Upcoming Interview - Underqualified for Help Desk Analyst position. Please Help

ProtoPrime

I have a friend that was able to get me an interview for a Helpdesk Analyst position. I technically have no IT experience or certifications at this point.
Going in, it's understood that I'm underqualified and this interview is being done mostly as a favor for my friend, but I want to prepare to display myself in the best way possible.

Knowledge wise, I'm at an A+ level (or whatever you call someone who has been tinkering with computers as a hobby for the past decade.) I can follow troubleshooting procedures, hook up and build a PC if necessary, Virus Removal, Reinstall an OS, Install Various Linux Distros, Dual Boot, Use VirtualBox, SSH into a computer, flash firmware on routers and other electronics., set up a basic network or slight permutations and things of that nature. I believe I'm pretty well versed in the Personal Consumer level but no real experience in the corporate level.

What would you suggest I review that may help me impress in an interview?

The actual position itself seems to be fairly basic Helpdesk duties; answering phones, email support and customer resolutions. Documenting Correspondence from users, escalation support, Working knowledge of (HIPAA, NIST, HSPD12.)
Outside of the Experience requirements which I don't meet, they're asking for Experience with AS400, Mainframe, Informix, ACF2 Mainframe, Remedy, Active Directory and Informix. (I don't have any experience with these)

They also would like the Comptia Trio certifications ( which I can get with some effort once I actually make it into the field.)

Where should I look so that I can sound good in the interview? I'm not trying to fool anyone but I want to present myself as semi-knowledgeable and willing to learn. Not that it helps, but this would also be my first IT interview, so I have no idea what type of questions to prepare for, or what I should brush up on.

Anything you can offer would be great, youtube video tutorials, or refreshers on software or anything that will prepare me to answer their questions.

Thank You.

jamthat

It'd be good to spin up a VM with a trial version of Windows Server and tinker around with AD for a bit..there are a few step-by-step tutorials out there on youtube that can walk you through everything

anhtran35

Tell them your knowledge. Tell them what you have done to obtain the knowledge. Ask your friend to see if he can dig up any info on whether they will bombard you with technical questions. Otherwise go in there with confidence and if ask you have real world experience tell them what you have done. It's an entry level help desk position NOT a Senior Network Engineer position.

iBrokeIT

Help desk jobs are less about actual knowledge than they are about customer service and the troubleshooting process.

Sounds like you have enough knowledge for a help desk job but can you remain patient while working with the user to quickly diagnose the problem and work through potential solutions? Can you pick out what the user is telling you is BS, what the actual problem is, what your follow questions need to be and where you need to start your troubleshooting?

jofas88

check out professor messer for sure, free training on the comptia trio. You made a good first step on joining this forum, its been nothing but beneficial for me. Browse around, soak it in. From the sounds of it, you seem to actually like IT(as a hobby at least). Well, me too, and let me tell you what, working in IT is friggin fantastic, asde from the bureaucracy. My advice would be to brush up on the tech talk, go to the interview, and be yourself. And I second wht jamthat says about Active Directory, def would a wise choice to be knowledgeable on creating user accounts, assigning permissions, creating groups, RESTTING PASSWORDS!!!! Also, a learning curve for me when moving from a hobbyist to a "professional" was dealing with pcs in a domain environment, totally different level. Get familiar with the process off joining PCs to a domain, and brush up on Customer service skills, these are king. Also logging in and logging out alot to switch from an admin account to the users account(which should have minimum privileges) to troubleshoot or install programs. Remote desktop skills should be strong as hell. Brush up on IPv4 connectivity and common low level network issues. Reboot and call me back will give you extra time to google the answer, training wheels man. Good luck young grasshoppah

IIIMaster

Yeah this is kind of above you. But some of that stuff you cant control your lack of knowledge of and I would not deny it. Just sell yourself and hopefully they will like you for this position or another one.

Bundiman

The best thing is to speak confidently. You have nothing to lose at this point. If you go in with they attitude they need you and not the other way around you will take alot of the pressure off yourself. If you dont know something tell them you dont know or you havent been exsposed to it yet. Talk about your Customer Service skills and your ability to learn. Let them see the everyday you and not the nervous kid asking someone out on a date for the first time.

ProtoPrime

jamthat wrote: »

It'd be good to spin up a VM with a trial version of Windows Server and tinker around with AD for a bit..there are a few step-by-step tutorials out there on youtube that can walk you through everything

Thank You, I'll definitely pursue the advice that you and jofas88 have recommended. I have Active Directory Tutorials cued up as soon as I get off of work. If I can learn those, it will definitely give me extra confidence when I walk into the interview.

Thanks again.

ProtoPrime

iBrokeIT wrote: »

Help desk jobs are less about actual knowledge than they are about customer service and the troubleshooting process.

That's the one thing that gives me confidence, my customer service skills are Rock Solid. You and anhtran35 are right, I'll go in there with the mindset that I'm selling my personality/Soft Skills more than I'm selling my technical skills and use that to overcome my shortfalls.