Interviewed for my first IT job and landed it!

jws86

Hey all! I am new to the site. I have posted a few times about this position for a Help Desk Support Technician I interviewed for 2 weeks ago. It was my very first interview for an IT position, I am about 6 months from receiving my associates degree. Today I was given an offer for the position after 2 interviews and my references being contacted. I accepted after reading over the offer letter and all of their benefit packages. I am ecstatic about this position and the ability to get out of my machining job and into the IT industry.

To be honest I'm actually quite scared. I have been with the company I am leaving for the last 8 years. I feel I am very valuable to the company and I could have worked there for a very long time. It is a small company only 6 employees at our location. The work was stable and payed decent. I'm moving on to my passion which is technology. I was wondering if any of you had any pointers for me to help me succeed in this new position. I have a wife and new baby to support, a house payment to make. I'm confident in my abilities but I don't have the technical experience in the industry. I'm used to getting dirty everyday in a factory, not wearing business/casual clothes and working in a "professional" environment. What can I expect from the desktop support position? I will be training for 2 months before they put me in the location I will be supporting. I will be the only IT support on staff at this location. I will support 12 workstations and 31 employees with their own laptops, tablets and cell phones as well as a couple global sales offices remotely. I will be reporting to the Sr. Network Admin, and training with the other 2 desktop support guys at a different location.

Anything and everything you guys can give me would be of great help! Thanks for answering all of my previous posts!

stryder144

First off, congratulations! This is a great opportunity for you. If you put the time and effort into learning your new job, you will quickly become as valuable to your new team as you are to your old one.

Good luck!

jws86

Thanks! I am actually contemplating taking a quarter off from school so I can concentrate on training and learning everything I need to for my job.

NetworkingStudent

I landed my first IT job in Oct of 2013. Before working in IT , I worked in printing for 8 years ere are some pointers I have learned along the way.

Don't say I need to ask my supervisor.

Instead, say I have all the info I need, I will follow up with you later.

If you don't know how to do something, then ask.

Be confident in your skills and abilities, because if you're confident in your skills and abliltes, then your customers will be confident in you.

Also, even if you don't know how to do something, you should always have someone that you can ask for help if you get stuck.
Try to learn just one new thing a day.

I found starting at my first IT job and trying to learn everything at once was a bit stressfull.

Have a small notebook where you can jot things down on.

Also, see if you can install evernote or onenote to documents procedures or things you learned.

I hope this helps

jws86

NetworkingStudent wrote: »

I landed my first IT job in Oct of 2013. Before working in IT , I worked in printing for 8 years ere are some pointers I have learned along the way.

Don't say I need to ask my supervisor.

Instead, say I have all the info I need, I will follow up with you later.

If you don't know how to do something, then ask.

Be confident in your skills and abilities, because if you're confident in your skills and abliltes, then your customers will be confident in you.

Also, even if you don't know how to do something, you should always have someone that you can ask for help if you get stuck.
Try to learn just one new thing a day.

I found starting at my first IT job and trying to learn everything at once was a bit stressfull.

Have a small notebook where you can jot things down on.

Also, see if you can install evernote or onenote to documents procedures or things you learned.

I hope this helps

I will definitely have a notebook with me the entire training process. I want to be prepared. I have never had a position like this in my life, and I have worked with the same people for the last 8 years. New faces, new responsibilities, I was driving 3 miles to work now it will be 20. Everything will just be quite different.

J.Tot

Sounds great, I too just had an interview and was selected.

Which surprised me, it was a highly technical interview and I just blanked out on a lot of simple things I already knew.

jws86

Yeah I think with these help desk jobs they are more concerned with your people skills than anything. Also, your ability to troubleshoot. Start with the basics and work your way up. All the tech can be taught if you have any background knowledge at all.

lsud00d

Congrats @jws86, it all sounds very exciting for you!

NetworkingStudent brings up a good point with the notebook...I still, to this day, always have a pad of paper nearby. I always scribble all of my notes, thoughts, concerns, eureka moments, topology doodlings, to do lists, etc., on the pad of paper. So...it's a good habit to start

Other things I can recommend to you at this stage:

• Google is your best friend
• When there is a legitimate problem, 99% of the time it is accompanied by an error message, which will be in one of three places: a pop-up on the screen (like a Windows system message), system logs (like Event Viewer in Windows), or application logs (which will be located in the directory the application was installed to)
• Combine both aforementioned points and Google the verbatim error message. Chances are the internet has experienced this problem before you have and someone has already solved it
• Users don't know how to explain their problem. Ask them to walk you through how they got to that point so either you can reproduce the issue (and troubleshoot on your own) or you have more information to work with
• When something breaks, first question should always be 'What changed?'

Focus on those few things and you will go far. Good luck and let us know how the new job goes!

Cisc0kidd

Congrats and good luck!

jws86

Thank you for the replies! I can't wait to get started.

dubzer

Congrats! Hope all is well.

scaredoftests

Finish school...now, as well...