How is a sys-admin related to an IT Help Desk?

[Amol S.]

Some places on indeed and other job posting sites, many postings require help desk experience, while other talk about issues escallated from level 2 or 3 IT help desk? Does this imply that a System Administration job is considered to be like a level 4 IT Help Desk job in the IT field?

 

[BudAshes]

Some places on indeed and other job posting sites, many postings require help desk experience, while other talk about issues escallated from level 2 or 3 IT help desk? Does this imply that a System Administration job is considered to be like a level 4 IT Help Desk job in the IT field?

It's basically all arbitrary and based on whatever system the company you are applying to has adopted, and even then most of them change this stuff frequently.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Normally help desk is the first step to get to sys admin. Help desk is level 1, then deskop support is level 2 and server support is level 3. You normally need to have worked in the previous level to work the other. Depends on the company though. Like for mine, level 1 and 2 were basically the same job title. If you were help desk you just did most of the work remotely, and if you could not, then one of the L2 techs would go. But sometimes even help desk techs would go to a site to fix something.

From what I've seen what typically happens when they need a l3 server tech is the job gets posted internally then someone from help desk applies, then the help desk job gets posted internally then no one applies then it goes external. So help desk is a good way to get your foot in the door at a company you want to work for. It's rare a server tech job will go external, but it happens.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

It's basically all arbitrary and based on whatever system the company you are applying to has adopted, and even then most of them change this stuff frequently.

This, entirely based on the employer. I've seen 'sysadmin' range from 40k/yr help desk in Maine to 200k/yr TS/SCI clearance in Afghanistan.

 

[Exterous]

It's basically all arbitrary and based on whatever system the company you are applying to has adopted, and even then most of them change this stuff frequently.

Yeah people play pretty fast and loose with job titles in IT.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Depends on the systems you're admining. Small offices tend to hire an IT guy that runs the network, email server, website,and desktop support 24/7/365 for $40k salary.

If you are doing Enterprise SAN, Virtualization, Cloud, Unix/Linux/Windows/DBA work, it can be different....and maybe easier (by knowing more config/troubleshooting)

I can't say that a job requiring help desk is a bad job. Some software companies use admin jobs for backline support too because they know osi model and TLS (layer 5 and up) to help with authentication crap....and if you ever get stuck with a company that doesn't have good staff doing that, it sucks.

 

[StinkyPinky]

It seems to me that more and more job titles are losing meaning. When I started in IT in the early 2000s there seemed a pretty clear distinction between the technical roles. Level 1 was helpdesk - that was remote and phone support and basic sys admin. Level 2 (desktop support) was on-site support where the helpdesk would escalate tickets too. And level 3 was networking and more advanced system admin tasks.

These days "helpdesk" often applies to both level 1 and 2 and even some moderate level 3 tasks. In other words, read the job description because that matters more than the job title.