Windows to Mac Support

genedogg

Just curious if anyone has made the jump from Windows desktop support to Macintosh support? I have a little bit of experience with iMacs but I am nowhere even close to as proficient in them as I am PC's. Is this a difficult jump to make? Many jobs I am encountering are looking for Mac support techs and I don't know if it's even worth applying for these. I have my A+ certification but no training on the Mac side.

Anonymouse

No harm in applying. If they like what they see and interview then you could express interest in learning Mac. That's what I did. I worked with a guy who researched and built a Hackintosh at home as a way to learn Macs. If I had more money at the time I would have followed his route 'cause it seems fun.

NetworkNewb

The only reason why I don't like the idea of working at a Mac only place is transferring that skill over to another company when you want to move up and find a new job somewhere else. There are just a fewwww more companies using Windows over Macs.

xocity

Worked for an MSP that was 99% Windows 1% Mac. Now im internal and its about 50/50. (Not including servers here). It all depends i think on the complexity of the environment. Its not the hardest skill to master and as long as you have a strong googlefu, you will be fine. To "learn" here i just have a nice mac book pro with Parallels running on it. Anything I cant do on the Mac, I jump on the windows side to finish and then when there is down time, just try to figure it out on the mac end (this from server admin stuff).

I wouldnt worry too much, just learn as you go and show that you actually want to learn and it will be easy after a few months.

goatama

My first desktop support gig was for a school district that had a need for Macs. The thing was, they were a Windows-only shop and they didn't really *want* Macs. But the Tech Ed department did and they had their own funding. When I interviewed I said I'd barely even turned one on before, but I was willing to learn. They hired me, I started with a PC to learn their standard troubleshooting and they got me a Mac about 3 months later where I switched over 100%.

Like xocity said, if your GoogleFu be strong, you should be fine. I mean there are some weird, fundamental differences (installing an application for example; took me a little bit to realize I literally just drag and drop the app to the applications folder, I kept looking for an installer), but overall supporting Macs is dead simple. Pick up an OS X for Dummies-style book and you'll be up and running in no time. There's definitely something to be said for using it yourself, though. You figure out how to do what you need to do if you are actually doing it, rather than just reading a book.

coreyb80

Learning Macs is alot on the fly stuff as well Google searching. If you're not sure about something be honest w/ the user and do your best to rectify the issue. Good luck!