Ayone work helpdesk at a uni?

penski

penski

penski

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One of the agencies I have signed up with put me forward for a contracted helpdesk position at one of the local universities. Following a telephone interview I've been asked to go in for a technical interview later this week.

I haven't worked a pure helpdesk environment for a couple of years now but I have always had the mantle of 'the computer guy' in other roles...Plus doing occasional evening/weekend work doing tech support/training/whatever locally mean I've kept my foot in the door.

I want to polish up my (mad leet) skills (y0) for the interview but don't know where to focus them. I know the role is basically first line (both :) and :() supporting staff, students and new arrivals...

So helping people set up wireless connections, telling them how to use Word, Excel et cetera, dealing with basic AD stuff for the new people...Simple, dull stuff...But do you think anything out of the ordinary may be thrown my way?

Any advice would be very much appreciated if you can throw any my way.

If you do a similar job, how do you find it? What uni are you at?

Thanks in advance :)

*n
 
I hope you know your stuff man, it's really frustrating to watch the helpdesk guy's eyes glaze over when I ask them something even remotely technical. A couple of years ago I had trouble connecting to the university WAN from home, so I called the helpdesk and I was asked "A Wha...?"

Since then I've only ever talked to them to report busted printers.
 
penski said:
One of the agencies I have signed up with put me forward for a contracted helpdesk position at one of the local universities. Following a telephone interview I've been asked to go in for a technical interview later this week.

I haven't worked a pure helpdesk environment for a couple of years now but I have always had the mantle of 'the computer guy' in other roles...Plus doing occasional evening/weekend work doing tech support/training/whatever locally mean I've kept my foot in the door.

I want to polish up my (mad leet) skills (y0) for the interview but don't know where to focus them. I know the role is basically first line (both :) and :() supporting staff, students and new arrivals...

So helping people set up wireless connections, telling them how to use Word, Excel et cetera, dealing with basic AD stuff for the new people...Simple, dull stuff...But do you think anything out of the ordinary may be thrown my way?

Any advice would be very much appreciated if you can throw any my way.

If you do a similar job, how do you find it? What uni are you at?

Thanks in advance :)

*n
Click to expand...

I work in User support at a uni and although most of my job now centres around desktop provision and project work we all still have to do our shift on the helpdesk :)

First off, you should try and find out what directory service(s) they run- is it AD, Samba, Novell etc as that will determine what tools you use for admin tasks like setting passwords and granting access rights.

Secondly, brush up on your basic networking knowledge so you know how to configure machines to use static or dynamic IPs and use tools like ipconfig, nslookup and arp to troubleshoot network problems.

In terms of support problems Id say that most of our user problems involve connecting to the network (either wired or wireless), problems installing/ uninstalling software, malware infections, data recovery and setting up email clients so if you know how to do those you should be sorted.

Finally, Universities are fairly relaxed places so you can progress to doing more interesting things if you're interested in it

Good luck :)
 
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I work as a helpdesk guy part time at the university I study at (Chester Uni)

Mostly I answer the phones and write up tickets for the main technicians to do the big jobs.

I used to also help students in the open access parts with software issues, fix wireless on laptops, check in and out equipment etc.

When I had my interview they seemed to mainly want to know what office apps I could use, what other ones too, what OSes I was capable with, if I had people experience, if I could explain things clearly etc.

Rich
 
penski said:
If you do a similar job, how do you find it? What uni are you at?

Thanks in advance :)

*n
Click to expand...

Be prepared to deal with a lot of foreign students with a lack of English and try to speak clearly in a non-condescending way.

For the technical side I mostly deal with network printers (usually HPs) and desktop support and problems range from paper jams to print queues. Try and brush up on Novell Netware especially their print queues and NDS as it's most popular in universities though some seem to be moving towards Active Directory now, that is if they actually use Novell in any way.

If it's like the helpdesk at our place (I'm at Glasgow Uni as a department technician/student lab IT support) then you'll be dealing with some of the more basic tasks and then report others to various sections of your IT support.
 
Yes get used to Novell...

...oh God you had to ruin my holidays reminding me that I have THAT to go back to in September.

:p

Rich
 
manveruppd said:
I hope you know your stuff man, it's really frustrating to watch the helpdesk guy's eyes glaze over when I ask them something even remotely technical. A couple of years ago I had trouble connecting to the university WAN from home, so I called the helpdesk and I was asked "A Wha...?"

Since then I've only ever talked to them to report busted printers.
Click to expand...

I've done support for HP and MS, technical project management for BT MB and most recently Account And Technical Management for Cisco...So if you want me to config and install a router, give a laptop ;)

From the way it has been described by the Helpdesk Manager, it will mostly be dealing with simple stuff and raising tickets for any account changes et cetera.

*n
 
afraser2k said:
Be prepared to deal with a lot of foreign students with a lack of English and try to speak clearly in a non-condescending way.
Click to expand...
most of my external customers in the job I'm temping in atm are from east asia, south asia, africa and south america...I'm used to it :)

For the technical side I mostly deal with network printers (usually HPs) and desktop support and problems range from paper jams to print queues. Try and brush up on Novell Netware especially their print queues and NDS as it's most popular in universities though some seem to be moving towards Active Directory now, that is if they actually use Novell in any way.

If it's like the helpdesk at our place (I'm at Glasgow Uni as a department technician/student lab IT support) then you'll be dealing with some of the more basic tasks and then report others to various sections of your IT support.
Click to expand...

Yup - it is AD-based and I'm xpecting it to be the grunt work. Answering phones, emails and SMS(?).

Looking forward to "HI2U CNT GT ON INTERNETS. HLP PLS? LOL?"

*n
 
M0KUJ1N said:
SMS is probably MS System Management Server. We use it to deploy large apps (it distributes them via BITS in the same manner as Windows Updates are) and for hardware/ software auditting (it uses WMI queries to populate a SQL backend server)

Have a swatch at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sms/default.mspx

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_Management_Server
Click to expand...

No...students can text in queries to the helpdesk...

I can understand foreigners far better than I can understand text speak :|

*n
 
Lol, wrong SMS! The idea of sending helpdesk queries in via text message is both ingenious and really scary. Although I can see how it would avoid the catch-22 situation of having to email the helpdesk but not being able to because you've got no internet
 
M0KUJ1N said:
Lol, wrong SMS! The idea of sending helpdesk queries in via text message is both ingenious and really scary. Although I can see how it would avoid the catch-22 situation of having to email the helpdesk but not being able to because you've got no internet
Click to expand...

Working at MS was great: "Yeah, it will take about 15 minutes to reinstall so just stick the kettle on and have a cuppa then phone us back if it doesn't work...T'raa."

*n
 
Weeeeee!

Not been around for a couple of days - a combination of being MEGA busy with a couple of projects, temporarily mislaying my phone and there only being one net cafe in Newcastle (and here I am...Some geeky spod gamer place just off Chinatown...)

Anyhoo - Got offered the position this morning. Start next Wednesday.

Those who do a similar role, does £8.20 an hour sound about right? Bearing in mind that I am going through an agency and it's a 3 month fixed term contract of a guarenteed 45 hours a week + OT (which is why I took it; the one I'm tempting atm pays more but is only on an 'as needed' basis...)

*Grins inanely*

*n
 
That's not too bad Penski - I work part time at my uni and get £7.31 an hour! so you sound like you are doing quite well!

Rich
 
titchard said:
That's not too bad Penski - I work part time at my uni and get £7.31 an hour! so you sound like you are doing quite well!

Rich
Click to expand...

It's probably more due to being a temp/agency job. :)

Just have to sort something permenant in the next three months.

*n
 
Alchemy said:
Congrats with landing the job Penski.
Click to expand...

Cheers. Something tells me that I won't be quite as chipper in six weeks time when I'm plowing through permissions and admin problems due to all the new students (and the existing staff being unable to cope with any changes made over summer).

*n
 
45hrs is a hell of a lot, but you'll get lots of ££ for it! £8.20 is fair for the work, but it depends how technical it is tbh.....
 
TheDean said:
45hrs is a hell of a lot, but you'll get lots of ££ for it! £8.20 is fair for the work, but it depends how technical it is tbh.....
Click to expand...

I work 13 hour days atm. Its not many hours :)

*n
 
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