1st Line IT Support -

[Guest2]

I'm 33 and am currently in IT Help Desk role 1st line. This was job was only meant to be a short term as I came back from travelling last year and needed a job, I got employed within 2 weeks so was happy to be earning again and paying off debts. Now a year later I am still here. I have gone for 3 promotions whilst here, 1 time for a MS Systems based role and 2 for EPOS systems role. Not one has been fruitful despite my experience working with MS, Citrix, Avaya and having an MCP. There's either something wrong with my interview technique or they're keeping me here because I do a larger quantity of the work compared to several other team members. Either way I need to get out and look for something more technical. Sadly I think my knowledge has somewhat evaporated though as not been using any of the skills I had learnt to good use in this role.

I need to put myself on some refresher courses and also catch up with the world and update myself from Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

Any suggestions ?!?

My suggestion would be to look into courses for Server 2008, Windows 7 & Office 2010. No point in tryig to learn software / hardware that is 8 years out of date

 

[Fr0dders]

it shouldn't be read to mean that these people are numpties that someone has employed on a silly salary to just pick up the phone. They are expected to analyse/solve issue themselves, not just rely on a knowledge base or some user guides (tbh.. user guides don't necessarily exist for a lot of the software).

The knowledge base is written by our 2nd line guys. Any time they come across a problem there isn't a KB for and it gets passed up to 2nd line, when they find a workaround or a way to solve it, they document it into the KB for next time.

This is the way that IT helpdesks are supposed to work.

Yes you can pay 30k a year and have somebody answer the phone who can do everything but its hugely inefficient.

Our medical software isn't simple either. We've got 3 different products built in 3 different languages, the oldest of which is based on MUMPS and its archaic and the most unhelpful system you could help hope to have to support. But if your 2nd line guys are any good, they can write an KB that anybody can follow.

For every 1 person who is on 30k a year logging 1st line calls, we've got 2. Thats twice as many phone calls that can be handled at once, which is better for our users as their calls get answered quicker.

Think about it. A wage of 30k a year is a fairly hefty amount of money. No doubt your staff on 30k a year have a large amount of knowledge too. Now, do you want expensive 30k a year staff logging calls and doing simple fixes that they don't even have to think about ? or your cheaper 14k a year service desk staff with only a small amount of knowledge ?

THe latter obviously because its half the cost.

 

[Fr0dders]

not sure what trust you're part of but here 1st line and 2nd line are band 3, senior of either are band 4,
3rd line are band 4/5
guess that's just Cornwall skimping again.

leicestershire NHS were advertising more than 21k a year for their 1st line staff a few years ago, and that was starting salry.

Sounds like they were starting their 1st line on band 4 lol. Wonder how thats changed now all the coalition are in power and the money has stopped.

 

[gambitt]

My first job was 2nd line at £18/hour (contract) back in 2003. But that was back when these type of roles were booming - you could send your CV to an agent on a Thursday, have an interview (informal chat) on Friday and start work on Monday These days it seems Desktop/2nd line roles are paying much less.

I took a pay cut and took a permie Desktop role at 24k for a couple of years experience. Moved to a 3rd line role @ 30k in 2006. Now I'm a contractor again on a daily rate... let's just say I won't be going back to a permie job anytime soon.

The only problem with contracting is that you never want to have a day off since you don't get annual leave which you have to take - I went on holiday for a week and all I could think about was how much money I was losing. Best to take holidays in between contracts!

 

[KiTBoH]

I'm looking to get a job in IT support and I just finished uni.

Most jobs I've applied for I'm underqualified for because I only have a degree, and they're the lowest level tech support jobs I can find

Experience > Qualifications and I've never had a job anywhere... ever

Ninja Edit: I've been looking in second line which is apparently a step up from first line, although the description of every second line job ive looked at has basically been changing passwords etc. :/

 

[tom_e]

I'm looking to get a job in IT support and I just finished uni.

Most jobs I've applied for I'm underqualified for because I only have a degree, and they're the lowest level tech support jobs I can find

Experience > Qualifications and I've never had a job anywhere... ever

Ninja Edit: I've been looking in second line which is apparently a step up from first line, although the description of every second line job ive looked at has basically been changing passwords etc. :/

I'm finding the same thing, just finished uni and every IT based role I look at wants experience

 

[dowie]

Think about it. A wage of 30k a year is a fairly hefty amount of money. No doubt your staff on 30k a year have a large amount of knowledge too. Now, do you want expensive 30k a year staff logging calls and doing simple fixes that they don't even have to think about ? or your cheaper 14k a year service desk staff with only a small amount of knowledge ?

THe latter obviously because its half the cost.

Depends on the circumstance - not all support jobs are the same and you can't always just take a cookie cutter approach and decide that one particular way of doing things is suitable in every scenario and that's the point I'm trying to make. I don't believe they have issues dealing with volume of calls so increasing the quantity/decreasing the quality of people isn't the ideal solution here.

You're making the assumption that what they do is simple when it isn't necessarily - it requires problem solving skills, technical knowledge and business knowledge - you'd be hard pressed to find people with the right skill set who are also prepared to work for £14k - this is London I'm talking about after all. The average graduate salary in the UK is circa £25k, if you want good grads with a business, technical or mathematical background to work in London in this sort of role then you'll need to pay a bit more than the average - we need people with a bit of all three. Interview questions could range from simple financial ones - explaining how an MM swap or a repo work through to basic SQL queries etc...

It is 1st line in that they're the people picking up the phone and taking the initial calls but they are expected to solve real problems, its not just call logging or looking up stuff in a knowledge base, issues generally aren't that simple or the clients would have it sorted in house and wouldn't be phoning the vendor to begin with - stuff is only supposed to go on to 2nd line and then potentially onto development if it starts getting really complicated/technical or there is a genuine bug. Essentially we need people who know what they're doing to pick up the phone, no point having some low knowledge call logger type - clients often want answers and if they find they're talking to someone who doesn't know what he/she is doing then they'll simply not talk to that person again, its just that sort of industry.

 

[PMKeates]

its the most widely used in Europe.

But anyway, even if you don't follow ITIL (which lots of small organisations don't, because their IT department is only 3 people or whatever) somebody has got to do the dogsbody work.

So if you're on 30k a year in the bottom position, that probably means your going to be doing a bit of everything. Including the dogsbody work. But in that kind of environment theres no room to take time off to go on training courses, no room for promotion, no room for expanding your knowledge and pushing the IT forward. Its all about fire fighting as cheaply as possible.

Just wanted to catch up on this.

All of that is simply not absolutely true (except the ITIL bit). Sure, ITIL is widely followed, but many organisations effectively implement their own systems based on their requirements. The organisation my friend works employees thousands of people and there are several teams supporting the organisation, each with different roles and responsibilities. The 'dogsbody' work is shared and not intense at all. They operate on shifts and so people regularly get quiet periods in off-peak times where they will get some of the more mundane things done.

Despite a reigning back of training during the recession, he has still managed several courses related to his role (paid for by the company, time off given by the company) and while he hasn't been promoted, looks set to be soon.

The concept that Level 1 is all about fire fighting as cheaply as possible is what often makes Level 1 bad for the customer and bad for the employee. In my personal experience and belief very successful (though maybe more costly) support organisations are made up of very good people at all levels.

 

[Fr0dders]

Depends on the circumstance - not all support jobs are the same and you can't always just take a cookie cutter approach and decide that one particular way of doing things is suitable in every scenario and that's the point I'm trying to make. I don't believe they have issues dealing with volume of calls so increasing the quantity/decreasing the quality of people isn't the ideal solution here.

This has developed into a discussion about we think IT help desk should run so I'll stop here. Suffice to say I have differing opinions

 

[Fr0dders]

I'm looking to get a job in IT support and I just finished uni.

Most jobs I've applied for I'm underqualified for because I only have a degree, and they're the lowest level tech support jobs I can find

Experience > Qualifications and I've never had a job anywhere... ever

Ninja Edit: I've been looking in second line which is apparently a step up from first line, although the description of every second line job ive looked at has basically been changing passwords etc. :/

You need to either get yourself into a graduate scheme like some of the ones linked to further back, or change your interview technique /CV.

You just need somebody to give you a break and take you on as a gamble. My first IT job was just that. I had no experience so my boss took me on because he liked me at the interview and wanted to give a chance I still keep in touch with him via FB 4 years on even though we've now both moved onto different things

 

[dowie]

This has developed into a discussion about we think IT help desk should run so I'll stop here. Suffice to say I have differing opinions

I think you've just got a different perspective tbh... I'm looking at a different industry, different location, different user base, different needs/objectives etc... Health care might be somewhat different in terms of what is required from a support perspective - whereas the salaries I've quoted AFAIK are fairly standard for financial software vendors, market data vendors and CS people at exchanges etc... The main similarity is that the team is called 1st line support and they pick up the phone - after that I'd say the job is likely very very different compared with what someone earning £14k up north in a more generic 1st line role would be doing.

 

[Fr0dders]

tbh you're a fool if you think every problem is one that requires skills and can't be done by an untrained person.

If the people you call "1st line support" aren't dealing with these issues. Then somebody else is. Users will have silly little problems which they just plain and simply don't have the rights to rectify. They may know what the problem is, but lack the access to go into the system and change things.

If you have "super users" that are vetting your calls to the service desk so that issues like this don't get put through. Its not a true 1st line, as technically your super users are your 1st line.

 

[dowie]

tbh you're a fool if you think every problem is one that requires skills and can't be done by an untrained person.

I don't see where I've indicated that tbh... I'm saying that some roles require people to be more knowledgeable or have a higher skill level. In the scenario I'm talking about there isn't really a role for generic call loggers. Just because this is something different to what you're used to shouldn't necessarily throw you so so much that you think its silly or wrong - its just a different scenario.

 

[KiTBoH]

You need to either get yourself into a graduate scheme like some of the ones linked to further back, or change your interview technique /CV.

You just need somebody to give you a break and take you on as a gamble. My first IT job was just that. I had no experience so my boss took me on because he liked me at the interview and wanted to give a chance I still keep in touch with him via FB 4 years on even though we've now both moved onto different things

I applied for a lot of graduate schemes but they all have very high expectation and there don't seem to be that many of them. The ones I looked at required a lot more A levels than I have and were rejected in hours
I haven't even made it to the interview stage once so I have a feeling it's going to take a long time to get a job out of uni.

 

[Slinger]

snip

Kinda in the same situation as you, I don't have any work experience which is what a lot of jobs ask for obviously. Then graduate schemes is an option, but then again, a lot want 2.1 minimum and I'm kind of in two whether I am going to get that or a 2.2. I kind of fear grad schemes because of thier very high expectation, but I suppose thats also me just putting myself down a bit, I always tend to do this, even with my coursework!. Plus there are grad schemes which accept 2.2 minimum, and you never know.

 

[PMKeates]

tbh you're a fool if you think every problem is one that requires skills and can't be done by an untrained person.

Sure, but Level 1 are the people that have to interface with customers (whether external or internal), and 30k buys you a more personable, diplomatic and eloquent individual than 14k, which is especially important if you are dealing with customers that are in high-pressure roles.

Paying your Level 1 teams well, skilling them well, and having them perform wider duties is a very effective way to increase the perception of service quality and reducing the quantity of Level 2 individuals required.

I think the user base is going to be the most significant difference here. As an example, where I work, we have admin access to machines. I can fix most things.

 

[Red_knight]

Sounds like they were starting their 1st line on band 4 lol. Wonder how thats changed now all the coalition are in power and the money has stopped.

Not naming my trust, but I'm senior desktop support at band 5, standard desktop is band 4, most servers and networks are band 5. I think our service desk is band 3, with 4 for the seniors.

 

[VeNT]

Not naming my trust, but I'm senior desktop support at band 5, standard desktop is band 4, most servers and networks are band 5. I think our service desk is band 3, with 4 for the seniors.

that seems standard at a lot of trusts but ours pay the eng/desktop support band 3 with senior being band 4.

 

[Slinger]

I've managed to get an interview for the following position. Now I know how some of you guys feel about 1st line support, but I think there is plenty potencial to move up in this company! Let me know what you think, and any tips you may have for me in the interview! Anything maybe related to the questions they likely to ask etc, I have plenty other tips on general interview stuff.

Haha, just reading it again and had a giggle about the stuff everyone was talking about here on first line jobs! resetting passwords, user accounts etc. I got to get my foot in the door somewhere and this is a huge company!

A 1st Line Support Helpdesk / Service Desk Technician is required for a 2 month contract (likely to go long term or permanent). Working for a large, well established organisation, you will be providing basic 1st Line Support (hardware & Software) to end users. This will include resetting passwords, creating user accounts, basic troubleshooting and escalating more complex problems to the 2nd line team.

This position would suit someone from a Customer Services or IT background who is looking to progress their career within IT. Basic IT knowledge (MS environment) is desirable - any helpdesk or service desk experience is highly beneficial. This role has the strong possibility of becoming a permanent role for the right candidate.

Appreciate your thoughts!

 

[PMKeates]

I think the real question is "Why not?"