Oh God, I got an IT job

Cogidubnus · January 30, 2011, 06:02:38 AM

Tech support, to be exact. Manning phone lines and helping strangers I have never met figure out what that cupholder on their desktop is.

Unfortunately, though I am knowledgeable about computers, beyond fixing PEBCAK errors and minor problems, I don't have the sort of technical expertise this job seems like it might require.

I told my interviewees this. I could only answer half the questions on their IT evaluation. They hired me anyway. I don't think they care.

They are giving me seven weeks of training, which I have heard means they are pretty legit. Not to be too specific, the people I will be providing support -to- is Verizon Wireless corporate, and they've got more money than God, so I guess they can afford it.

Lots of people here seem to work with computers, if not in IT. Any advice, I suppose? Horror stories? Would it be wise to start my career telling people to type fdisk into the command prompt?

llearch n'n'daCorna · January 30, 2011, 06:28:53 AM

*snerk*

The seven weeks will run you through the basics you need to know. Mostly, that sort of stuff is scripted, though, so it's a matter of "follow this process" rather than "know what you're doing".

Obviously, if you know what you're doing, you can skip some steps, but mostly you'll be fine. Just be polite and helpful to folks - after all, they're calling you because their internet is broken and they'll have been on hold and be annoyed already. If you can get past that and resolve their issue quickly and helpfully, they'll be grateful.

.. of course, they won't actually tell anyone you work with about that, but that's about par for the course.

hapless · January 30, 2011, 07:54:20 AM

Also, browse http://www.customerssuck.com/board/forumdisplay.php?f=29 and prepare for the worst.

LionHeart · January 30, 2011, 08:28:17 AM

Horror stories? Try http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid/ or http://thedailywtf.com. Have fun...

Seriously, though, congrats on the new job.

Reese Tora · January 30, 2011, 02:42:16 PM

and don't forget

http://notalwaysright.com/

Drayco84 · January 30, 2011, 03:06:23 PM

Quote from: Cogidubnus on January 30, 2011, 06:02:38 AM
Tech support, to be exact. Manning phone lines and helping strangers I have never met figure out what that cupholder on their desktop is.

Unfortunately, though I am knowledgeable about computers, beyond fixing PEBCAK errors and minor problems, I don't have the sort of technical expertise this job seems like it might require.

If the company is DECENT, they'll have prompts, checklists, and POSSIBLY a line of help for YOU. Since it's for a bunch of big-wigs, they'll probably have extra stuff.

Quote from: Cogidubnus on January 30, 2011, 06:02:38 AM
I told my interviewees this. I could only answer half the questions on their IT evaluation. They hired me anyway. I don't think they care.

Oh, and the humor sites everyone keeps posting? You WILL get situations where you can give those a run for their money.

Typical. They probably don't give a rat's butt. The people that can actually tolerate the kind of crap they're handing out are "special". And by "Special" I mean "Insane masochists that ENJOY getting regular shafting in the butt from multiple sources". (Been there for 2.5 years, dealing with END USERS. Makes me wonder why I never strangled myself...)

Quote from: Cogidubnus on January 30, 2011, 06:02:38 AM
They are giving me seven weeks of training, which I have heard means they are pretty legit. Not to be too specific, the people I will be providing support -to- is Verizon Wireless corporate, and they've got more money than God, so I guess they can afford it.

"TO" Verizon Wireless corporate, or "FOR" corporate? Either way, brush up on your iPhone hacking skills. (Yeah, they've got those now.)

Quote from: Cogidubnus on January 30, 2011, 06:02:38 AM
Lots of people here seem to work with computers, if not in IT. Any advice, I suppose? Horror stories? Would it be wise to start my career telling people to type fdisk into the command prompt?

Protip: You will have CRAPTONS of phone numbers and other BS that you'll need to remember and recall on a frequent basis. If you can, save that stuff into a notepad file in your computer's profile, and email yourself a copy every time you change it.

Fdisk: Your career will be short, but probably memorable as the company drags you onto a sacrificial altar to save it's own butt. (ESPECIALLY if the company name begins with "Tele" and ends with "Performance". I may be biased, but that's how things went for me.)

The training is going to be long, boring, and possibly contain useful info. (Although, MY training involved the attitude of "They can learn what they need to know on the floor, while on the floor." Yeah, NOT smart...)

Overall, stick to operating within your support boundaries and remember that ALL your crap will probably be timed. I honestly and truly don't mean to scare you, but I had MANY days where I just wanted some damn booze...

Cogidubnus · January 30, 2011, 06:38:03 PM

Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on January 30, 2011, 06:28:53 AM
The seven weeks will run you through the basics you need to know. Mostly, that sort of stuff is scripted, though, so it's a matter of "follow this process" rather than "know what you're doing".

That's pretty much what they said, yeah. Apparently we have a program for it that they teach you to use over seven weeks. Seven weeks seems like a long time to me. Must be one hell of a program.

Quote"TO" Verizon Wireless corporate, or "FOR" corporate? Either way, brush up on your iPhone hacking skills. (Yeah, they've got those now.)

To Corporate. As in, Verizon Wireless employees, not customers.

Drayco84 · January 30, 2011, 07:12:49 PM

Quote from: Cogidubnus on January 30, 2011, 06:38:03 PM
To Corporate. As in, Verizon Wireless employees, not customers.

Ah. Well, here's hoping they're smarter than the customers I got.

Reese Tora · January 31, 2011, 05:14:55 AM

Here's hoping; my company serves Verizon, and what I overhear from the guys who handle the Verizon projects...

Remember: Engineer does NOT mean technically inclined.

Ryudo Lee · January 31, 2011, 08:13:22 PM

In my experience, what you've described is a service desk, which is really more of an overglorified call routing center. You'll be reading from a script, you might be allowed to reset passwords, but beyond that, you'll most likely be routing calls to other support teams. It's a good way to get your foot in the door, but be warned, those places are usually revolving doors.

Take my organization for example. User puts in a call to the service desk, if it's not a password reset, or can be solved by a reboot, then the call gets routed to me, and if I cannot resolve it, I escalate it up to another team. You never get the same person at the service desk twice, and often no one stays for more than a month (except for their supervisors).

Cogidubnus · February 01, 2011, 12:56:30 AM

Quote from: Ryudo Lee on January 31, 2011, 08:13:22 PM
In my experience, what you've described is a service desk, which is really more of an overglorified call routing center. You'll be reading from a script, you might be allowed to reset passwords, but beyond that, you'll most likely be routing calls to other support teams. It's a good way to get your foot in the door, but be warned, those places are usually revolving doors.

Take my organization for example. User puts in a call to the service desk, if it's not a password reset, or can be solved by a reboot, then the call gets routed to me, and if I cannot resolve it, I escalate it up to another team. You never get the same person at the service desk twice, and often no one stays for more than a month (except for their supervisors).

From what was described to me, I'm actually fixing problems, but I haven't actually done anything there yet, so we'll see. Seven weeks of training seems like a long time to train someone for something like that, though.