Advice: IT support career in the NHS?

[Fluke?]

Hi all,
I found out today that I have been selected for interview for a Service Desk Team Leader role for an NHS trust and was just wanting to put my feelers out to see if anyone has experience or advice to offer, ideally working for the NHS in the wonderful world of IT.

I currently have a similar Team Leader role in an education environment so would feel there would be a certain amount of crossover and a lot of my existing skillset should be transferable (1st-2nd line with some 3rd). They ideally want an ITIL and Prince2 qualified person which sadly I don't have but having swatted up over Christmas (youtube yawnathon) I have a base understanding of the principals etc which will hopefully help to some small degree.

Interview is via Teams which is disappointing (but understandable) as I'm much more of a face to face sort of guy and is also only my second interview in 15 years (***** up the last one!) so am somewhat bricking it!

Anyway, just putting this out there in case anyone has any pearls of wisdom or little pointers, including what it is like working for an NHS trust in general. All much appreciated!

 

[dowie]

They ideally want an ITIL and Prince2 qualified person which sadly I don't have but having swatted up over Christmas (youtube yawnathon) I have a base understanding of the principals etc which will hopefully help to some small degree.

Why don't you just sit the exams for those certificates, get one of them in the bag before the interview? If you've studied for them over Christmas then might as well give yourself the best chance.

 

[MissChief]

@VeNT

 

[Zefan]

ITIL foundation (v3) was easily studyable in a very short time (less than a week, part time) and the test is online. If I'm interviewing you and you don't have the cert for ITIL when we've stated you need it... I'm going to be wondering why you haven't just got it. That isn't to say that everyone's like me or that it's the best use of your time, mind. Also the move to v4 may have changed things but I don't think it will have made too much of a difference.

 

[varkanoid]

One of the questions you can ask if they dont provide the answer is would they put you through the ITIL course. If they really like you not having ITIL is not really a barrier like dowie said it can be done in a week.
(its an utter bore fest, I spent most of my time colouring in pictures in the ITIL book with my highlighter pen, that was mainly due to the tutor going off on a tangent every hour talking about her medievel wedding she was going to have! I used a whole highlighter pen.) I still got 94% in the exam. Medieval woman wasnt meant to tell you the score you got but she couldnt help herself.

Also bear in mind to see if they are actually have the ITIL creditation. I worked for a company and it took them 3 years to be 100% compliant and get the ITIL certification. Some companies claim you need ITIL but they are not actually compliant just pinch the bits they think are relevant. You would think the NHS would be but there is a heck of a lot of hard work to get 100% compliant.

If you do take it make sure you sit the exam at the same time at end of the course. Sometimes they give you 3-4 days for the course then you have the exam weeks later when its gone out of your head.

 

[Quartz]

They ideally want an ITIL and Prince2 qualified person

If they're interviewing you either they have someone already lined up and are just going through the motions or they think you can do the job regardless. You can say that you are excited to be interviewing with an employer that invests in their employees and are looking forward to the studying. ITIL I can understand but WTF do you require PRINCE?

 

[VeNT]

ok so I _was_ a service desk team leader in the NHS until recently.

they will put you through ITIL in all likelihood, but having an idea of what the basic principles are, what it means to be "responsible" etc, will stand you in VERY good stead.
Most service desk jobs are half customer service and half "real" IT support, you'll need to be able to tell them how you support your staff in handling difficult customers as well being able to fix stuff.

you'll have questions around managing staff sickness absence etc (note, in a healthcare situation you have to be aware that if someone's off ill then it's not a matter of getting them back, it's about it being safe).

Things like finding policies etc. asking HR for advice where needed.

the _BEST_ advice I can give you is to CONTACT THE PERSON LISTED ON THE APPLICATION FORM AS THE RECRUITING MANAGER AND ASK QUESTIONS. It always makes them happy and puts you on a positive angle from the start.

ask them what software they use to manage tickets, could be SMAX (ex-HP software. POS) or something in house.

Ask them if they support NHSMail within their trust (it's now basically office 365) and talk about any experience you have with that.

Most trusts are currently migrating TO 365 managed by NHS Digital (NHS-D) so knowing how it's used and having experience with it WILL help.

Will you be responsible for any of the security stuff? again, nationaly they will have access to ATP/MSD so any MS certs will help.

feel free to ask me any questions if you like

 

[dowie]

ITIL foundation (v3) was easily studyable in a very short time (less than a week, part time) and the test is online. If I'm interviewing you and you don't have the cert for ITIL when we've stated you need it... I'm going to be wondering why you haven't just got it.

Exactly, I mean I guess they know he hasn't got it and are choosing to interview him anyway but it would look good if he did it. I know a friend did one of these and it was like a 2-day training course in person then an exam at the end or something along those lines. OP has already self studied over Christmas so presumably can just book the exam.

It would look good to be able to say in the interview; "I know you've specified ITIL and Prince 2 on the job spec, I didn't have either at the time I applied but I have recently sat and passed my ITIL foundations exam and have started studying towards and will be looking to sit [whatever next stage is] + [prince 2] in coming weeks too"

 

[HangTime]

Bear in mind NHS IT jobs generally pay badly but you can probably see from the ad already what the pay will be.

they have someone already lined up and are just going through the motions

This sort of thing seems pretty rife in some trusts from what I can see. Also don't take the closing date as gospel, sometimes they will post jobs and then pull them before the deadline.

 

[Fluke?]

Thanks for the replies everyone! Fingers crossed that I am not just there to make up the numbers but that is a depressing thought.. *tin foil hat - they are also advertising for a IT analyst so has an existing analyst been bumped up?? Bit premature and presumptuous to advertise a job before the guy has even got it though..*

Re the ITIL and Prince2 stuff both were listed as "desirables" on the job description rather than "essentials" which was part of the reason I went for it without having the quals myself.
Really interesting to hear that ITIL foundation can be doable in a short timespan.. Typically I happened to spend more time looking at Prince2 over Christmas than ITIL but will cram as much over the next few days so I can at least say that I am well on my way.

Re salary this is starting on ~£4k more than I am on now and going upto a further £7k. I currently work in FE so am well versed in bad pay!

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Do the job, be good at it, take experience, then get a proper salary outside of the NHS.

That's what happens to anyone decent I speak to at the NHS in an IT

 

[NickK]

Why don't you just sit the exams for those certificates, get one of them in the bag before the interview? If you've studied for them over Christmas then might as well give yourself the best chance.

ITIL is a large framework - typically understanding what this bits are and how they relate is good enough. No institution or organisation implements a framework as described, thus locating and understanding that framework is more important.

I have held multiple ITIL "Service Owner" title for financial institutions - the role in the organisation in reality is not an ITIL SO as described but the entire service shooting match - including the accountable financially, for the strategy, supplier management and negotiation, risk management, security etc for that service. More akin to mini-CIO+CTO combined.

The same is true with PRINCE2, but knowing the framework then being able to show working within it is usually a key line of questions but again how their programme management and funding works will be different but it gives you a good basis to ask questions.

 

[dowie]

ITIL is a large framework - typically understanding what this bits are and how they relate is good enough. No institution or organisation implements a framework as described, thus locating and understanding that framework is more important.

The point was just that if he's studied for it and they've literally listed it on the job spec then it is fairly trivial to just sit the exam and have it in hand. We're not talking about anything massively onerous here, people sit these things after taking a course for a couple of days or so.

If he's got several years as a support person and is looking for further management roles in support then it's a trivial cost too - lots of people in those roles do have it so might as well tick that box not just for this interview but for any other recruiters/HR types who may skim over his CV going forwards too.

 

[NickK]

The point was just that if he's studied for it and they've literally listed it on the job spec then it is fairly trivial to just sit the exam and have it in hand. We're not talking about anything massively onerous here, people sit these things after taking a course for a couple of days or so.

If he's got several years as a support person and is looking for further management roles in support then it's a trivial cost too - lots of people in those roles do have it so might as well tick that box not just for this interview but for any other recruiters/HR types who may skim over his CV going forwards too.

True.

 

[VeNT]

Re salary this is starting on ~£4k more than I am on now and going upto a further £7k. I currently work in FE so am well versed in bad pay!

that's also firmly structured.
if it's going up 7k then it's band 6 so you'll be
First two years: £32,306
years 2-5: £34,172
5+ years: £39,027

if you're in an area with other employers then I'd say once you are top of band you would either be looking for a more senior role or another employer.

 

[Fluke?]

@VeNT , yes that is the band. Interesting to hear about how the progression works. In my current post I will be unable to earn any more and although there are banded pay scales there has not actually been a proper pay progression system for a number or years so a firmly structured progression system is better than no progression system!

 

[JustBen]

Everyone will have a view on progression but personally if i was going for a Team Leader role for a Service Desk i'd be after an alright starting salary then be thinking about a role change once i've got my feet under the desk. I mean in the org i work for we've had Team Leaders go into the wider Service / Problem Management, we have had some go into project management and the odd one goes into Senior IT Management roles. One guy went from manager to a technical role.
Depends what you're after really but i've moved roles a few times and just kept an open mind. I started my career in PC World as a Sales Advisor for example, i've since done Service Desk, Service Management , 3rd Line tech roles (DBA) and now in enterprise architecture.

 

[VeNT]

@VeNT , yes that is the band. Interesting to hear about how the progression works. In my current post I will be unable to earn any more and although there are banded pay scales there has not actually been a proper pay progression system for a number or years so a firmly structured progression system is better than no progression system!

I would expect most team leader posts to be dead end as the management will be band 8 and not wanting to move at all!

 

[HangTime]

Not necessarily because the band 8 positions will be even more dead end and be paid relatively poorly compared to the private sector.
I've seen a few interesting band 8 roles in the past but the pay has always been a stumbling block. I mean say you are in the private sector doing the equivalent of a Band 6 role, looking for a step up. You're talking maybe Band 8d or whatever before it gets feasible on the money side, but those tend to be quite senior in the NHS. It's a bit weird really, they don't pay enough to attract much talent from outside the NHS but presumably it is also rare for people to 'jump' bandings i.e. go from 5 to 7, 6 to 8 etc, so it must be quite a slow road for some people.

 

[OspreyO]

Everyone will have a view on progression but personally if i was going for a Team Leader role for a Service Desk i'd be after an alright starting salary then be thinking about a role change once i've got my feet under the desk. I mean in the org i work for we've had Team Leaders go into the wider Service / Problem Management, we have had some go into project management and the odd one goes into Senior IT Management roles. One guy went from manager to a technical role.
Depends what you're after really but i've moved roles a few times and just kept an open mind. I started my career in PC World as a Sales Advisor for example, i've since done Service Desk, Service Management , 3rd Line tech roles (DBA) and now in enterprise architecture.

What is Enterprise architecture and how did you make that jump...