It happened to me - It could happen to you

claytonw1980

For years I've been on that damned helpdesk alias. Hating and raging at every email that would pop in there - "OMG I CANT PRINT" "MY EMAIL IS DISAPPEARING" or the infamous email just titled "help".

Well folks - no longer am I on the alias. Finally doing some respectable work.

Long story short - if it can happen to me, it can happen to you too.

Be well friends.

NetworkVeteran

I see the helpdesk as respectable, but congratulations on finding something you like more.

rsutton

Congrats on moving up.

It sounds like you have an issue with Help Desk work. I don't know why you consider is not respectable, many here would probably disagree - I know I do. The Help Desk enables users and companies to be more productive, whether it's by fixing their printer, their email or some other IT-related problem. I would recommend some empathy, it will help you as you move up and are in less of a client-facing position.

Cerebro

How, why, where? long story please!

bermovick

Congratulations. I can't wait for the day I stop getting the "not enough experience" emails

DB Cooper

The help desk can be rough. I got my first tech job working the help desk while I was going through school for computers. When I started the job I would consider myself a mid-level student in my class. After a couple of months on the job I was one of the top students in my class because of the experience I gained from working the help desk. The help desk makes and brakes a lot people starting out in the industry.

tpatt100

My time on the help desk was not that bad. Call frequency was moderate and died down after lunch. I did pretty much all of my studying for certs and college during my down time.

whatthehell

Congratz and details please!

NoTime2Burn

Did the help desk dance for greater part of a decade. Big difference though between first helpdesk "How do I download the internet" and second helpdesk "I've trashed the first copy of the MBR on my hard disk. Which sector contains the backup MBR?"

Both helpdesk jobs were not fun. The key to getting out of the helpdesk hold is to motivate yourself to further yourself. It was all too easy to sit and give repetative, scripted answers all day long, and frankly very enticing to not learn new skills because the places where I worked didn't encourage upward mobility (and certainly didn't pay me more when I leaned new skills or received certifications). Eventually I got sick of it, and started learning the stuff on my own with the help of self-study books. I picked up half a dozen certs, and eventually was picked up by an organization that used the software I supported. Our network engineer was the same way, he was hired because he came out on a contract and setup the network, and then when he was ready to leave they say "you know...."

Congrats. I know how excited I was when I left. It was hard to hand the resignation to my supervisor with a straight face.

I'm not trying to downplay helpdesk workers, I'm just saying I really didn't like the environment when I did it, and was very much looking forward to getting out of it.

jibbajabba

I never done the I.T. helpdesk job "per se" - it was just part of other jobs I was having .. Only helpdesk job I had was in Xerox, telling people how to wash out the printheads of inktank printer, from that point on I was always admin straight away but I did hate the days I had to work on the helpdesk ..

I think a company cannot go on without a helpdesk otherwise high-level people end up wasting their time on these things rather than concentrate on certain projects.

Don't get me wrong - I don't want to talk down the helpdesk - my point is, it needs a special "breed" of people and some people just love it - I just don't have the patience for it

DevilWAH

I quite liked my days on the help desk, once you got in to it it was simple, and as long as my case laod was the same as others I could do other then I was free to study and look at other things.

The nice thing about it was that my managers would let me demonstrate and implement my own network projects. But as it was not my full time job and they where projects I developed, rather than ones given to me I didn't have the time pressures I do now.

These days projects have to be completed on time and on budget, so the extra pressure is there.

Basically my time on the help desk was spent playing with a CISCO lab that I spec'd up and the company paid for, and chatting to 3rd level engineers and helping them out with the stuff. Yes help desk work can quickly become repetitive but you have to find ways to make it interesting.

I think 2 years is about tops to be on the help desk if you have dreams of moving higher. If you have not managed to developed skills and moved on by then, then maybe its not what your cut out for. The help desk is a great proving ground, if people struggle to get of it then I think that says a lot about there attuide as much has any thing else.

And by the way Claytonw well done and good luck as you carry on moving forward and upwards

MickQ

Congrats Clay. Now you'll be putting up with the other questions passed up to you from the helpdesk whilst trying to do your own work.
At least there are some who are willing to learn, instead of passing the buck.