Betsy Lundsten, a LAN administrator at a major financial company in the US, said she never planned on working with computers when she graduated from college with a degree in anthropology.
But she ended up taking a help desk job "in order to keep up my extravagant habit of living indoors and eating regularly," she says. And she wanted something that would pay better than donating plasma, which is what she found herself doing at the time.
That was over five years ago, and Lundsten has been working in technology ever since.
Why help desk is a good starting point
If you're starry-eyed for a lucrative career in technology, your best bet for getting your feet wet could be a job on a help desk. Some of the most common entry-level jobs for tech newbies are systems support and help desk - particularly if you haven't been trained in a specific technology area such as engineering or software development.
Currently, there are almost 500 systems-support and help desk positions posted on techies.com. Over 29,000 of our members say they are seeking positions in this area. But before you get discouraged about the competition for these jobs, consider this: The demand for IT workers is large and growing.
Employers will attempt to fill 1.6 million new IT jobs in 2000, according to a study commissioned by the Information Technology Association of America. And technical support jobs make up one-third of those new positions.
Help desk and systems-support professionals act as customer service reps, technicians, and problem solvers - as internal support for a particular company, or sometimes as support for users of a software application or computer program. In other words, when you call a company's 800 number because you're having problems with new software, the person you'll speak with is probably a help-desk professional.
They might do some troubleshooting over the phone, or walk you through the procedure for installing your software. If you're on the job and having problems with your PC or a desktop application, you probably call your company's help desk.
What you can expect
Roger Hall has been working help desk as an independent contractor in Minneapolis for over four years. He had been working in desktop publishing, and had no training or experience in PC support. He said he landed his first help-desk position by convincing his employer that he was a fast learner.
"I didn't even know what Windows was when they hired me," he quipped. Hall said he now knows "just about everything that can be thrown at me in a Windows NT environment," and he learned everything on the job. "It's a good opportunity to figure out whether you want anything to do with the computer world," he says.
Lundsten also says newbies can expect to learn a lot of new things, "whether it's information about the products or platforms you're supporting, or about the weather in New Mexico this time of year while you're chatting with the user, waiting for their system to reboot."
The skills you'll need to land a help desk job
What's unique about help desk positions is that they require as much customer service skill as technical skill, says Kellie Kimbrough, advisory analyst for Help Desk 2000, a professional organisation that offers education and certification programs for the support industry.
The help desk requires someone who can multitask; field incoming requests over the phone, email, and live messaging; and prioritize and respond to those requests in an always-changing environment, says Kimbrough.
In other words, you need to be flexible and think fast on your feet, because you're constantly putting out fires, says Hall. And being sensitive to your customer's requests while also being diplomatic is a big plus.
"I would warn people that if you stress out easily it's not the position for you because you'll have tons of different people pulling you in tons of directions and everyone's problem is always the most important," he says.
Problem-solving skills are also a must, says Kimbrough. "While knowledge bases and other diagnostic tools provide a source for possible solutions, unique situations will frequently arise which call for a methodical approach to problem-solving."
"You can't be a dullard and do the job," agrees Hall. "You simply have to have a head on your shoulders. If you want to rise through the ranks, you have to be pretty sharp and pretty PC savvy."
You may also be asked to work some odd hours, particularly when starting out. Although for those people who may need to work around other commitments, the flexibility can be a plus, says Kimbrough. "If you have scheduling needs which differ from the standard work day, many help desks can accommodate you since support is offered around the clock in some companies."
The perfect opportunity
A job working help desk can be the perfect opportunity to blend people skills with tech skills. Lundgren says one of the things she enjoyed most about her job was fixing technical problems while interacting with a variety of people.
Hall also says he enjoys solving problems for people. "I have a problem-solving personality so I enjoy fixing things," he says. "Not like tinkering, but actually sitting down at a PC and figuring out what's wrong with it."
