Proffesional development

hargi

hargi

hargi

Associate
Joined
19 Jul 2006
Posts
1,847
Got a meeting with my boss today about proffesional development and to talk about me and what i want to do and that.
I had been toying with the idea of topping up my foundation degree but not doing that now as i wont have the time.
So started reading towards the Desktop technition microsoft cert as im a desktop It help desk.
The only problem is, is that skills wise im as developed as i can be for the job i do and theres no real progression in my job, no where for me to get promoted or even develop my job. Its not even that well paid for what i do.
So im looking for other jobs, but what do i say when i go see the boss today.
I mean theres loads of training i would like to do( css courses,photoshop,programming), but its not really related to my job. My skills that i learned at uni are just wasted here, just doing microsoft office stuff and topping up the printer. The only courses/training i have seen that relate to my job are either like ECDL ( which i dont want to do as its less a qualification than what i have got) or things on how to deal with people that i have already been on.

Any advice?
 
If you work on in the Helpdesk enviroment then I would say look at the ITIL course.

It's isn't massvely expensive and doesn't take long to complete and is becoming very much sought after in the whole Service managmement arena.
 
hargi said:
what do i say when i go see the boss today.
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You already said it:

"The only problem is, is that skills wise im as developed as i can be for the job i do and theres no real progression in my job, no where for me to get promoted or even develop my job. Its not even that well paid for what i do."

If he wants to keep you in the company he can shift you into more challenging areas, if he doesn't then you know where you stand.
 
Yeah the only problem is theres no where else they can move me so i can get more of a challenge, so basically im stuck here till i find something else.
Slinwagh is there much difference between the microsoft Desktop helpdesk on and the ~ITIL one?
Tried googling for it got some sites but a bit confused at what is on the corse
 
MCDST is a technical course, for dealing with the windows XP operating system. We put all of our 1st and 2nd line people through it at some point, i would say 90% of our staff are MCDST certified. You could also try going down the MCP route of courses that would eventually lead to MCSE but they will take a lot more study and you really need to be in an evironment that would allow you to use and apply what you are learning whilst also having support from peers etc that you can fence 'But why...' type questions off.

ITIL (V2) is around 10 processes and a function (Service Desk) and how when applied as a framework they can help a business get the most form it's IT department and infrastrucutre. The most common of the processes are Incident Management and Problem Management. IM being around dealing with interuptions to normal everyday running of an it service and getting people back up and running asap whereas PM deal with using techniques to identify underlying causes of recurrant incidents and also pro-actively identifying problems before they generate incidents. Moving on from that you have Change management which is around planning and implementing changes that are beneficial to the business to cause the least disruption, Release management deals with how those changes are actually built, tested and put into live support after they have been approved by CM along with any roll backs/recovery plans, it also should take into account all aspects of changes to be released not just technical (i.e. training, impacts on other areas etc). Configuration Management is sometimes confused with asset tracking, but it is more, it provides a view of the IT infrastructure which accounts for all IT assets and provides info to support other Service Managment processes (i.e. Problem Management can track all PC's with a faulty power supply that may not have failed yet but have been identified by trends that they may fail if the CMDB is set to track to that level of detail). That's Service Support covered, there's also Service Delivery which deals with Service Level, availability, capacity, finance and Service Continuity.


Am i boring you yet :) (Can you tell what i deal with for most of my time!)? :) The newer version of ITIL (Version 3) will probably be the only course you can realistically get on now, i think the V2 foundation is pretty much phased out now. V3 deals a lot more with service lifecycles (still using the 10 processes but with even more of them added now) and strategies compared to V2.

Here's a link to a paper by the chief examiner of ITIL V3 http://www.best-management-practice.com/gempdf/ITILV3_The_Future_is_Here_Sharon_Taylor.pdf that you may find useful.
 
kefkef thanks for that in your opinion which out of the 2 would be of most benifit to me. Like i say i work out in a helpdesk most of the problems are either microsoft office or network logging problems, that i can sort no problem other than that i just do VLE stuff. Im not planning to stay in this job much longer for lack of money and prospects.
which out of the 2 would you recomend, i know there different and will suite different people but if you had to choose one what would it be
 
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For now, i would say do the MCDST course if possible, it will offer you more options in the short term to get out of where you are and into a more challenging role (with a couple of years first line experience and the MCDST you should have no problems getting a 2nd line/desktop support role quite easily), then from there you can start looking down either the more technical routes of server management/networks/programming or look down the General Management/Service Management/Project Management route if you feel it is something you would like to get into.

If you manage to get a job in a large company or government organisation you will more than likely have to do the ITIL Foundation after you start so can get it that way (i only pay £270 for ITIL courses for our staff, a fair saving on the iLX courses shown above) and all perm staff have to have gone on it before the first year of their employment is up.
 
hargi said:
think its £ 13,000. and thats after 2 years
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Personally, i would think 13k per year is at the start of what a Service Desk agent should be getting with no experience at all (i.e. School/college leaver with good GCSE or A-Level results and interests in computers), going up to low/mid 20's if that is the way the Service Desk has been set up. After 2 years at our place you would be on about £16-16.5k if you came in with no experience when starting.
 
kefkef said:
For now, i would say do the MCDST course if possible, it will offer you more options in the short term to get out of where you are and into a more challenging role (with a couple of years first line experience and the MCDST you should have no problems getting a 2nd line/desktop support role quite easily), then from there you can start looking down either the more technical routes of server management/networks/programming or look down the General Management/Service Management/Project Management route if you feel it is something you would like to get into.

If you manage to get a job in a large company or government organisation you will more than likely have to do the ITIL Foundation after you start so can get it that way (i only pay £270 for ITIL courses for our staff, a fair saving on the iLX courses shown above) and all perm staff have to have gone on it before the first year of their employment is up.
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Can I ask where you get your ITIL training from ?
 
yeah i been working here 2 years and am on that. i came in with no "work experience in IT" as such, but i did have my Foundation degree in ICT ( which is a year short of bveen a full degree)
 
Currently from a company called Remarc but nearly all the other large training providers will at least match or better that fee (pay a fixed amount per day rather than buying courses, stay with Remarc as they have good trainers and facilities). Only get things at that price as we do spend about 30-40k per year on training for the whole department.
 
kefkef said:
Currently from a company called Remarc but nearly all the other large training providers will at least match or better that fee (pay a fixed amount per day rather than buying courses, stay with Remarc as they have good trainers and facilities). Only get things at that price as we do spend about 30-40k per year on training for the whole department.
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Do you get all your IT traing from Remarc or just the ITIL/Prince 2 etc.

Can I ask who you work for?
 
Get all the training from them, from soft skills stuff (time management etc) to professional development (ITIL/Prince2/MSP) to Tehnical (MS, Cisco etc).

I work for the NHS.
 
The only reason I ask is that my wife is the Sales Director for a compant that deals specifically with Prince2 ITIL M_o_R MSP etc.
 
so what you recon 2 years experience should be worth?
and which would give me the better career prospects?

Edit:sorry just seen your replies earlier up to answer my question
 
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