Need some re assurance, first IT helpdesk job and it's scaring me

tom_dub

I got hired on by a major web hosting company 3 weeks ago as a Tier 1 support tech. Our primary roles are answering tickets, phone calls, and chats. The job relies heavily on raw linux and everything under the sun about web hosting and cPanel applications. I'm feeling really discouraged because I've been in training for 2 weeks and feel like I'll always be there. I've completed all the studying for training and have been put on answering tickets for a while. 9/10 tickets I have no idea how to answer because they're extremely complicated issues which is why they're tickets in the first place. Seems like I have to consult a trainer for everything, it's pretty discouraging so far because I feel as if they expect me to know how to solve most tickets. The tier 2s are even worse as they get frustrated when you ask them a question or escalate a problem that an experienced tier 1 could fix. I really want to move far in this company but some people seem to be getting the hang of things a lot quicker than me, granted a lot of them do have web hosting experience or knowledge.

Guess I'm just looking for re assurance or asking how long it took you all to really get the technical side of things down? This job relies heavily on how many contacts per hour one has as a way to guage performance, the more contacts per hour the better, meaning quick at solving problems. It's discouraging for me when I have to look everything up or consult with a trainer due to my web hosting experience to be very limited.

umarbhatti

Dont stress. Your new here and other people expect you to ask questions. Heck if i was a experienced level 1 or 2 staff member and you were new and you DIDN'T ask me questions how things work etc then i will be worried.

Also make sure you write down as much notes as possible, even things you may think are trivial. The experienced staff will get frustrated/annoyed if you ask them the same question after the 10th time.

All the best with your new job, thats just my 2cents.

Cleverclogs

I know how you feel. I've been in my role (Which is a mix of 1st and 2nd level support) for just over three months and I am still learning. In my old role I was in a very limited in what I was allowed to do, so moving jobs has meant a huge increase in knowledge and skills. I've already filled a notepad with what I need to know. Best advice I can offer is: Nobody knows it all straight away. Give it at least 6 months, make lots of notes and you'll be up and running in no time. Good luck

eten

Look at tickets completed by the seniors and see how they resolve issues, provided that they are properly documented.

Always ask questions, learn and get it over with. We "had" new guys that were afraid to ask questions when they started, cherry picked easy tickets and they looked pretty solid under the radar. 3 months came by when they were forced on graveyard rotations, they were escalating issues that you should have known by the 1 month mark.

N2IT

Just keep working at it and you will get it.

I remember getting into the Unix boxes the first couple of times. I thought I was going to crush databases when I killed backups and all that jazz. You'll get better and more comfortable.

jamesleecoleman

Don't worry about it. Make sure you ask questions and when someone gets mad at you, make sure that they understand that you don't want to break something or give the wrong information in a ticket.

Everyone was new at something. Some people just learn things faster than others. People are doing things that I don't get to do.

I'm going into my third month as a CSR/Tier 1 support at an ISP. I still ask question but I'm getting more confident. The best thing that I did was take notes and print things out from the KB. Once in a while, I'll read the KB. When I'm stuck, I look at the stuff that I printed out.

If you're doing linux stuff then I suggest that you set up your own internal website in a lab environment. Then try to do the same things that you do at your job.

I understand that you don't get to do the same thing everyday. You might have to do one thing every week or two weeks so you don't get a lot of practice. It's okay. Don't let people get to you. If you let your co workers get to you then the customers will REALLY get to you.

You'll make it. It just takes some time. Try not to be quick to ask questions on things that you've done. If you got a question about something then tell them the things that you've done and then ask so they don't think that you're lazy.

About7Narwhal

I just went from a Lead Tech position to an OPS Associate doing Service Desk once a week. I know nothing and I feel awkward taking calls. But I know from experience that it will pass. The fastest way to figure it out is to throw yourself out there and learn by experience. Lingo, procedures, and solutions will come with time. Just don't give up and you will make it.

Essendon

You'll have tier 2 techs like that, next time you speak to one of them and s/he displays that dim-witted attitude, tell them - I wouldnt call you again on this issue if you took a few minutes to tell me how to go about tackling it. Just be polite, not subservient though, just polite. I know deep inside you want to mouth off, but your aim is to learn and do your job better - right?

Some people will always be better than you, be it from experience or from knowledge. Strive to be better than them, perhaps try to listen to how they solve a problem. Ask them! You may give the impression that you dont know much, but if you dont ask around, are you learning? Take tons of notes, study at home, study during lunch. Strive to be the best. There's a quote in a TE member's signature - Reach for the stars and you may get to the clouds. Check out the quote in my signature too.

Never give up, never say I cant do this. There'll be harder challenges ahead, so pull your socks up and do it. If there are any techie questions you may have, post up here and there are plenty of smart cats eager to help!

DevilWAH

Been in the job 10+ years and like you when I started I remember it feeling a little daunting.

I would have 40+ tickets in the que and more comming in and just have no idea how I could get through them all. But i struggled on and didn't give up. with in a year or two i was in the position where those early cases seemed so simple. But as I moved up to Level 2 and then Level 3, history repeted, and even now all this time later constantly problems are thrown my way that at first glance I have no idea how to deal with them.

But the skills I use to deal with them are the skills I learnt back on the help desk not the technical skills but how to manage a work load, and work your way through problems. This is the real skill the helpdesk can teach you, you will never know the answer to every question, if you could there would be no need to the technical teams and the higher level support. Learning how to apraoch problems, how to reassure users/clients, and how to insure there issues get dealt with in an efficient and timely manor is the key. And along the way you will pick up a the general knowlage you need to achieve this.

Once you have learnt how to approach problems and issues, the rest will come in time. In 30 years you will still hit technical problems we all do, and the smart ones know when to ask for help no matter the skill sets we have acquired.

And remember all of us here who have succeeded here have put in a lot of our own time to achieve what we have, either studying for certifications of just getting together some old equipment and experimenting. If your hosting experience is limited, then you want to get hold of some hardware, or run vmware on a laptop/desktop, and from the ground up build a web server. a simple webserver can be up and running in 30 miniutes, start a blog, play with some scripting language... IF you have a ticket that talks about issues with PHP, read up on PHP in the evening and try it out so you get the basic understanding of what PHP is and how it is designed to work. The trick is that you don't need indepth knowledge of a tecnical skill to trouble shoot it. You need to know first of all what it was designed to do. Saying PHP is a scripting language does not mean much. I can show you how to write scripts in PHP but it still wont help much when customers have an issue about it. you need to know why they are using it and what they are trying to achieve.

And lastly to really succeed in IT you have to love the field you have chosen, its that that gets you going home and turning on the PC to learn, rather than playing on the XBOX or slouching in front of the TV..

DevilWAH

Essendon wrote: »

There's a quote in a TE member's signature - Reach for the stars and you may get to the clouds. Check out the quote in my signature too.

And remember you can't get to the stars with out first passing through the clouds

tom_dub

Got put on chats today for the first time while still in training, really really bad day. Nothing like having 4 chats at once with customers calling you an idiot and wanting to cancel their account due to your poor service. I'm still pretty limited in my knowledge of web hosting. Sucks because I'm great at troubleshooting general PC issues, but the realm of web hosting is completely new to me so trying to learn to crawl before walking is a pain in the ass. At least tomorrow is Friday...

jamesleecoleman

Don't let the rude customers get to you. You'll learn a lot over the next couple of months and then you'll think back to what it WAS like when you first started.

NotHackingYou

You'll do fine, take lots of notes and try not to keep asking the same questions. When you do need to ask, show that you did as much as you could to investigate on your own and put forth a good effort.

A lot of times stuff is escalated with "I can't fix it, here".

A much better approach is "I did X, Y and Z. X and Y looked OK, but I noticed this about Z. Could you point me in the right direction?". This kindof approach will usually go over much better than the former. Don't sweat that you haven't learned everything in two weeks. If you are persistent with your effort and try every day, you will learn it and be a ninja in no time.

DevilWAH

Don't be afraid to tell a customer that you don't know the answer, I remember starting in It on the help deask and after 2 days being assigned to taking calls. At he time I didn't have a clue what was going on, the only thing I new how to do was over clock PC's and rip videos. I very quickly learnt how to ask the questions that got me the info I needed so I could place them on hold, or tell them I would call back, and then run through notes of talk to another engineer . Keeping hem informed was the key.

Also I found when asking another engineer a question, things like "user A has an issue what is the problem?" did not go down well, and I would get sent away to gather more info and this back and forth did not make any one happy, the engineers or the client. Much better was to ask the Client for as much info as possible, get them to describe all the symptoms. As an engineer I much rather some one come to me with all the info, take 4 or 5 minutes to run through it and I will either be able to send them away with the info they need to resolved it. Or it will be clear that it is not a quick fix and that the issue is out side there skill level and I can suggest the next steps.

j23evan

As a brand new Tier 1 help desk you are expected to have good analytical skills and understand troubleshooting methodology. Everything else comes with experience. I will chime in with everyone else when I say don't worry, relax, ask plenty of questions, and learn from each ticket to make future ones that much easier. And pretty soon instead of you going to people to ask them questions they will be coming to you. As far as rude customers? I wish I could say it gets better. When I used to work help desk it never ceased to amaze me how little people knew about PC's or navigating UI's, or were too lazy and would rather call and be rude because of something they created. Sadly you get used to it, and the customers that are truly nice and polite you tend to go out of your way to do a little more for. Don't get discouraged!