Ist line support jobs qualifications?

morganedge

Lots of jobs in my area for 1st line IT support?

Specs usually say they want an IT graduate (rules me out), but some adverts say ''relevant qualifications required'' but don't say what they are?

Is there such thing as a ''1st line IT support'' course that I could do that could help me get a job??

thanks

Icematikx

1st Line Support is just about your knowledge I'd say. I don't see why a qualification would be required. At the end of day, I consider myself an expert at making Beans on Toast, and I don't need a qualification for it. I think I'm more than qualified to be a Beans on Toast 1st line support..

Same applies for any other support.. Go in there and demonstrate your expertise through your words and actions.

DomRavioli

In my experience, a relevant qualification would be either a degree or an NVQ level 5; unless you had specific qualifications such as the Microsoft engineer ones, but they are usually noted on the form.

Why not do a degree in it if you are wanting to work in the field? The OU might be a starting point, they can certainly give you some careers advice about it.

vouch0r

it would probably be college level IT, A+ or N+ , basic IT qualifications. i think these days they are more looking for enthusiasm for the role than a load of qualifications.

gadgetmind

I employ quite a few front line support people and it's quite a hard position to fill if you want the job done properly, which I do.

People need to really know the product, but not come across as show offs and know it alls. You need to understand the customer's problem (who often knows the product pretty well, and it's usually pretty bright) and then instruct and guide while also being polite and professional.

They need to be bright but (let's face it) anyone with lots of get up and go will, um, get up and go rather than remain in support.

I also need people with good English and communication skills, which seem to be very rare. Some people were clearly not at school when they covered grammar, spelling and punctuation, and no-one wants their company to come across as ignorant of such basics.

As for a degree, I didn't ask for them in the past for support roles, but in these modern "degrees for all!" days, we now do.

sans_2

Hi,

I work in IT (non technical position) and I see 1st line as the Service Desk. More and more companies looking for IT staff would like to see the candidate has ITIL foundation. If you have that on your cv it shows you have done a course/exam on IT Service Management best practice. Obviously they would expect you to have basic skills such as being able to install memory and troubleshooting etc.

morganedge

Thanks. I'll look into the ITIL foundation course.

It's not that it's a dream job or anything. Far from it.
I just look for jobs of which there are lots in my area, and then think whether I could feasibly do it/get qualified to do it.

In my area there always seems to be lots of jobs for 1st line IT support, and for payroll jobs.

I'm looking into qualifications for them roles, mainly (among a few others)

Ideally I could find an entry level position in something, without the need for qualifications, but like someone else mentioned, everyone seems to want degrees nowadays, for pretty much every job.

robatwork

gadgetmind wrote: »

I also need people with good English and communication skills, which seem to be very rare. Some people were clearly not at school when they covered grammar, spelling and punctuation, and no-one wants their company to come across as ignorant of such basics.

This x100. I also employ 1st/2nd line support people but can offer a slightly different perspective. If it's a small more specialist company then your phone manner and ability to learn will be as important as IT skills - but you will still need the basics (MS Office, how to get into control panel on various flavours of windows, how to write an email), and have a technical aptitude.

But as gadgetmind says, you need to be able to talk clearly, understand different accents, and write updates on a helpdesk system properly.

I despair of 1st line support working at large companies today. When I have any dealings with them - my latest would be talktalk - they are based in the UK but the emails ALWAYS contain spelling and grammatical errors. 1 out of 100 may also contain some useful advice.

So I guess there's hope for anyone getting a job in support.

Experience in any sort of call centre would be useful as a grounding for IT support too - you can work your way up from answering the phone and blindly taking details to actually fixing problems.

sans_2

Icematikx wrote: »

1st Line Support is just about your knowledge I'd say. I don't see why a qualification would be required. At the end of day, I consider myself an expert at making Beans on Toast, and I don't need a qualification for it. I think I'm more than qualified to be a Beans on Toast 1st line support..

Same applies for any other support.. Go in there and demonstrate your expertise through your words and actions.

The qualification may be irrelevant but it shows the candidate has knuckled down and been able to pass the exam. People may sit through a course, go to college/university but it doesn't mean they all come out with a qualification. Employers and agencies can pick and choose who they like when they get hundreds of applications for one job. Why should they choose you.

For example I think there are plenty of people who are good project managers out there, but I don't think I would even consider them if they were not Prince2 Practitioner certified. A lot of recruitment agencies don't know what they are looking for in a particular field and a lot of the time if your CV does not contain a particular skill/qualification your cv gets binned.

Unfortunately in order to demonstrate your expertise through words and actions you need to get past the gatekeepers ie recruitment agencies.

My suggestion is get on linkedin if you don't already have a profile. Make sure it has more than your basic details. That is your online CV if you like. Build up as many professional contacts. Get endorsed if you can for certain skills. You would be surprised at the amount of people you knew who had contacts to a company/industry you were interested in.

Good luck!