Level 1 Help Desk Interview- Completed

Hi All,

I completed a Help Desk interview and it wasn't so bad. The questions were pretty basic and general to Help Desk. First they asked about my experience with Microsoft Active Directory, my customer service skills and experience with Microsoft Office and troubleshooting Outlook.

I found it kind of surprising when the manager said this to me, "I see you moved around quite a bit. You were a Pharmacy Tech., then a secretary now you're in accounting. Are you sure I.T. is what you want to do?"

Here is a break down of my career history:

Age 18: Attended Pharmacy Technician vocational training at the community college.
Age 19-24: Employed as a Pharmacy Technician
Age 25: Earned my Associate of Arts in Business degree
Age 25: Employed as an Accounting Technician
Age 26-present: Employed as a Government Accountant
Age 29-31: Earned my Bachelors in Information Technology Managment
Age 30: Completed a 6 month I.T. internship
Age 30-32: presently seeking an I.T. job and transition out of Accounting

Does my backround make me look sketchy?

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Comments

scaredoftests

No, it doesn't. Oh believe me, I have had that question asked of me. Since 2004, I have had about 5 or 6 jobs..and it was because of the economy and that is what I say. If they don't know how crappy the economy it is amazing to me.

edzyyy

I see things have changed with level 1 positions

Employers have now snuck in server side stuff like exchange and active directory.

But, back to your question, no it doesn't. The economy is crappy.

New2ITinCali

scaredoftests wrote: »

No, it doesn't. Oh believe me, I have had that question asked of me. Since 2004, I have had about 5 or 6 jobs..and it was because of the economy and that is what I say. If they don't know how crappy the economy it is amazing to me.

Thanks for you response. Also, most of my movement was done in my twenties. I was young and didn't know what I really wanted to do. Now that I'm 32, I know without a doubt that I want to pursue a career in I.T.

I'm surprised she didn't also take notice to the fact that I also became more educated, and with that education I moved onto a better job which was a better fit given the education that I had completed.

New2ITinCali

edzyyy wrote: »

I see things have changed with level 1 positions

Employers have now snuck in server side stuff like exchange and active directory.

But, back to your question, no it doesn't. The economy is crappy.

Thanks for you response. I've never worked in the I.T. field, but I always request a statement of duties/ job description for the position and I study it before going into the interview. This job description mentioned Active Directory, email troubleshooting.

A previous interview I went on asked me, "Can you tell us the steps you would take to set up wifi for a large campus." That was quite difficult given I don't have any work experience setting up wifi for a large campus.

Anonymouse

Just wondering but do you put all of those jobs on your resume? I did the same thing as you and worked many different types of jobs in my twenties but I didn't get any higher education than GED. I only put IT related work on my resume so as to not bring up any sort of red flags to HR recruiters.

Oh and since you're in The Bay...what company did you interview at? If you don't want to answer then that's okay.

New2ITinCali

Anonymouse wrote: »

Just wondering but do you put all of those jobs on your resume? I did the same thing as you and worked many different types of jobs in my twenties but I didn't get any higher education than GED. I only put IT related work on my resume so as to not bring up any sort of red flags to HR recruiters.

Oh and since you're in The Bay...what company did you interview at? If you don't want to answer then that's okay.

Well the thing with that is, I've never been employed in the I.T. field before. I'm using my 6 month internship and my degree to get my foot in the door so I have no choice but to list those jobs on my resume. I just wish the manager would've noticed that was over 7 years ago and I've been in a stable job since. Oh Well...

No, I don't mind. I actually interviewed with a government agency. I am currently employed with the government so I've decided to stay in government.

--chris--

edzyyy wrote: »

I see things have changed with level 1 positions

Employers have now snuck in server side stuff like exchange and active directory.

But, back to your question, no it doesn't. The economy is crappy.

Depends on where you work. I'm tier 2, yet we only handle desktop incidents. There are separate teams for everything.

Smaller employers will likely combine duties like that, but its nothing to stress about. Reseting passwords and setting up outlook boxes are easy tasks.

coreyb80

New2ITinCali wrote: »

Thanks for you response. I've never worked in the I.T. field, but I always request a statement of duties/ job description for the position and I study it before going into the interview. This job description mentioned Active Directory, email troubleshooting.

A previous interview I went on asked me, "Can you tell us the steps you would take to set up wifi for a large campus." That was quite difficult given I don't have any work experience setting up wifi for a large campus.

That was a question for a Level 1 Helpdesk position at the campus?

ThePawofRizzo

I don't see your work history as sketchy at all. I'd look at it as employment opportunities as you continued your education. And honestly your work history is pretty stable. I'd say it would be pretty typical for a manager to interview someone with various backgrounds, and at the very least yours is business related.

Each interviewer - and interviewee - is so different. Perhaps the interviewer simply couldn't think of a better question to try to discombobulate you, so was grabbing for something to see how you'd do if he asked you something a little more personal regarding your career goals.

New2ITinCali

coreyb80 wrote: »

That was a question for a Level 1 Helpdesk position at the campus?

Well that position was entry-level, but it wasn't exclusively a help desk role. It included a lot of networking detail, I just thought it was a difficult question for an entry-level interview.

New2ITinCali

ThePawofRizzo wrote: »

I don't see your work history as sketchy at all. I'd look at it as employment opportunities as you continued your education. And honestly your work history is pretty stable. I'd say it would be pretty typical for a manager to interview someone with various backgrounds, and at the very least yours is business related.

Each interviewer - and interviewee - is so different. Perhaps the interviewer simply couldn't think of a better question to try to discombobulate you, so was grabbing for something to see how you'd do if he asked you something a little more personal regarding your career goals.

Thanks for your reponse. I do agree that he probably wanted to ensure that I this is the career field in which I plan to stay in. I assured him that I definitely am passionate about the field and I told him about all the I.T. related coursework I completed and how I assisted the software developer on my internship. I basically let him know that this definitely is the field I plan on staying in.