big dilemma help desk or onsite support? DELL or Cablevision

TheFORCE

sorry about the long post, please take a min to read it
Ok here is the deal. and i need some advice or suggestions from you people that know the area of IT better than i do.

Today i had 2 interviews.

One was with Cablevision for a helpdesk level 1 support basic troubleshooting stuff for Optimum Voice division. After the interview was done, they told me that they will get in contact with the staffing company that send me there so they can schedule an appointment for me to begin the 3 week training. and i have to be on the phone for however hours answering calls. I dont know what the salary is, and its not a permanent job, its a temporary job with the opportunity to be permanet. It has no steady schedule but its inside, no cold, no traffic, no hot weather.

Now the 2nd interview was with another staffing company, a partner/affiliate of DELL is looking for on site tech support. I will be using the ticket system, and going from site to site changing motherboards, hard drives, you know hardware components. The job pays $12-$13 per hour, and overtime is $16-18? something like that. It is a 9 to 5 job, i will be using my own car and at the end of the week they will pay me for the milage + 4% of what the gas price is. They will also certify me as a DELL technician, so thats another certificate for me. If they hire me they want me to start ASAP. and i do feel more comfortable doing hardware troubleshooting since for the past 2 years ive been doing custom builds, gaming PCs etc etc. the thing with is that its a job is out on the field going from one place to another in any weather etc etc Plus its a job that everyone wants and theres a lot of candidates, thats what they told me. They said that i was looking really strong but they will give me a final answer tomorrow.


Now just a few minuts ago i spoke with the person that send me at cablevision and they really didnt like the fact that i was looking at other opportunities and they feel that im not commited to them. so tomorrow i will have to give this person a final answer as well after i found out.

So what would you people suggest? These 2 opportunities are both very good and each with its pros and cons. but if you weight everything the PC on site tech sounds a lot better than the help desk. doont you think?the only thing is that the pc tech is not certain even tho if they hire me it will be a permanent position will the cablevision will be a temporary position.

Non-Profit Techie

I started in the onsite side of support. I also had to do some phone support and i would recommend the onsite job. I have not taken the money into concideration, but i can tell you that i learned much more doing onsite the phone support. Actually, onsite support made it easier to learn how to support phone support issues.

sprkymrk

Go with the on-site. It's a great way to gain experience and there is probably room for advancement.

You will burn out faster and have less job satisfaction at the helpdesk job. You may even have to follow a script:

Step 1 - reboot
Step 2 - tell them to turn off their cable modem for 1 hour and turn it back on, call back if you still have trouble, thank you BYE!
Step 3 - if they call back after 1 hour put them on hold.
Step 4 - if they are still on the line have them reboot....

keenon

i never tell them if i have more than 1 offer in the air unless its deal time..

secondly they have to understand that you were looking a a gig.. just b/c they both are looking at you doesn't have any commitment issues as far as with staying with the company..i wish i got to talk to that HR nut but i would have probably passed on them as well after the talk

blargoe

Recruiters are always going to pull that "you shouldn't be talking to anyone else" crap. You are their meal ticket.

If you get the Dell offer, take it for sure.

Djmario30

Hey im also a on-site dell tech and here are some good things you can look forward too being a tech.

1.You get to have sat and sundays off which is totally awsome.More time for you and your family or kids.

2.You get to pace your day and take breaks when you want and also don't have any boss telling you what to do every 10 minutes.

3.Im guessing they will pay you 45 cents to every mile which will add up by the end of the week and when you do the math you will come out with alot more money.(Lucky for me i have a company veichle and a fuel card from my company)

4.You get to do alot of hand's on training like taking servers,laptop and desktop apart and trust me you will get really good at it.Takes me 5 minutes to do a mobo swap on any desktop =P

5.You get to take as many Dell certs as you want so if you want to get all of them go for it!

6.You can make customers on the side doing this job just make sure you keep that to yourself.

7.Somedays you will finish early for example i finished around noon but i still get paid the whole day.Learn how to spread your day.

The key thing to this job is knowing your way around if you have problems buy yourself a navagation system.(I have Tom Tom) or if your good with maps that's fine too.Make sure whatever you buy save your reciepts and claim them on your taxes.

If you decide to accept this mission good luck!!!!

PM me if you have more questions.

zenzen

Djmario30 wrote:

The key thing to this job is knowing your way around if you have problems buy yourself a navagation system.(I have Tom Tom) or if your good with maps that's fine too.Make sure whatever you buy save your reciepts and claim them on your taxes.

I'm glad you mentioned that because I am about to take my A+ cert test...I am the worst at directions, of anyone in the history of the world. How easy is Tom Tom to use and how much did it cost you? Lets assume I have never even been remotely close to where I have to go, does it automatically tell you where to turn like you gotta merge soon or what? I've never used a gps or anything like this before.

I'm really trying to get my foot into the IT door and I think some sort of on site A+ related work will help(hopefully) but unfortunately the part of my brain that deals with spatial awareness must be completely dead haha. Any info you can on this will help me out, really.

Djmario30

zenzen wrote:

Djmario30 wrote:

The key thing to this job is knowing your way around if you have problems buy yourself a navagation system.(I have Tom Tom) or if your good with maps that's fine too.Make sure whatever you buy save your reciepts and claim them on your taxes.

I'm glad you mentioned that because I am about to take my A+ cert test...I am the worst at directions, of anyone in the history of the world. How easy is Tom Tom to use and how much did it cost you? Lets assume I have never even been remotely close to where I have to go, does it automatically tell you where to turn like you gotta merge soon or what? I've never used a gps or anything like this before.

I'm really trying to get my foot into the IT door and I think some sort of on site A+ related work will help(hopefully) but unfortunately the part of my brain that deals with spatial awareness must be completely dead haha. Any info you can on this will help me out, really.

Oh man Tom Tom is one of the best navagation systems i ever bought it's very easy to use tho the cost of it is expensive.But if you are terrible with directions than this will be your light get one.

TheFORCE

8:41am, they just called me they offered me the DELL on site tech support position. I told them i will take it that is great news! heheh. have to go for the paper work right now.

sprkymrk

Congrats!
I think you will enjoy it for quite a while.

Olajuwon

Great, congrats. Make the most out of it.

TheFORCE

i signed everything, tomorrow i start work. thats what they told me.

btw a question to the guy that said about the GPS, is that a one time fee or is it a monthly fee?

Sie

Yeah GPS/Tom tom whatever you just pay for once, no subscription etc.
Well thats how it is in the UK anyway!!

Congrats on the job you definetly took the better one!

garv221

TheFORCE wrote:

8:41am, they just called me they offered me the DELL on site tech support position. I told them i will take it that is great news! heheh. have to go for the paper work right now.

Glad to hear it, you made the right move. Help Desk is another name for Hell.

mikej412

TheFORCE wrote:

they just called me they offered me the DELL on site tech support position. I told them i will take it

Congratulations!

I was going to "vote" for the on site tech position. That recruiter for the helpdesk position would have dropped you like a hot potato if they had another candidate that was acceptable to the customer and would work for 50 cents less an hour.

binarysoul

sprkymrk wrote:

Go with the on-site. It's a great way to gain experience and there is probably room for advancement.

Step 1 - reboot
Step 2 - tell them to turn off their cable modem for 1 hour and turn it back on, call back if you still have trouble, thank you BYE!
Step 3 - if they call back after 1 hour put them on hold.
Step 4 - if they are still on the line have them reboot....

You forgot Step 0: We don't support your problem. Call your PC vendor or a local PC tech

sprkymrk

binarysoul wrote:

sprkymrk wrote:

Go with the on-site. It's a great way to gain experience and there is probably room for advancement.

Step 1 - reboot
Step 2 - tell them to turn off their cable modem for 1 hour and turn it back on, call back if you still have trouble, thank you BYE!
Step 3 - if they call back after 1 hour put them on hold.
Step 4 - if they are still on the line have them reboot....

You forgot Step 0: We don't support your problem. Call your PC vendor or a local PC tech

oops!
My bad.

Djmario30

Congrats on your new job!!!