I.T Helpdesk volunteer experience

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You may remember a post I made several weeks ago on my method of trying to finding employment by contacting companies in the yellow pages and asking to volunteer. And after a short while I found one.

Well, I did volunteer there for 1 day rather than the week, I thought I saw enough.

I used it more as an information gathering exercise since the person who gave me the opportunity told me to read the health and safety book while I was there while I should wait an hour to have an interview (he was trying to fill a helpdesk vacancy that I did not apply for, nevertheless it never happened) and then he left at around 1pm for the day.

So I just interrogated the two employees on the helpdesk from 1pm until 5pm and found out quite a lot about the position and also the company.

They had a big retention problem.

They were supposed to have 4 on the helpdesk (they had 2), and 2 engineers (they had 1). One employee on the helpdesk only lasted about 3 months before he decided to leave. The longest serving employee was a young kid that had been there for 12 months. They told me themselves that they had a big problem keeping people, but did not say why. One of them told me he was looking to move on pretty quickly.

Salary

I was told, without even asking, by the helpdesk, that he was on a salary of 12k per year and he was 25. He said that was the reason as to why people didn't stay long.

Nature of the job

They told me that about 70% of the job involves taking calls, logging and organising the problems from customers. With the 30% of the work that actually involved using I.T knowledge to solve the problems, 80% of those problems were very basic.

Incidentally, I managed to grab a hold of the field engineer when he came back at the end of the day (I asked to volunteer in his role, they put me on helpdesk) and he told me that he left university in Liverpool and was unemployed for 10 months before getting a role in technical support working on customer servers. He skipped the helpdesk route, and he said it was all down to luck.

 

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I work at a small computer shop. I'm only really still in my current job because I'm tied in by an agreement for another 3-4 months (Either stay, or pay the boss £400 that he previously paid for some training). My salary's not much more than the one you've indicated for that job, and I'm fed up with having too much workload and being paid squat for it. Much of the time, I'll have around 90% of the repairs to complete myself, and have to work through lunch etc. I'm just generally displeased with it all.

It's my understanding that I'm not the only IT guy with this kind of story, but I needed to moan. Sorry. :P

 

As a whole, your posts seem to indicate that you **really** don't want to "pay your dues" and do entry-level work like helpdesk jobs. To that, I say, go ahead and try to skip the entry-level rung of the IT career ladder. Who knows - you might be the lucky one! But when you find it even MORE difficult to get a job like that (competing against experienced techs) than it is to get an entry-level job, don't come crying on the forums and expect advice different than the advice you're already getting. Just sayin'.

We're not suggesting that you work in an entry-level job because we want to hold you back... we're suggesting that you work in an entry-level job because doing so is much more likely to give you a firm foothold on the IT career ladder.

 

Welcome to IT!

That said... if you feel that you're being taken advantage of, and it's worth £400 to get out, then put out your feelers for something better, and give notice when you have another job lined up.

That £400 anchor you've got tied around your neck is another reason why many of us suggest learning to become self-sufficient in your certification studies. If you're not beholden to someone else, then you're free to leave when conditions warrant leaving.

 

Unforunately this isn't the early 90s anymore, no one really starts in the IT job they really want.

Most people start at the bottom i.e 1st line support, basic computer repairs and dare I say it PC world

 

it may be crap but you are getting decent experience and when the time comes with your experience you maybe able to go into 2nd/3rd line or do something like a hardware engineer.

My job really isn't a proper IT job but I am getting a lot of exposure to servers now it is my reckoning I may be able to get a cert associated with this at some point in the future such as the MCSA then I could look for better positions in that area.

 

To be honest, any salary at all is better than nothing. Getting that first job is damn hard, so if the position is still available, apply. It sounds like they need the staff, and any exposure to IT support and systems is good. No-one says you've got to stay there forever.

I studied for three years, then spent a year doing temp. Admin work. It was sheer luck that I got the chance to help the IT department, and I paid my dues typing up hand-written logs, recording calls, and being kept busy with a stack of keyboards and a bottle of cleaning fluid. Did I moan, and say I wanted to work with the full time IT staff, and configure a server or two? No, I just got my head down and got on with it, and learnt as much as I could. And even today, I'm still grateful to the people who gave me that opportunity. There's no short cut into IT, and the chance you got offered would be gratefully grabbed by many others.

Regards, Maria

 

good point Maria Rep given

 

Thanks for that GreenBruceLee, much appreciated

 

Also repped. Great advice.

 

Again, BosonMichael, thanks alot, much appreciated.