Desktop Support

parttimetechie

Looking to get back into Desktop support where I go around and help people at their desks. Problems with this in recent months have been many of the jobs are NOT desktop support but phone helpdesk and many of the jobs are contracts, posted by recruiters. Does anyone have any idea how to find a job with a company, NOT from a recruiter, that is a permanent position, or is IT mostly contractors hired by recruiters for very specific jobs?

Anonymouse

I was in your position only a few months ago. It was like a long waiting game for fun looking jobs to pop up. Be patient I guess. I was stuck in a crappy helpdesk call center for two years before I was finally able to move up to be a sysadmin. I'm glad I wasn't impatient to take the first crappy temp desktop support job that I was offered because every single one of them paid less than half what I make now and had no health benefits. Most of them were pretty far away too whereas my current job is a 15 minute drive away. For some reason recruiters kept finding me jobs one to two hours away.

SlayerX

I'm in the same boat....It is no fun. It's a waiting game for a position like this to come up. My advice is make some connections with others and make friends with those in IT around your area. Most jobs are acquired from a friend knowing a friend. I wouldn't use a recruiter as they are useless. I just applied to a job that was what your looking for because the company only wants to use recruiters, but I didn't get the job and now they bug me about jobs that are not even in the IT field......talk about a waste of time.

parttimetechie

SlayerX wrote: »

I'm in the same boat....It is no fun. It's a waiting game for a position like this to come up. My advice is make some connections with others and make friends with those in IT around your area. Most jobs are acquired from a friend knowing a friend. I wouldn't use a recruiter as they are useless. I just applied to a job that was what your looking for because the company only wants to use recruiters, but I didn't get the job and now they bug me about jobs that are not even in the IT field......talk about a waste of time.

Ya, I have that happen where they want me to go in for a job an hour away, for something in Finance..I'm like really, did you READ my resume? I really wish there was a non recruiter path to many of these jobs, but unfortunately I do not think that is the case any longer...

eansdad

It seems that more FTE positions are being filled by contractors. Some companies actually use the 3-6 month contract as a way to weed out desired FTE people. Others just don't want FTE.

Mike-Mike

eansdad wrote: »

the 3-6 month contract .

In my area it seems pretty standard to do contract for 3 to 6 months before going fulltime

parttimetechie

Mike-Mike wrote: »

In my area it seems pretty standard to do contract for 3 to 6 months before going fulltime

Ya, but around here in Orange County a lot of the jobs are just contract, no full time opportunities aftewards..have you seen the jobs be converted, or recruters just say they will convert to permanent?

Bokeh

Which boards are you looking on? My current position is ending sometime this year due to a company buyout, so I hit up Indeed right away. Everything that I sent a resume to was full time, not one recruiter here in the Minneapolis-Twin Cities area. I sent 12, called by 5, offers from 3. I start next week with a new position.
You might want to drive around your target area, get a list of companies, then look them up on the net. See if you can find out if they have their own IT dept or if they are subcontracting to someone else. Dont just depend on newspaper, Dice, Monster, CareerBuilder, etc. Network with people - see if there is an IT support group in your area. I am also seeing companies announce jobs via Twitter, and there are several feeds just for jobs in general. LinkedIn is another good place as well.
Far as your resume goes, DO NOT just upload it once and forget about it. Upload it daily if necessary to the job boards. This way youll be towards the top for recruiters to find you and then you can decide if you want what they have to offer.

ptilsen

Desktop support in the sense of being 100% on-premise user support is actually an extremely uncommon position these days. You are more likely to find hybrid DST/help desk ranging from 20/80 to 80/20 remote/in-person. You're just as likely to find more generalized "field technician" or on-prem admin roles where you do any kind of mixture of physical server/network/workstation support and remote support. Don't limit your search to desktop support. I wouldn't limit it to not going through recruiting agencies, either. Whether it's just to get recruited or to actually work in a contract position for the recruiter, I wouldn't restrict myself either way. If you need specific benefits, even many staffing firms offer them these days.

I'll definitely add my support for Indeed and LinkedIn. If I'm in a deep search session I find my way to Dice, Monster, and Craigslist, but only after I've exhausted Indeed and LinkedIn. I don't directly look through CareerBuilder anymore at all. It has had few positions in my last two searches, and none that weren't already on Indeed, Monster, or Dice.

Mike-Mike

parttimetechie wrote: »

Ya, but around here in Orange County a lot of the jobs are just contract, no full time opportunities aftewards..have you seen the jobs be converted, or recruters just say they will convert to permanent?

Well I'm in a different part of the country of course, but my current job and my last job I both started out as a contractor then went perm

RouteMyPacket

Mike-Mike wrote: »

Well I'm in a different part of the country of course, but my current job and my last job I both started out as a contractor then went perm

It is pretty standard for opportunities to be "CTH" which is fine because if you are confident in what you bring to the table you will be hired on anyway.

Anonymouse

parttimetechie wrote: »

Ya, but around here in Orange County a lot of the jobs are just contract, no full time opportunities aftewards..have you seen the jobs be converted, or recruters just say they will convert to permanent?

It was the same up here in Northern California SF Bay Area when I was still job searching.

RouteMyPacket wrote: »

It is pretty standard for opportunities to be "CTH" which is fine because if you are confident in what you bring to the table you will be hired on anyway.

It seems different everywhere. When I was looking all I could find were contract positions and every interview I was told there was no possibility of FTE. That's just my experience though. It's different for everyone.

Mike-Mike

oh, well I have not seen many if any jobs posted here that say there are no chance it's going to be FTE

Rosco2382

In the Chicago area I have seen a mix between contract and FTE. When I worked with ATT it was contract, with my present employer it was FTE from day one. Though our MIS department is only 6 people with our secretary.

PCSPreston

I would try at Small Businesses. I work Currently at one and I get all the Cisco, Windows Clint and Server exposure I want and I have the cerficiations to back me up. Cisco is still in the works though

WafflesAndRootbeer

It's common practice for companies providing IT services to go through 3-6 month workers from a third-party so they can avoid the cost of hiring and firing. Compucom, Xerox, Siemens, etc., all play the game that way now. I'm always getting offers from the MSPs that I know are not going to lead anywhere for permanent or long-term employment. but they put on the "We REALLY need you to come work for us!" routine because they want experienced people in those positions whenever possible and I can use it to leverage high rates by calling them out on their trick.

nestech

Check out indeed.com, linkedin.com and careerbliss.com

bobloblaw

Ptilsen and Waffles are spot on.

You need to really think about taking a helpdesk gig. It sucks, but I swear a helpdesk tech puts down way more raw numbers that a desktop tech. It can be a very frustrating job, but you gotta start somewhere. Plus it'll make a transition to desktop tech somewhere essentially seamless. You can also walk into an interview spouting numbers to boot (I help X amount of people per day).

About7Narwhal

I use indeed, dice, linkedin, etc etc. But if I am not seeing the results I want I will hit up the city website. They usually have a list of major employers in the area. From there you can go down the list and hit up their sites directly and see if they are hiring. Not every company posts on job sites.

A good google search would be: "Companies headquartered in *City Name*"