IT Support Job/Training

devious93

devious93

devious93

Associate
Joined
29 Jul 2012
Posts
340
Location
Brighton
Hi All,

So I did computing/ICT A levels and did okay in them and landed myself a job in IT support which I started doing in December for a small company.
The company has engineers and does networking for customers servers etc.

My role is first line phone support, I believe?

What do you classify as first, second and third line?

My tasks generally are answering the phone first, listening to the problem and fixing it. The things I do are as follows (note: I do not have any guides/help tutorials on our systems and do everything on the spot via remote software, RDP/logmein).
General user queries across all packages (microsoft, operating system etc)
Printer setup
Active directory: new users, password reset, permissions etc
Exchange: send/full ass permission, additional emails etc
Sonicwalls: adding records, exceptions etc
General maintenance of the server - assigning ram limits for exchange etc to stop services falling over

I do some other bits and bobs but that's the worst of it, I support personal users in the business and deal with servers if they have problems etc. I don't get to install servers/rarely ever go out onsite (done once) so I presume that would be third line?

I've learnt all these skills on the spot and am fairly comfortable in my roll now and manage to fix the majority of problems remotely and manage the helpdesk by myself generally. I seem to be getting a bit bored/fed up now of telling people to restart or how to get their computer name etc and want to progress further.

Any idea what I can do now/what's worth learning. I was looking at Comptia A+, MCITP, MCSE, CCNA etc but it's hard to find anywhere which gives me a straight forward this is how you can train this is the exam prices instead of going to third parties who charge 3-15k!
 
First line: Answering calls and solving problems over the phone.
Second line: Answering calls and taking escalations and fixing problems on site
Third line: Taking escalations and fixing problems on site and elsewhere.

Thats what I always thought it was. Well briefly.

Pretty much all the qualifications you listed will help you.

I have A+ and CCNA and MCSE but am struggling to find work local at the minute. Branching out is always a good shout. London is what you should be looking towards.

In IT anyway.
 
infernox said:
First line: Answering calls and solving problems over the phone.
Second line: Answering calls and taking escalations and fixing problems on site
Third line: Taking escalations and fixing problems on site and elsewhere.

Thats what I always thought it was. Well briefly.

Pretty much all the qualifications you listed will help you.

I have A+ and CCNA and MCSE but am struggling to find work local at the minute. Branching out is always a good shout. London is what you should be looking towards.

In IT anyway.
Click to expand...

So that classifies me as first only I suppose?

in terms of A+ and MCSE which I'm looking at diving into first, what was your approach to learning and getting qualified and how much did it set you back?
 
I was a bit lucky as all my qualifications were paid for as I done CCNA and my A+ in college.

I know that the MSCE Exams are roughly 250 quid. Just get a book on it follow some online study guides and get going.

A+ is roughly 200 aswell. You could probably pass it now tbf its pretty easy, but get a book on that too.

CCNA will probably set you back roughly ~500??? (not really sure) One of the harder ones though.
 
Lucky devil, none of my colleges provided any of these options at all.

I've found it really difficult to find decent study guides online. There's a few books for some but there's like 10 different book covering several different parts. Somewhat annoying to have to spend hours finding training materials when it could be better spent learning -.-

Price wise isn't too bad vs the 3k I was quoted to do something like this: http://www.justit.co.uk//uUploads/Downloads/NPPblend.pdf

It would have been about 2k more but I told them I don't need the guarantee for a job support days/workshops and placement as I already work in the IT sector. They're bloody awful at getting back to me though!
 
Just go for the exams mate. Look for exam vouchers you can buy them off comptias website. No need for training just self teach it
 
OP what you are currently doing is 1st line and parts of 2nd line. The things that you are doing with exchange, AD and servers would be done in a 2nd line team if it were a larger company. It's all good though as solid experiance in those areas will help your CV
 
MowyTone said:
OP what you are currently doing is 1st line and parts of 2nd line. The things that you are doing with exchange, AD and servers would be done in a 2nd line team if it were a larger company. It's all good though as solid experiance in those areas will help your CV
Click to expand...

Almost anything can be devolved to a first-line process if it's done in a standardised fashion. At my previous place, account setups were done by someone even less knowledgable than the first line techs.

The higher lines are less about performance of specific tasks and more about lateral thinking, with the proportion of lateral thinking increased the further up the tree you go.
 
I work in IT and can't deal with exams. I'm generally useless at them. I have my A+ that I got at college and that's it. I tried the windows 7 Microsoft exams a few years ago when they first came out and kept failing, and haven't done any since. I found when looking for my current job that companies were far more interested in my experience than exams, just make sure you let them know you'll be willing to do exams if they really want you to.

I got my current job as I already had over 4 years experience working in a W7 environment, where as the others that applied apparently had far more qualifications than me but little or no experience in real IT support, so I won by default
 
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experience > courses in general. It sounds like you have a decent job and are getting more experience than in some bigger corporate helpdesks so thats a good thing. How long have you been there?

Full courses are expensive so self study and schedule the exam yourself, most are around £100 per exam.

I'd recommend looking at security+ too
 
I've found that employers really do hold experience and personality in higher regard than qualifications, although certs will help back up your experience should it be a choice between yourself and another candidate.

I've just taken a job which was advertised as needing a minimum of a 2:1 degree and MS certs...I gave up with education after leaving college with a couple of A levels, and have never gained any MS certs, but do have 15 years in the IT industry.

What I've done recently is subscribe to trainsignal.com and gone through some of their courses on there. Many of them can be used to prepare for the formal exams and they are very easy to watch and understand. I tried self-studying using MS prep books and found it hard going, whereas the training videos seemed to just sink in much easier. It works out just over £30/month and you can access as many courses as you can manage in that time. Your subscription is done on a month-by-month basis so you can cancel as soon as you've had enough.
 
1st - Answer phone / face to face support. Fixing things within a short space of time to get user up and running. Guidance on how to do things such as searching for emails, account unlocks, checking services like Blackberry and many many other things

2nd - Assist 1st line as and when required, (not answering calls) backups, restores, basic Exchange & Citrix type stuff, AD, SCCM, SCOM, looking into log files, scripting, BES, hardware replacements
Generally stuff that takes longer than 5 minutes to repair. Being proactive speaking to 3rd line and reporting to 1st on problems that may increase call volumes

3rd - Fixing problems, Developing new systems/software/technologies, Managing GP, AD, Proxy, Firewalls, Citrix, DMZ, Exchange, BES, Phone systems etc etc

At least its like this where I work. I'm currently doing a mix of 2nd and 3rd and with a Citrix qualification but getting paid 1st. Get experience under your belt, then you can start demanding money or leave
 
I work in London in IT, currently work in a patent attorneys doing mostly project work. Lots of new infrastructure and the promise of constant projects drew me in. Unfortunately in my experience, regardless if your first/second line, third line, management even technical lead on a project you will always have to deal with users.
 
Vtec9k said:
experience > courses in general. It sounds like you have a decent job and are getting more experience than in some bigger corporate helpdesks so thats a good thing. How long have you been there?

Full courses are expensive so self study and schedule the exam yourself, most are around £100 per exam.

I'd recommend looking at security+ too
Click to expand...

I started in December so been doing the job for 7 months now.
It's hard finding places that give you the materials to study.

scratch said:
I've found that employers really do hold experience and personality in higher regard than qualifications, although certs will help back up your experience should it be a choice between yourself and another candidate.

I've just taken a job which was advertised as needing a minimum of a 2:1 degree and MS certs...I gave up with education after leaving college with a couple of A levels, and have never gained any MS certs, but do have 15 years in the IT industry.

What I've done recently is subscribe to trainsignal.com and gone through some of their courses on there. Many of them can be used to prepare for the formal exams and they are very easy to watch and understand. I tried self-studying using MS prep books and found it hard going, whereas the training videos seemed to just sink in much easier. It works out just over £30/month and you can access as many courses as you can manage in that time. Your subscription is done on a month-by-month basis so you can cancel as soon as you've had enough.
Click to expand...

Well it's not all bad news If I don't do the exams then and I'll have to take a look at that train signal, it's the first thing I've been suggested so far that looks affordable!

Guest2 said:
1st - Answer phone / face to face support. Fixing things within a short space of time to get user up and running. Guidance on how to do things such as searching for emails, account unlocks, checking services like Blackberry and many many other things

2nd - Assist 1st line as and when required, (not answering calls) backups, restores, basic Exchange & Citrix type stuff, AD, SCCM, SCOM, looking into log files, scripting, BES, hardware replacements
Generally stuff that takes longer than 5 minutes to repair. Being proactive speaking to 3rd line and reporting to 1st on problems that may increase call volumes

3rd - Fixing problems, Developing new systems/software/technologies, Managing GP, AD, Proxy, Firewalls, Citrix, DMZ, Exchange, BES, Phone systems etc etc

At least its like this where I work. I'm currently doing a mix of 2nd and 3rd and with a Citrix qualification but getting paid 1st. Get experience under your belt, then you can start demanding money or leave
Click to expand...

I do all of first, All of second other than Citrx, SCCM, SCOM and scripting.

3rd - I lightly touch on some of these things, Exchange, BES, phone system etc.

I'm on peanuts for what I do (just under 16k) looking around I feel like I should be asking for 20k when I've been there for a year in December, I believe this is a reasonable request?
 
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