What was your help desk like?

Mooseboost

Many IT professionals start at a help desk position. At first I thought all positions were the same but reading posts and talking to a few people it seems that there can be a mixed bag as far as what you get to do and what you are allowed to do. Different tier structures and such.

Where I work we don't really have a tier structure so much. We have a tier 2 queue, but essentially all it is just a review queue for newer people to have their tickets reviewed before we send a tech out (to make sure they didn't miss something simple that doesn't need a truck roll), other than that our only separation among the team is business vs residential. We don't really handle much of the customer service (we generally just transfer them out), except in business where we handle a few select things. We have a pretty wide range of responsibilities from fiber voice/video/internet, copper internet/voice. We pretty much have access to everything to troubleshoot. I thought this was pretty normal until I started reading about places where they have people who only take tickets and some places where they have a tier 1 who have to escalate to even have someone check a circuit graph. So I guess there is a variety to what you do at a help desk. Honestly I enjoy my job. I spend most of my down time running labs in packet tracer or studying. I think the pay is pretty good for what we do.

So my question to you... What was your help desk like? Was it technical? How was it structured? Did you like it? What did you hate?

bpenn

I am still currently in a help desk position so I can definitely tell you what its like.

I work as a DoD contractor and consider myself lucky that my position has a mixed bag of responsibilities, allowing me to get a feel for multiple facets of IT. On one hand, I respond to phone calls, put in Remedy tickets, and troubleshoot workstations like most help desk individuals get to do. On the other hand, I am an IAO/ISSO and spend a portion of my day doing classified media transfers, audits, and manage KG-175D crypto devices. The concept of seperation of duties is not typically enforced here so I am able to perform audits on a class network whilst having admin permissions at the same time. Personally, I am grateful to have a job with a mixed bag of responsiblities because it allows me to learn many useful skills.

ScrawnyRonnie

I work help desk for a managed service provider. I used to work help desk/desktop support for 1 company, but now I'm doing support for over 100 different companies. It has been a great experience to work on so many different networks. No 2 places are the same, so I'm getting experience in a lot of different areas. We do have a tier structure, so when it is a more advanced server issue (or a workstation issue that I've exhausted my knowledge), I have to escalate it. I shadow the tech I handed it to so I can continue to learn more.

Mutata

I worked for a company, and while I was there my job title changed three or four time. There was Helpdesk in a few of them. The company was a software company, from a technical standpoint it was pretty good - we got exposed to a lot of server issues, SQL configurations etc. Due to the relatively small size of the desk 4 people, and the 300 clients we had - we got to the point where we had our own clients that we were friendly and developed a rapport with.

The pay was good, the environment was great. I left because I had reached a technical ceiling and the made many promises that were never delivered upon

markulous

First help desk was just supporting basic web browser and app troubleshooting for one company. It was extremely basic of course.

The place I'm at now is a MSP. At the moment I'm level 2 support and a team lead (also create processes) for one company. After I graduate from WGU I'll transfer over to another department where I'll be a Level 1, but they have Level 2 and 3 support. There are thousands of clients, every issue imaginable, and no automatic escalations, so I'll get exposed to a lot of technology.

Hondabuff

It was the only position in the company where you can be a highly skilled professional and be treated like your part of the cleaning crew. I worked on project after project while answering phones, emails, walk-ins and juggling running chainsaws spitting fire. Worked my butt off for 2 years getting more certifications and building a good reputation for getting things done on time. I was biting my tongue all the way and hated my boss who was a certified know it all. I got about 5 years of experience in about a 2 year span. We were on call every 6 weeks including Holidays and I still twitch when the Phone rings at night. I have now moved to a higher position in a different part of the company and thankful for every day that I got out. We had some people who were 10 year career people who never wanted anything more and could really drag you down. I was on the Desktop team when I came on and could not do the tier 1 job at all. Help Desk can wear you down and sour your IT career if you let it. I was told when I went back to school that if you want a position in a good company then come in through the Help Desk and work your way up. If you don't get promoted after 2 years then start looking to jump ship. As much as I hated it, I value every thing I learned and did despite the negative feelings. I now wear it as a badge of honor.

elTorito

Chaotic, and that's putting it mildly. Imagine having a house with a leaky roof and heavy rain outside. Basically, all we did was mop the floor all day to keep the floor dry, but we never did anything to repair the roof. Typical case of a vicious, neverending cycle: to take away the cause, you need time, but when the symptoms are keeping you so busy, you never have time.

I learned a lot in the helpdesk/desktop support role, but I'm glad I've moved on/up since then. One advantage to having had helpdesk experience is that you do develop empathy for the people in the position. As a sys/netadmin, I keep my helpdesk coworkers in mind with everything that I do, and generally try to make their lives easier whenever possible.