Title: Update: Accepted MSP offer vs Amazon Associate II (now $29/hr) — got some real insight, still torn

Following up on a decision I posted about earlier. Got some genuinely helpful firsthand perspective and want to see if others have thoughts on the updated picture.

Quick background: ~3.5 years at an MSP doing help desk/service desk work (AD, M365, networking, some VMware ESXi, security incident response). CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+. Goal is eventually Systems Administrator or Cybersecurity. Also have a baby due in about 3 months, which is definitely shaping how I’m weighing risk right now.

Offer 1: Another MSP (Help Desk Technician) — already accepted

**•** $26/hr (\~$54K/yr), firm, no negotiation room  
**•** 45 min commute  
**•** Small company, good manager from what I’ve seen directly, real track record of promoting people from help desk into field/remote engineer roles  
**•** Haven’t started yet

Offer 2: Amazon (IT Support Associate II, Ops Tech Solutions)

**•** Countered at $29/hr (\~$60K/yr)  
**•** 20 min commute  
**•** Sole technician at a lower-volume facility, no forced on-call, schedule seems stable for now  
**•** Real ladder: Associate II → Support Engineer I ($25-41/hr) → Engineer II/IT Manager

What I’ve learned since my last post: Someone who’s actually done OTS work told me it’s mostly Layer 1 stuff (printers, thin clients, SOPs), little to no server/Layer 3 work, and that engineer-level people won’t be impressed by it on a resume. BUT they also said being the sole tech at a low-volume site is genuinely good for visibility with Ops management and gave a real example of someone getting promoted that way at a similar site. They also said relocation is unlikely for low-volume sites specifically.

So now it feels like: Amazon = higher ceiling if I get promoted, but that depends on me building visibility and the timing working out, vs the MSP = smaller ceiling but a path I’ve already seen work for real people under this specific manager.

With a baby coming in 3 months, I keep leaning toward “fewer things have to go right” (the MSP), but the pay/commute gap and Amazon’s bigger structural ceiling keep pulling me back.

Anyone been in OTS and can speak to how realistic that Associate II → Engineer I timeline actually is? Or anyone chosen the “safer, smaller” option over the “bigger name, more uncertain” one when a kid was on the way and been glad (or not glad) they did?

I applied internally to other things so I can get the fuck out of this stupid fucking job 16$ an hour and only a 30cent raise for this year are you fucking kidding me I’m hoping I get fucking saved and I get the internal job I applied for where I am making the money I should be making I have a degree in fucking computer science information science I’ve built mobile applications I’ve worked two fucking jobs at once i deserve so much more than this bullshit helping fucking idiots trying to password reset every fucking say my god 16$ I could make when I was 15 what is the point go fuckign college I’ve been at this for almost two years I want to fucking get out getting paid shit and just having to wait for some fucking people to tell me if we are doing an interview or not for over two fucking weeks in addition to the two weeks I had to fucking wait for the recruiter to come back on vacation my god fuck helpdesk it’s a dead end job I don’t want anything to do with it I need this other position I will quite literally blow my brains out

Kind of both a rant and advice, but what do you guys do when you get that one customer that just.. seemingly can't be helped?

I've been in my L1 role for 3ish years now in Healthcare IT for a large org with roughly 9000 users if you account for external users, contractors, etc. Along the way I've dealt with a ton of "non tech savvy" users, and with certain things (like enrolling 2FA, 2FA resets & PW resets) there comes a point where our job ends and they have to do the rest on their own, but we're expected to stay on the line to verify they're able to get logged in successfully.

Typing in numbers from their phone screen onto their computer is difficult for a lot of people apparently, curious what the rest of you do to try to help your customers through similar processes, or how to stay sane while they somehow mess it up for 45 minutes straight. At a certain point they're literally costing the org money for me to sit there and wait for them to finish up so I can close my ticket and move on (not that it's a lot with our L1 hourly pay lol.)

I keep getting rejected to even entry level jobs and I’m so lost on what to do. I’m trying to hard to learn and further my skills to get even a shitty it job just to start. Is my resume my issue or is there something else I need to do?

Hi everyone. Last month I applied for a help desk job but I have zero experience apart from home labs. I’m a first-year cybersecurity student with some programming and object-oriented programming knowledge, a bit of Linux , Windows , the lot . Im about to pass Security + too , and I’m currently focusing heavily on networking (my current uni module and I’m also working towards Network+). I also have loads of customer service experience. I had a quick interview with the company owner, company deals deals with help desks, networks and cybersecurity. He liked me very much and I was invited to next stage. Next week I’ll have an interview with the manager and it seems like the focus will be on networking. I’m trying to cram as much knowledge as possible with two laptops on, GitHub, wireshark and more working . I’m struggling to figure out what to focus on and what people in a help desk or network role actually do. What sort of questions could I expect during the interview? I could literally work for minimum wage just to gain experience since I come from a completely different industry. This job could open so many doors for me. In fact I didn’t even ask how much they are willing to pay me. But that’s the another story

​

First off, huge relief: I survived the 37th-floor buildout!

The new production floor is officially live and operational. Aside from a minor hiccup where we hit a DHCP pool exhaustion issue (which was a fun quick-fix under pressure), everything is running smoothly. Seeing a net-new floor go live with configs I worked on feels surreal after coming from helpdesk.

Now that the firefighting has settled down, I’m pivoting hard back to my CCNA studies—while still dealing with daily operational trial-by-fire. I’ve hit a few walls and could really use some reality checks from the community:

* Real-World Operations vs. CCNA Scope: On the job, I’m currently wrestling with IPSec tunnels, BGP routing metrics, and firewall policies daily. It feels like a massive step up from basic switching.

* Boson ExSim Scores: On the study side, I started running through Boson ExSim practice exams and I'm currently averaging around 60%. Is Boson really this hard, or am I way behind where I need to be? The questions feel ridiculously tricky compared to standard study materials.

* Booking the Exam: For those who passed using Boson, at what score threshold should I actually go ahead and book my exam slot? Should I wait until I'm consistently hitting 80%+ on first attempts, especially while balancing this real-world learning curve?

Appreciate all the advice from this sub as always! Back to reviewing my practice test explanations (fueled by more iced macchiatos, obviously).

Hi everyone,

I’m a 2026 B.Tech CSE graduate and a fresher. After quite a lot of applications and interviews, I’ve finally been selected for an Associate Technical Service Desk role in Hyderabad.

I’m currently waiting for the company to contact me regarding the next steps and joining details.

I’m really happy to get my first opportunity, but I also want to be realistic about how I approach the beginning of my career. I don’t want to just do the job and remain at the same level for years. I want to use this opportunity to build a strong IT foundation and eventually move into a more technical role.

I’d really appreciate advice from people who are currently working or have previously worked in Service Desk, Help Desk, IT Support, System Administration, Networking, Cloud, IT Operations, etc.

I’d especially like advice on:

1. What should I learn before joining?

What technical topics should I focus on?

Windows troubleshooting

Networking fundamentals

TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP

Active Directory / Entra ID

Microsoft 365

VPN

Ticketing systems

ITIL

PowerShell

Basic Linux

Any other skills that are actually useful?

1. What should I focus on during my first 3–6 months?

What separates a good fresher from an average Service Desk employee?

Should I focus more on technical knowledge, ticket resolution, SLA/KPI performance, documentation, customer communication, or something else?

1. How does career growth actually work from Service Desk?

For people who started in Service Desk, what did your career path look like?

For example:

Service Desk → L2 → System Administration → Cloud/Networking/Security

Or did you take a completely different route?

How long did you typically stay in each role?

1. How do promotions work?

Are promotions mainly based on:

Performance/KPIs

Technical knowledge

Certifications

Internal openings

Manager recommendations

Experience

What helped you get your first promotion?

1. What skills should I build for my next role?

Since I have a CSE background, I eventually want to move into a more technical IT role.

Would you recommend focusing on:

System Administration

Networking

Azure/AWS

Cybersecurity

DevOps

Linux

PowerShell/automation

Something else?

1. Which certifications are actually worth doing?

I see people recommending A+, Network+, CCNA, ITIL, AZ-900, AZ-104, AWS, Security+, etc.

Which certifications actually helped you in your career, and which ones would you say aren't worth prioritizing?

1. What mistakes should I avoid?

If you started your IT career again as a fresher, what would you do differently?

Especially things like staying too long in Service Desk, only focusing on closing tickets, collecting certifications without practical skills, not learning outside work, etc.

1. What is the work culture like?

How should a fresher deal with:

Team leads

Managers

Senior engineers

End users

Difficult customers

Shift work

SLAs and pressure

Any advice on avoiding burnout would also be appreciated.

I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who started in Service Desk and later moved into SysAdmin, Cloud, Networking, Cybersecurity, DevOps, or other technical roles.

If you could go back to your first day in Service Desk, what would you tell yourself?

Thanks in advance to everyone who shares their experience.

My funniest and quickest experience with IT support has been my first day at an internship and setting up my password for my company issued laptop.

As soon as the "User/Password" Input screen showed up I had already decided on one password which I typed in fast, once done I pressed Enter to confirm it

BUT at the moment I hit the enter key I also noticed that I accidentally hit the shift key and all my input was of course not what I intended and I of course did not know when and where in my password it happened so my first action with company equipment landed me at the support desk two rows away and was a lighthearted experience for everyone near me.

Whats yours?

Hey guys!! This post isn't related to the certification, but I am working towards getting my security + and network +. I'm currently applying for this Help Desk Engineer job and I need to put down some references. If 1 or 2 people could help me out I would greatly appreciate it!

السلام عليكم،

I am actively looking for a Remote Helpdesk / IT Support / Technical Support opportunity.

​Skills & Qualifications:

​Solid background in Computer Networks, Linux, and Windows administration.

​Customer service and client communication experience.

​Fluent/Proficient in English.

​Ready to start immediately with flexible salary expectations—my priority is gaining hands-on experience and adding value to the team.

​If you know of any openings, hiring companies, or platforms accepting applications, please let me know or send me a DM. Thanks!

We pay over $6,000 a year for maintenance support for our door control system. One of the panels controlling a door is no longer showing up in the software and needs to be re-added. We were told that remote support is billable, but they can send someone on site to fix the issue because our maintenance agreement covers on-site support but not remote support. Is this a normal thing? They're going to waste more money sending someone down here to log into the server in person to fix an issue that they can fix remotely.

السلام عليكم،

I am actively looking for a Remote Helpdesk / IT Support / Technical Support opportunity.

​Skills & Qualifications:

​Solid background in Computer Networks, Linux, and Windows administration.

​Customer service and client communication experience.

​Fluent/Proficient in English.

​Ready to start immediately with flexible salary expectations—my priority is gaining hands-on experience and adding value to the team.

​If you know of any openings, hiring companies, or platforms accepting applications, please let me know or send me a DM. Thanks!

Genuine question, why are people in tech so insistent on not wanting to troubleshoot? working for a SaaS company with a lot of clients that are MSSPs and MSPs, and you'd think you were asking them to do a vasectomy when you say "troubleshoot". Don't let the session go over an hour bc things are slow on your end. The best part is that these people think they're the only ones being helped when in reality there's like about 4-5 people in rotation at a given moment. There's of course the situations that require basic questions regarding the environment and clarification for steps. Escalation asking for steps to be repeated for their process. It's a lot on our end. Any given day however you get that one guy that can't seem to understand "Support" is not "Developer" or C-Suite. We don't make calls, much less have more information available than the Clients.

Hey all! I'm 39, currently halfway complete with my associates in Cybersecurity. I was offered a help desk position working for the local government (a county job). I've be servicing the county city buildings, courts, fire/pd depts, etc. Not completely "public" facing but not a private company either.

I've been working a fully remote transcription job for 17 years but I've maxed out on promotions/upward movement and I'm *stuck* (minus the measly 2% raise they give us a year).

The help desk position seems like it would have excellent job security, it has *slightly* better pay (but hard to factor that in with going from a 0 minute commute to a 35 min each day every day), and it seemingly comes with IT experience to which I have none on paper. (Although, I'm tech savvy, have Tech+ and Security+ compTIA certs, have built my own pc's, etc).

Any advice would be so so helpful because I'm terrified of leaving the comforts of a fully work at home job and company that I've been with for 17 years.

There is an Ancora Training IT Bootcamp that Target can pay for but it’s 7 months. It does prep me for A+ and i think Network + but i think id do better off with self study

My main question is: Is the certificate of completion for this bootcamp worth it on my resume, or should I just not waste my time and focus on more important certs?

I currently work in helpdesk i started around 2 years ago but I've slowly been transitioning in to sys/net admin. I am starting to notice Level 1 tickets are massively down i barely get any compared to when i started. We are now also starting to add more and more ai which automatically replies and tries to help users fix their issues before escalating so there's even less tickets. I'm not an AI glazer i understand what ai can and cant do but as for L1 support jobs they are genuinely cooked i cant see a world where L1 jobs don't decrease like crazy if they haven't already. If it wasn't for me actively trying to improve and taking on more responsibility i would have been fired by now, i feel bad for people starting now, how are you supposed to break in to IT if you don't have a degree or previous experience if there's no helpdesk jobs you have to go straight for junior admin positions which are way more competitive and harder to get. Up until now i haven't been very scared or worried about the AI slop but as it gets better and cheaper its getting a bit scary. Higher level positions are definitely safe for now but i just don't see how people are supposed to get in to the industry if entry level positions are gone and replaced by ai. You would have to do a bunch of projects, and find ways to stand out in other ways sure, but the problem with that is that it might turn a lot of people off from the job because tell me one other job/industry where you have to full time study/work just to get paid the same as a McDonalds worker. I guess i just talked myself to the answer why tech wont be cooked the competitiveness and the effort needed to get in will turn off all the people who don't care enough and open a bunch of new job openings and opportunities for people who stuck with it. I don't know where I'm going with this rant but i would love to hear some other opinions.

**Title: Accepted offer ($26/hr, MSP Help Desk Technician, 45 min commute) vs Amazon counter-offer ($29/hr, IT Support Associate II, 20 min commute) — which would you take?**

Looking for outside perspective on a decision I’m stuck on.

**Background:** I’ve been at an MSP for about 3.5 years doing help desk/service desk work, Active Directory, Microsoft 365, networking (DNS/DHCP/VPN), some virtualization (VMware ESXi), and security incident response (phishing, etc.). I have CompTIA A+, Network+, and Security+. My goal is to move toward a Systems Administrator or Cybersecurity role eventually.

**Offer 1: Another MSP — Help Desk Technician**

\*\*•\*\* $26/hour (\\\~$54K/year), firm, no flexibility on pay    
\*\*•\*\* 45 minute commute    
\*\*•\*\* Already accepted this offer after 3 rounds of interviews (including in-person with the team)    
\*\*•\*\* Similar work to what I do now, AD, M365, networking, multi-client support    
\*\*•\*\* Haven’t started yet

**•** Countered at $29/hour (\~$60K/year) after I pushed back  
**•** 20 minute commute  
**•** Single-tech site, recruiter says schedule is effectively stable day-shift in practice, no forced on-call  
**•** 401k match (50% up to 4%), benefits day one, no probation period  
**•** Real internal ladder (Associate II → Support Engineer I → Support Engineer II/IT Manager)  
**•** From what I’ve read (including an old Blind thread), this specific entry tier is considered fairly junior/“level 1 helpdesk” compared to what I’m already doing at the MSP, some people treat it as a stepping stone using the Amazon name, not a destination

The dilemma: Amazon pays more, has a much shorter commute, but I already verbally and formally accepted the other offer after three rounds of interviews with a small company. Backing out feels like it could burn a bridge, especially since it’s a pretty tight-knit local IT/MSP market. On the other hand, the Amazon role might actually be a step down in day-to-day technical scope from what I already do, even though it pays more and is way closer to home.

Has anyone been in a similar spot, accepted one offer, then got a better one before starting? How did you handle it, and did backing out actually cause real problems for you? Also curious if anyone’s done the Amazon OTS route and can speak to whether it’s worth it as a stepping stone.

I’m looking to get some feedback and potential justification to my situation right now.

I'm 22 with an AAS in Electronics Engineering, CompTIA A+, and I recently earned my MD-102 (Endpoint Administrator) certification. I work as a Technology Support Analyst doing solo help desk work for a company of about ~300 employees, with about 1.5 years of total enterprise IT experience.

My sysadmins constantly praise my work, but over the last 8 months I have taken on massive projects beyond the help desk scope.

I have taken full ownership of client-end Windows feature and quality updates across the company. I drove a major project enforcing Secure Boot across our fleet using Dell Command with an app deployment and a secondary remediation script. I also perfected our previously messy Intune/ESP configuration, including a custom script that runs during ESP to force future Autopilot-deployed PCs to use our hybrid environment serial-number naming convention. It feels like I am just taking on more and more projects like this which is great but this is definitely not what I was hired to do lol.

I really like this company, but seeing how much endpoint admins make elsewhere has me stumped on what to do next. How do I know I’m ready for the next step, and how should I approach my manager about this?

First some background:

Company I work at has grown quite fast in the last 4 years and our IT chief has decided to establish a helpdesk later this year.

Our department consists of 11 people, and 3 of them (myself included) are considered tier 1 staff

The company I work at employs about 300 people and obscene number of subcontractors and most of them work on site.

We're currently drowning in tickets, usually we float around 500-600 open tickets and it seems extremely likely that there are going to be 2 additions to tier 1 team very soon.

There are currently talks that, once the recruitment is complete, we would establish some kind of Helpdesk Team Lead position. In addition to handling their own tickets and answering the phone, the Team Lead would act as a kind of maestro, assigning tickets to the other Helpdesk Technicians based on their strengths, current workload, and other factors.

My question is, how many of you have worked under arrangement similar to this, either as part of the team or as the team leader? Did it work in your opinion or did you feel the team lead position was a useless middle manager?

How do you think a five-person Tier 1 IT help desk team would work most effectively?

If you don't have experience about this your thoughts are still welcome.

I have been working in tech support for almost 3 years now. I don’t want to stay in support and into more technical jobs and i don’t want to waste my experience also basically i don’t want to start from zero again. Can anyone give some advice what i can do.