IT Support - training courses.

[Conanius]

So my ten pence. I've ran several service desks and technology teams over the past 15 years and currently head up a Service Operations function.

Someone wanting to 'get into IT Support' doesn't need ITIL, PRINCE2 or a CCNA. It's hugely overkill.

ITIL is simply a framework of best practice organisations can adopt and adapt to their needs. It's simply a common language to talk in (Incident/Problem/Change/etc). We don't put 'new into IT' people on ITIL foundation until 18+ months in the role.

PRINCE2 is a Project Management related qualification which is hilariously irrelevant for this OP. As an SDM it makes sense so you can keep a PM in check and know the lingo, but if your techies need it, your PMs are simply being absurd.

Suggesting a CCNA is an odd one - I presume people meant a CCNA in routing and switching opposed to say security or DC.

It's actually a decent qualification, but unless you have time to learn it all properly it's going to be hugely pointless to cram and then look stupid when youre sat in front of a switch in an operational environment for the first time that isn't working properly and you don't have a clue about the first principals of troubleshooting in that context.

I wouldn't get hung up on quals. Get experience helping others with deskside support (volunteer somewhere) and look at decent apprentice roles where the company will put you through a structured training pathway. We do this and we pick relevant courses to support our people in the way they need to look after our customers. You aren't local to me so I can't point you at the post I've done looking for an apprentice, but do look on the QA website as they recruit nationwide.

There are some decent videos on things like Cybrary which cover loads of different courses and it's free. A+ and N+ are very broad, but it's solid theory that gives you a very base grasp of fundamentals.

 

[Energize]

I've seen employers such as the NHS list ITIL green badge as an essential for a service desk job.

CCNA unlesss otherwise stated means R&S and the material is beneficial I've found no matter what area of IT you want to actually specialise in. You should always be looking to better yourself so no reason not to buy a £20 book and study the material.

 

[Spud21]

I started out in IT support just over a year ago, after 16 years working as restaurant manager and a chef.

I had no formal IT experience, other than building and messing about with gaming PC's for years. I just started sending out applications to as many roles as I could, ended up getting 2 interviews, didn't get the first (actually glad about that now) got the second, working for a large IT services company. It did mean some sacrifices, took a 5k pay cut, and was commuting from Bristol to Bridgend every day (moved slightly closer now) but having been here just over a year I start a 2nd line apps support role next month.

In many ways it's quite a dull job, in that you will spend a lot of time resetting passwords and things like that, (never ceases to amaze me how many people completely forget their passwords when they have 2 days off over the weekend) but you will from time to time get some genuinely interesting issues that you can rack your brain over which makes the time go faster.

If you are coming in with 0 experience the money will not be great to start, but once you have the expirience you can look for more money either in the role you are in or look to progress.

 

[Brumboy]

I started out in IT support just over a year ago, after 16 years working as restaurant manager and a chef.

I had no formal IT experience, other than building and messing about with gaming PC's for years. I just started sending out applications to as many roles as I could, ended up getting 2 interviews, didn't get the first (actually glad about that now) got the second, working for a large IT services company. It did mean some sacrifices, took a 5k pay cut, and was commuting from Bristol to Bridgend every day (moved slightly closer now) but having been here just over a year I start a 2nd line apps support role next month.

In many ways it's quite a dull job, in that you will spend a lot of time resetting passwords and things like that, (never ceases to amaze me how many people completely forget their passwords when they have 2 days off over the weekend) but you will from time to time get some genuinely interesting issues that you can rack your brain over which makes the time go faster.

If you are coming in with 0 experience the money will not be great to start, but once you have the expirience you can look for more money either in the role you are in or look to progress.

Some good information there.

You mentioned that it took you a year to go from 1st > 2nd line, can you give me some tips or advice on how to progress to 2nd line in that kind of time frame, is there anything specifically I can do?

 

[Spud21]

Some good information there.

You mentioned that it took you a year to go from 1st > 2nd line, can you give me some tips or advice on how to progress to 2nd line in that kind of time frame, is there anything specifically I can do?

I don't think there is anything specific that you can do to guarantee a move, but assuming my experience is similar to others, there will be tickets that most first line don't want to deal with as they are either too technical or are just a pain, I just jumped into picking them up when I had spare time and worked on them, poking around in exchange servers, trying to learn how to fix their issues, I managed to get enough of those sorted and moved on, I became knows as someone who was decent. I spent time getting to know the more tech types on the first line and some of the second and third line people, so I kind of got my name out.

As it happens the job I'm moving to came about with a bit of blind luck, in that I was chatting to a mate who had moved to a unix role, and he said some jobs would be coming up in the next few months, my TL happened to hear this and mentioned it to one of the other TL's and he put me forward for a different Unix based app support role.

My main advice would be keep it simple, learn as much as you can and try to get to know people in the teams and areas you want to move on to, as with anything who you know is as if not more important than what you know.