Help Desk Technician IT Etc.

Whack

So ive seen some jobs Help Desk Technician/Support etc.
They are all to do with IT.

Ive applied to them (3 days, waiting for reply) unfortunately for me I do not have the working experience but I do have strong IT Skills developed from experimenting with the computer (Hardware/Software) in general. I consider myself the PC Wiz.

Anyway to those who do this for a living etc..
What are some of the 1st line fixes that you encounter in your workplace?

And if you are an employer what makes the best candidate for these roles?

Serenity

Whack wrote: »

So ive seen some jobs Help Desk Technician/Support etc.
They are all to do with IT.

Ive applied to them (3 days, waiting for reply) unfortunately for me I do not have the working experience but I do have strong IT Skills developed from experimenting with the computer (Hardware/Software) in general. I consider myself the PC Wiz.

Anyway to those who do this for a living etc..
What are some of the 1st line fixes that you encounter in your workplace?

And if you are an employer what makes the best candidate for these roles?

Depends on the role but if it is helpdesk technician what they are normally looking for is someone who can blindly follow scripted diagnostics and not engage their brain otherwise.

Hammyman

Serenity wrote: »

Depends on the role but if it is helpdesk technician what they are normally looking for is someone who can blindly follow scripted diagnostics and not engage their brain otherwise.

Seconded. At First Line level, technical competency isn't a requirement.

shaven-monkey

Whack wrote: »

What are some of the 1st line fixes that you encounter in your workplace?

Paper jams.
It's not plugged in.
They've opened several instances of the software so it's had a nervous breakdown.

And if you are an employer what makes the best candidate for these roles?

You can remain calm while fixing a problem for someone who thinks they know what they're doing when clearly they haven't a clue.
You reduce their workload by dealing with the easy problems.
You make the users feel like the IT department is purely there to service their unreasonable and repeated support requests.

People skills and some technical knowledge are more valuable in 1st line support than deep technical knowledge.

DVardysShadow

Wind your neck in about being the technical wiz for first line support. Just concentrate on getting the job and then not showing too much initiative - just do as you are told for 6 months until you understand how it works. And then when you know the scripts backwards, you can possibly see if a little step beyond the script takes you to a solution - but don't take it too far and don't tread on the toes of 2nd line, but start making your paln to go to second line.

Hammyman

To quote a classic line from IT Crowd: "Have you tried turning it off and on again?"

purplepardalis

You will need strong customer service skills to get your foot in the door - not IT skills. If you can demonstrate experience in dealing with difficult people and situations, understanding the needs of the business and customer. Calm under pressure. Troubleshooting skills (not necessarily technical, just finding solutions to problems).

Experience in the industry you will be supporting helps or at least an understanding.

I've been a manager of various IT support teams for 10 years, please let me know if you have any more questions or want to know what I look for in a candidate during an interview.

SarEl

shaven-monkey wrote: »

You can remain calm while fixing a problem for someone who thinks they know what they're doing when clearly they haven't a clue.

Alternatively, remaining calm while insisting on fixing a problem that the user doesn't have (but which you know how to fix) whilst ignoring entirely everything they say about the problem they have (but which you don't know how to fix), because this will drive them mad, thus providing you with an amusing story for your colleagues about users who think they know it all (and who do).

A_Nice_Englishman

As an IT manager with some 20 years experience in the industry I second what purplepardalis says.

The skills required to work on a (first line) IT Helpdesk are much the same as for any call centre. You are the voice of the company / IT dept and it's all about people skills rather than technical ones. I'd probably favour a candidate who had a good track record in a call centre of any kind (utilitiies, banking, retail, etc) over one who enjoyed fiddling with computers.

The calls are most likely to involve things like forgotten passwords, blank screens (are you sure all the leads are in place and it's switched on at the wall?), I sent something to print and it hasn't come out (which printer of those on your network did you send it to? Is there paper in it? Any error messages?). My computer's not responding to the mouse or keybpoard (I'm afaid you will have to hold the power switch until it goes off then turn it back on. Yes, you will have lost the work you've spent three hours on but not saved). For more complicated things, you will have to gather the information 2nd line require and pass it to them.

If you can deal with dozens of calls like this a day patiently and diplomatically (however stressed, computer-phobic and unreasonable the caller is) and keep your team leader happy by answering within x seconds and not spending more than y minutes on each call then an IT Helpdesk job is the one for you.

mkhan_2

purplepardalis wrote: »

You will need strong customer service skills to get your foot in the door - not IT skills. If you can demonstrate experience in dealing with difficult people and situations, understanding the needs of the business and customer. Calm under pressure. Troubleshooting skills (not necessarily technical, just finding solutions to problems).

Experience in the industry you will be supporting helps or at least an understanding.

I've been a manager of various IT support teams for 10 years, please let me know if you have any more questions or want to know what I look for in a candidate during an interview.

Yeah, it is the right point to know what you look for in a candidate during an interview. For me I am an IT staff in a local industry Troubleshooting and Maintenance are core duties. I am interested be helpdesk support personnel.
Where? I would found further helpful information.

diable

First Line think PC World ;p