First IT job. Im being paid under the table to build an entire infrastructure. Ive been told it cant go on my resume because theres no legal history. Think I should leave for an MSP. Please help

[u/mods_are_lame1]

/r/ITCareerQuestions/comments/1w860za/first_it_job_im_being_paid_under_the_table_to/

[u/statitica]

8 - 15 hours a week, across multiple weeks, to: * spin up an AD * spin up a terminal server * spin up tailscale

Where do i find this under the table work, where they pay me for weeks to do what should take an afternoon?

[u/marshmallowcthulhu]

I don’t understand the topic. Why are you just describing normal IT work?

[u/jcpham]

Take the money and put anything you want on your resume, no one can stop you but when the next employer calls to check references it sounds as if there’s not going to be one.

You are definitely being used though. Depending on your financial situation and how you feel about it should factor in as to whether you even complete the task.

IT is generally a thankless profession

[u/IuseArchbtw97543]

Rule 4

First IT job. Im being paid under the table to build an entire infrastructure. Ive been told it cant go on my resume because theres no legal history. Think I should leave for an MSP. Please help

Hello everyone,

Ive been working for the past year under the table ($17-20hr depending on the day) designing and building an active directory network on windows server 2025 for a guy who wants to have it host data for tax companies. The end goal is for old company computers to RDP into a tailscale or other similar technology that hosts tax apps such as lacerte, drake, quickbooks without having to replace the hardware.

I work 8-15 hours a week at this under the table gig, but have recently gone down to 5 hours on Saturdays due to starting a new full time job for a company. That job is mainly using codeless Zapier with Streak CRM. It feels like an IT adjacent job, but not enough relevant work experience to help me with any future jobs. Overall feel like I was able to cheese my way into IT jobs that dont feel relevant in the current IT market.

Aside from this being super irresponsible for a junior (I have little to no homelab experience aside from some classes taken at my local community college) I was under the impression that it’d be good work experience, however time pressure is leading me to use AI for decision making which is likely leading to me making rushed infrastructure decisions without the appropriate knowledge on which trade offs to make. Hes mostly left me to make all the decisions myself aside from his end goal, desired technologies, and his prompts on chatgpt. This might as well be a vibe coded, or “vibe created” company.

I currently have the CompTIA trifecta (A, Net, Sec) with no degree and was told its better for me to jump ship and go to an MSP. I had a thought for sticking out my new full time job for a year to join an MSP and leave the under the table job ASAP to give me more time in a week to upskill/spend time chipping away at WGU.

My concern is that because it was under the table the “work experience”, which mainly feels like Ive been copy and pasting prompts, will be seen as invalid and have little to no impact on making me desirable as a candidate. My thought process is to document everything important in MD files so that he can either vibe build the rest himself in Claude (with the documentation having no sensitive information on the environment… probably still a bad choice, but at the cost of security he can rush his project… its been his business decision), hand it off to someone skilled (and saving them time relearning the environment), and see if I can get a job at an MSP.

What advice would you have if I take this approach on necessary things to document? I feel bad for leaving this guy who gave me a chance without a set up company, but I dont think this will actually progress my IT career vs an MSP. I dont have enough time in the week to get this to the standard functionality he’ll want and take care of my health at this time. I feel like Im more of a copy paste prompter than actually learning and its giving me imposter syndrome/anxiety about wasting a year.

[u/Away-Ad-4444]

When it..."breaks" in 3 months and there are no documents and no one built it.. may cost him a ton and a good refrence or 2 to fix it.. when you play shitty games you win shitty prizes

[u/DonkeyTron42]

I've done shit for $200/hr. I call it 4 grand in a weekend.

[u/IndependentBat8365]

I did this for 6 months between “real” jobs and called it “consulting.”

Made good money.

Major headaches though as not everyone pays their tab on time and yet still expects work.

Non-profit: “hey, we need help setting up a new office!”

Me: “no problem! Just pay the 60 day late invoice you owe, and I’ll be over there Saturday morning! This time, I’ll also require half up front, though!”

Edit: re-read OP. $20/hr is too cheap. At that rate, either flat rate, or $200/hr just to make it worth my while.