Hired Newly as IT Help Desk Support? Here is What to Expect on the Job

Hired Newly as IT Help Desk Support? Here is What to Expect on the Job

The phone starts ringing off the hook, and you pick it up to learn your new boss wants you to come into work as the new IT help desk support employee next week.

What can you expect when you walk into work next Monday? First, you should know how the responsibilities for tech support and an IT Help Desk will be vastly different.

Your role also depends on the structure, size and culture at the company. If you want to change careers later in life, maybe this article can help you understand if this is the job for you.

Roles and Perks of an Enterprise-level IT Help Desk

At Randstad Technologies, an enterprise-sized company with over 1,000 employees, you can expect to pick up the phone for the inbound phone calls.

The customers will call you for troubleshooting issues, and you will help to resolve user issues. Afterwards, you will enter the problem into the tracking system where tickets can escalate to tier two and tier three help desk levels when needed.

Salary and Compensation

For an enterprise-level company, you can earn between $18 to $25 per hour, based on how much experience you have.

In addition, you get health benefits at a discount and a 401k. Positions like this will also pay you overtime in most cases. Because of the high demand for a growing IT sector, the need for help desk support will always be there.

Work Environment

Most often you will sit at a help desk with a computer in front of you. You will play an active role on a team of IT professionals, and when a customer experiences issues, you will communicate with other team members and share information to solve problems faster.

Outside of working with an immediate team of IT professionals, you can also take advantage of LinkedIn user groups, which has become a dependable resource.

Especially because you just started on the job, you will be encouraged to network with people within the company and those outside the company to share the best practices.

Opportunity for Advancement

After you have worked at the job for a while, your boss may see you as helpful support, and as a result, he may promote you to a tier two or tier three help desk position.

As you reach higher tier levels, you will have an increased need to specialize in a specific job. For example, you may receive the role of system administrator or a network engineer.

Roles and Perks of a Small to Mid-sized IT Help Desk Consultant

Companies like Miles Technologies will have hired around 90 employees, which classifies as a small to medium-sized IT help desk.

If you were hired by a smaller company, you can expect to provide telephone help desk support to companies.

Normally, this style of IT help desk support involves answering the questions of anywhere from 20 to 100 confused computer users.

In some cases, you may be asked to troubleshoot a problem on a smartphone, laptop or desktop, and you may have to support them via a remote PC connection or over the phone.

Salary and Compensation

At the small to mid-sized companies, your boss will usually choose to hire you through an annual salary, and you will usually see a pay rate between $30,000 to $50,000 every year.

You will also usually get benefits like dental, medical, a 401k and paid vacation time.

Work Environment

At a smaller company, you will normally sit with around 15 other help desk consultants, and they will often times collaborate with each other to resolve the problems of the client.

Like with enterprise-level IT help desk support, you will share solutions with fellow employees when complex problems arise, and you will wear a headset and respond to multiple monitors as the need arises.

Opportunity for Advancement

You will normally have to stay an employee and sit at the phones for over a year before you become eligible for promotion to an IT consultant.

For the smaller-sized company, these are the more advanced levels of technical support. After you have advanced from that position, you can become a project manager or an advanced technical specialist.

Sometimes smaller companies will offer you the chance to earn bonuses, and they will give you incentive to work toward certifications through self-study.

What to Expect as an IT Help Desk Employee

After a while of working the phones, not much will happen that surprises you. IT help desk support has turned into the proving ground for newly recruited IT professionals.

The average company expects to close 200 tickets on a daily basis. In fact, Bates reported an estimated 210 closed tickets in a single day.

That’s an average number. Dan Johnson, an IT system administrator who worked his way through the ranks, says the best IT help desk support will be those with the ambition to move beyond this position because they will seek out new opportunities to learn and use the job to get better career clarity.

Because technology always moves forward, you have to stay persistent in your effort to advance. If you can ever wish to reach the higher-paying job tiers, you must understand the three biggest industry trends and other trends you might face.

Those trends are bringing your own device programs, mobility and real-time support. Help desk employees have an ever-increasing need to keep up with the latest gadgets if they can ever hope to support customers.

To one day land a leadership role, you must continue to expand your help-desk technician skills.