A few Questions About Desktop Support – Looking For Support and Ideas

I successfully completed a Service desk job in May. I started another job in June 2018 as a desktop support tech, and the job goes until Nov 2018. My official title is Desktop Support Tech Level 1. For the most part I support work from home call center agents. I can support internal employees, when they submit requests for head phones, keyboards, monitors, cub setups, terminations, and phones.
I’m scared because my job has become more or less shipping material via UPS to end users. In-fact, I remember my coworker saying that he would probably have me do most of the shipping. I feel that my technical skills are fading. Most of the time I will troubleshoot the issue, before we ship anything, because it’s expensive.

Could you guys/gals please answer some questions for me?
1) If I ship a lot of computer equipment, will this hurt me when I seek my next opportunity? ( I feel this is 70-80% of my job)

2) For my next role I want to be a desktop support tech, what can I do to get into that role? (I’m currently a desktop support tech..see above)

3) I’m currently studying Windows 10 MCSA. What skills what help me become a desktop support tech.

4) There is no much urgency in the role I’m in, is this normal in an enterprise desktop support role? SLA are super long , and everyone is kind of self-managed and chill.

5) One of the managers I help alot tells me she appreciates me and says thank you everyday, because I keep her in the loop. She is a manager i support, would it be weird to ask her to be one of my references down the road? I mean not now, but maybe when the contract is almost over?

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scaredoftests

1.) this doesn't hurt (can be part of 'inventory')
2.) Do you know how to support users (have you done that in the past?) or troubleshooted issues with equipment?
3.) Don't understand the question
4.) Nothing wrong with that. Some places aren't chill
5.) Ask her first, but it is fine.

TechnicalJay

1) I doubt shipping would hurt or help your next position as anybody can ship items with ease.

2)You're wanting another desktop support position for your next contract? Having this current position will help your chances.

3)Desktop Support Technician can be broad ranging from what you're doing now to imaging, working with SCCM, minor networking, deployment projects etc. If you have experience working with those listed then that will increase your chance even more, also personality is a big factor for entry level positions.

4)It all depends on the place, I'm sure after being in a busy hectic and stressful environment you'll be wanting the pace that you're at now.

5)Is this a manager for another department? If so I wouldn't ask as it might seem like your avoiding the future employer from getting in contact with your boss.

NetworkingStudent

scaredoftests wrote: »

1.) this doesn't hurt (can be part of 'inventory')
2.) Do you know how to support users (have you done that in the past?) or troubleshooted issues with equipment?
3.) Don't understand the question
4.) Nothing wrong with that. Some places aren't chill
5.) Ask her first, but it is fine.

Thank you scaredoftests!

2) yes, I I have supported users in the past, usually it's level one basic troubleshooting. ( unplug this and plug it back in again)

For question 3

I will reword the question.

What technology skills should I learn at home, that would help me land another desktop support role?

NetworkingStudent

TechnicalJay wrote: »

1) I doubt shipping would hurt or help your next position as anybody can ship items with ease.

yeah, the shipping is pretty easy

TechnicalJay wrote: »

1)
2)You're wanting another desktop support position for your next contract? Having this current position will help your chances.

Yes, a fulltime desktop support role would be ideal, then I would want to move into system administration or network engineering

TechnicalJay wrote: »

1)
4)It all depends on the place, I'm sure after being in a busy hectic and stressful environment you'll be wanting the pace that you're at now.

Agreed, I worked at a few MSPs and it always seemed like we were short staffed. In the corporate environment there seems to be a lot of money to dedicate towards hiring and paying employees. [/QUOTE]

yoba222

In the past, when I worked at places where I had an impressive sounding job title and then the actual work had nothing to do with it, I took advantage of that title on my resume and spent my time learning from certs to fill in the knowledge I wasn't getting on the job.

If I were you I'd take advantage of the fact that you happen to have "desktop support tech" in your job title already for landing your next job, even though what you do is a bit more like a glorified parts shipper. I would de-emphasize the parts shipper activities though.

You may to have to fake it a little and puff your current job role up on your resume. Instead of "shipping parts" it might be "interaction and troubleshooting with customers" if you get my drift.

I definitely think it's good your sharpening up for real by studying for the MCSA.

scaredoftests

Labbing...

doublehunter

Hey OP, im currently in desktop support with bunch of other stuff involved aside from the usual customer facing troubleshooting. Since your title is already Desktop Support, i guess the better move is to aim for a sys admin role or the like instead of another desktop support role. Can you elaborate why you want your new role to be the same role you are at? Also if it boils down to it, just emphasize on your resume the technical side of your role instead of highlighting the 'courier' role. As scaredoftest said you can categorize it to inventory. As per the technical skills, youll what to get your hands dirty with hands-on training (create virtual lab and setup your own ad, dns, dhcp, file server, etc.), getting certified will help too, MCSA windows 10 or MCSA server 2016, get the foundation knowledge if you lack it (review MTA server, network, storage). If you can directly contact your infra team or network team to help on some of their task or project do that to obtain exposure on the tools they are using and the approach they are taking. Your current role is good but after some time it gets boring and repetitive and stupid (having unplug and replug a cable and issue is fixed, or plug the cord to the wall adapter for the monitor to turn on is more of a user problem and not really a tech problem)

iBrokeIT

NetworkingStudent wrote: »

If I ship a lot of computer equipment, will this hurt me when I seek my next opportunity? ( I feel this is 70-80% of my job)

Did they explain that your time spent shipping computers would be this high? I would bring this issue up to your manager and explain your dissatisfaction with the amount of time you spend on that task.

NetworkingStudent

yoba222 wrote: »

In the past, when I worked at places where I had an impressive sounding job title and then the actual work had nothing to do with it, I took advantage of that title on my resume and spent my time learning from certs to fill in the knowledge I wasn't getting on the job.

If I were you I'd take advantage of the fact that you happen to have "desktop support tech" in your job title already for landing your next job, even though what you do is a bit more like a glorified parts shipper. I would de-emphasize the parts shipper activities though.

You may to have to fake it a little and puff your current job role up on your resume. Instead of "shipping parts" it might be "interaction and troubleshooting with customers" if you get my drift.

I definitely think it's good your sharpening up for real by studying for the MCSA.

Thank you so much, I'm going to do keep labbing, so that I can move into more of a technical role. I'm going to keep learning from certs , so that I can move into a desktop support role.

NetworkingStudent

doublehunter wrote: »

Hey OP, im currently in desktop support with bunch of other stuff involved aside from the usual customer facing troubleshooting. Since your title is already Desktop Support, i guess the better move is to aim for a sys admin role or the like instead of another desktop support role. Can you elaborate why you want your new role to be the same role you are at? Also if it boils down to it, just emphasize on your resume the technical side of your role instead of highlighting the 'courier' role. As scaredoftest said you can categorize it to inventory. As per the technical skills, youll what to get your hands dirty with hands-on training (create virtual lab and setup your own ad, dns, dhcp, file server, etc.), getting certified will help too, MCSA windows 10 or MCSA server 2016, get the foundation knowledge if you lack it (review MTA server, network, storage). If you can directly contact your infra team or network team to help on some of their task or project do that to obtain exposure on the tools they are using and the approach they are taking. Your current role is good but after some time it gets boring and repetitive and stupid (having unplug and replug a cable and issue is fixed, or plug the cord to the wall adapter for the monitor to turn on is more of a user problem and not really a tech problem)

The reason I want to go to the desktop side of things, because it would be my next step to get off the help desk.

Ultimately, I would love to get into an admin role or a network engineering role.

The help desk roles I have held in the past mostly involved supporting small projects or propriety products. The roles didn't support AD or Office 365, and since I lack these skills, it seems to hurt me at times during my job search.

Right now I work with the Networking team when I have an issue I cannot solve, but usually it's unplug something and have the user plug it in again.

NetworkingStudent

iBrokeIT wrote: »

Did they explain that your time spent shipping computers would be this high? I would bring this issue up to your manager and explain your dissatisfaction with the amount of time you spend on that task.

No, they never explained that my time shipping would be this high.

My boss gave me 10 tech links/websites that I would be using and access to AD accounts from my desktop.

Well I never knew I had access to these websites, nor was a I shown how to use them.

I have been able to access 4 of these sites.

One site is Service Now
UPS website.
Citirix directory
Networking dashboard

One day I found out I could get into one just by trying the log in. It's Citirx directory

There is another website I cold NOT get into a month or two. The networking guy we work with got me access and showed me how to use.
it was weird my boss never got me access.

Now I have been doing more troubleshooting, but it's a lot of unplug this, and plus that in in. Also, other teams will communicate to us what the user needs to do, and we will pass this on to the user.

I want to ask my boss if it will get more technical, but I'm afraid to, because it's a temp job.

Supposedly our team is the next level beyond help desk, but it does seem like help desk.

scaredoftests

Don't be afraid to ask just because it is a temp job! it will show that you are interested!

N7Valiant

NetworkingStudent wrote: »

The reason I want to go to the desktop side of things, because it would be my next step to get off the help desk.

Ultimately, I would love to get into an admin role or a network engineering role.

The help desk roles I have held in the past mostly involved supporting small projects or propriety products. The roles didn't support AD or Office 365, and since I lack these skills, it seems to hurt me at times during my job search.

Right now I work with the Networking team when I have an issue I cannot solve, but usually it's unplug something and have the user plug it in again.

Have you tried an MSP?

It's a special kind of hell, but the fact that many are often understaffed and overworked works in my favor in that I am 7 months in, fresh out of college (2 year AS), and I've been getting my hands dirty working with AD, GPOs, servers, O365, the RMM tools, etc.

Just this week I was setting up some management boxes to be deployed at client sites. Still need some additional hardware, but I got impatient so I setup a NetExtender connection to the client site, joined it to the domain remotely, and started scanning their network with our network management software over the tunnel.

Fun, fun, fun.

NetworkingStudent

N7Valiant wrote: »

Have you tried an MSP?

It's a special kind of hell, but the fact that many are often understaffed and overworked works in my favor in that I am 7 months in, fresh out of college (2 year AS), and I've been getting my hands dirty working with AD, GPOs, servers, O365, the RMM tools, etc.

Just this week I was setting up some management boxes to be deployed at client sites. Still need some additional hardware, but I got impatient so I setup a NetExtender connection to the client site, joined it to the domain remotely, and started scanning their network with our network management software over the tunnel.

Fun, fun, fun.

I worked at 2 MSPs.

Both were very unprofessional and didn't pay well.

I did update my linked in, with my desktop support title, and I have had recruiters reach out to me regarding desktop support roles.