Struggling at first help desk job

[stfu_donnie7]

Dude, I'm sorry if I made you sound lazy lol I guess it's just time to look for another job. Just find a job you will be happy with. I hope there's a lot of Job opportunities where you live. I mean I gotta be honest that a lot of people don't know anything about computers. I think you should run your own tech assistance job out of your home for people. Advertise in your town. Offer the works man. Charge them what all the other places charge and add in a sort of "free-bee" with your service to wow the customers so they remember to go back to you in a month when they don't know how to do other stuff haha.

 

[Lexluethar]

It's natural to feel uncomfortable when you get a new job. Especially that first IT job when you are getting your feet wet. I felt the same way when i got my help desk job 5 years ago. I was nervous and everything was moving so quickly. It seemed like all the training in the world can't prepare you enough to to take that first phone call.

What isn't natural is for your work to provide proper training or for coworkers to blow you off.

Personally, I would ride the wave for a few weeks to see if you get the hang of it - if not and your employer isn't willing to train you look elsewhere.

I will say, in IT there is steep learning curve. There is a lot of sink and swim mentality from what i've seen. Granite a lot of companies will train you to an extent - they expect you to learn as you go.

 

[hornedturtle]

That sink or swim mentality is also a detriment to the industry. Taking focus away from helping the customer and trying to make themselves look good. It leads to the whole if I can't fix the problem ill just go threw the same tests over and over again till they hang up mentality

 

[king_23]

Does your company not have a knowledge base you can search? If not then that's not very professional for them IMO.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using TechForums

There is a knowledge base but it is very crude and incomplete. In my opinion, I believe that someone should update the knowledge base with very thorough and clear instructions.

I would even go as far as making the knowledge base so effective that a new person would barely need any training. Of course it would take a while to achieve a knowledge base like that, but they would end up saving a lot of time and money in the long run.

 

[king_23]

Dude, I'm sorry if I made you sound lazy lol I guess it's just time to look for another job. Just find a job you will be happy with. I hope there's a lot of Job opportunities where you live. I mean I gotta be honest that a lot of people don't know anything about computers. I think you should run your own tech assistance job out of your home for people. Advertise in your town. Offer the works man. Charge them what all the other places charge and add in a sort of "free-bee" with your service to wow the customers so they remember to go back to you in a month when they don't know how to do other stuff haha.

You didn't make me sound lazy. I'm definitely not lazy at all. I'm willing to do whatever I have to do to learn what I need to. The problem is I don't know what to do to learn it other than trial and error, but I can't keep messing up on tickets until I get them right. They get ****ed if I take a ticket and end up not knowing how to fix it.

**Also, see my reply to Lexluther

It's natural to feel uncomfortable when you get a new job. Especially that first IT job when you are getting your feet wet. I felt the same way when i got my help desk job 5 years ago. I was nervous and everything was moving so quickly. It seemed like all the training in the world can't prepare you enough to to take that first phone call.

What isn't natural is for your work to provide proper training or for coworkers to blow you off.

Personally, I would ride the wave for a few weeks to see if you get the hang of it - if not and your employer isn't willing to train you look elsewhere.

I will say, in IT there is steep learning curve. There is a lot of sink and swim mentality from what i've seen. Granite a lot of companies will train you to an extent - they expect you to learn as you go.

I definitely don't want to give up yet. I know I will have to work hard. Basically, I know this forum is a great place to interact with experienced people in the IT field so I figured I'd ask. I don't mind constructive criticism and actually encourage it. I like it when people kick me the real deal.

That sink or swim mentality is also a detriment to the industry. Taking focus away from helping the customer and trying to make themselves look good. It leads to the whole if I can't fix the problem ill just go threw the same tests over and over again till they hang up mentality

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you are saying. Please elaborate more.

 

[hornedturtle]

Basically what im saying is that when people aren't willing to share their knowledge, it leads to less people knowing how to fix a problem. Without the assistance you are still pressured to solve the problem so the only way you can do it is by going threw stuff you do know, even if it doesn't fix the problem.

one example from my own personal experience.
I rang up samsung to ask if it was possible to adjust the mtu on my phone without rooting it. They replied with that is handled and set up by the service provider. I then rang my service provider, explained the problem and got told there is no such thing as mtu and then he kept on going threw the steps required to turn on the internet.
A simple we can not adjust the values would have sufficed.

Im not sure what your work entails but it sounds like everyone is out for themselves, which is not a good place to start in it.

 

[king_23]

Basically what im saying is that when people aren't willing to share their knowledge, it leads to less people knowing how to fix a problem. Without the assistance you are still pressured to solve the problem so the only way you can do it is by going threw stuff you do know, even if it doesn't fix the problem.

one example from my own personal experience.
I rang up samsung to ask if it was possible to adjust the mtu on my phone without rooting it. They replied with that is handled and set up by the service provider. I then rang my service provider, explained the problem and got told there is no such thing as mtu and then he kept on going threw the steps required to turn on the internet.
A simple we can not adjust the values would have sufficed.

Im not sure what your work entails but it sounds like everyone is out for themselves, which is not a good place to start in it.

Thanks for elaborating. I understand the point you are trying to make. It is basically like everyone is out for themselves. It's hard because there isn't much I can do but keep moving forward, even if it's only inches at a time. I definitely don't want to quit or give up yet.

 

[Lexluethar]

I think not sharing information is more prevalent in 'lower levels' of support. I found when i did helpdesk and desktop work people seemed to hold onto knowledge a lot more than they do higher up. It's definitely a selfish attitude to have, probably more along the lines of people wanting to fix it themselves to look good, rather than focusing on knowledge transfer and helping the end user.

I think the higher up you go in the IT ladder, the less you see this. Don't get me wrong, it's still there but you can't get away with it as much IMO (depending on the company). With that said though, the higher you get the more people expect you to figure stuff out on your own. Not because they don't want to tell you how to fix the issue, it's more about the problems you are facing and issues are not documented and your coworkers don't know how to fix the issue.

I could name dozens of issues i've had to fix and find the fix on my own - not because people weren't willing to tell me the fix, it's because no one ran into that issue before (at my work) so i had to find and implement the fix on my own.