r/sysadmin • u/YesImBrute • 17h ago
Career / Job Related Want to become a sysadmin - do I continue with help desk or transition to the military
I currently work remotely for a Mac-based MSP. I'm making $23.50/hour. As soon as I got my Jamf 100 cert I applied and got lucky enough for them to give me a shot. I mostly do onboardings/offboardings and occasionally password resets and deleting MDM alerts.
I also have an offer to join the Canadian military as part of their IT team. It pays the same but I would have way more things to do especially in networking(ad-hoc networks, VSAT deployments, network security etc).
I'm guaranteed a promotion within 3 years that bumps me up to 82k if I don't wash out.
I don't know if I should stick with my help desk job, stack more certifications and find something better or if I should just join the military instead.
What do you think?
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u/kingpeng 17h ago
IT work that requires government clearances pays booku bucks, at least here in the US. Miltary for sure.
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u/iNteg Sr. Systems Engineer 17h ago
Seconding this. Tech jobs that require security clearances are out there and they pay -a lot- compared to some of same roles at a corporation in the US. I'm assuming it's similar for Canada. Getting a clearance costs a LOT of money, so if you have it already you're a leg up from anyone else.
Also, consider that the military typically pays for your food, your lodging, and other nice things, so that salary you have that's "the same" is not actually the same, you're making more money with less bills.
There's a lot of structure required, and discipline, it's not all IT work, there's other stuff that probably comes along with it, but it can build some habits into you that can stick with you for life.
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u/Ztoffels 17h ago
If, they cannot force you to actively be a person carrying a weapon and killing others.
I would go for military.
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u/Dot_1X 17h ago
As someone who's been in the DOD (contractor mostly) for most of my tech career, I can tell you the field is very lucrative, but you're going to have to deal with a lot of really silly bullshit sometimes and it can be frustrating.
Many times, there will definitely be a better way to do something and you're still going to have to do it the wrong way because that's what the government client wants and because it satisfies their outdated security requirements.
You have to be okay with that and not take that home with you and some people really have a hard time with that.
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u/Steve_at_Werk 17h ago
I would stick with the helpdesk, worked out for me. A lot of military IT skills are specific to military tech which is often way behind the private sector. We turned down an ex military guy recently because he didn't know anything about exchange, IPAM, Windows patching, scripting, etc. We all liked him but we needed someone who didn't need training.
If you get a clearance via the military that can pay off but no guarantee. I make more than my brother in law with a clearance working IT for the air force (he's a marine vet). I am older and started earlier than him though.
If you're at a good company, working up through the HD is the way to go
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u/JBlasTugong 17h ago
My advice is to stay civilian/private sector if you can. I’m not sure how the Canadian military (or which branch you mean), is with technology- but my experiences working with ex-mil IT on the US side is that the IT work done by enlisted/commissions isn’t super transferable to the civy side. The high paying work is done by contractors
It sounds like you’ve done earnest work and study to get where you’re at, so I wish you luck if you decide to stick it out!
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u/Flabbergasted98 15h ago
Join the military. we need people like you for when America decides to invade our lakes.
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u/ThatBCHGuy 17h ago
I'd probably go the military route if the experience is more broad. Especially if you're an employee not enlisted. Probably would look better on the resume too, ultimately.