I applied, got interviewed, got hired! Right move or not?

TheFORCE

Hey guys, im posting here because i need your opinion.
To make a long story short, i was tired with my field tech position, no more room for improvement and i was working as a contractor, using my own car and doing a lot of miles everyday. I applied for an IT Help desk position at a bank that has from what they told me a lot of branches in Manhattan and LI, they told me that they are expanding and the such.

Anyway, i had my interview today, 2 people interviewed me. One after the other, at the end of my interview they explained to me what kinda job the IT help desk position is. Basically since its a bank i will be working at their headquarters and i will have little interaction with end users. Most of my work will be done via email, on the phone or remote access to the employees machines to troubleshoot. I will be opening/closing tickets, escalate issues, reset passwords, rename machines and add new users, Plus they have some projects going on. They showed me a list of how their IT department was organized and i can say that it seemed really good to me, with a lot of people and specialized groups like Servers, databases, application develompent etc.

My question: since i have never worked at a Help Desk position before, is what i have described above something that all IT help desk people do, i mean the responsibilities duties? Is that something that IT Help desk do or did i just accept a job at a call center? Which to me didnt seem like a call center.

Kaminsky

HI TF,

Help desk these days does not necesarily mean an onsite source of all computer knowledge to the users when they get stumped and can just pick up the phone/email and get in touch with someone who will just say "oh no worries.. click this, press that and you're good to go!".... There are all sorts of helpdesks these days and as the years go by they veer more and more to the cheep call centre based scenario where the heldesk (call centre) just routes the calls to the best place to solve them and higher level teams take over from there and so on and so on.

Use the job as a stepping stone to higher tech positions within the same organisation or other places (once you've done the first year) if it turns out to be a dead mans shoes heirarchy where you are. The grind of a help desk is a valuable first step that everyone should take in this industry. It will also be interesting getting to know your peers and how they got where they are and where they plan to get where they are going.

You don't state how long you have been biting the bullet as a field tech, what you were doing as a field tech or whether this new job is a permanent position. I started on a helpdesk many years ago and the great thing about help desks is the one on one you get with the users which you probably won't get as much by emailed calls as you did as when you were a field tech... However, paid time off will be nice. I stopped contracting 5 months ago for a permanent position after 4 years of contracting nonesense. Since then I had ALL August off and it's looking like most of October too. ... and I got/getting paid for it.... Contracting pay may be higher but you get no paid leave, no new friends to get to know and no sickness allowance.

One bit of advice I will give you. DO NOT STOP CERTIFYING and progressing your AMBITIONS for your career regardless of what your current job demands. As your standalone field tech position will have taught you, you have to look after yourself these days and keep pushing yourself until you are comfy. Do not get complacent with your future just because you have a reular pay cheque coming in.

Grats on the new job but don't stay there too long. Keep pushing yourself higher and higher.


Kam.

flipside

@TheFORCE
Congrats for the new position

@Kamninsky
Great advices ...
thank you for reminding me that I must find some solaris books

TheFORCE

Thanks for the reply, My field tech position was just a basic one, break/fix. replace mobos, cpus, mem, basic computer hardware nothing complicated. I did this job for 13months now. The new job is an IT help desk, i did some more research on the company and they have branches all over new york city, from the bronx, queens, manhattan and all 5 boroughs and they are expanding to NJ and CT. Plus like i said, since they are expanding they always have some project going on. Also they have a lot of groups going on so later on i might go into databases or security or any thing like that. I forgot to mention before, they told me that they might be able to pay for my school courses as long as it is related to the field and the certificates as well. But for now i will be in a temp to perm position for about 3months and then they will evaluate me and hire me if they see that im doing a good job. Regardless of the outcome in the next 3 months, i will learn something new and will have new challenges everyday. I think this is what i like and enjoy, its more fun when you do something new everyday.

Kasor

Experience is what you looking for.... Good Luck with the new job.

Aldur

Help desk jobs aren't all that bad. I work at the JTAC here in Utah and I have to say that I rather like the job. Although the first month or two was a baptism by fire, but as soon as I understood the product and my troubleshooting skills increased it actually became an enjoyable job. I've been on the SSL VPN team for about 5 months and am currently in the process of moving over to the IPG Router team, more pay and more potential career worth.

As far as your concerns as a help desk job being nothing more then a call center, don't worry, it's no call center. People are contacted, or they call us, on a case by case basis, sometimes with pain in the ass problems or simple issues. Time on the phone can vary, but on average I take about 4 cases a day, some from web support site and some from customers calling in. A good bulk of my time is spent recreating customer issues in the lab and sending follow up emails.

I know guys in the JTAC here that have actually made "Help Desk" work their career. There are two people that I know that are making 80K+ on the IPG router team and have been there for about 5 years. You unfourtently don't see to many "old timers" on the IPG Router team, or any where else in the TAC, because people get a year or 2 of experience and then tend to leave for much higher paying jobs, for this reason they are constitently hiring.

Anyway, to sum it up, Help Desk jobs are not a bad thing, if anything it gives people with no real IT exprience a chance to get some and further themselves in the IT field.