NOC VS Helpdesk

Well pretty sure between now and june ill have two job offers one for the company ive been contracting through for the past 6 months and another at a NOC that isnt too far away from my current job. Im already comfortable with my current role in helpdesk and am already getting bored and tired of it, although im good at it im not sure excatly it's something ill want to be doing for the next five years or so like a few of the other agents that sit around me. Im pretty sure I would eventually be able to move up there, although accourding to the other FTE employee's it would still be phone support most likely t-2 wich they consider to be a pc anylast, and although a few employee's got sent over to voice support that rarley happens.

The other job may not pay as much starting out at the NOC and the shift will be either second or third but there will be room for advancment ex network admin/network engineer. My only fears is it may be something I cant do I took a few networking classes in college and the phone interview today was kind of tough even though I did get every question but one right it was like the knowlegde was kind of fuzzy and I know this position will involve voiceover ip. The friend that got me the interview in the company has a net+ and she said it didnt help her for the interview's because it was more ccna stuff. Im sure ill be able to get past the second interview and my friend is telling me the training is good and that you have to pass a test on the training and score 85%, but she said it's comming along easy so far.

Althought the pay isnt the deciding factor one will pay around $18+full benifits and 401k no bunus though for the helpdesk and the NOC will pay 15+ full benifits 401k and a bonus quaterly. I also get a 100 bonus for each person I refer and they get in. Just not sure what I want to do I One of the biggest empoyeers in charlotte, and the other is a company that is rapidly expanding.

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Comments

ehnde

You could advance in helpdesk, and you can also advance in a NOC. Which one could you see yourself doing for another 5 years?

Honestly as far as your knowledge level goes for the NOC, why don't you let the interview process decide if you are knowledgeable enough to work there? You'll be blown away with information overload when you start working there regardless of how much studying you've done (if this would be your first networking job).

Johnta20

ehnde wrote: »

You could advance in helpdesk, and you can also advance in a NOC. Which one could you see yourself doing for another 5 years?

Honestly as far as your knowledge level goes for the NOC, why don't you let the interview process decide if you are knowledgeable enough to work there? You'll be blown away with information overload when you start working there regardless of how much studying you've done (if this would be your first networking job).

I have only touched studying on the ccna.From the questions I got today it was alot of the stuff I studied for back in college. But I know I will pass the second interview between the first interviewer and my friend I know what to brush up on. How is a Noc much different than helpdesk not just the technical aspects, but do you usually have a knowlege base there like you do in helpdesk? Im a pretty quick learner and pick up on technical terms pretty quickly, and the helpdesk is a breeze once you learn how to use all your resources. And this is somewhat of a level one postion.

Lol which one would you choose? I honestly dont see my self working in helpdesk another five years it is way to easy now, and all thought the max pay is okay for the area I know tha min the long run networking would probably take me further and may have more job security.

ehnde

Johnta20 wrote: »

I have only touched studying on the ccna.From the questions I got today it was alot of the stuff I studied for back in college. But I know I will pass the second interview between the first interviewer and my friend I know what to brush up on. How is a Noc much different than helpdesk not just the technical aspects, but do you usually have a knowlege base there like you do in helpdesk? Im a pretty quick learner and pick up on technical terms pretty quickly, and the helpdesk is a breeze once you learn how to use all your resources. And this is somewhat of a level one postion.

Lol which one would you choose? I honestly dont see my self working in helpdesk another five years it is way to easy now, and all thought the max pay is okay for the area I know tha min the long run networking would probably take me further and may have more job security.

I think the biggest difference between the two is that help desk is more customer oriented/fixing I.T. problems for other employees in the company, while that NOC position would be router/switch configuration (after they trust you) IOS upgrades, and alot of monitoring (probably the most boring part

) but from what I've heard here on TechExams your responsibilities can vary heavily depending on who you're working for and also the time of day.

Which one would I choose? Today I got hired to work in a NOC.

You sound like you're already leaning towards networking!

Repo Man

They lead to different jobs. A help desk job could lead you into a desktop engineering or sys admin work while NOC is better for net engineering. Depends what interests you long term and what job you'll gain more from short term.

drew726

Just do the NOC job so you can get a better idea what you want to do later. It's experience regardless.

nimrod.sixty9

15 for an NOC and 18 for helpdesk? Weird...
Id have to go for which ever career path I want. I myself would take the NOC just because it has room for advancement (and its paying slightly more than I am now). HD is just randomly supporting low level equipment day in and day out. All you can get from that is just years of HD experience. NOC can lead to better things IMHO.

the_Grinch

Our NOC handles ticket creation and monitoring. We monitor servers and network stuff, so if a server sends out an alert (such as low disk space) they will look at it, fix if they can, or escalate to the helpdesk. Like others have said, most NOC position involve monitoring and reporting outages as they occur. Want to do networking? Stick with the NOC. Want to move into server administration? Stick with the helpdesk. I technically went from NOC to Helpdesk (when I started they weren't separated) and wish I was back on the NOC.

amb1s1

I say NOC because of my self experience. I went from been the helpdesk, promoted to NOC then promoted to network engineer. But if you like it. The best job is the one that you like.

NOC-Ninja

Can you list what responsibilities and description of this NOC?

Johnta20

Tier 1 Voip Support will support internal and external customers by phone, email, and trouble cases. - Perform system diagnostics to resolve the issue on the first call
- Coordinate with internal/external departments to possibly resolve issue
- Provide feedback to Mgmt regarding workflow procedures and processes
- Responsible for Key Performance Indicators such as Hold, Talk Time, Schedule Adherence, etc.

MentholMoose

Johnta20 wrote: »

Althought the pay isnt the deciding factor one will pay around $18+full benifits and 401k no bunus though for the helpdesk and the NOC will pay 15+ full benifits 401k and a bonus quaterly. I also get a 100 bonus for each person I refer and they get in. Just not sure what I want to do I One of the biggest empoyeers in charlotte, and the other is a company that is rapidly expanding.

You can ask for more money. Having two offers is a really good position to be in when negotiating salary. You can outright tell the NOC employer that you have a better offer, but even if you don't you will be more confident when negotiating... after all the worst that could happen is they withdraw the offer and you have to take a higher paying job!

ehnde wrote: »

You could advance in helpdesk, and you can also advance in a NOC. Which one could you see yourself doing for another 5 years?

NOC is generally a step up from helpdesk, so going from helpdesk to NOC is an advancement (if not in responsibility, at least in title). I've worked in a NOC and when I was quitting, I know that there were several internal applicants from the helpdesk.

drew726

MentholMoose wrote: »

You can ask for more money. Having two offers is a really good position to be in when negotiating salary. You can outright tell the NOC employer that you have a better offer, but even if you don't you will be more confident when negotiating... after all the worst that could happen is they withdraw the offer and you have to take a higher paying job!

NOC is generally a step up from helpdesk, so going from helpdesk to NOC is an advancement (if not in responsibility, at least in title). I've worked in a NOC and when I was quitting, I know that there were several internal applicants from the helpdesk.

I also moved from Help desk after 2 years to NOC as well.

N2IT

Repo Man wrote: »

They lead to different jobs. A help desk job could lead you into a desktop engineering or sys admin work while NOC is better for net engineering. Depends what interests you long term and what job you'll gain more from short term.

+1

I've seen this a lot. Several companies I have worked for would advance really sharp help desk guys to the WINTEL, Windows Management (whatever you want to call it) team.

I've also seen people in the NOC who get promoted to system admins and/or networking.

NOC is nice because you get a lot of hands on skills with the server room and the networking. In help desk you get more visibility. Both have their + & -.

NOC-Ninja

NOC is higher than helpdesk. I dont know why NOC is going to pay you less. Maybe because they will have to teach you everything since you dont have CCNA or CCNA-voice.

You will have a hard time learning NOC if you dont even have CCNA. There's a lot into NOC that even CCNA is not enough nor CCNP.

It seems that this job they will teach you more of just installing phones and making it work with the network. Its pretty easy since Voice stuff has GUI's and it says Tier 1 Voip support.

I recommend you study for CCNA > CCNA-Voice > CCNP-Voice to understand your job even more.

Goodluck