Tier 1 / Help desk
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 - 4:54pm
I know this will be old hat to quite a few of you, but I might be able to get into a Tier 1 position with local company. I know a little about what goes on in the job, but I would like other people's "take" on it and what to expect.
I need and adult! I need an adult!
Quintin_Stone wrote:
Lunabean, when are you going to grow up and stop playing video games?lunabean wrote:
After I have sex with your mother.
If you want to get into IT support you have to start at the beginning and take your lumps. Soak up as much as you can, don't be afraid to invest money in your craft (a decent rig to run virtual machines to learn up on different techs) and enjoy the ride that is customer support.
The only other thing I can offer you is this training video.
Do you ever walk alone like a drifter in the dark?
You should also take the time to watch this sexual harassment training video (NSFW). In today's workplace it is critical to avoid the seemingly insignificant blunders that are now termed 'harassment'.
-- My Biking Team --
Ah the place where you come to learn that "customer" is just code for "pain in the ass".
Take advantage of your time there. Learn about every system they available. Go out of your way to do as much as possible. If you're leaning towards a certain discpline, Network, Security, Programming or whatever, use all your free time to train yourself for that work. Read as much as you can on the discipline and use that knowledge to find out how your company uses that paticular bit of tech.
Gamer Tag: Rantyr
I worked my way up from tier 1 to a full time sys admin position and, although it sucked at the time, I don't regret the experience. It teaches you the single most important thing you'll ever learn in computer support: how to figure out what the hell the user is trying to say.
It also teaches you to be resourceful and exposes you to a wider range of issues than you'd be likely to otherwise come across. There is no substitute for experience.
Ken Levine wrote:
It depends on the company...
The last big company I worked for, the "helpdesk" (call center) spent most of the their time resetting forgotten passwords, resetting mainframe print queues, and other simple things. Their main function was knowing where to route the ticket to so that some actual fixin' could happen. I was part of "Client Services", and we were responsible for all desktop support, infrastructure, and first line everything else.
The one before that, all the "Client Services" dept (again, call center) were domain admins and very knowledgable. I was on the "helpdesk", and we were contract peons who did all the grunt work.
If the position is actual corporate IT support, then it usually beats out retail work. You have to put in your lumps and get experience before most places will consider you for sysadmin/netadmin type roles. It is a good place to start and learn what you actually enjoy doing. If the position is answering the phone to forward anything other than a password reset to someone else, then I'd consider it a short term position.
I detest IT job titles. They are too ambiguous and used in often contradictory ways.
"And the circle has been charged through the power of unphysics, which are physics so stupid they erase normal ones from your mind." -Wields-Rulebook-Heavily at rpg.net
The term "12 o'clock flasher" describes my wife perfectly, and not in a dirty raincoat kind of way. Which is a shame for the neighbours.
I spent nine months working in a call centre for a very large telecommunications company when it was just rolling out it's first broadband service. I can tell you, with some authority, expect idiots. Expect lots of idiots. All the time. I even spent a few "educational" weeks in the "frequent caller" team; the lucky few trusted to deal with the array of psychos, serial morons, and mouth breathers who called, well, frequently doesn't describe it. Mrs Begum called an average of 12 times a day. A lovely lady, but I wouldn't trust her to butter bread.
The turnover in these jobs is simply insane, so don't get too attached to people. There seem to be two types of employees; those looking to go somewhere else fast, and the mothers returning to work after 15 years off. The latter group is getting smaller as time goes on.
The low level managers can be total ass hats; they are there because they didn't get out. I was offered a team leader role after 4 months, which goes back to the turnover thing.
Suffice to say, I turned it down and decided to be a barrister instead.
Requires 2 non-replaceable LR41 button cell batteries for the monkey (included)
Cool deal. Yeah, I was told about dealing with asshats, but what job is truly without them? They may come in a myriad of different "flavors", but they are generally everywhere.
How ironic, I have some training and certification for sexual harassment tomorrow morning. Fabulous.
Isn't wild that they offer certification for harassment?
Quintin_Stone wrote:
lunabean wrote:I can't speak from personal experience, but from what I've heard there are two questions you can ask that will quickly resolve the majority of issues:
1) Is it plugged in?
2) Is it turned on?
Just make sure you resist bringing a bottle of spirits into work
"Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. I did an original sin. I poked a badger with a spoon." - Eddie Izzard
I, like you, have just started at the bottom doing IT for a medium-smallish company(~150 people). It has been an interesting experience. The most important thing I have learned is that people with masters degrees and phds in computer science are some of the least functionally literate people I have ever encountered. They may be good at what they do but they overlook the most obvious things. For example, have you tried rebooting it?
Red Foxx, standing by.
I found the most important thing you can take away from a position like this is developing the proper framework to assess and address IT related issue. Sys Admins jump to step 10, network admins go to 15, but if you want to do it right, you start at 1 and work your way up. A lot of Tier 1 techs never learn how to lay the proper groundwork to justify escalating an issue to the next level. You make a good impression on the higher level techs if you can demonstrate you DO your job before calling them in.
Xbox Live | Steam | Last.fm
Wow, that video is pretty accurate for my first forray into support, right down to the liquor (though generally we would stick with beer). However, we could freely access porn sites if so desired.
private String paula = "Brillant";
I did tier 1 support for five years while finishing up my degree and trying to get a stable position somewhere. Hemi is right about being able to lay the groundwork. If you show in your call notes (if the company even uses them, one of mine didn't) that you have done everything possible to make their job easier, the sysadmin and netops guys will respect you for it, and you will move up faster. I got moved to server and desktop support after 2.5 years on the helpdesk at the University i work for. That seems like a long time, but the other two guys that left before me were there for seven and five years respectively, and I was on the tail end of finishing my degree. Oh yeah, and ask questions when you have them. Better they think you're annoying and ask a lot of questions than they think you just don't give a rat's backside.
Work hard, keep studying, get certs if they offer them, document everything you do on a call. You'll advance quickly.
Somebody told me how frightening it was how much topsoil we are losing each year, but I told that story around the campfire and nobody got scared.