To start with I’ll answer your specific questions
-
Would working in helpdesk allow a better or worse WLB? This is very company dependent. In general though developers are usually able to clock out more often at the end of the day. If you go SysAdmin/DevOps/SRE when things break in the night it is you who gets the call. Again this varies wildly between companies, I’m in a DevOps/SRE role and have had that at 3 different places, one there was zero after hours calls, one was multiple times a week, and one was once or twice every quarter. So keep that in mind.
-
Would it be more likely to be unionized and thus a better place from which to participate in tech labour struggle?
Tech really isn’t unionized much. Helpdesk while often the seemingly most likely to unionize has the issue of people move up and out quickly and tech workers in general can move to new companies if they don’t like something and that is often easier than unionizing. To also echo @Kamaradski9000@lemmygrad.ml the leftists on the more infra side are few and far between. It draws a lot of loners and reactionary people, the musk fanboy types. -
Is it easier to break into than software, like, so much easier that it would be worth changing course, or just doing IT as a stepping stone for my first co-op (internship program in Canada) or two? It is easier in the sense that helpdesk is a grind(they call it helldesk for a reason) and places are always hiring. Pay will be terrible and you’ll be grinding some boring work unless you put in extra hours to move up and show you know stuff, or at least that is the general path. Lucking out into a SysAdmin role or a role doing interesting work is about the same difficulty as breaking into a software development role. There are usually less positions on the infra side, but also less people doing it.
As for my advice, you are still in school so keep learning. Use this time to try some new things to figure out what you’d enjoy more. Both roles are in demand and can have comfortable salaries. If you are thinking about linux and sysadmin work try standing up a small web server on one of the cheap cloud providers and see what it is like, then automate it. Once you’ve done that maybe play with some docker containers. As for an internship I’d suggest sticking with software development as it is more in line with your degree for the time being, if you are doing multiple internships(like one each year) then maybe consider looking for a more infra focused one if you don’t enjoy the development side
Just because it is in your contract doesn’t make it legal!
Realistically it could be worth checking your local laws regarding it and potentially speaking to a lawyer as some will do a free consult to see if you have a case