Five Things I Discovered Working as an IT Operations Helpdesk Technician

I followed the typical IT track. Stumbling upon a PC tech opportunity at the now-defunct Inca Computer Builders. The opportunity was brief since the company only survived a year, but it gave me the skill set to land my first corporate level 1 helpdesk opportunity. It was a different atmosphere from working at a retail computer store. The name tag was replaced with an access badge with my picture prominently displayed. I had my little cubicle with just enough space to add a few personal items.

It was the first time in my life I made a living wage of $15/hr. Which was possible to live on in the late nineties. Thinking back, it was a great opportunity that gave me foundational skills and lessons that I have leveraged throughout my career. Here are my top five.

1. Working in Fast Food Prepared Me

It takes an extreme about of patience when dealing with the helpdesk. Most IT helpdesks, or service desks if you prefer, deal with a variety of calls that can be categorized as:

1. Incidents
2. Requests
3. After-hours escalation and coordination

Incident Management and After-hour escalation were the most challenging tasks, as they are typically associated with SLAs. Additionally, you’re interacting with someone that is either unable to work, or you just woke up to work on an issue. In both situations, the stress level experience can be almost directly correlated with the demeanor of the individual you’re speaking to. The more upset the person the more stress it may add to the situation. These situations were sometimes tough to deal with; however, it doesn’t compare to anything I ever experienced working in fast food.

Fast Food Mistakes bring out the anger in many customers

It’s amazing the level of anger that can be directed at you because of a missing order of fries, or the sandwich didn’t have enough, or too much of something. I’ve seen people throw food through the order window, cars keyed, threats of violence, and acts of vandalism over the smallest of errors. Errors that we were happy to remediate. The language that some customers would use would be equally colorful. Customers can sometimes be inches from your face could spew some of the worst words you can imagine, and you never know if the verbal altercation will escalate to something worse.

Folks on the Phone still get angry

This doesn’t happen in a corporate setting. The person on the other end of the call may be annoyed, even angry, but they cannot be as disrespectful as they may want to be. There are consequences for abrasive language in most corporate environments, so the temperament is somewhat controlled by the simple fact that everyone on the call enjoys paying their mortgage/rent promptly.

Additionally, the client isn’t inches away from you so the threat of physical violence is removed. There is no need to activate a fight or flight response.

2. The Person with the most certificates isn’t always the most knowledgeable.

I say that with a slight grin, as I have recently refocused my certification efforts. 18 and counting, but I digress. Although the helpdesk focused on call metrics it encouraged you to follow a certificate track. Back in my day, the IT cert to achieve was the Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE) certification. This achievement would put you in the queue to be promoted to the level 2 help desk and beyond. I was told the certification is fairly challenging to achieve, and if done on your own merits I would agree.

However, there were and still are exam dumps like Transcenders back in the day that only require memorizing the answers to the questions. In many cases, I’ve seen individuals gain certification after certification and pin them to their cubicle week after week, and then when assign a ticket to them or you bounce a question off of them they struggle to find an answer. Then you have the unassuming system administrator, engineer, etc. with absolutely no certifications hanging in their cubicle. Keep in mind, that doesn’t necessarily mean they do not have any. What they will have instead is probably a poster of some reference architecture of the system they’re responsible for. That person is who I learned to look for to answer the hard questions.

If you’re not taking the time to actually learn the architecture, then you’re doing a disservice to yourself and others who legitimately obtained it. Don’t just memorize the exam:

1. Read a book
2. Read whitepapers
3. Build a lab

It will make you a better IT professional in the long run. Side note, there is credence to the reason why IT dumps are so prevalent. The questions in many cases do not apply to the real world and failing it can be infuriating to an individual who’s been managing that specific technology for multiple years.

3. System Administrators constantly complained that we’re not trained well enough, and they’re right.

The one complaint that I always heard from System Administrators and Engineers is that we were not trained well enough to troubleshoot issues. The complaints stem from two primary reasons:

1. Tickets were escalated that could’ve been resolved at the helpdesk
3. Tickets were assigned to the team that was not responsible

This would lead to a less-than-ideal experience for the end user that is experiencing the issue as well as the System administrators having to shift their focus away from more advanced issues to work on lower-level tickets.
The complaint is valid and I experienced this on the receiving end as a System Administrator. The issue with a level 1 helpdesk agent is that their merit/performance is heavily focused on phone metrics. the big ones are hold times and the number of calls taken. Most helpdesk tasks are very prescribed and scripted, and once the technician has reached the end of the script they assign the ticket to the next level. Many helpdesks are not designed to allow the agent to be creative in their troubleshooting, Creativity begins at the next level usually that is the desktop or system administrator.

What the SAs and SEs typically are begging for is an improved First Call Resolution (FCR) ratio. That is the percentage of calls the helpdesk resolves before reassigning them. Most helpdesks thrive for a 90% FCR or better.
However, in my experience, FCRs typically hover around the low to mid-70s. This is mainly because wait times and the number of calls take priority. The agent on the phone may not be done with the troubleshooting steps and have the capability to resolve the issue. Although SA and SEs cringed whenever we approached, I got the opposite feeling when dealing with System Architects. I found that most System Architects were very patient and detailed in their explanations. The few that weren’t easily opened up once you appeased their
ego and acknowledged the System Architect status. I never really understood why, but I have a few theories.
First of all, the helpdesk rarely approached system architects directly. It was usually a situation where there may be a skeleton crew in the office due to a specific holiday or company function or the main person went on PTO and we had no other choice.
Unfortunately, most level 1 helpdesk do not have the flexibility to work extensively with a single client. In most cases, they probably have about 10 minutes to resolve or transfer the ticket.

4. I found System Architects to be extremely patient with us

Although SA and SEs cringed whenever we approached, I got the opposite feeling when dealing with System Architects. I found that most System Architects were very patient and detailed in their explanations. The few that weren’t easily opened up once you appeased their
ego and acknowledged the System Architect status. I never really understood why, but I have a few theories.

First of all, the helpdesk rarely approached system architects directly. It was usually a situation where there may be a skeleton crew in the office due to a specific holiday or company function or the main person went on PTO and we had no other choice.

5. The helpdesk is the first and last step for many

When I landed my first technical helpdesk job, I was elated. It was the first job that I classified as a career. It allowed me to move out on my own and rent my first apartment. However, from the very beginning, I knew this would be just a temporary stop. My goal at the time was to become a system engineer. So I started starting purchasing a bunch of books from Sybex, Cisco, and Microsoft Press. Invested in a PC and a layer 2 switch to build out my server lab and started taking, and even passing, exams. Eventually, it lead to my next opportunity. However, surprisingly not everyone feels the same about the helpdesk and a surprising amount of folks are comfortable spending their entire careers as a level 1 helpdesk person. To be fair, there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m sure that there are a few folks that love the hustle and bustle a service desk can provide, and then there are those that can follow a script perfectly, but that’s it. However, this was the late 90s and the IT field was booming. If there was any career in the 90s that would kick-start your life it was IT. So to see folks at the dawn of IT, before the bubble first in the early 2000s, with 5 – 10 years as a level 1 help desk confused and fascinated me.
The drive to become a system engineer was one reason I didn’t want to spend my entire career on a helpdesk, but another reason is IT itself. This career has and continues to rapidly evolve and becoming comfortable in a role could quickly lead you down the path of obscurity. As long as level one helpdesks
remains a viable career then those individuals are safe, however, with artificial intelligence making rapidly improving, there may come a time when a human is no longer required to perform tasks at this level. In fact, I would caution anyone to relax in any job that can be mostly scripted.

Conclusion

My helpdesk career only lasted about 12 months before I landed my first desktop support opportunity. However, it was an opportunity that allowed me to sit down and focus on advanced computing topics, determine my next career move, and obtain a valuable, at the time, certification. If you’re fresh out of school, and you’re interested in IT then a level one helpdesk job is a great entry opportunity.
However, focus on your next step. Absorb the experience and ask yourself if this is something you want to explore deeper or if is it not your cup of tea. Take the time to study current and emerging technologies. Think beyond the GUI and consider familiarizing yourself with popular infrastructure as code languages such as Bicep, Terraform, and PowerShell.