Would you make a career in the Help Desk?

scaredoftests

I love helping people out. What drove me crazy is sitting still and answering the phone at a 'set' schedule. I pick my own hours where I am at now, get to walk around when I need to and get to go out at lunch to work out at a gym.

anoeljr

markulous wrote: »

I personally don't see the frustration dealing with end users. Yes, there are exceptions and there are some rude people, but otherwise I don't personally mind that part. The majority of them are just regular people that don't give me any grief when I'm just trying to help them. But I'm also pretty patient when it comes to things too.

Me neither. I've dealt with end users since I've been working in IT and I've never had a problem. Just make them feel special and they're in the palm of your hands lol. And to the people that call them stupid, well we wouldn't have a job without them so.....

I'm sure they may think we're stupid about things too like their business processes.

nascar_paul

LeBroke wrote: »

I like fixing stuff, and I really like talking to people one on one or in small groups. Deskside can even be pretty fun if your user base is decently trained, and only call you for the stuff they actually need IT help for. Then you basically get to hang out with someone as you fix their computer.

Tell me about it! I've got multiple sites that I support in a limited geographical area, so I bounce around and do nothing but resolve issues for mid and sr level managers. Creates a lot of room for appreciative end users that consider you "The MAN!". And everyone wants you around, so I'm ALWAYS included in on the fun office functions.

Makes me feel like I must be crazy, training and studying so that I can sit at a desk to go thorough server logs! But that's what it's like to be interested in the next wave of technology!

Rumblr33

Simply put....NO!!

ImThe0ne

markulous wrote: »

I personally don't see the frustration dealing with end users. Yes, there are exceptions and there are some rude people, but otherwise I don't personally mind that part. The majority of them are just regular people that don't give me any grief when I'm just trying to help them. But I'm also pretty patient when it comes to things too.

It's all in each person's personality. Some people have the "friendly, patient, people person gene" and others don't. The ones that don't tend to get easily frustrated working with EU. In my opinion, part of being an experienced IT professional is being a "double agent", per se and knowing when to use each side. If I am talking with engineers, feel free to use all the acronyms and jargon you want, but when it comes to an EU, you have to be able to "dumb it down" and speak to them respectfully on their level, if you don't they get frustrated and in turn you get frustrated.

EU seems to be the first thing people like to attack, to those people I would say, "You knew you had to deal with EU coming into IT, otherwise, who else would you be supporting".

Dakinggamer87

I wouldn't stay on the help desk personally. I believe I speak for the majority of my fellow TE colleagues we enjoy challenge and constantly learning!!

JimSwe

I've been doing it for over 3.5 years and can't imagine doing it for much longer.

It's monotonous and not very challenging, but at the same time it's stressful and requires you to focus to get the information you need from the client to figure out the problem. Also you have no control over your working hours or the workload. You can't take a break whenever you want, and you can't work overtime one day and finish early another, for example.

For the first 1 - 1.5 years I enjoyed it, but now it's just a grind. Can't wait to get out of it in another month.

wd40

I have been in a helpdesk / support position for 10 years! it takes less than 20% of my time now, but still I have to do it.

I am of the patient type, I will not call users stupid etc but still at times I feel that I can't take this any more.

The problem in getting out of it now is I do not have much experience in anything else and looking for a job in a different section "Security / Server Support / network etc" I will have to start from the bottom and possibly take a pay cut.

So, I totally agree with the others, being in helpdesk for 2 years is enough.

Rick9

Would Help Desk be good starting point for a carrer in the IT field?

goldenlight

NO Future... no light at end of tunnel..

markulous

Rick9 wrote: »

Would Help Desk be good starting point for a carrer in the IT field?

It's a great start. You get in the right environment, you can learn quite a bit to get you into an infrastructure role.

N2IT

Agree with markulous, if you get in the right environment you can move into infrastructure.

TheFORCE

goldenlight wrote: »

NO Future... no light at end of tunnel..

CA CA Technologies is offering a certificate for the CA Service Desk Manager. So yeah, theres light at the tunnel . We are only thinking of the helpdesk as answering phones and troubleshooting, but there are other positions within a helpdesk / service desk.

rsutton

To those that hate the Help Desk due to the users you support, it's those users that allow you to have a paycheck. That doesn't change when you move in to a more complex role. I've paid my dues in the Help Desk and now am in management and one thing I've learned a long the way is that you will always have difficult and clueless people to work with. It can be less, depending on your role, but I believe that having the right attitude towards the people that use your technology is really important in furthering your career. I've seen sys admins who have the nerve to show noticeable contempt when talking to end users; they are only making their career advancement more difficult.

Dakinggamer87

rsutton wrote: »

To those that hate the Help Desk due to the users you support, it's those users that allow you to have a paycheck. That doesn't change when you move in to a more complex role. I've paid my dues in the Help Desk and now am in management and one thing I've learned a long the way is that you will always have difficult and clueless people to work with. It can be less, depending on your role, but I believe that having the right attitude towards the people that use your technology is really important in furthering your career. I've seen sys admins who have the nerve to show noticeable contempt when talking to end users; they are only making their career advancement more difficult.

Well said gotta have a solid foundation of soft skills to advance not just on technical side.

Jon_Cisco

While it's not for me it works for some people. I know one lady who is not technical at all. However she works first line support for a software company and loves it. She gets along great with the customers and if it's anything that takes more then 10 minutes she passes it on to the appropriate tech.

It is important to note that the audience that would be content with remaining on help desk is unlikely to be the same audience reading a certification forum.

Bchen2

I don't think you have to stay in 1st line support at all
I have seen some interesting titles that do come with a pay raise and you can still work on interesting projects the pay is decent and while not high as system or network admin its still pretty good

Some examples are

Desktop Support Manager
Help Desk Supervisor
Senior Help Desk Level 3
Field Tech Lead
Director of IT Support etc....

BradleyHU

short answer is No...