Switch from Desktop Support to Help Desk... (Tips/Advice/What-to-study welcome)

Quench24

Hi,

I've been in IT for two years. I've worked from refresh tech to desktop support, to hardware specialist. After somethinking I am thinking maybe IT is not for me, because it is so boring sitting at the desk with nothing to do. Maybe its too slow pace.

However, when I was studying for my IT certificate I remember the book listed " Help Desk Technician " and I remember at that time thinking that was the only job title I was interested in. Last try at IT before I switch over and do something more thrilling (EMS).

So anyone who has worked help desk can give advice on what to study? Which cert to get? What to learn... like how to be best I can be?

Ty very much,

- Quench

PCTechLinc

I'm not speaking from experience at all, but what about Health IT? Working in that type of environment might be the kind of pace you need? CompTIA has the Healthcare IT Technician (HIT-001) certification as a starting point.

Quench24

I worked at a hospital too.

Not my thing. I need CONSTANT action.

p@r0tuXus

...Thought the idea was to be good enough at your job that there wasn't as much action. When things are working right, it shouldn't be too crazy. HaH!

NetworkNewb

Quench24 wrote: »

it is so boring sitting at the desk with nothing to do

There is almost always stuff to do. Just because you got your work done you were assigned doesn't mean you should just stop and wait for more. I don't even mean start studying for certs at work either. Learn the systems that are in place better at your work, learn how to improve processes at your work, update/created documentation on things...

Quench24

NetworkNewb wrote: »

There is almost always stuff to do. Just because you got your work done you were assigned doesn't mean you should just stop and wait for more. I don't even mean start studying for certs at work either. Learn the systems that are in place better at your work, learn how to improve processes at your work, update/created documentation on things...

I'd much rather have tasks assigned to me that need to be done versus "looking" for tasks to do. I know it may sound kind of gorilla, but still. I'm like a robot. 1+2=3 not 1-3+6=?

Trucido

Get into Networking/InfoSec?

Quench24

^Lol and get a job as a NOC Tech sitting infront of a screen monitoring the network? That's almost worse than sitting doing nothing.

TheFORCE

Quench24 wrote: »

I'd much rather have tasks assigned to me that need to be done versus "looking" for tasks to do. I know it may sound kind of gorilla, but still. I'm like a robot. 1+2=3 not 1-3+6=?

Taking initiatives to fix stuff or identify things that need improvement is the way how many people get experience and move from various jobs to better jobs. If you get stuck and do only what people tell you to do you wont go far and you will be passed when it comes time for promotions or new jobs.

NetworkNewb

Quench24 wrote: »

I'd much rather have tasks assigned to me that need to be done versus "looking" for tasks to do. I know it may sound kind of gorilla, but still. I'm like a robot. 1+2=3 not 1-3+6=?

You make "looking for tasks" sounds like chore... If you were actually passionate and had a drive to succeed the "looking" part should be something that is interesting and exciting. Your not just looking for "tasks", your looking for ways for your team/group can improve. On how you can make your job easier by learning new things... On how you can learn new things and grow in to a more interesting role...

PCTechLinc

Beware the self-fulfilling prophecy... if you think a job is going to be boring, chances are it will end up being so.

cyberguypr

Subscribing to see if someone deciphers the logic, cuase I certainly can't find it.

si20

This is a great thread - I actually completely understand your way of thinking!! Let me add my thoughts. I've been in the following situation: I was the sole IT guy on site. I was in charge of overseeing about 20-30 users and I was required maybe 2-3 times per day. Sometimes, if I wanted, I could literally spend 1 hour spinning around in my chair because no one checked on me and no one was in. I thought it was boring. I hated it to the point where I left. I went to university and haven't had a stable job since.

My point is that you should re-evaluate your job description. If you're a network guy, then learn more about how your network is pieced together. Build your knowledge and skills. You need to own the time, don't let the time own you. I fell into that trap. Time owned me and I left. I should have spent that time remotely logging onto the server, checking how the active directory had been built, what users had what permissions and how they were inherited. Then I should have looked at the cisco devices and seen how they were patched in. In short: use your downtime wisely.

If you truly can't hack it, then I still completely understand. Some people (myself included) like being given a task and running with it. Very, very sadly - most IT Managers don't deserve to be managers and they don't give tasks. I've only had one manager in my entire IT career give me regular tasks and he emigrated, so that ended sharpish.

All I will say, is that helpdesk/service desk roles are the pits. You think IT roles are bad? You aint seen nothing yet! I interviewed recently for a service desk role and had to stop myself from yawning during the interview. The guys interviewing me had lost all emotion; they'd became robots. This is how the conversation went:

"ITIL. Best practice. We follow it. Framework. Yes. Escalate".

My god. It was downright depressing on every possible level. They had become so accustomed to their framework of choice, they could no longer see out of the box and their souls had been sucked out of them. Even if they offered me a 60k contract i'd have ran away and chosen to be a poor guy but with a smile on my face than have a good salary and be miserable and lifeless.

It's your call, but personally, i'd try my absolute best to make the IT role work, because as the saying goes, you don't know what you've got until it has gone!

PCTechLinc

^^^ Nuff said!

Quench24

Keep your negativity to your self.

Quench24

si20 wrote: »

This is a great thread - I actually completely understand your way of thinking!! Let me add my thoughts. I've been in the following situation: I was the sole IT guy on site. I was in charge of overseeing about 20-30 users and I was required maybe 2-3 times per day. Sometimes, if I wanted, I could literally spend 1 hour spinning around in my chair because no one checked on me and no one was in. I thought it was boring. I hated it to the point where I left. I went to university and haven't had a stable job since.

My point is that you should re-evaluate your job description. If you're a network guy, then learn more about how your network is pieced together. Build your knowledge and skills. You need to own the time, don't let the time own you. I fell into that trap. Time owned me and I left. I should have spent that time remotely logging onto the server, checking how the active directory had been built, what users had what permissions and how they were inherited. Then I should have looked at the cisco devices and seen how they were patched in. In short: use your downtime wisely.

If you truly can't hack it, then I still completely understand. Some people (myself included) like being given a task and running with it. Very, very sadly - most IT Managers don't deserve to be managers and they don't give tasks. I've only had one manager in my entire IT career give me regular tasks and he emigrated, so that ended sharpish.

All I will say, is that helpdesk/service desk roles are the pits. You think IT roles are bad? You aint seen nothing yet! I interviewed recently for a service desk role and had to stop myself from yawning during the interview. The guys interviewing me had lost all emotion; they'd became robots. This is how the conversation went:

"ITIL. Best practice. We follow it. Framework. Yes. Escalate".

My god. It was downright depressing on every possible level. They had become so accustomed to their framework of choice, they could no longer see out of the box and their souls had been sucked out of them. Even if they offered me a 60k contract i'd have ran away and chosen to be a poor guy but with a smile on my face than have a good salary and be miserable and lifeless.

It's your call, but personally, i'd try my absolute best to make the IT role work, because as the saying goes, you don't know what you've got until it has gone!

Honestly_sounds_like_a_good_time(Service_Desk)_sorry_Space_bar_doesn't_work.

Quench24

si20 wrote: »

This is a great thread - I actually completely understand your way of thinking!! Let me add my thoughts. I've been in the following situation: I was the sole IT guy on site. I was in charge of overseeing about 20-30 users and I was required maybe 2-3 times per day. Sometimes, if I wanted, I could literally spend 1 hour spinning around in my chair because no one checked on me and no one was in. I thought it was boring. I hated it to the point where I left. I went to university and haven't had a stable job since.

My point is that you should re-evaluate your job description. If you're a network guy, then learn more about how your network is pieced together. Build your knowledge and skills. You need to own the time, don't let the time own you. I fell into that trap. Time owned me and I left. I should have spent that time remotely logging onto the server, checking how the active directory had been built, what users had what permissions and how they were inherited. Then I should have looked at the cisco devices and seen how they were patched in. In short: use your downtime wisely.

If you truly can't hack it, then I still completely understand. Some people (myself included) like being given a task and running with it. Very, very sadly - most IT Managers don't deserve to be managers and they don't give tasks. I've only had one manager in my entire IT career give me regular tasks and he emigrated, so that ended sharpish.

All I will say, is that helpdesk/service desk roles are the pits. You think IT roles are bad? You aint seen nothing yet! I interviewed recently for a service desk role and had to stop myself from yawning during the interview. The guys interviewing me had lost all emotion; they'd became robots. This is how the conversation went:

"ITIL. Best practice. We follow it. Framework. Yes. Escalate".

My god. It was downright depressing on every possible level. They had become so accustomed to their framework of choice, they could no longer see out of the box and their souls had been sucked out of them. Even if they offered me a 60k contract i'd have ran away and chosen to be a poor guy but with a smile on my face than have a good salary and be miserable and lifeless.

It's your call, but personally, i'd try my absolute best to make the IT role work, because as the saying goes, you don't know what you've got until it has gone!

Actuallygoodadvice_ill_read_through_myjob_description_and_see_if_i_can_fix_this.

thomas_

Find a MSP. I've heard they're nothing but non-stop action.

xxxkaliboyxxx

Easy, do what I did.....Join the Army as a IT Specialist for 8 years.....you get to see the world.

What could go wrong?

Slowhand

There are plenty of fast-paced roles in IT, it all depends on the company you work for and the type of work you're doing. At some companies, the desktop support folks are running non-stop, at others they're sitting around hoping for something to break. Two things you'll want to do if you want to stick with IT and get some more excitement is to find larger companies to work for, ones with big enterprise IT groups, and possibly start thinking about climbing the ladder a bit. There have been very few occasions in my time as a sysadmin - and especially now that they tagged that "Senior" title onto it - that I've had slow, boring days at work and they've been even rarer at larger companies with lots of projects and tickets coming up all the time.

Maybe it's time to think about expanding your skillset, take on more responsibility, and start looking beyond the break/fix of desktop support. There's networking, systems administration, databasing, storage administration, devops, desktop engineering (deployment, endpoint security, etc.,) and a whole lot of other departments to look at. Start looking around at what interests you and go from there, there's nothing stopping you from studying up for a cert or two, then trying your hand at finding a different job.