Help desks under siege

NetworkingStudent

Hit hard by the recession, corporate help desks remain woefully understaffed, with little relief in sight.


Looks like Help desks under siege
looks like there might be a growing trend to hire more full time help desk employees; also, it might be easier to learn new skills if you are doing several jobs within the organization.
I found these points in the article interesting..
A silver lining?
In the long run, taking on more and varied tasks could aid help desk workers in their quest for advancement. Shouldering multiple responsibilities may expose them to more aspects of the business and to different managers than more sheltered help desk employees traditionally encounter
Help desk incidents rise -- here's why
The number of incidents help desks are dealing with rose 8% from 2008 to 2009, according to the 2009 Practices and Salary Report from HDI. Here are some of the reasons for more incidents:
Poor product quality: 3%
Lack of customer competency: 5%
Increased awareness of support center: 7%
More customers: 19%
Expanded service offerings by the support center: 25%
Infrastructure or product changes
(upgrades, conversions, installations): 42%
Responses based on an HDI survey of 1,000 support center managers in 11 different industries from May through July of 2009
There's a big difference between an IT professional and someone who works on computers," Gray says, adding that a professional must constantly add to his or her skill set, whether there's a recession on or not. "The second you stop learning, you're outdated and you're out of a job."
Robert Last, content manager at HDI, an IT service and support association, says that while many companies still hire contractors to provide help desk support, it's a trend that's winding down as firms find that the quality of service isn't as high as they had expected.

Paul Boz

Being able to show management that you're capable of shouldering more and more responsibility is how you move up in any job. When I started my IT career working in technical support for an ISP I worked with guys in their 40's who had been doing tech support their whole adult lives. While some people are complacent in that role, I saw that as motivation to start shouldering more responsibility to move up in the company. There was a swinging NOC position that was open for overtime so whenever I wasn't working tech support I'd pick up jr shifts in the NOC. I didn't have much responsibility but I was able to leverage my good work ethic and desire to learn to get where I am now.

I'd say the most critical thing for people to remember when considering advancement is this: Are you doing your job in such a way that your current performance is excellent and you have room on your plate to take on other roles? I see people get hungry to move up without mastering their current job and they never get their opportunity because they spend all of their time trying to move up and never master where they are. You must truly master your existing job to prove competency and show resolve and determination to do a good job.