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Getting my foot in the door, IT Help Desk

I

Incorrect

Coach
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12,707
Dogs Of War said:
You never feel ready. But really the first 6 weeks is about learning on the job how they expect you to do things, and you seeing how that works in practice, it's not always the best way, but you can't change the system unless you understand why they do things they way they do. Hopefully, at that point you also start to feel comfortable in whatever the duties are. And you also get to see what your weaknesses are and can spend time ensuring you get better at those areas.

And I'm giving it to you from someone who changed to IT at a later stage. One of the best things is that you have life experience, and that makes all the difference in a lot of roles. You can understand the end user a little more, have diplomacy skills which I find lacking in a lot of IT support roles.

Personally I ended up doing Major Incident Management/Problem Management, but that's cause I hated studying, and things like Networking etc seem to what you to be forever studying. My life skills and big mouth suit that role well, and you get to work on everything in an organisation operations wise. ITIL is a good thing to learn just so you understand how things are supposed to work in an organisation.

Last time I was running a team, I really was looking to hire those that had done other things in life outside of IT. I found those people the best to have as they understood how things fit together much better for the end user and work wise, knew that IT was a pretty cushy job compared to other things you could be doing to earn a living.
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Some really good advice there.

IMO, the best attributes a service desk operator can have are curiosity (which Ruby obviously has in spades) and an ability to apply common sense to do some basic troubleshooting. The technical stuff will sort itself out over time.

Nothing worse for user experience then Level 1 support not even trying to get all relevant info or doing some basic troubleshooting and just logging a ticket and sending through and washing Ng their hands of it. When you're level 2 or 3 support, you're caught between wanting to flick the ticket back to the original level 1 staff member and urging them to get more info/try a few basic things in an attempt to educate them for future reference. Or do you simply bite the bullet and sort it out so that the user isn't impacted further.

Even when you're a rookie, don't always assume that every user issue reported is overly complexed and needs a seasoned engineer to resolve it. Have a dig and see if you can figure it out on first contact. You'll learn a lot that way and there's not a whole lot of damage you can do in any case....
 
I

Incorrect

Coach
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12,707
Ruby Roundhouse said:
I started applying for jobs and reached out to a recruiter, Clicks

learning C and reading the cisco ccna exam book to get some general knowledge of programming and networking
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Make sure you mention all of the different stuff your exposing yourself to if you snag an interview. That will show the prospective employer that you are keen to learn and not pigeon hole yourself. It might sound obvious but lots of people sell themselves short in interviews and don't talk about themselves enough.

Also, look for opportunities advertised by the employer and not necessarily by agencies. Just ensure you have a succinct and engaging cover letter and you should land something in no time....
 
R

Ruby Roundhouse

Coach
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11,283
Incorrect said:
Make sure you mention all of the different stuff your exposing yourself to if you snag an interview. That will show the prospective employer that you are keen to learn and not pigeon hole yourself. It might sound obvious but lots of people sell themselves short in interviews and don't talk about themselves enough.

Also, look for opportunities advertised by the employer and not necessarily by agencies. Just ensure you have a succinct and engaging cover letter and you should land something in no time....
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100% good advice, I tailor every cover letter and edit my CV to the job I am applying for. Only 2 so far I felt confident with, but Agencies might help too.
 
R

Ruby Roundhouse

Coach
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11,283
Twizzle said:
Not much to pick at
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Big framework, I guess I will have to learn on the job how exactly they have set everything up, if they hire me.

I'm reading this now

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Apey

Apey

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Staff member
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Do you have any formal training or self taught? Curious what you've got on your resume that is catching their attention if no formal training.
 
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