What Can I Expect as a Helpdesk Tech?

I just got hired as a Helpdesk Tech on a 6-month contract with an option to hire permanently depending on my performance. This is my first actually IT job so I'm feeling a bit of pressure since I'm not really sure what I'll be encountering. I know that I'll be dealing with Microsoft Office quite a bit as well as some simple network issues, but I'm sure there will be curveballs hidden as I progress through this position.

Any advice guys?

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skrpune

Congrats on the new job!

As for what to expect in help desk...that varies wildly from place to place and from day to day. Are you doing phone support or in person support or both? Any hardware support or only software or a mix? Are there different levels of tech's that you'll be working with, i.e., will there be more experienced techs to escalate the tough problems to? What type of company will you be working for?

Where I work, at a business school, no two days are alike. Sure, there are things that we deal with on a regular basis, and our most common tasks are to set up equipment in classrooms and do password resets or user unlocks, but every day brings a new challenge. Some days I'm helping users figure out simple things like how to make gridlines appear in Word tables, other days I'm repairing Office installations, troubleshooting and/or replacing hardware or doing machine reimages, etc. Our most challenging times are when we have international students come in - there's nothing quite like troubleshooting a laptop when it's in a foreign language!

Your best bet to find out what to expect is to talk to the other folks you work with - ask them what a typical day is like and what the most common issues are and what their weirdest and/or most difficult issue was. Tech's love to share "war stories" so you will get a wealth of good info just by talking to your colleagues.

Mclewis88

Thanks!

I'll be doing a mixture of both actually, phone support and in-person support. It'll mainly be software support, but I'm also expecting a bit of hardware support as well. There are 3 levels of techs with beginners such as myself starting at Level 1 so there should be other techs for me to go to for help if I need it. I will be working for a business solutions company. It's actually part of HP.

Thanks for the reply! It helps quite a bit!

janmike

That's sort of the scenario that I started under.

Best advice, pay attention, listen, take advantage of your in-house training--invaluable. Big plus is learning quickly where to find your own help in knowledge base!

I am sure that you will have some fun. I have! And....you will also have some not-so-much fun. Had that too!

Good luck!

KoolTrix

I assume you're a tier-2 helpdesk/desktop or deskside support?

I know i get alot of office problems, but mostly, something isnt working, like power supply (external powersupply went up), or videocards goes up.

I build PC's for new users, add them into the domain, and when they have their password set up, then add their outlook to the company's exchange server.

I was not afraid to ask for help when I didnt know how to do something...
I'll be the first person to tell you that google will be your friend. I've figured out solutions to many problems that way.

I have to re-install alot of apps sometimes, or run chkdsk becuz a sys file is missing during bootup.

easy stuff.. so congrats on the job, and hope your career takes off.

keep us updated on your experience and anything you might pick up.

EDIT: I just seen you said you're on level 1.. mostly answering phones.. I've never done that, so def let me know what your daily job is like, most common problem. What ticketing/helpdesk software will you be using?

Psoasman

Be patient, learn as much from the other guys as you can. See if you can work on certs in the downtime.
You will probably be answering phones, resetting passwords, entering tickets into a tracking system, escalating what you don't handle. You might be loading new computers, doing upgrades, that sort of thing. Soft skills are very important in your position. People may call you angry about something you have no control over, like where is the ctrl+alt+delete button on the keyboard

billscott92787

By the description it sounds like you will be doing mostly "desktop support" classified work. Just take advantage of the training and pay attention. If you are a good learner, you will be fine. Perform your best and chances are you'll get hired on. I definitely guarantee you will get calls on stuff you can't even handle LOL. Like,

I can't get into my yahoo mail I forgot my password, I can't do this... Mine normally is, "I can't connect to the internet." Considering they are calling from their home location, hmmmmmmmmmmm I'm not an ISP. So don't call me LOL. Of course I don't say that, but that's what I'm thinking

it is a great place to start and get some experience.

I definitely can say I'm hoping that something opens up that I can move into our networking side.

brad-

Treat people like you would want to be treated. Their problems are your problems.

Try to get a cert before your 6 months are over to show your enthusiasm and self motivation. MCTS: Windows 7 or soemthing.

blargoe

There will be things that you like about the job, and some things that will kind of suck. You have to take the good with the bad when you're starting out. Too many people just quit because everything about the job doesn't suit their vision of what they believe their job should entail, these are the people that end up getting out of IT within a couple of years because "the industry has gotten bad".

Also ditto what everyone else has said.

rsutton

Mclewis88 wrote: »

but I'm sure there will be curveballs hidden as I progress through this position.

Indeed there will be curve balls, but first off, congratulations on getting your foot in the door!

How you perform at this job will likely have a big impact on your career. In addition to the good advice already mentioned, I would recommend staying busy. If possible, jump on any projects that come your way. When you don't have projects, I would recommend using your slow time to check back with users you previously helped, see if they are still OK.

Being good at this type of a position also means you will need a strong tolerance for agitated, slow, stupid, annoying, demanding, etc. people. It's really a unique position that requires a fine mix of customer service and technical skills. I'd also add that while you need tolerance, it's important that you don't let people walk all over you.

Make sure you always follow up with people. In the Help Desk you will probably be handling multiple tickets and it can be easy to forget about someone (especially if they are a pain in the ass). It's better to deliver bad news than to just leave them hanging. If you need more time to work on something, update the affected users.

Doing these things will make their way back to your superiors and will make you feel good about the job you are doing. Stick it out for a few years, keep learning, and you will probably find new oppurtunities knocking on your door.

Mclewis88

Thanks for all the feedback, guys! I will definately keep you all up-to-date on how this goes. I start tomorrow. I've spent all Labor Day weekend researching and honing my knowledge just about everything. I feel ready for training tomorrow so I'll just take it from there.

I'm not too much worried about the tougher issues that I'll encounter. More than anything, this is a learning experience for me. I've never had trouble asking for help so if I encounter something I know is higher than my level of knowledge then I'll escalate it. My primary prerogative is to do well, learn a ton, and secure my place at this company past the 6-months.

Daniel333

Something I had to deal with in help desk

1) Get used to always being wrong, even when you are right.
2) Be ready to feed half truths and lies to your customers that management asks you to hand down.
3) Be ready to be yelled at day in and day out.
4) Be ready to know the solution to the problem, but being prevented from doing it because of time constraints
5) Know how to ask the user to do things they wont wana do.
6) People are going to lie to you, and try and make everything that went wrong your fault, and if it ever is, even remotely you might be fired
7) You must be a master of all things that face the user, so Office and any custom apps

Be ready to take notes. I recommend this format, but the place will probably have their own

User(s)/Contact+alt:
VIP: y/n
Scope:
Priority:
Brief Description of the issue:
Time started/Last worked:
Reproduce Issue/confirm scope:
Host Names/IP:
Secondary Impact?:
Notes/Steps:

desertmouse

Mclewis88 wrote: »

Thanks for all the feedback, guys! I will definately keep you all up-to-date on how this goes. I start tomorrow. I've spent all Labor Day weekend researching and honing my knowledge just about everything. I feel ready for training tomorrow so I'll just take it from there.

I'm not too much worried about the tougher issues that I'll encounter. More than anything, this is a learning experience for me. I've never had trouble asking for help so if I encounter something I know is higher than my level of knowledge then I'll escalate it. My primary prerogative is to do well, learn a ton, and secure my place at this company past the 6-months.

Don't forget to attempt to figure stuff out yourself. I've answered a lot of Q's from co-workers over the years (and asked) but some wear out their welcome...

thomas130

desertmouse wrote: »

Don't forget to attempt to figure stuff out yourself. I've answered a lot of Q's from co-workers over the years (and asked) but some wear out their welcome...

Yeah to be honest I think one the valuable things to have is the ablility to think for yourself I rarely ask people for their help now because I have the confidence and ablility to resolve things myself even I have to do some research (part of the fun I think)

axvulhad

I was registered at your forum. I have printed the test message. Do not delete, please.

JL2728

Sounds like the helpdesk support jobs are starting to come around. I also recently just accept my first IT job which is a Tier 1 Helpdesk support, mainly phone based and will be dealing with software and hardware troubleshooting. Job will start in 2weeks, 1yr contract with the option to become permanent, all will depend on performance and the ability to learn and play along with the rest of the team...

! You know how that is...

Did you have to do a Federal Government security clearance? I'm in the process of doing one before my job start and it's a heck of info. I have to go back 7yrs for important necessary information, I have no clue what I was doing 7yrs ago, also a whole bunch of financial info, and I have 2days to get this paperwork done... Boy is that stressfull....

stephens316

JL2728 wrote: »

Sounds like the helpdesk support jobs are starting to come around. I also recently just accept my first IT job which is a Tier 1 Helpdesk support, mainly phone based and will be dealing with software and hardware troubleshooting. Job will start in 2weeks, 1yr contract with the option to become permanent, all will depend on performance and the ability to learn and play along with the rest of the team... ! You know how that is...

Did you have to do a Federal Government security clearance? I'm in the process of doing one before my job start and it's a heck of info. I have to go back 7yrs for important necessary information, I have no clue what I was doing 7yrs ago, also a whole bunch of financial info, and I have 2days to get this paperwork done... Boy is that stressfull....

wait til they lose it or tell oh you needed to use form .... or have the good old DHS print your SSN on your mail.