Spare time on service desk

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Hello there

I changed career at 32 and got into IT about 5 months ago getting a decent position on a service desk for a network with 2500 users. I'm really enjoying it, learning loads and thought I knew a bit about IT until I started! However it's summer and with users off on their holidays it's seriously slowing up. I just wanted to ask have any of you guys been in the position with a lot of free time on a service desk and the best productive way to fill it. Everyone seems content to surf the net and I'm thinking certs! I don't want to alienate myself from the team if you know what I mean and am unsure how management may react that positively or negatively. Any advice welcome. Hope this post is in the right place.

Thanks

Stephen

 

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Hi Stephen,

Certs can be a good idea if you have the right medium to use whilst at the service desk. Having a PDF open might be better then a book open with your headphones in listening to a video! There is still lots of cert based stuff on the net too or other information that will hep build your skills but not be cert based.

I personally learnt HTML and CSS whilst on a helpdesk. It was too busy for the first 2 months but after that whilst I was waiting for users to get back to me or a slow day with most of my calls already boxed off I would just open notepad++ and the internet and start trying to make random stuff.

What kind of things are you interested in learning?

 

Learn to code | Codecademy <--- click here

 

Coursera, Edx or Pluralsight subscription.

Literally millions good resources out there if you have the internet.

No reason ever to waste time if you know you have 30 mins free, a PC and internet.

If your worried about your boss seeing you with videos and headphones then look into ebooks or blogs.

Still no reason you cant make use your lunch break to watch a 1 hour CBT each day, it all adds up.

 

Hi Guy

Many thanks for the responses and suggestions. Dazzo, I use Active Directory and support WIN 7 etc a lot so would like to learn more in depth stuff but I have always been interested in web design too. That codecademy is cool! I think I'll have a bash on that and also look into getting an ebook which would be practical for my situation. Its ironic but before I had some IT knowledge but no hands on experience and now I'm gaining loads of experience but need to increase my knowledge! But I suppose that's IT.

Cheers again

 

A bit off topic, but mind sharing how you managed to do it?

 

Hi Oro

My situation is a lot like any of the posts you read on here about people trying to get in IT really. Always wanted to get into IT but stuck by the whole how do you get experience catch 22 issue! I did a HNC in computing a few years back and tried to get in IT but got nowhere. Then a couple of years ago I just thought I'm going to give it another shot. I went to interviews but didn't get the jobs. My organisation then advertised posts for IT and I went for that. I had to sit an exam (about 2 hours) and I passed that so got an interview. The interview was competency based and was a mixture of technical and general questions on communication etc.

I was a manager on a decent wage before this so I had to take a pay cut and had a chance of promotion but I definitely made the right choice because I enjoy this so much and am willing to work hard and learn to go further.

In short I just lucky and someone gave me a break! I think if someone works hard eventually someone will you a shot.

Cheers

 

Thanks for your response. It was very encouraging.