First IT Jobs

MonkeyBolt

Has anyone worked at a telephone help desk? what job did you manage to get first?

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laidbackfreak

MB are we talking about 1st line support where all calls come in to the helpdesk ?? or Telephony support?

In the first instance most people get into IT through this route..... its a tough job but a great learning curve....... depending on the size of the place you can be dealing with the call upto a max time (usually 10mins) before handing it on to 2nd line...... smaller firms you may well just be dealing with the call for as long as needed before handing over to someone more senior....

My first role I was headhunted from an accountancy role ..... I was supporting the small Novell enviroment and the much larger HP Unix system (ran an informix db) and a very small WAN running on Bay Networks (thats going back a few years) with leased line back ups !?
That was when I knew I wanted to work in Networking and not move into DB administration.....

MonkeyBolt

Yh 1st line support... How long were you at first line support for until you moved up to 2nd?

laidbackfreak

my 1st role was a mixed bag.... lasted there around 8 months before moving to a software house before moving again shortly after..... again a similar kind of role mixed bag 1st -2nd and some 3rd line... both of these companies were small companies (ie less than 500 users) although the 2nd one I was supporting the software and doing installs\training on customers sites...

in all I spent around 18months doing 1st line (ie I actually took the first call) before moving onto 2nd + 3rd line roles.....

A good 1st line support person is worth there weight in gold imo..... that dont mean they can always fix the problems but they do know what questions they need to ask in order to pass them on to the right team.....

phantasm

I guess' I'm kind of a hybrid.

I'm currently in my first IT role (which will last about 6 months) and I do a little of everything. I do help desk work, desktop support, network support (LAN and WAN), phone support, and printer support.

If it breaks I fix it, if it can't be fixed I RMA it. If the network goes down I find out why, I re-establish VPN connections and make config changes on routers and switches. I rack and unrack gear, i cross connect phone lines, i deploy new printers and PC's, I interact with Cisco and other vendors on an as needed basis. I love it, I'm going to miss it. lol.

the_Grinch

My first IT job (not going to count computer sales) was with Comcast as their first line support for internet. I hated every minute of it and didn't stay long. I breezed through class (we had a 6 week class on the way Comcast did things, their tools, and troubleshooting) and I really disliked doing phone support. It helped me to realize that while I am ok on the phone, I am much better in person. Plus, Comcast had a horrible system where it was difficult to send them up to the next tier of support. So after that I spent a year as a field tech which I loved!

phantasm

the_Grinch wrote:

My first IT job (not going to count computer sales) was with Comcast as their first line support for internet. I hated every minute of it and didn't stay long. I breezed through class (we had a 6 week class on the way Comcast did things, their tools, and troubleshooting) and I really disliked doing phone support. It helped me to realize that while I am ok on the phone, I am much better in person. Plus, Comcast had a horrible system where it was difficult to send them up to the next tier of support. So after that I spent a year as a field tech which I loved!

I spent about a yr as a field tech as well for Comcast. After that I moved into the data center as an analyst working on the mainframes. I don't really count it as IT work though.

Daniel333

I feel like I am 4 years into IT and stil doing help desk gigs. Here's how I got where I am...

Here is my experience and the certs I earned
2005-2006
Cert: A+
Experience: Geek Squad, hardware diags, malware removal, Backups and reimaging.

2006-2007
Cert: Network+ and CCNA
Experience: Help Desk job, supporting proprietary applications for a Bank

2007-2008
Cert: MCSA and Saleslogix 7.2 Administrator Cert
Experience: Application Administrator for proprietary applications and light SQL server work for the same Bank as above. Some CRM and reporting too.

2008-current
Cert: Just started on my MCSE, maybe messaging specialization?
Experience: General Service desk. Patching and server/desktop support. I work with Exchange 2000-2007 a lot. But I don’t do deployments.

undomiel

Mine's kind of odd ball so it probably doesn't help very much. I helped out the network admin during college but didn't do much more than move/add/change and roll out OS X. Then when I moved to AZ I got a job doing 1st line phone support for an ISP. That didn't last long though, went through 2 weeks of training and then 2 weeks of being out on the floor then got knocked out for a week with laryngitis. Didn't go back and just worked short contracts for a while just to live on. Got called up about a year later for doing 2nd level support for a Dell contract. Oh I did get one job in between that which would have been 1st level support for SonicWall but the trainer and I had certain differences so I was shown to the door. Any how I road the Dell contract for almost a year but then the company lost the contract with Dell so I had to move on again or be stuck doing cell phone support. I lucked out and got a job with a small business as their network administrator. Best experience I ever got on the job as the place was a mess when I came in. Went a year there then moved on to my current state government job as a senior network administrator and the experience I'm gaining here is great.

Probably the best things that helped me in getting a job, especially entry level, was that I kept on learning more and more on my own time and experimenting with different things. Making sure that I had a method to troubleshooting so that I could do it at any time even if not prepared. Also one of the greatest skills you could pick up is being able to search swiftly AND accurately with Google. Just make sure it doesn't become a crutch for you and that you do learn from what you find.

Best of luck to everyone trying to break in! It is difficult but assuredly possible.

cisco_trooper

2001: A+, MCP x 3 - No IT Job

2002-2003: Working on B.S. in Computer Science - light programming and administration for a small office

2003-2004: Working on B.S. in Computer Science - light programming and administration for a small office, network technician for a large local school district

2005-2007: Working on B.S. in Network and Communications Management. Network Administration in an underground government facility.

2007: Done with B.S. in Network and Communications Management, Begin CCNA.

Late 2007: Complete CCNA, Contract at Sprint for large router migration involving 7613's, 6513's, Juniper M40e's, and Juniper M10i's.

2008: Get sick of Sprint firing people and land current job as network engineer for lots of money.

m.j.boylin

monkeyboy... you come on here like ur bad, posting new topics to get a bigger e-peen. Who agrees?

cisco_trooper

m.j.boylin wrote:

monkeyboy... you come on here like ur bad, posting new topics to get a bigger e-peen. Who agrees?

I think you guys work together.....

networker050184

m.j.boylin wrote:

monkeyboy... you come on here like ur bad, posting new topics to get a bigger e-peen. Who agrees?

I don't even know what you are talking about so I can't agree.......

Whats wrong with posting relevant topics anyway?

cisco_trooper

networker050184 wrote:

m.j.boylin wrote:

monkeyboy... you come on here like ur bad, posting new topics to get a bigger e-peen. Who agrees?

I don't even know what you are talking about so I can't agree.......

Whats wrong with posting relevant topics anyway?