Build Knowledge and Resume in a Bad IT Job

[musclemuffins]

I'm searching for any insight or suggestions you all may have. Long story short, I've been in a Help Desk tech position for a couple years, and my knowledge and experience is essentially being crippled by staying. I have an extremely small scope that I function within. Essentially I have the scope of a local admin account on a computer. I'm extremely frustrated because there's so much I want to learn and do, and yet I'm almost trapped where I'm at because I can't put much on my resume due to my lame position (for a lack of better words).

I'm wrapping up a bachelors in software development, and I tinker with things in the IT world in my own time. Granted tinkering isn't really a qualification for a resume, however is there a book or some path you'd recommend that would teach me relevant and valuable skills, such as Windows Server or something? I have A+, Net+, and Sec+, but I know those are pretty entry-level certs.

In this sort of conundrum, what would be the best action(s) to both give me knowledge and beef up my resume? I was considering starting with CCENT, CNT, or CISSP. The only downside to CISSP is you have to have five years of experience, which I don't have, so I would only get the CISSP Associate cert.

 

[Basile Starynkevitch]

Improve your coding skills and your algorithmical knowledge. Contribute, perhaps on your free time, to some existing free software project (you'll find many of them on http://github.com/). Install and use Linux on your computer. Be aware that it takes years to learn programmming, see http://norvig.com/21-days.html so be patient and persevering.

 

[derekullo]

A good milestone for you would be the CCNA of which the CCENT is a step toward.

You should also ask your boss for more high level work that you believe you can handle.

 

[Wolfshadw]

I like to include some pertinent hobbies in my cover letter.

-Wolf sends