"After 18 months on a help desk someone should be able to..."

Master Delgado

Typically, after 18 months at a Tier 1 help desk level, what kind of skills/duties should someone be expected to know/do? You are welcome to draw from your own work experience or if you are senior, comment on what you would look for.

volfkhat

Master Delgado wrote: »

Typically, after 18 months at a Tier 1 help desk level, what kind of skills/duties should someone be expected to know/do? You are welcome to draw from your own work experience or if you are senior, comment on what you would look for.

it really All depends on the Job.
But after 18 months.... i would expect to have A+, Net+, and Secuirty+ certs; (that much is something that you Control)

Slowhand

It's tough to say what you "should" know by a certain amount of time, it depends on the kinds of tasks and issues you work with at your particular company. What I can say, though, is to get as much training as possible under your belt because expanding your skills is always a good look. Start looking at things like Network+, Security+, MCSA on Windows 10, or perhaps start looking at more server-focused stuff like LPIC/Linux+ or the MCSA on Windows Server. After 18 months of working the helpdesk, you've got plenty of hands-on experience, but it's a good idea to start learning more advanced things if you want to be off the Tier 1 (or even out of helpdesk) before another 18 months is up.

SweenMachine

Master Delgado wrote: »

Typically, after 18 months at a Tier 1 help desk level, what kind of skills/duties should someone be expected to know/do? You are welcome to draw from your own work experience or if you are senior, comment on what you would look for.

18 months at my service desk I expect:

Excellent customer service and attitude, first and foremost.
Pretty solid understanding of AD (adding security groups, access provisioning)
General understanding of exchange (or 0365 if client environment specifies, building email profiles, mailflow issues)
Understanding of virus remediation (not intricate level, but understanding process)
Fundamental printer troubleshooting as far as the environment will let you (many of our clients will allow us access to the print servers/spoolers)
Home network troubleshooting (Wifi, modem rebooting, setups)
Enterprise networking troubleshooting (nothing hugely in-depth, but at least identifying where the failure is at)

Usually, when I hire someone at the helpdesk level 1, I look for soft skills and service. After 18 months, you should be able to do all of what I mentioned above well, and you will generally be promoted to either a software support role (in my environment, EMR and EHR) or a desktop support/field technician.

-scott

DatabaseHead

From my POV

Some service desk ITIL terms
Problem Resolution
Customer Service
Time Management
Following Processes and Procedures


Sween hits on several

office 365 (scale 1 - 10) solid 5 (especially Outlook)
Home networking
Printing troubleshooting is great
Another good one by Sween AD, groups etc)

Agreed again with Sween, if the environment has a in-house system you could slide into that role 24 - 36 months OR if they have infrastructure roles and you been learning on your own about Server, Networking, Programming you could get picked up by one of those teams.

From the infrastructure side, one windows or cisco certification should be enough to help move you off the desk into one of those roles. As far as the EMR/EHR systems understanding process and do's and don't would be enough as long as you have a solid rep.

PC509

I think it depends. Are they looking to move into an admin role or remain at help desk?

Helpdesk, you'll know how to fix desktop things, know what needs done on the server side to fix the issues for the client, most soft skills. Probably be able to pass the necessary A+, Net+, Sec+, and MCP at the client level.

If you're wanting to move into a Jr. admin role, you'll know the above plus how to do the things on the server to fix the issues, and be able to pass the same certs, plus the MCSA for the environment you're in.

Both should have the basics - troubleshooting, O365, Windows/Linux/OSX clients, know what needs done on the server (the admin guy should know how to do it). Basic networking for the helpdesk, being able to find and possibly fix the issue for the admin.

SweenMachine

PC509 wrote: »

I think it depends. Are they looking to move into an admin role or remain at help desk?

Helpdesk, you'll know how to fix desktop things, know what needs done on the server side to fix the issues for the client, most soft skills. Probably be able to pass the necessary A+, Net+, Sec+, and MCP at the client level.

If you're wanting to move into a Jr. admin role, you'll know the above plus how to do the things on the server to fix the issues, and be able to pass the same certs, plus the MCSA for the environment you're in.

Both should have the basics - troubleshooting, O365, Windows/Linux/OSX clients, know what needs done on the server (the admin guy should know how to do it). Basic networking for the helpdesk, being able to find and possibly fix the issue for the admin.

All the replies so far have been dead on. I wanted to touch on the 'understanding what needs to be done' part.

This is a HUGE thing you should really focus on learning. In my company, we have an entire engineering department that handles the system admin and networking side of the house, but I have full expectation that my employees can get the incident routed to the engineers with a solid understanding of the issue. This is an example from an incident ticket I just pulled from my system today. My level one are not experts by any stretch, but they need to know HOW to get information and make sure it is documented well enough to give the engineering team a fighting chance.

"User is reporting getting kicked out of RDS.
Logged into server to check her account, it was good. Was able to see her session.
It turns out she lost Internet connectivity. Ping test to data center failed.
Having her check her cables, cycle them and power cycle her computer. Still unable to connect to internet.
Others in the location are now reporting internet issues. Walked user through restarting the modem located in the maint. closet.
This brought the internet back up but still couldn't get into the RDS. It would pull up the RDS desktop window, but say that RDS is disabled.
Checked the RDS server, it's showing many people still connected, including her original session.
User checked with location, others are reporting RDS as disabled as well.
Contacting the engineers, they will starting diagnosing from the server side.
Server: XXXXXXXXX - See screen shot of session manager
USer can be contacted at: XXXXXXXXX
Escalating ticket"

Understanding how to get the the core of the issue if a main service desk function. Understanding, in this situation, how RDS works was important. Yes, engineering staff probably figured it out fast but that isn't my level ones job, it's to resolve front end issues and PROPERLY escalate system issues.

-scott

E Double U

After 18 months in a tier 1 helpdesk role, one should be expected to know that reboot fixes everything.

thatguy67

E Double U wrote: »

After 18 months in a tier 1 helpdesk role, one should be expected to know that reboot fixes everything.

This skill follows you well into senior-level engineering roles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4kBRC2co7Y&feature=youtu.be&t=137

jamesleecoleman

I agree with slowhand, it is tough to say. It depends on the environment. I did 2 years and a few months doing "tier 2" support at my last job. I did break/fix for the desktops, user provisioning/deprovisioning in AD, email troubleshooting, network documentation, software installation, cloning and networking troubleshooting. It got to the point where things got boring, died down and I couldn't create anywork for myself anymore. So I studied or talked to my girl (at that time, we were just talking and I was trying to get with her). I couldn't put anything on the network without approval and it was very very difficult to get approval so I was just stuck. It was a shame though because if you wanted to learn how to fix something, no one would give you access to do it nor tell you how to do it.