Cannot find a help desk job

I got my BS:IT recently and I'm having trouble finding any kind of help desk work. I just want any IT job for experience, preferably short-term contract work; I'm not picky about pay/shifts etc right now.

I apply for every help desk job on Indeed/Dice etc. that I could possibly qualify for from northern Virginia to DC to Rockville, MD; I've applied to maybe 100 jobs. I got one interview this past month, but it was for the most difficult job I applied for and I was very under-qualified. I also got a few phone interviews, but they seemed uninterested after I told them I have no experience with Remedy or other help desk software.

I have:
-BS:IT
-A+, NET+, SEC+, LPIC-1

I started a company that I worked at for a few months building and selling computers, and worked at Office Depot. No other experience. I'm good at interviews, but I don't get any.

Is this normal? Is there anything I can do to increase my chances? How long does it usually take to get an entry level job?

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Comments

srabiee

Where are you currently located? Are you applying for locale jobs, or are you applying for out of state jobs with the intention of relocating?

Also, your resume may need some attention. That would be the first place I would start. If you want to assistance with this, upload your resume (preferably in PDF format) and you should get some very useful feedback.

Don't give up hope. Once you get your foot in the door and get some experience, things will get much easier for you in the future. If I could do it with a high school diploma and zero certs, anyone can do it.

squarjn

I am, in fact, out of state, with the intention to relocate... I was worried about that so I recently took my address off of my resume, but still fill it out for application forms. I'm currently about 1-2 hrs away from where I am applying to, so I guess they may think I intend to commute a long way. I actually know exactly where I will be staying in Northern Virginia (renting a room in a relative's house) but I'm not there right now. Do you think it would be worth it (and legal) to put down that address instead?

As you suggested, here is my resume:

Imgur

I added the "technical proficiencies" section about a week ago, so maybe that will help.

Thanks for your input.

anhtran35

You certainly have the education and certification to get a help desk job.

Please post up your resume for us to view ASAP. Delete your name/address/email/phone. We just need to see what is listed and the format.

Remedy. Remedy is nothing more than categories with drop down menus. You can youtube.com Remedy and now you have experience. It seems like you are not able to bypass HR to speak to a hiring manager or supervisor.

Nightflier101BL

If you're in or relocating to Northern Virginia, we have an immediate opening for a PC Technician at Frederick County. PM me your resume.

NetworkNewb

Just a few suggestions on the resume. For the IT Assistant position, remove the "parents'" from "provided IT support to parents' consulting business". They don't need to know the reason you got a position was because their your parents.

And I usually put my Certifications under the Education section.

Other then that, I'm surprised you haven't found a position yet. I will say that interviewing skills matter ALOT when getting a entry level position though so I would doubt your computer skills are the reason your not getting hired. Just make sure your learning something from each interview you go on. Always room for improvment.

As far as ticketing software, if that is reason your finding company's don't like you, I'm sure you can download a free trial of almost any of them and play around with it. That way you can say you have some experience with them...

anhtran35

Your resume seems to be very half ARSED. You can look at numerous examples online for entry level help desk position and be more descriptive on your duties: Example. "Assembled and repair dozens of computers." You can state that you installed OS; required software such as Windows 7 or 8; Office 2010; Exchange. Joined the workstation to a domain; Image the computer using a specific software etc..."Provided IT support to parent's consulting business". What support did you provide? Remote desktop; imaging and deployment of workstations; networking configuration; system administration. You just need to be more detailed in explaining what you do. I'm not going to call or email you asking for it when I have 100 other resumes that already have that information available. Start GOOGLING how to create an IT resume and use action statements.

mjnk77

Remedy and Service Center are two of the more common applications for ticket creating/tracking. I'm sure you can watch some videos online. They're not difficult at all. You just need to know which drop downs to select to you forward the ticket on to the correct group. I'd focus on Remedy more so than Service Center. It seems to be more of the norm these days.

Also, have you look on craigslist, monster, and maybe some IT headhunter firms. One I've had calls from is Robert Half Technology (I do not work for them, but I know you can search their site for open jobs from your zip code and key words). Not sure how far Springfield, VA is from you, but there is a Help Desk I position. Just remember, some companies actually require you to do a contract to hire. That's how it was when I worked for one of the big Pharma companies. Good luck!

cyberguypr

^^ Yep! This resume tells me nothing. Needs a revamp badly. The fact that you are spraying the resume and getting no calls definitely shows a problem. As anhtran35 said, spend time going through resume examples. There are many threads here touching on this with many success stories of revamped resumes making a big difference.

The ticketing software thing is important, yet easily solved by playing with trial/free version. Videos are fine, but if you drive I am sure you'll retain more. Remedy is a beast, but the basics of all ticketing systems are the same. You could download, and deploy something like ServiceDesk Plus (free edition) or Spiceworks. Create a few fake technicians, a few assets, some tickets. Understand the lifecycle of the ticket, play with business rules, notifications, SLA auto-escalation. This will allow you to speak to it and even more important, these things will remain the same across any half-decent modern ticketing solutions.

ChickenNuggetz

squarjn wrote: »

I am, in fact, out of state, with the intention to relocate... I was worried about that so I recently took my address off of my resume, but still fill it out for application forms. I'm currently about 1-2 hrs away from where I am applying to, so I guess they may think I intend to commute a long way. I actually know exactly where I will be staying in Northern Virginia (renting a room in a relative's house) but I'm not there right now. Do you think it would be worth it (and legal) to put down that address instead?

As you suggested, here is my resume:

Imgur

I added the "technical proficiencies" section about a week ago, so maybe that will help.

Thanks for your input.

The resume isnt bad. I'd clean it up a bit, though. Mess with the formatting, you have lots of negative space which could be used for being a bit more descriptive. Help desk gigs are all about soft skills, so I'd emphasize that in your job descriptions. Best thing to keep in mind is "show, dont tell"

- "Provided customer service" vs. "Accurately and efficiently diagnosed hardware and software issues for customers, offering timely recovery and education to customer on best use practices to prevent repeat occurrences"

Notice the difference? You're showing you provided customer service through the description of your actions. This also serves to show off your soft skills and a good/positive IT mindset - all of which is key in help desk gigs.

Certifications should be listed with education. I agree with others you should remove any mention of your parents. Lastly, what metro area are you in? That will play a role in how quickly/easily it is for you to find a job. If you're in a major metro area, I'd hit up a recruiter to help place you.

squarjn

Thank you for the advice, everyone. I will revamp my resume to make it more descriptive and learn about Service Desk and Remedy. I'll post an updated resume shortly.

Cisco Inferno

squarjn wrote: »

Thank you for the advice, everyone. I will revamp my resume to make it more descriptive and learn about Service Desk and Remedy. I'll post an updated resume shortly.

We're here to help. There has been countless resume critique threads you may want to look at. Many of those have been turned around and made reeeeal pretty.

squarjn

OK, I've updated my resume. It's also at imgur /chfINLH if it is too hard to read here.

I'll also try to talk to a recruiter. I guess I'll look into Robert Half first.

chfINLH.jpg

Xavor

Try temp. agencies, colleges, hospitals. Get 6 months of experience and try to move up to something more challenging. Gl!

IIIMaster

One major thing try to put that education higher on the resome, above or below those certs .

srabiee

Your resume still needs some serious attention. Here is my advice:

Your professional summary reads like an "Objective" section. Objective sections are redundant, outdated, and serve little purpose. I will link you to a document regarding how to write a competent professional summary. Google is also a good resource on this.

Because of your limited experience, you should move the Education section to the top of the resume, right underneath the Professional Summary section.

Your resume format isn't terrible, but you would greatly benefit from an improved template. I will link you to an excellent template that many on these forums (including myself) use.

Regarding the Technical Proficiencies section, instead of listing a bunch of software, technologies, and protocols, and I would rather you expand upon this information and explain HOW you are proficient in these skills, especially in a business/enterprise environment. Ideally I would recommend that you incorporate this info into your professional experience, and then drop the skills section altogether. This will also help to reduce the overall length of this resume.

Within the professional experience section, each job description should begin with a high-level overview of your daily duties and responsibilities, and then use bullets to highlight special achievements, projects, promotions, etc. Don't rely solely on bullets like this. I will link you to a resume that's a great example on how to format and write this properly. I would recommend expanding on your experience as much as possible, and write as academically as possible. The thesaurus is a great tool in this regard.

As far as the content of your resume goes, I'd really like to see you expand upon this information. Your resume is overly brief and doesn't give me a good impression of what you accomplished in your past job positions. You should focus on the details of your accomplishments (projects, promotions, etc) and not just your daily job duties. Again, integrating the technical proficiencies section with your actual job experience and expanding upon it will help a lot in this regard, as will the creation of the high-level overviews for each job description.

This is an excellent resume guide with example resumes, a huge list of action verbs, sample summaries, etc:

http://www.filedropper.com/resumeguide

This thread contains a fantastic example of a properly formatted and written resume (ptilsen's resume):

http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/91333-resume-time.html

This should be plenty to get you started. I suggest you commit a good bit of time working on this, and then upload a revision in PDF format so the forum members can provide further assistance. You can use Filedropper to upload your document.

srj

srabiee has some very good points. I'd definitely remove sysprep and driver installation from your skills. You need to make the skill section more descriptive. VMware is very broad. Do you have experience with ESXi, workstation, etc? I also agree 100% with doing a summary that actually provides some real information. That is your chance to sell yourself in a few sentences. Your summary as it stands is very blah. This is the same thing that the 100 other people who applied probably wrote.

If you went to school, then you have some level of a network. Have you reached out to classmates? I do think that working as a contractor can get you in the door where you might not have otherwise. I took a help desk contract job that turned into a full-time system administrator role in 8 months.

Last point is get on the phone. Don't wait for someone to hand the job to you. Make sure that you're calling these companies to try to get someone on the phone. There might be mixed opinions on this, but if I received a call from someone, that shows me that they have initiative.