I recently moved from a senior helpdesk role at an MSP into an M365 engineer position. My previous job kept me constantly busy with support queues, calls, monitoring, and client ownership. I worked across most of the Microsoft admin centers, including Defender email investigations and eDiscovery, and I'm comfortable with PowerShell while gradually moving my scripting work into VS Code.
The new role is much more corporate and has considerably more downtime. There was little formal training or an initial project plan, so I told my manager I was concerned about not contributing enough. He reassured me that the workload would increase, that he understood my background, and that the person who recommended me is an excellent teacher. It may simply have been a slow first week.
I've now been introduced to an initial project involving Apple Business Manager and Mac device management. I'm considering using a free trial to build a lab and practice the setup before the project begins. I'm eager to grow beyond a helpdesk mindset and take more initiative, but I'm also anxious about making a good impression. What would you recommend I focus on during this transition?
4 Answers
Get comfortable with the management platform by creating test devices and trying different policies. Explore password and authentication settings, passkeys, Windows Hello for Business, Defender configuration, proactive remediations, supersedence, dependencies, and application deployment. A lab gives you a safe place to experiment and will make the real project much less intimidating.
Part of senior infrastructure work is thinking ahead rather than appearing busy every minute. Use quiet periods to understand the current environment, identify recurring problems, plan improvements, and consider what tools or design changes would help later. From the outside, planning can look like doing nothing, but it is often where the most valuable work starts.
Try not to panic—corporate environments often move much more slowly than MSPs. A quiet week doesn’t mean you’re failing or that you’re expected to invent work immediately. Give yourself time to learn how the organization operates and how projects are assigned.
Use the downtime to build a small lab around the Apple Business Manager and Intune Mac deployment project. Test enrollment, Company Portal, configuration profiles, compliance policies, and common troubleshooting scenarios. Document what you learn and bring specific questions or recommendations to your manager. That demonstrates initiative without stepping on anyone’s toes.
That makes sense. The change feels like whiplash after being constantly reactive, so I’m still learning how to be comfortable with a slower pace.