Is a volunteer SysAdmin role worth taking to transition out of Tier 1 Support?
Hello everyone, I'm looking for advice and guidance from those with more experience in the field. My Background: Experience: 3+ years in a Tier 1 Helpdesk/Support role. My scope is somewhat limited, primarily revolving around User Management, Identity and…
Hello everyone, I'm looking for advice and guidance from those with more experience in the field. My Background: Experience: 3+ years in a Tier 1 Helpdesk/Support role. My scope is somewhat limited, primarily revolving around User Management, Identity and Access Management (IAM), Incident Management, and Splunk observability for banking payments. Education: Bachelor's degree in Accounting. Certifications: Basic Splunk certification. The Opportunity: I was recently offered a chance to volunteer as a SysAdmin for a non-profit, covering the following responsibilities: Manage and secure the organization’s Google Workspace environment (user accounts, permissions, and onboarding/offboarding processes). Provide technical support and troubleshooting for volunteers. Maintain clear technical documentation, onboarding guides, and self-service resources. Monitor system performance, security compliance, and cloud settings. Collaborate with leadership to evaluate tech needs, recommend software, and configure tools as the org scales. My Questions: Is this volunteer role worthwhile? Would combining my 3+ years of Tier 1 experience with a year of this SysAdmin volunteer work help me land a full-time SysAdmin role? Are there any specific certifications you would recommend I target next to round out my resume? Thanks in advance for your insights!
Collected discussion
That's a lot of work for an unpaid volunteer role.
This is exactly what I was wondering… What questions should I be asking them to find out more on this?
That's what I'm saying. Hell no I'm not doing volunteer work for what's considered in our field at least journeyman level work.
Its said to be 4-8 hours a week. I think they may already have others in the IT department. I will need to wait and see the role and contract further.
Ok buddy , maybe read more than the title
I don't know if you should do it. But having a volunteer do security compliance is crazy lol. This company is probably pretty sketchy
He said it's a non-profit, and in my experience working with them for IT support, they can be pretty damn sketchy (mainly due to lack of funds for proper IT)
"nonprofit" doesn't mean you shouldn't get paid. It just means that they can't make a profit - they still have to pay their employees and suppliers.
I run the systems for a charity in my spare time but I also have a full time paying job separately. If you can do it for a day a week or after hours to get some experience, maybe, but I wouldn’t be making an unpaid role your full time job. If you home lab and work on some projects to be familiar with the wider systems used in organisations, I’d see that as fairly equally valid to what that cheap non profit might expose you to really.
On paper, sure. How are you for money since I assume it's unpaid?
ask for minimum wage at least
No, you should not work for free.
I would never work for free. You have enough experience to at least get a new job where you could promote up to this same type of work in a year. You just have to show leadership you have the capacity to handle more
Have done something similar to develop my skills early in my career. I would make sure they strike out security. I won't be responsible for it if I'm not getting paid for it. That goes for DLP and audits, too. The most I'd do for free is computer policies to turn on Windows Defender. The rest is pretty standard stuff.
Do they actually have any servers or cloud apps anything like that? Or are you just managing google workspace? Sounds like this is probably small operation and they probably don't know what a sys admin even is sounds more like jr sys admin at best, higher tier help desk maybe more likely.
I'd do it. The experience and title will allow you to not be seen as helpdesk when you do apply to a paid sys admin role.
OP, how big is this non-profit? The experience would be good but as many others are mentioning it seems to be a bit much for a volunteer position. Letting us know how big the org is would help
Zero chance… nope no thank you never
My only question is if you're going to be the only IT guy, or if you're going to have someone that you can ask questions who is technical and knows more than you. If not then I wouldn't do it in your position. It's too much responsibility and if you mess up, you could affect their operation. If you will have someone you can turn to then by all means yes.
You can gain experience in other ways. Taking these roles without pay kind of further decays the pay rate of the role. Most of the non profits I have come across have business administrators with 5,000 to 10,000 square foot homes.
If you accept the volunteer role, are you under any contractual obligation? If not, scope it out. Otherwise, steer clear. It might be the opportunity you need but it also might be hell and drain you outside of your full time job. Things to consider are "on call" duties, which likely won't be puin writing but may be an expectation.
If it's a real environment where you're actually responsible for users, security, and day-to-day administration, I'd absolutely count it as relevant experience. Just make sure you're doing actual sysadmin work and not becoming unpaid helpdesk.
rofl. maybe donate up to 5 hours a month, but volunteer full time. gtfo. Non-profits doesn’t mean they have no money. They pay their rent, water bill, electric bill, and their garbage bill.
I only read the title. You're a professional. Expect to get paid like a professional.
I mean why not? I understand it might be sketchy, but you might as well do it and learn if legit. It doesn’t sound like you’re dealing with devices- just user accounts in a BYOD setting? Google Admin is fairly easy to understand and has great documentation and support. You already do tech support so no biggie there. Maybe providing more insight into the tech environment would be helpful. The collaboration with leadership is also big. You never know who else is volunteering their time- hiring managers, directors, etc…