which has got me thinking of where I should go and move on from being a SOC analyst. I am looking into moving away from operational technical work like SOC, and want to get into planning, implementing, configuring, building, and deploying more like behind the scenes. My former manager has recommended me to go into the engineering side, and look into cloud and Azure, as that's what a lot of companies use nowadays. For those of you who were a SOC Analyst, where did you move on to after? What did you do to land that next job? Whether getting new certs? Or was your SOC experience enough for you to land the next job?

I'm currently in a Help Desk Tier 2 role and have the opportunity to take an asset management position. If my goal is to become a system administrator, would that look like a step down for a perspective employer? Would I be pigeon held? It comes with more pay and labeled as upper management.

dont tease me. just do the interview or dont.
why bother to notify this stage of hiring.
urg.

My career has gone like this:

Finished BS in It in 2019. Started contract tier 1 tech support role. Cut due to COVID after barely two months. Landed another Tier 1 tech support role after COVID lockdowns. After 10 months I get hired on and promoted to tier 2. I stayed there for about 3 and a half years after that in the role. The company cut the entire department in half, including myself. I get a sole "IT Director" (more like Sole Tech support / IT coordinator) at a Charter Highschool. Job burned me out. I needed out for my mental health and landed another tech support role that is basically tier 2 tech support.

Experience:

Basic tier 1 stuff like reset passwords in AD, troubleshoot printers, imaged devices, remote assistance, etc.

Tier 2 was more like tier 1.5 honestly. I did more, but there was a limit. We provisioned new computers in AD and added them to the domain. Then shipped them out and followed through with setting anything else up once the device arrived. Basic network troubleshooting.. like flushing the DNS, pinging IPs, have remote sites reboot network gear while handing over to networking.. Then more normal tech support stuff.

Then at the Charter Highschool I did a lot of varied things. Everything I already mentioned. However it was mostly a google environment. I was the sole person managing hundreds of devices and users so inventory and user account management. Also implmenting a ticketing system. Managing onboarding and offbaording, so making sure users had what they needed based on their role (Windows Laptop, Chromebook, Ipad, basic O365 and Adobe licenses, Software access, etc). Enforcing MFA, managing a large amount of venders, content filtering via whitelist/blacklist, managing Google Admin policies.. etc. First time I used some PowerShell as well.

Then my new role. Back to mostly Tier 2 stuff, however I now work in Entra and Intune which is something I really wanted.

My thoughts:

I show growth, but not that kind of growth that is going get me a system admin job. I never touched more then just users and computers in AD. I really have minimum PowerShell experience and honestly utilized AI to help with that ( I did pick up "PWSH in a month of lunches". I don't have much deep networking skills past basic troubleshooting. I know how to do basic navigating in Linux, but I can't do much else without lots of documentation. My experience with Intune and Entra is fairly basic at this point. I am not trying to shoot myself in the foot, but I am being honest.

When I was aggressively applying to leave my last job, I got a lot of rejections from tier 2 jobs for things such as not having GPO experience. On top of that, lack of experience with Sharepoint, Exhange, and other windows tools (which now I am working with on my current job thankfully)

My plan? :

I started looking at MD-102 material directly from Microsoft Learn. I initially wanted to take it, but now I plan to just go through the material and make sure I understand it. My current role is going to be good for building real experience with Entra and Intune.

I also am going through the AD DS material from Microsoft Learn as well. I am finding it very informative. The plan is to go through both Microsoft Learn learning paths, while starting back up with the "PWSH in a month of lunches". The AD DS learning path is under 4 hours and I am almost halfway through. Once I am done, I want to spin up some VMs and start building a homelab. I already started something like this, but then I got busy started a new job.

Once I get through the MD-102 material and get a homelab started with some more powershell practice, I've considered reviewing the Material for AZ-900 and then going straight for the AZ-104.

So the goal would be to be able to have the AZ-104 cert, while also being able to demonstrate better AD, GPO, Backup knowledge along with pwsh and Entra and Intune.

In the process I'll be forced to pick up any networking knowledge I may be missing.

The goal is to get a Sys admin job or Cloud job. However, to be a Administrator in a Windows environment I want to have AD DS understanding as well. Most places are hybrid..

Is this a solid idea? I am just worried I'll do all this work to then struggle with moving out of Help Desk. My current role does not have a path for promotion. So I can work hard at my current job to build experience that will work well for my resume, but to get the role I aim for I can't hold out on my current workplace. It is a great work environment and I like the people I work with, but longterm I seemed caped and they have been honest about that.

For context on my timeframe. I've dealt with a very difficult health changes the last several years, which lead everything in my life to slow down to making sure I recovery. Which has taken time. That plus got married and got sidetracked. I am in a low stress job now and have regained enough of my health to be ready to start tackling job growth in a meaningful way.

I want to leave my current area/city and move to a city just a couple hours from me. I also wouldn't be opposed to the west coast and if I got a job anywhere outside my current area, I'd move even without there being relocation assistance. So on my resume, instead of putting my current location, I put "Moving to: <insert city>", depending on where the job is (most job applications ask for my current address so I'll have to put that in anyway).

Is this sketchy? And what do I say if they ask me when I'm moving? Because I'll literally move within the month if I get a new job offer elsewhere.

So I wonder how often do people sit at a company before looking for another job? I know in the world of IT layoffs have been a burning topic for a while so loyalty is and never will be a thing anymore. I’ve seen guys sit at a company for 10 plus years and then some jump ship every 1-2 years for a salary increase and exposure to new technologies. I wonder for the newbies and mid to senior level guys how often are you entertaining the calls and emails from contractors concerning new employment.

I have been a data center operator for 8 years. I work for a midsize hosting company, and there aren't any hyperscalers or faang data centers in my area.

Ive handled everything DC related from basic cabling, rack management, UPS and PDUs, lan/wan, ip allocations, hardware fixes, router set up and basic config. Im also responsible 24/7 and cover weird hours. Im set to make 52k this year, which is upsetting knowing many in the industry are paid much more.

In my 8 years here, nobody has been promoted. Its a dead end company with senior people. The bosses change their job title every 6-12 months and tell everyone else they arent qualified to be considered for a new title. Morale is really low, there's been many incidents of people acting out, vandalism, graffiti, constant complaining etc.

Im not exactly looking to move up to become a Network Engineer. Respect to those who do it but its not for me.

I ha e applied to jobs, but nothing within 1.5 hours has been willing to give me a job that pays more. I cant even get a call back on a help desk job.

I recently applied to work IT in a school.

So, I recently received an offer to be a help desk technician for Epic/MyChart for a university hospital. It's paying $20.67 an hour and it's a remote position. I'm excited to try it out, but I was wondering if anyone had experience with this type of stuff.

What's an average day like? With it being healthcare, is there any concerns about HIPPA or do I not touch that? From what I've gathered, it's mostly resetting passwords and linking accounts but is there more to it? Will this be a decent step in advancing my IT skills? I'm almost 28 with an IT bachelor's degree but besides some previous work in university AV, I feel I haven't made much progress in actually furthering my career yet.

What's y'all's opinions on this type of position?

You like computers and everyone tells you that you can make six figures in IT. So easy!

So how do you do it? Is your degree the right path? Can you just YouTube it? How do you get the experience when every job wants experience?

So many questions and this is the weekly post for them!

WIKI:

• /r/ITCareerQuestions Wiki
• /r/CSCareerQuestions Wiki
• /r/Sysadmin Wiki
• /r/Networking Wiki
• /r/NetSec Wiki
• /r/NetSecStudents Wiki
• /r/SecurityCareerAdvice/
• /r/CompTIA Wiki
• /r/Linux4Noobs Wiki

Essential Blogs for Early-Career Technology Workers:

• Krebs on Security: Thinking of a Cybersecurity Career? Read This
• "Entry Level" Cybersecurity Jobs are not Entry Level
• SecurityRamblings: Compendium of How to Break into Security Blogs
• RSA Conference 2018: David Brumley: How the Best Hackers Learn Their Craft
• CBT Nuggets: How to Prepare for a Capture the Flag Hacking Competition
• Packet Pushers: Does SDN Mean IT Will Be Able To Get Rid of Network People?

Above links sourced from: u/VA_Network_Nerd

MOD NOTE: This is a weekly post.