IT Support roadmap
The skills, tools, certifications and practice behind a first IT Support or service desk job — in the order the Cyber Career Lab learning path teaches them.
IT Support is where many IT careers start. You do not need prior IT knowledge to begin: the first course on this path assumes none. What you do need is a method for troubleshooting, a working knowledge of the systems people use every day, and the habit of writing down what you did. This roadmap breaks that into nine steps.
IT Support keeps people working. Requests arrive by phone, email, chat and the self-service portal. You turn each one into a complete ticket, set its priority from impact and urgency, and work to service-level (SLA) targets. You resolve what you can — account lockouts, mailbox access, network and laptop problems — and escalate what you cannot, with a hand-off the next team can act on. Good ticket notes and knowledge articles are part of the job, not an extra. See the IT Support career path for how the role works on this platform.
“The internet is down” is one of the most common tickets. Learn the TCP/IP and OSI models and use them to troubleshoot layer by layer; read IP configurations and recognize private, public and APIPA (169.254.x.x) addresses; understand DHCP and DNS step by step; fix Wi-Fi connection, signal and authentication problems; and gather evidence with ping, tracert, pathping, Test-NetConnection, nslookup, Resolve-DnsName and Wireshark before escalating to the network team.
Create and offboard users and manage licenses in the Microsoft 365 admin center; administer mailboxes, aliases, forwarding and message trace in Exchange Online; set shared mailbox permissions and distribution lists correctly; support OneDrive sync, SharePoint sharing and restores; and troubleshoot Teams and Outlook (profiles, cached mode, safe mode and add-ins).
Check Microsoft Defender Antivirus and Windows Security without weakening protection, verify that devices are patched, manage BitLocker and retrieve recovery keys safely, restore data from the right backup, handle phishing reports and suspected malware, and know the moment to escalate to security. Apply least privilege with standard accounts, separate admin accounts and LAPS.
Knowing the tools is not the same as working a ticket under pressure. Practice the whole workflow: verify the caller, gather evidence, fix the cause, check the fix and document it.
Certifications help you pass keyword filters and give structure to your learning, but they do not replace demonstrated skill. For IT Support, the most widely recognized starting point is CompTIA A+ (two exams, Core 1 and Core 2). Common next steps are CompTIA Network+ and Security+, Microsoft certifications for Microsoft 365, Entra ID or endpoint administration, and ITIL 4 Foundation for service management. Exam codes and objectives change, so check each vendor’s official site. Compare them in our certifications guide.
Technical questions for support roles are usually scenarios. Interviewers care more about how you think than a single right answer, so think aloud: clarify the problem, ask about scope and recent changes, test theories from simple to complex, and say when you would escalate. Saying how you would find out is better than guessing. Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) for behavioral questions. Practice these out loud:
Back your answers with a sanitized portfolio of lab work, ticket write-ups and knowledge articles.
The IT Support path in the Academy has 14 courses, in this order:
On this platform, IAM Analyst is the specialisation that builds on IT Support.
FAQ
No. IT Fundamentals, the first core course on this path, assumes no prior IT knowledge, and Workplace Foundations is a gentle start for complete beginners.
13 of the 14 Academy courses are marked Free; Identity & Account Attacks is Pro. In Job Workstation, the account lockout ticket is Free and the shared mailbox ticket is Pro. See Pricing for plan details.
CompTIA A+ is the most widely recognized starting point. Network+, Security+, Microsoft 365 or Entra ID certifications and ITIL 4 Foundation are common next steps. See our certifications guide.
On Cyber Career Lab, IAM Analyst is the specialisation built on IT Support. Our certifications guide also suggests routes from help desk into SOC or IAM work.
Step 7, done properly
Start with the free ticket “User locked out on Monday morning”: verify who is calling, work in Active Directory Users and Computers and get them working without weakening security.
Start free. No experience required.