I'm trying to figure out what kinds of IT roles I should target next. I took IT classes at a technical college in 2008, then served four years in the military, including three years in communications. Since then, I've worked in retail technology support, earned A+ and Network+ certifications, supported customers for a home-security provider, spent three years on a small school district's IT team, and served five years as the IT Director for an approximately 80-person nonprofit. In practice, I was a one-person IT department, and the director title was mainly needed to give me authority within the organization.
In that last role, I supported six offices across three counties and brought them from inconsistent, mostly unmanaged setups onto a more standardized environment. I migrated the organization to Microsoft 365, established a private VPN, configured Azure AD, introduced shared resources, coordinated a website rebuild, replaced POTS with VoIP, moved faxing to a cloud service, built a help desk and knowledge base, helped formalize organization-wide SOPs, delivered phishing and security-awareness training, handled software licensing and vendor relationships, maintained office networks and security systems, supported time-clock software, and managed technology for 15 nonprofit programs in a HIPAA-compliant environment. I also hold a CCNA.
I was laid off because of federal budget cuts last year and have struggled to find another position. I live in a rural, low-income area but am willing to relocate. I enjoy building organized systems and procedures, solving technical problems, and making technology easier for users to understand. I'm not able to pursue a degree right now, and I'm unsure whether I should focus on systems administration, infrastructure, cloud, security, consulting, or another path. What job titles, seniority levels, locations, and salary ranges would be realistic for my background?
5 Answers
You have much more than entry-level experience. Your background sounds like a systems administrator, infrastructure administrator, IT operations lead, or technical consultant—especially at an MSP or another organization supporting multiple sites. Don’t let the director title force hiring managers to assume you only managed budgets and strategy, but don’t hide the leadership either. Put a functional title such as “IT Director / Systems Administrator” on the résumé and emphasize the hands-on work and measurable results.
Look for the nearest business-dense metro area and study the employers hiring there—healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, universities, government contractors, and managed service providers. Compare the requirements for several appealing jobs, then tailor your résumé toward the overlap. A degree requirement can be a filter used by HR rather than a true measure of capability, so use referrals, veteran networks, professional contacts, and recruiters whenever possible. With more than a decade of practical experience, entry-level roles are probably not the best target unless they provide a deliberate path into a specialization.
This is reassuring. I’ve often felt like I needed to accept entry-level work because I don’t have a degree, but my actual responsibilities were much broader than basic support.
Your résumé should lead with accomplishments rather than a list of duties or certifications. Describe the scale and outcome of each project: six offices standardized, Microsoft 365 migration completed, identity management introduced, VoIP deployed while preserving existing numbers, ticketing and knowledge management created, and security training delivered to staff. Those are strong infrastructure and IT operations achievements, even without a degree. Apply directly for systems administrator, senior support engineer, infrastructure analyst, IT operations, and MSP project or escalation roles instead of limiting yourself to entry-level support.
A specialization would make the next step easier, but you don’t need to abandon your generalist background. Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Intune, Azure fundamentals, endpoint management, and security are a natural direction given what you’ve already done. Add practical experience or certifications in device management, cloud administration, Linux, or security based on the jobs available in the metropolitan areas you’re willing to reach. Contract and MSP positions may also value someone who can handle networks, endpoints, vendors, documentation, and users in one role.
The market is difficult, so the lack of responses may not be evidence that you’re unqualified. Still, make the résumé easy for automated systems and hiring managers to understand: use standard titles and keywords, separate the major technical areas, quantify scope wherever possible, and explain the environment you supported. “One-person IT department for six offices” tells a much stronger story than simply listing “IT Director.” Choose a target role first, then adjust the résumé for systems administration, cloud operations, security, or IT service management rather than sending one generic version everywhere.
That makes sense. I’ve worried that the director title makes me look either overqualified or less technical than I really am, so pairing it with a functional description could help.