Hands on IT Support Jobs

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Hello,

I have recently left my job as a Service Desk Analyst (1st Line) which was working for a major food retailer.
It was getting boring as it wasn't varied and it was just answering the phone all the time.

I have uploaded my CV to Monster, Total Jobs and Jobsite and all I have been getting is recruitment agencies phoning me up offering 1st Line Support vacancies.
Since changing my CV to say that I do not want 1st line jobs but more hands on IT issues (i.e. fixing problems at user's desk, general system administration - backups, installations for example), I have had no calls
I don't have any problems communicating over the phone, I just prefer more of a face to face role.

I have a BSc in Computer Science and do have programming skills but not commercially.
I did go for an interview for an IT Support Role/Programming role (which they would train you up on) but unfortunatly I did not get it.
The job I am after is more of an IT Technician/Adminstrator type of position but I cant seem to find many of these.
Of the ones I can find, most want x years of experience.

I couldnt stand going back to a 1st line support role, being in a call centre where the management are completly obsessed with call statistics and walking round all day telling you to watch your call times.
And always having to ask when you want to leave your desk!!!!

I am now 5 weeks out of works which along with other employment gaps this year, does not look good on my CV.

What is the best way of getting in to the type of job that I want to do?

Thanks

 

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It's a tough job environment at the moment. I would have suggested you keep the original job and apply for something else while there but i can understand that sometimes enough is enough and you need to leave. If you are struggling at the moment and do not want a large gap on your CV i would suggest trying to get back into 1st line and see if you can land a position where there is room to progress. If not, use that job as a springboard to get as many certs in areas you wish to work in whilst applying for other posts.

Check out local government websites, colleges, schools, company websites and of course the main job sites. Word of mouth is even better. Computer repair jobs? Thought of going self employed pc repair type guy?

Keep plugging away and you will get there. Get back on to those agencies though and get something even if you do not enjoy it while you look in the meantime. It always looks better if you are currently employed when looking for another job.

 

IMHO its always been a tough job finding an 'IT' job! Since 2002 I have managed to land 5 'IT' jobs and 3 of those were servicedesk with the 4th starting as servicedesk and then into 2nd line! What seems to have vanished is the vast amount of 'fake' jobs on the job websites! For instance, the ones that would advertise a position, you'd apply and then they'd send you a form to fill out asking stuff like "Your recent interviews", "name of the company" and "name of the hiring manager"!!! And of course it was all to make sure they didn't put you forward for something that you'd already interviewed for!!!! LOL!!! yeah right!!!

I do not know the curcumstances of your last job so I won't comment on your leaving! However, it's always better to get a job when you're still in a job as it demonstrates that you're employable!

BUT

As things are now getting worse then the 90s recession, you may find that this govt and the next Tory one will offer financial incentives to employ the unemployed! I remember in 93 I walked from a 30 quid a week 40 hour a week YTS job! I was told by the firm that I'd finished my working life - I was 18 at the time - within 2 months I got a job at a very large carpet factory earning 7 times what I got from the Young Thick and Stupid scheme. Why did I get the job? Well I was unemployed and the then Major govt were offering firms a contribution of £75 a week towards a persons wage for firms to take people off the dole or income support...the catch was that the firm had to put you through an NVQ...LOL!!!

Anyway, keep plucking away!!! Getting a job is down to you as a person! If your face fits then you're in! Good luck!

P.S. For those who don't know what the YTS was here's a good description http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_Training_Scheme

 

How long was you working as a service desk analyst?

 

Thanks for those replies.

I have considered going back in to 1st Line Support or a position that is a mix of 1st Line/2nd Line.
I know that 1st Line Support doesn't necessarily mean a phone based role, I suppose I just assume it is in most cases.
However, I will change my CV and upload it again as this is probably the best way to go.

I did try and find other IT job whilst I was still employed but could not find anything, and there is no way I wanted to stay another day in my Service Desk Analyst role.
I don't regret my decision, I would have had to apply for a permanent role with the actual company first (As I was employed as temporary ongoing by an agency) and then apply for a 2nd Line role when they did actually come up on the Internal vacancies page.

What about Physical Repair/Custom PC Building with big PC manufacturers such as Dell, Fujitsu, HP etc. Are there many of these jobs around?

Arroyn, Were you employed in a Field IT Support Role where you managed 400 staff?
Were the sites based regionally or nationally?

I am currently looking for any office jobs in the mean time that require good MS Office skills and the like.

 

Out of interest, what additional qualifications / experience do you have (outside of your BSc)? This is what potential employers will be looking at.

In addition, to echo the comments made by other users, 1st line support roles are often varied. You're probably thinking along the lines that your previous job is the norm, but it's not by any means.

Hope this helps.

Qs

 

You could look for field service engineer positions (you may possibly have to look for junior or trainee positions). These jobs are the type where your given a job and you go out to fix or install hardware/software.

 

I would definately get back into a job and as said they vary from company to company. I had a 1st line job that was basically resetting passwords and logging calls and then my next job title was basically doing everything i could remotely, recreating profiles on server, resetting rsa,blackerberry,ldap,AD , many more passwords, usual outlook and other program fixes.

It appears more and more stuff can now be sorted remotely and now i am in a desktop postion, I am doing less and forgetting some of the stuff i picked up.

 

Sounds a little like me at the moment I lost my job and started working in IT support for a major food retailer and I hate it all I do is logged calls about systems that won't help me in the future.

I will stay there until I found another job currently working on some certs so hopefully won't be there long

 

I have a years experience working in a recruitment company which started off as Admin but when they found out that I could do IT, they then put me as the first person to contact for IT support Issues.
There were approx 15 people in the company at the time across two offices.
We still kept an outside IT support company and I would phone them up to report problems but in most cases I would just fix them myself providing I was not busy.
The company were not interested in sending me for traning or letting me do IT Support full time as it was primarily a recruitment company, hence I left.
Main IT problems that I sorted was with MS Office, formatting problems, converting to PDF's etc and also configuring Blackberries, network printers etc.

In my Service Desk Anaylst role (which I was in for four months), I was dealing with software and hardware problems. It was not very technical as you basically had to look up the correct document which details the fix and then repeat the steps to the customer.
You were not allowed to attempt your own fixes! (i.e. using a different method to solving the problem)

Outside of Work, I fix some problems with PC's and Laptops but this doesn't appeal as I don't drive and the only problems you eithier get are reinstalling Windows due to constant slow down or removing viruses/spyware.