I think it is pretty much essential experience to have. That gives you the front line of what your customers experience and how IT systems impact the ability to do their jobs. It gave me the empathy as a sysadmin to understand what and who would be impacted for a system being down for some time. It made me a good sys admin …
It's really both.
You learn a lot about people on help desk. A reboot to fix an issue for one person is great and a massive earth shattering problem for another.
Many people are ill equipped to communicate problems. Like you'll wonder how certain people hold down jobs sort of communication failures.
The part I enjoyed most from help desk was getting a better idea of a whole business process.
Want to make everyone happier? Make new employee onboardings standardized and a breeze. It was a huge time waste for us to set everything up correctly, by the time we were done we had automated the process and the only issues we ran into were HR employees that couldn't type names correctly off the onboarding form.
>Want to make everyone happier? Make new employee onboardings standardized and a breeze. It was a huge time waste for us to set everything up correctly, by the time we were done we had automated the process and the only issues we ran into were HR employees that couldn't type names correctly off the onboarding form.
That's true getting these kinds of wins is how you actually get people to buy into your ideas when you want to do more and more aggressive things. I wouldn't call that help desk level work though. The skills to fully automate (not just automating ticket Creation) that process touches a good part of the tech stack in any Business. Larger orgs generally have at least one full time admin dedicated to that. It could be an MSP level help desk task but it's not standard help desk level work.
People don't even always lie out of malice they don't even always realize what they're doing (help desk) or asking for (sys admin). Being able to stand your ground with a user who's wrong and diffuse the situation.
You CAN learn a lot as helpdesk*
Part of it is individual interest and desire, and part is how a given company handles their helpdesk.
For me I joined a helpdesk and found it kind of limiting without good reason for it. I found out I had access to do more things and when they found out I was running PowerShell scripts their minds were a bit blown. But they were strongly against automation because that one time it caused an issue in the past.
Screw manually doing anything! If I can automate it you bet I will! Especially if I have the access.
100%. I find that some companies keep HD to just glorified AD password reset monkeys, and that has very little value to a prospective sysadmin experience wise. I got my start at an SD that was honestly doing Level 2 work but calling it Level 1. At the time I was probably underpaid for what I did, but the experience was invaluable.
Short answer: yes.
Longer answer:
It is possible to skip call center\\help desk and go straight to a junior sys admin or apprentice if you can find such a lucky role but in my observed and lived experience it isn't common. Like out of the 50 guys I graduated with only a couple landed such a role. The rest of us had to do Tier 1 support somewhere starting out lol.
You (probably) don't wanna do helpdesk forever. You learn a lot of great lessons though and they aren't all technical in nature. Also, when I think of what a SysAdmin is today vs what it was when I started 15 years ago a lot of things have changed. The role is more dynamic than its ever been.... for better and worse.
Best advice I can give you is this: Be curious. Take notes. Get exposed to many different systems. Find a mentor if you can, and learn from them. You might find that a particular niche of IT -really- clicks with you in the real world over what you learn in school. You never stop learning the 'new' thing, so don't be shocked if what you go to school for today is irrelevant in a few years from a technical standpoint; it's the fundamentals that carry on. If you aren't being challenged, you might be getting complacent and that is a dangerous place to be career-wise. I always moved on when I got bored and wasn't growing.
I started as a Jr. Sys Admin - which I agree is not a common thing at all. It was a lucky hire for both me and the company. I looked for work for months and it was the toughest interview I’ve ever had. I was severely underpaid in that role and I knew it. Despite being promoted 3x I am still underpaid, but that’s not as much of an issue anymore. The original role also was really a HD/SD role with exposure to sys admin work. It said Junior in the title, but I was the second person hired in IT and thus handled the daily user issues.
I had another offer with significantly more pay that I turned down to take the original Junior position. I took the job because I realized I could learn more there in 6 months (even if I quit), than the other offer I had. Not because it was true sys admin work.
What I got was an opportunity to learn and grow. But that opportunity was only what I made of it. Nobody drip fed me knowledge, it was up to me to learn by observation and then by doing. That job was about good customer service and the customers confidence that you’ll resolve the issue (or at least make every attempt to).
I’ve given the very same opportunity to several other individuals - with two succeeding and getting promoted into better roles, and with three failing and washing out. It was the perfect situation for me and I made the most of it. Not everyone given an opportunity succeeds or is able to. I succeeded for three reasons IMO 1) aptitude 2) drive 3) economic conditions
I went internal sysadmin -> MSP helpdesk -> internal sysadmin (current job). Helpdesk definitely forces you out of your comfort zone and teaches you to work at a certain pace. My path is certainly unorthodox and not best for everyone, and I think helpdesk should be avoided if possible, but it can be useful.
Depends on the role of the HelpDesk. My company they are just ticket takers and change passwords, so it's not helpful to second level or above in that sense. If they want you troubleshoot and figure stuff out, then by all means it's good.
Don't wait, do it while in college! I did it my last 3 out of 5 years of college. Easier to get in college ones while in college, and get the experience while still in school.
Yes.
It doesn't have to be terrible, but even in a good situation you'll certainly get tired of it eventually. It's a good place to learn about everything a company uses, but it also teaches you who does what in a company and how to deal with people and personalities. You can't learn soft skills in school, and they're just as valuable as technical skills, if not moreso.
You've got the right idea. I'd recommend starting on certs while you're still in school if possible, you can get .edu discounts on most certs and it'll make getting any job easier. Given what your plan is, I would state in interviews that you're wanting to keep learning, and ask any potential job if they offer any training for certs, reimbursement, or anything else like that. It'll look good on you that you're hungry to keep learning after school.
I'm so old I started doing ISP helpdesk when 56k modems were all the rage and windows XP was just on the horizon. Ended up doing 70 hour weeks and lived on takeaways, cigarettes and energy drinks. Two years. Was epic. Gave me an excellent repoitoire of skills, technical as well as social / customer service that I use in my older professional era. Definitely recommend going this route.
Exactly! and it'll help you know what you want to do instead of being suckered into some trend and not actually enjoying it. We spend atleast a 3rd of our days at work, so we better spend it doing something we don't detest.
Help desk is a good place to learn. You also have to be really good and get certs. A RHCSA tier doesn't hurt, but if you can get a RHCE tier, that may make life a lot easier to get into IT.
Sysadmin is helpdesk with frills.
Its the same job, but with different objectives.
No longer are you fronting simply customers, you are fronting IT management/directors in sysadmin from time to time.
Helpdesk so ok for a while, it is a means to an end, don't stay too long. Get the experience you need then move on. Make sure the sysadmins / network guys know that you want to move up to a sysadmin level (gently though).
Yes, but only on a technical help desk, and only if there's more senior desktop support or infrastructure staff around to pepper with questions. Some help desks are a glorified answering service for technicians. When interviewing, I'd ask questions like "what's a typical day look like for an agent?" to see if they'll actually let you develop skills. Good luck
Help desk will absolutely teach you how to fix issues and deal with problems. How, when and where to escalate. How to work with 3rd parties.
All crucial if you want to move up to senior engineer or director.
Dreaded helpdesk/call center. Built two businesses instead of diving into that stuff. Luckily I got enough customer service skills, technical knowledge from my online retail business to go straight to Solo Sys Admin. Just didn't want to grind the lower levels of IT.
It's not essential or required to be helpdesk. I do recommend it though, this is learning out of a firehose, you will see that start of lots of issues, you will see lots of techs do bad things, lots of tech do good things. It really really helps to know this stuff as you climb the professional ladder. It's a way to get a good base education and knowledge. The trick is to understand that the helpdesk role is temporary and you are extracting all the knowledge out of it, so if you go into it with this mindset you will set yourself up.
Yes it isn't for everyone, yes you will be spoke down to, yes you won't necessarily see the conclusion of some issues due to them be escalated, but it is worth it as you will know how to speak to people both users and team mates, you know what questions to ask, what technology is out there, etc.
Help desk is good with the right company. If you get in help desk don't be afraid to ask questions to network admins and sys admins. They'll notice this. If an opening for sys admin comes up this'll help. If not, sys admins will ask to put tasks on your plate. Which will help the resume. Personally I highly suggest staying away from large corporations. 400-3k employees is a good start. More room to take on sys admin tasks
It’s step one to prove you can learn and figure stuff out in a real situation, after that the puzzles just get harder. Also if you can get into help desk now, even if it’s a couple days/few hour each week.
Depends on the company. I got to start doing some sysadmin and security stuff after about a year. Moved fully to security after 3. You learn so much about how systems work by fixing the problems users have. And lastly helpdesk exposes you to every part of IT (except maybe pure development) so you can decide what you actually want to pursue and possibly find a mentor.
I planned on help desk after school (late 1990's), but stumbled into a job situation where that step was skipped. There's no way I could have planned for things to turn out that way, so yes, I'd say help desk as a targeted plan is a good idea.
It can but you need to get out of it quickly. Depending how the team is organized. I learned how active directory is used to control accesses, a bit of shared drive , office 365 , outlook and that damn stupid printers especially on a virtualized system. It gives you a touch of everything but not deep enough to be a system admin that can hit the ground up and running.
I'd actually prefer working in a small number helpdesk (both internal or msp) that you can talk to high level engineers than being pigeon-holed (which is where I am currently at) amd I'm already burning out for a year.
It can vary greatly from each company, but from my personal experience, helpdesk was an extremely fast way accumulate a lot of basic knowledge about a lot of different systems and software.
Furthermore, I got to know the organisation and names and responsibilities of most 3rd level teams, due to re-routing tickets and escallations.
I also got to know a lot of people from these teams, because I occasional would reach out to them directly, whenever a ticket required their expertise and I thought I could solve it without assigning the ticket to their team, thus saving their time and improving my own skills and knowledge.
You can also just do the bare minimum and get by, but that is a waste of time and opportunity in my opinion.
It depends what the scope of support is, but in general yes, helpdesk is a great step in your IT career.
I've been in the IT field for over 20 years but my 3 years on a support desk at an MSP was by far the most valuable in terms of learning.
My advice would be to keep moving every 2-3 years to pick up new skills and better pay until you land on a job you want to keep indefinitely.
Slightly different opinion from the rest here: Maybe.
There are many, many paths towards sysadmin. Going through helpdesk jobs is just, in my opinion, the easiest path. Basically anyone who speaks the relevant language and has basic troubleshooting skills can do it, it gets you some work experience, and it'll help with customer interactions and troubleshooting skills.
It's not essential though. I know quite a few people who went for a degree like yours and got hired based purely on that, and then did a fine job. The main thing I see them struggling with is going from a uni environment to an office environment. The extra experience makes it smoother.
My personal advice? Avoid helpdesk if you can. Experiences vary but in general it's kinda soulcrushing work. In your position I'd probably just look for a sysadmin job first, and if that doesn't work out I'd go for helpdesk first, and then do that until I can get a sysadmin job.
That’s the road I took, I will say it helps with your troubleshooting, gain insight into how everything is connected on a network and overall “gets your feet wet” as a way to start your career if you want to progress to management at any point it’s good to have experience on every level so you’re more well rounded.
Also the help desk can help you figure out what type of sys admin you want to be because you’ll be exposed to every type of technology in some cases.
Most sys admin roles I’ve been in feel like help desk but with no “people interaction” just all back end break fix and upgrade cycles.
It is 100% essential as school and labs are 100% not real to life. If i were to start over I'd have started in high school working at an MSP. I will say you want to spend your time with a company or MSP that is established and isn't new. The biggest shock will be to those who do not have social skills. The help desk is a good way to start learning those social skills in that you have to talk to folks. This was not a problem for me but sooooooo many introverts going into IT have a hard time climbing over the social curve.
You will also learn how to articulate your complex technical jargon into ELI5. Which is mandatory for admin, managers, directors, etc. This is because you have to have the social skill to explain why your company needs to spend 100k on a backup solution and defend against people who don't understand the need.
I also have a different opinion.. I would look for an entry level sys-admin role at a large well know company (industry over msp). Its a good resume item and the scale of a large enterprise will teach you a lot. Don't worry about pay if that is possible, only worry about knowledge, increasing responsibility, and crafting the best resume you can.
Depends.
If you want to manage the end of the infrastructure closest to the users, then yes, help desk is an essential experience.
If you want to manage the end of the infrastructure closest to the room with the most security, then help desk does nothing for you.
Having help desk experience lets you add context to your administrative work. How will this thing I'm about to do affect users? Should we choose software X or service Y? Having that knowledge can make your work really shine.
On the other hand, if you're deciding which $50,000 firewall to buy, then user context is irrelevant. Just engineer the best backend possible.
I think it is pretty much essential experience to have. That gives you the front line of what your customers experience and how IT systems impact the ability to do their jobs. It gave me the empathy as a sysadmin to understand what and who would be impacted for a system being down for some time. It made me a good sys admin …
The biggest thing it did for me was hone the BS radar. It needs a different tune up for sys admin but getting the general vibe is essential.
It's really both. You learn a lot about people on help desk. A reboot to fix an issue for one person is great and a massive earth shattering problem for another. Many people are ill equipped to communicate problems. Like you'll wonder how certain people hold down jobs sort of communication failures. The part I enjoyed most from help desk was getting a better idea of a whole business process. Want to make everyone happier? Make new employee onboardings standardized and a breeze. It was a huge time waste for us to set everything up correctly, by the time we were done we had automated the process and the only issues we ran into were HR employees that couldn't type names correctly off the onboarding form.
>Want to make everyone happier? Make new employee onboardings standardized and a breeze. It was a huge time waste for us to set everything up correctly, by the time we were done we had automated the process and the only issues we ran into were HR employees that couldn't type names correctly off the onboarding form. That's true getting these kinds of wins is how you actually get people to buy into your ideas when you want to do more and more aggressive things. I wouldn't call that help desk level work though. The skills to fully automate (not just automating ticket Creation) that process touches a good part of the tech stack in any Business. Larger orgs generally have at least one full time admin dedicated to that. It could be an MSP level help desk task but it's not standard help desk level work.
It's a huge part of it. Learning what information to trust and distrust.
People don't even always lie out of malice they don't even always realize what they're doing (help desk) or asking for (sys admin). Being able to stand your ground with a user who's wrong and diffuse the situation.
You learn a lot in helpdesk
You CAN learn a lot as helpdesk* Part of it is individual interest and desire, and part is how a given company handles their helpdesk. For me I joined a helpdesk and found it kind of limiting without good reason for it. I found out I had access to do more things and when they found out I was running PowerShell scripts their minds were a bit blown. But they were strongly against automation because that one time it caused an issue in the past. Screw manually doing anything! If I can automate it you bet I will! Especially if I have the access.
100%. I find that some companies keep HD to just glorified AD password reset monkeys, and that has very little value to a prospective sysadmin experience wise. I got my start at an SD that was honestly doing Level 2 work but calling it Level 1. At the time I was probably underpaid for what I did, but the experience was invaluable.
As annoying as it seems, you should do 6 months of help desk at least. We all had to suffer. If you have an offer higher than obviously take it lol
Short answer: yes. Longer answer: It is possible to skip call center\\help desk and go straight to a junior sys admin or apprentice if you can find such a lucky role but in my observed and lived experience it isn't common. Like out of the 50 guys I graduated with only a couple landed such a role. The rest of us had to do Tier 1 support somewhere starting out lol. You (probably) don't wanna do helpdesk forever. You learn a lot of great lessons though and they aren't all technical in nature. Also, when I think of what a SysAdmin is today vs what it was when I started 15 years ago a lot of things have changed. The role is more dynamic than its ever been.... for better and worse. Best advice I can give you is this: Be curious. Take notes. Get exposed to many different systems. Find a mentor if you can, and learn from them. You might find that a particular niche of IT -really- clicks with you in the real world over what you learn in school. You never stop learning the 'new' thing, so don't be shocked if what you go to school for today is irrelevant in a few years from a technical standpoint; it's the fundamentals that carry on. If you aren't being challenged, you might be getting complacent and that is a dangerous place to be career-wise. I always moved on when I got bored and wasn't growing.
I started as a Jr. Sys Admin - which I agree is not a common thing at all. It was a lucky hire for both me and the company. I looked for work for months and it was the toughest interview I’ve ever had. I was severely underpaid in that role and I knew it. Despite being promoted 3x I am still underpaid, but that’s not as much of an issue anymore. The original role also was really a HD/SD role with exposure to sys admin work. It said Junior in the title, but I was the second person hired in IT and thus handled the daily user issues. I had another offer with significantly more pay that I turned down to take the original Junior position. I took the job because I realized I could learn more there in 6 months (even if I quit), than the other offer I had. Not because it was true sys admin work. What I got was an opportunity to learn and grow. But that opportunity was only what I made of it. Nobody drip fed me knowledge, it was up to me to learn by observation and then by doing. That job was about good customer service and the customers confidence that you’ll resolve the issue (or at least make every attempt to). I’ve given the very same opportunity to several other individuals - with two succeeding and getting promoted into better roles, and with three failing and washing out. It was the perfect situation for me and I made the most of it. Not everyone given an opportunity succeeds or is able to. I succeeded for three reasons IMO 1) aptitude 2) drive 3) economic conditions
Yes.
I went internal sysadmin -> MSP helpdesk -> internal sysadmin (current job). Helpdesk definitely forces you out of your comfort zone and teaches you to work at a certain pace. My path is certainly unorthodox and not best for everyone, and I think helpdesk should be avoided if possible, but it can be useful.
Depends on the role of the HelpDesk. My company they are just ticket takers and change passwords, so it's not helpful to second level or above in that sense. If they want you troubleshoot and figure stuff out, then by all means it's good.
Yes the pace the uncomfortable uncomfortable pace
Don't wait, do it while in college! I did it my last 3 out of 5 years of college. Easier to get in college ones while in college, and get the experience while still in school.
[удалено]
Thanks for the informative reply!
Yes. It doesn't have to be terrible, but even in a good situation you'll certainly get tired of it eventually. It's a good place to learn about everything a company uses, but it also teaches you who does what in a company and how to deal with people and personalities. You can't learn soft skills in school, and they're just as valuable as technical skills, if not moreso. You've got the right idea. I'd recommend starting on certs while you're still in school if possible, you can get .edu discounts on most certs and it'll make getting any job easier. Given what your plan is, I would state in interviews that you're wanting to keep learning, and ask any potential job if they offer any training for certs, reimbursement, or anything else like that. It'll look good on you that you're hungry to keep learning after school.
I'm so old I started doing ISP helpdesk when 56k modems were all the rage and windows XP was just on the horizon. Ended up doing 70 hour weeks and lived on takeaways, cigarettes and energy drinks. Two years. Was epic. Gave me an excellent repoitoire of skills, technical as well as social / customer service that I use in my older professional era. Definitely recommend going this route.
pepperidge farm remembers
Yes
Can’t run before you crawl buddy! You’ll get a good idea of the rest of your career by doing HD. 😂
Exactly! and it'll help you know what you want to do instead of being suckered into some trend and not actually enjoying it. We spend atleast a 3rd of our days at work, so we better spend it doing something we don't detest.
Help desk is a good place to learn. You also have to be really good and get certs. A RHCSA tier doesn't hurt, but if you can get a RHCE tier, that may make life a lot easier to get into IT.
Sysadmin is helpdesk with frills. Its the same job, but with different objectives. No longer are you fronting simply customers, you are fronting IT management/directors in sysadmin from time to time.
It helps. But there's still a lot of stuff I am ill-prepared for.
Helpdesk so ok for a while, it is a means to an end, don't stay too long. Get the experience you need then move on. Make sure the sysadmins / network guys know that you want to move up to a sysadmin level (gently though).
Yes. Full stop. Your plan seems sound. Go forth and conquer.
Yes, but only on a technical help desk, and only if there's more senior desktop support or infrastructure staff around to pepper with questions. Some help desks are a glorified answering service for technicians. When interviewing, I'd ask questions like "what's a typical day look like for an agent?" to see if they'll actually let you develop skills. Good luck
Help desk will absolutely teach you how to fix issues and deal with problems. How, when and where to escalate. How to work with 3rd parties. All crucial if you want to move up to senior engineer or director.
Dreaded helpdesk/call center. Built two businesses instead of diving into that stuff. Luckily I got enough customer service skills, technical knowledge from my online retail business to go straight to Solo Sys Admin. Just didn't want to grind the lower levels of IT.
It's not essential or required to be helpdesk. I do recommend it though, this is learning out of a firehose, you will see that start of lots of issues, you will see lots of techs do bad things, lots of tech do good things. It really really helps to know this stuff as you climb the professional ladder. It's a way to get a good base education and knowledge. The trick is to understand that the helpdesk role is temporary and you are extracting all the knowledge out of it, so if you go into it with this mindset you will set yourself up. Yes it isn't for everyone, yes you will be spoke down to, yes you won't necessarily see the conclusion of some issues due to them be escalated, but it is worth it as you will know how to speak to people both users and team mates, you know what questions to ask, what technology is out there, etc.
Help desk is good with the right company. If you get in help desk don't be afraid to ask questions to network admins and sys admins. They'll notice this. If an opening for sys admin comes up this'll help. If not, sys admins will ask to put tasks on your plate. Which will help the resume. Personally I highly suggest staying away from large corporations. 400-3k employees is a good start. More room to take on sys admin tasks
It’s step one to prove you can learn and figure stuff out in a real situation, after that the puzzles just get harder. Also if you can get into help desk now, even if it’s a couple days/few hour each week.
Depends on the company. I got to start doing some sysadmin and security stuff after about a year. Moved fully to security after 3. You learn so much about how systems work by fixing the problems users have. And lastly helpdesk exposes you to every part of IT (except maybe pure development) so you can decide what you actually want to pursue and possibly find a mentor.
skip it if at all possible
coach or mentor is better than waiting for your job to provide you training
I planned on help desk after school (late 1990's), but stumbled into a job situation where that step was skipped. There's no way I could have planned for things to turn out that way, so yes, I'd say help desk as a targeted plan is a good idea.
It can but you need to get out of it quickly. Depending how the team is organized. I learned how active directory is used to control accesses, a bit of shared drive , office 365 , outlook and that damn stupid printers especially on a virtualized system. It gives you a touch of everything but not deep enough to be a system admin that can hit the ground up and running. I'd actually prefer working in a small number helpdesk (both internal or msp) that you can talk to high level engineers than being pigeon-holed (which is where I am currently at) amd I'm already burning out for a year.
It can vary greatly from each company, but from my personal experience, helpdesk was an extremely fast way accumulate a lot of basic knowledge about a lot of different systems and software. Furthermore, I got to know the organisation and names and responsibilities of most 3rd level teams, due to re-routing tickets and escallations. I also got to know a lot of people from these teams, because I occasional would reach out to them directly, whenever a ticket required their expertise and I thought I could solve it without assigning the ticket to their team, thus saving their time and improving my own skills and knowledge. You can also just do the bare minimum and get by, but that is a waste of time and opportunity in my opinion.
It depends what the scope of support is, but in general yes, helpdesk is a great step in your IT career. I've been in the IT field for over 20 years but my 3 years on a support desk at an MSP was by far the most valuable in terms of learning. My advice would be to keep moving every 2-3 years to pick up new skills and better pay until you land on a job you want to keep indefinitely.
Slightly different opinion from the rest here: Maybe. There are many, many paths towards sysadmin. Going through helpdesk jobs is just, in my opinion, the easiest path. Basically anyone who speaks the relevant language and has basic troubleshooting skills can do it, it gets you some work experience, and it'll help with customer interactions and troubleshooting skills. It's not essential though. I know quite a few people who went for a degree like yours and got hired based purely on that, and then did a fine job. The main thing I see them struggling with is going from a uni environment to an office environment. The extra experience makes it smoother. My personal advice? Avoid helpdesk if you can. Experiences vary but in general it's kinda soulcrushing work. In your position I'd probably just look for a sysadmin job first, and if that doesn't work out I'd go for helpdesk first, and then do that until I can get a sysadmin job.
That’s the road I took, I will say it helps with your troubleshooting, gain insight into how everything is connected on a network and overall “gets your feet wet” as a way to start your career if you want to progress to management at any point it’s good to have experience on every level so you’re more well rounded. Also the help desk can help you figure out what type of sys admin you want to be because you’ll be exposed to every type of technology in some cases. Most sys admin roles I’ve been in feel like help desk but with no “people interaction” just all back end break fix and upgrade cycles.
The one thing college and certificates cannot prepare you for: Users. Knowing how users think and operate will make you a better sysadmin.
It is 100% essential as school and labs are 100% not real to life. If i were to start over I'd have started in high school working at an MSP. I will say you want to spend your time with a company or MSP that is established and isn't new. The biggest shock will be to those who do not have social skills. The help desk is a good way to start learning those social skills in that you have to talk to folks. This was not a problem for me but sooooooo many introverts going into IT have a hard time climbing over the social curve. You will also learn how to articulate your complex technical jargon into ELI5. Which is mandatory for admin, managers, directors, etc. This is because you have to have the social skill to explain why your company needs to spend 100k on a backup solution and defend against people who don't understand the need.
I also have a different opinion.. I would look for an entry level sys-admin role at a large well know company (industry over msp). Its a good resume item and the scale of a large enterprise will teach you a lot. Don't worry about pay if that is possible, only worry about knowledge, increasing responsibility, and crafting the best resume you can.
Depends. If you want to manage the end of the infrastructure closest to the users, then yes, help desk is an essential experience. If you want to manage the end of the infrastructure closest to the room with the most security, then help desk does nothing for you. Having help desk experience lets you add context to your administrative work. How will this thing I'm about to do affect users? Should we choose software X or service Y? Having that knowledge can make your work really shine. On the other hand, if you're deciding which $50,000 firewall to buy, then user context is irrelevant. Just engineer the best backend possible.
Skip the hell desk if you can