My Job in Desktop Support

In 2017, I started my first job in Information Technology as a desktop support specialist at an international telecomunications company. The job was a part time position with 25 hours per week. I was very excited to start working in a field that I had spent the last three years studying.

My first day on the job was interesting and some of what you might expect. My boss was the senior network administrator. He assigned me the task of setting up my work space. He had a cart with two monitors, a mouse, keyboard, a Dell 6400 series laptop and docking station. I wondered if this was some sort of test.

Dell E6400 series laptop from a Google image search.

I set up the equipment to perform the duties required of a person in my position. My boss explained to me that this is a Tier One position and my job would be helpdesk and deploying laptops.

In Information Technology (IT), a Tier One Specialist is the first person to answer the phone, chat, or email about an IT problem. The job of this person is to gather information, perform troubleshooting, make a diagnosis and develop an action plan. If the action plan fails, the Tier One Specialist may try a different action plan or escalate to Tier Two.

The tool used to gather information is usually a ticketing system such as ZenDesk or even SalesForce. This tool is a database that uses the case number as the primary key. A primary key is the identifier used to find the case and is often used to search for the case. Some smaller organization may use an in house product made by using Microsoft Sharepoint or even Microsoft Access.

In this case, the ticketing system began as email records. The weaknesses with using email is the record being buried, filed incorrectly or even deleted. Another weakness is humans often don't absorb information that well from a wall of text. Generally, we tend to skim and scan for pertinent details. Important details can be missed if the information isn't organized properly. The consequence of this is issues may not be resolved in a timely manner if at all.

I can understand why email was used. In this organization, email was almost the primary means of communication. The offshore team eventually recognized this and developed a ticketing system for the IT department.

Working in Deskside/Desktop Support was a great opportunity to learn and gain experience with the Windows operating system. I was able to hone my customer service and troubleshooting skills. This position also taught me the importance of being able to organize information pertaining to a problem.