So...this is hard

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Hi all

Hoping for a little advice.

Long time lurker here. Like many who post here I have been trying to secure my first entry level position within the industry for a few years now.

I gained my A+ way back in 2010 (I would argue that entry level MS certs are a better investment as I find not many employers are familiar with it) and have been trying on an off since then to get into the industry. Each time I've been put off due to the constant rejections or the extreme difficulty associated with even getting an interview due to a lack of commercial experience.

I quit my job in sales three months ago (I know many would advise against this but I had some savings, was sick of sales and thought I should do something drastic) to fully dedicate my time in finding my first IT role. Since doing so I've had way more success in securing interviews than I've had preciously and have had three service desk/1st line support interviews over the course of these months. In each instance I have been told that it came down to me and another candidate who had a little more experience (I'm aware this may or may not be the case...we know what recruiters are like)

I was getting discouraged again and the three month time limit I set myself was rapidly drawing close. The daily amount of applications I sent out decreased and I seriously considered going back to sales as I get at least 10 calls a day from sales recruiters.

The thought of regressing again annoyed me, so I ramped up the applications again, applied to employers directly, made follow up calls and managed to get an interview this week.

I'm very happy but one of the interviews will involve a technical test that is very Outlook focused I'm told. I can use it just fine (albeit not at an advanced level) but I'm curious as to what the most common issues users may have with Outlook and I'm hoping that others in similar positions may be able to help?

I'm aware I could just Google this - and I have - but I'd love to hear of some more 'real world' problems that other 1st line support guys here may encounter on daily basis.

Any help you can provide will be very much appreciated.

Cheers

O

 

I deleted a thousand emails, but my mailbox is still full. See also: I created a folder in my inbox called "archive" and put everything in it, but my mailbox is still full.

 

Hi Oro

Yes what Sparky said.....I work on service desk and get calls daily requesting setting up outlook profiles and adding an additional mail box so definitely ensure you know the process for this. Also maybe look at automatic replies (out of office) and setting up rules/categories. Maybe using the calendar/reminders/sharing permissions. It also depends what version of outlook. I would work with 2007 and 2010 and they differ obviously.

Cheers

 

Massive thanks to Sparky, Flash and Smiff. That's been a great help. I use 2010 at the moment so I'll make sure I know how to do all of this come Friday.

There's so much info out there and there are a thousand things that could go wrong with Outlook so its nice to get some focus on the most common real world issues.

If there's anything else someone would like to add, feel free to contribute.

 

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

Just a little update - successfully made it to the second interview which I just had on Tuesday. They said they'd let me know by Friday so kind of stressing at the mo.

Will need to sort out a new plan in the event they say 'no' though

 

Another quick update if anyone has been reading the thread and is interested - I got the job!!!

Thanks for all the input you guys gave, it certainly helped with the process.

Years of searching and applying on and off and all it took was 3 months of hard core searching for it to finally pay off.

Just posting this for the benefit of others who may be in a similar position and are feeling they may never get their first opportunity. Be persistent and enthusiastic (and ask for a little guidance from CF members)

 

Well done!

 

Well done! Let us know how it goes.