I'm in NYC. I work retail at a national grocery chain known for friendly attitudes and good customer service. Pretty good as far as retail companies go, but it's still retail and I'm desperate to get out. I got my A+ recently, have good soft skills, have built my own gaming PC, very comfortable with windows having fiddled with so many mods, emulators, etc. I also have a media server running on Ubuntu and setting that up has taught me a lot, can potentially present it as a home lab. Studying for the Net+, also want to learn Powershell and Docker. I feel like I'm a good candidate for an entry level help desk job or equivalent, but with no degree or experience and the current job market, it's been difficult to find something. I haven't heard back from any of my applications.

Every once in a while I've looked at open positions at Micro Center. There's two in NYC and I enjoy shopping there. I think I'd fit the requirements and could get hired there easily. It'd be a nice change from the monotony of my current job, especially as I'm a PC hardware nerd, but there would be no big upgrade for me in terms of pay, commute, schedule, etc. Those three would likely be the same or slightly worse. The biggest advantage is they do have some technician positions which would actually give me some hands on experience and something to put on my resume, but it's still retail and I don't know if that'd make a big impact. I also don't love the idea of committing to a new job only to use it as a stepping stone to a help desk job, and I'm afraid of just getting stuck there and never actually getting into the IT industry. I'm really, really fucking sick of my current job though.

Is it worth it? Anyone here have experience working at Micro Center? Did it help you get into the industry?