Getting an IT Help Desk Job For Dummies

Introduction

Technology as a whole, is the foundation of a strong and energetic job industry brimming with a seemingly neverending supply of jobs. Most IT help desk jobs are on a form of help desk, but there is a lot of diversity in roles, including consulting, a customer facing help desk, and internal technical support team member. If you’re looking to get in on the ground floor of technology, the IT help desk operation is one of the more diverse segments to exploit.

When you look at the landscape of technology, however, you may wonder if it’s even possible to become proficient. There’s so much to know, and new technologies are being introduced every year. Windows XP ran for ten years, and now it’s jumped from Windows 7 to 8.1 to the upcoming Windows 10 in just a few years. Mobile phone OS like Apple iOS, Google’s Android, and even BlackBerry 10 evolve radically with each new version. This isn’t even counting the rapid growth and expansion in all other IT technologies, telecommunications, software, web services, and countless other segments. How can anyone keep up with all of it?

You, however, are a rock star. You are a nerd, and nerds now rule the world. You live, eat, drink, and breathe technology. You can, and you do, keep up. It’s not easy, but then again, what is? On the other hand, it is healthy to understand that you do not know everything and you’ll need some help on occasion. That is why this book exists. With this book, you don’t need to tax your nerd brain with the effort of finding work; you just need to use the tools provided.

Using this book, you can develop a sense of purpose, discover your area of strength, expand your knowledge base, become a better you, and become a better employee at the same time.

About This Book

Getting an IT Help Desk Job For Dummies introduces you to the world of IT help desk operations and how to prepare or improve yourself for employment in this world. With this book as your guide, you will learn

All about the help desk

The different paths you can take on your road to the help desk

The array of different certifications that are available to you

What a day is like for each kind of role in the support industry

Why selecting the help desk is the best choice when getting into IT

What the federal government has to say about how awesome IT is

About the kind of education that can help you in your quest for work

More about optional forms of education

The inner workings of the nerd mind and how to apply it to help people

The manifold arena of post-education that is known as certifications

The good, the bad, and the functional of getting certifications

How to make yourself a better nerd outside of education

Effective tools for expanding your technical prowess

New platforms and new ways of experiencing technology

Everything you need to know about being a help desk nerd

The core elements that make up working as a consultant

What it’s like to work inside a company, small or large

The ins and outs of providing technical support to customers

How to brand yourself using the Internet as your toolbox

How to develop a winning cover letter and the ultimate resume

How to survive the grueling interview process

What to do and what not to do when interacting with decision-makers

Why it’s critical to treat people nicely

How to properly manage the post-interview process

How interesting lists of information can really be

After you decide that you want an IT help desk job — or, if you already have one, decide whether you want to keep working in IT — how do you advance yourself?

That’s why this book exists. This book is designed to empower you, give an extra boost to your already active nerd gene, help you find the job you want, build on that foundation, and develop a long-lasting career in IT that makes you happy and fulfilled.

Foolish Assumptions

Getting an IT Help Desk Job For Dummies is written in a way that’s fully accessible for beginners, for people who don’t currently hold an IT help desk job, and for those who are looking to get their first job. However, I did have to make a few assumptions while writing this book, or I would not have had enough space to get you the information you need while not making this book 1,000 pages long. Here are my assumptions:

You’re familiar with computers, such as those that run Windows, Mac OS X, and maybe even Linux. I assume that you can work with icons, the keyboard, and a mouse and that you have all of the basic skills for using a computer. In addition, I assume that you are generally far more familiar with computers and technology than most people (or you would be hard pressed to support them).

You’re familiar with using the Internet and its resources, such as search engines, searching for jobs using online jobs boards, and purchasing various kinds of products.

You have a smartphone or tablet and/or related mobile devices, can find, install, and use apps on those devices, and know how to manage those devices.

You know something about the basic mechanics of getting a job. If not, please see Job Hunting For Dummies, 2nd Edition, by Max Messmer (yes, one of Wiley’s books) to get up to speed.

Icons Used in This Book

Throughout the margins of this book are little round pictures known as icons. Here’s what those icons signify:

tip The text next to this icon offers tips for completing tasks or for making your job easier. You’ll want to take advantage of these nuggets of wisdom!

remember Pay special attention when you see this icon. It points out information you’ll want to make sure to remember.

warning This text warns you of things that can go wrong . . . very wrong!

Beyond This Book

The fun doesn’t stop with this book. You will find the following goodies online:

Cheat Sheet: You can find this book’s Cheat Sheet online at www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/gettinganithelpdeskjob. See the Cheat Sheet for checklists that can help you throughout the entire process of finding, preparing for, and following up on jobs.

Dummies.com online articles: You can find companion articles to this book’s content online at www.dummies.com/extras/gettinganithelpdeskjob. The articles deal with what you need to know, finding the right job, landing the right job, and a bonus list of things you should never, ever say to an interviewer.

Updates: If this book has any updates after printing, they’ll be posted to www.dummies.com/updates/gettinganithelpdeskjob.

Where We Go from Here

Like other For Dummies books, Getting an IT Help Desk Job For Dummies is a reference. That means you can read it in the order that makes sense to you. You can flip through to stumble upon scads of helpful info, or you can use the table of contents and index to zero in on exactly the topic you’re looking for.

You also have the option to read this book like a book, from beginning to end. This approach can be valuable for two reasons. One, if you’re new to the world of the help desk, reading through the entire book can give you layers of context that you may not have been previously aware of. Two, if you’re working to learn a new skillset so that you can advance from your current position, this book will give you insight into the arena of IT help desk operations and how people work together and also grants you clarity where before there was none.

If you want to know what you need to work in IT, check out Part II. If you need to jump straight to information on what type of IT help desk job is right for you, look no further than Part III. If you want help getting your cover letter and resume materials all ship-shape, then move to Part IV.

Good hunting!

Part I

So You Want to Be an IT Help Desk Engineer

webextra Visit http://www.dummies.com for great Dummies content online.

In this part . . .

check.png Discover your job options so that you can get find the IT help desk job that’s right for you.

check.png Get the inside scoop on what a help desk engineer does on a day-to-day basis so that you can determine which career path is right for you.

check.png Find out what a position at a help desk can lead to so that you can plan accordingly.

check.png Visit http://www.dummies.com for great Dummies content online.

Chapter 1

Embracing IT Help Desk Jobs

In This Chapter

arrow Establishing a better understanding of how companies use the help desk

arrow Developing an awareness of your options for positions

arrow Understanding the tools you’ll need to get work

It’s time to get a job, and you’re quite talented with technology, so where do you go? How do you find one? How do you verify that you know what you need to know in order to take a position? How do you understand what your potential pay will be? How do you determine your options? You go online and look at what the IT job industry offers and find an enormous selection of positions and little understanding about what most of the jobs entail. Now what do you do?

You start by reading this chapter. In this chapter, I break down a number of things like what a help desk is, how important the help desk is to industry, a look at the IT job market, and more. In short, the information in this chapter starts you on a path to discover whether a career in IT suits you. In general, if you have any technical aptitude at all, then it’s likely an IT position will be a positive step forward for you. IT is a strong industry with lots of opportunity for advancement.

This chapter has an element of looking inside yourself, as if the content inside these pages is a looking glass for personal introspection. You discover more about the IT industry and likely more about yourself. It is also the aim to help you feel a sense of confidence in yourself as you recognize more and more information, learning that you are not alone in the way you think and that you probably know quite a bit more than you may think.

What Is a Help Desk?

Literally, the help desk is a desk people can go to for help. Yes, that definition isn’t exactly helpful, but in general terms, the help desk is an organization inside of a corporation that is part of the IT department that is designed to assist users with their computer needs.

remember I use simple terminology throughout this book to describe the people who run the help desk as engineers and the people who do not as users. For example, the engineer installs a printer driver update for the user.

The overall scope of what is termed help desk is frequently wider than just engineers helping users, though this rule isn’t strict. Some help desks are tightly controlled and have a very limited role. You will find these limited roles in larger organizations that either work on government contracts or must comply with various laws and regulations.

The core aspect of a help desk, however, is to provide users with the resources they need to use technology as tools to perform their work for the corporation. Yet, because you are living in the world of IT, even this core purpose is complicated. As in The Matrix, you can choose the Red Pill or the Blue Pill, each taking you on a different path.

Why Technical Support Matters

There is a long legacy of personal computing history that illustrates the growing need for technical support. Way back in 1976, on April 1 for that matter, a small company called Apple created what is widely regarded as the first Personal Computer, or PC.

Despite the fact that all computers used by people are technically Personal Computers, that’s not how things worked out when it comes to terminology. When most people talk about a PC, they are referring to a computer running Microsoft’s Windows operating system. The term PC was popularized by IBM, which produced the IBM PC line of computers that ran PC DOS to compete in the nascent personal computer market. To the contrary, if it’s an Apple product, then it’s a Mac. For sheer nerdliness, when discussing Linux, the popular open source operating system, the machines are usually called Linux Boxes.

technicalstuff A whole new world

The Apple I was popular among the technical people of the time, but Apple’s market share really exploded with the Apple ][ line, which became popular in homes and in schools. IBM was more popular on the business end of the market, because companies knew and respected the IBM name. Apple, in turn, eschewed the strict business orientation of IBM’s PC and pushed the development of easy-to-use computer software that was attractive. The late ’70s and early ’80s bore a vast number of different platforms, most popularly the Atari line, Radio Shack’s own Tandy line, the ridiculously popular Commodore C64, Texas Instrument’s TI 99/4a, and Sinclair’s ZX line, all of which, except Apple and the IBM PC, were wiped out.

In 1984, Apple unleashed the Macintosh on the market. A radically different computer, the Mac used a mouse to move icons around a virtual desktop. Instead of typing cryptic commands, users pointed and clicked to make the computer act. In 1985, the Apple Writer hit the market and fostered a mass movement for desktop publishing. Due to its ease of use compared to the IBM PCs of the day, popular applications like Aldus’s PageMaker, the new printer, and a graphical environment, Apple established the Macintosh as a computer for design and creative types.

In the meantime, IBM’s PC compatibility standard was pushing all other competitors out of the marketplace. Manufacturers who were building computers to support other standards started getting in line with IBM as they saw the writing on the wall. Apple had already set its well-forged path and was strong enough to avoid getting on the IBM bandwagon, but the only maker of significant market share remaining was the plucky little Amiga. Sadly, Amiga was unable to continue pushing the envelope with technological advances and was pushed out of the market by 1996.

By 1997, however, Apple was in trouble, steadily losing market share to IBM and the clone makers Dell, HP, Compaq, Packard Bell, and many others. The clone market dramatically pushed down part costs through vigorous competition to produce the latest and greatest while remaining compatible with the PC standard. Apple was on the ropes with machines that were far more expensive and lacked compatibility with the IBM standard. It looked like IBM, with Microsoft Windows and IBM’s own OS/2 (which lasted until 2001 with the release of OS/2 Warp 4.52) designed specifically for business and was compatible with Windows programs, was winning.

Apple’s then CEO, Gil Amelio, turned to previously ousted Steve Jobs in an attempt to get his advanced NeXT operating system for a new generation of Apple Macintosh computers. In a twist best served by various biographies, Amelio was pushed out, Jobs was brought back in as iCEO, and NeXT was absorbed into Apple. Jobs then went on a spring cleaning event, clearing much of what he deemed useless from the projects roster, and pushed for Apple to renew its presence in the computer market. The result of his and others efforts was the iMac, released in 1998, a colorful little all-in-one that would mark an enormous shift in personal computing history.

Apple had, in one fell swoop, pronounced that beige was out, candy colors were in, and if you wanted to be cool, you would never go beige. The move from beige as default component color would not, however, really take hold until the release of Mac OS X in 2001 that would start the fundamental change at Apple, and thus in the rest of the PC industry. On the IBM PC front, however, it was business as usual, though competition for advancement wasn’t lacking. Those changes, however, were more technical than esthetic. AMD, a former subcontractor for Intel, started out on its own and began marketing competing CPUs, the heart of any PC.

AMD had already started to make x86 CPU clones back in 1991, but in 1996, the company unveiled its K5 processor. The K stood for Kryptonite, the only substance that could harm Superman, which in this case was Intel. AMD was first to develop a mass-produced 64-bit CPU, but Intel quickly followed with its own, and the Intel Pentium was a hard product name to beat. AMD never did overtake Intel as CPU market leader, but it remains a staple of low-end systems and a favorite of so-called overclockers.

By the mid-2000s, most IBM PC clone makers had been absorbed into the big cloners, such as Dell and HP. Even HP took over Compaq, and Packard Bell went bust in the United States, mostly over very poor reliability and technical support issues. Japanese PC makers were also flooding the market with innovative new designs and lower price points, among them Sony, Acer, and Toshiba. By this time, Windows was considered the de facto desktop standard with the very popular Windows XP, and even IBM’s OS/2 was now gone. It was no longer a fight for hardware, but the operating system, and the only two standing were now Microsoft’s Windows and Apple’s Mac OS X.

Then something remarkable happened. While Intel and AMD were fighting it out on the PC side, Apple was fighting with IBM and Motorola over advancing development of the PowerPC CPU, the core of Apple’s Macintosh computers. The PowerPC was running too hot and could be sufficiently cooled only in Apple’s hot new PowerMac Pro towers, all aluminum towers packed with power for the creative types that loved Mac OS X’s ease of use and designer-centric interface language. Apple wanted to put faster CPUs into its laptops and desktop systems, but it had no way to keep them from burning to a crisp.

It was at this point Apple decided that in order to stay in the market and not have to close shop, it would do something unheard of. Apple changed its entire lineup to run on Intel’s x86 CPU architecture and dumped the PowerPC. In a way, Apple had done this before. It had killed off the 68k line to move to the more powerful PowerPC chips, and it was one of the smoothest transitions in computing history. This time, the transition wouldn’t go quite as smoothly, but in the end, all Apple products now run on Intel-based chips, just like PCs running Windows. Contrary to theories at the time, however, Apple still licenses Mac OS X to run only on Apple computers and only using approved hardware components.

Heads in the Clouds

Aside from a number of watershed events in the last decade, such as the advent of the iPod and iPhone, the precipitous rise and fall of the netbook market, the surprise dominance of Apple iPad, and the long and hard push by Google to crack and ultimately dominate the mobile phone market, only one thing has taken hold and likely won’t let go: ease of use. Computers of all kinds are everywhere. People carry them around in the form of laptops, tablets, and smartphones. People use them at ATMs, in cars, in airports, and in other places. Computers guide humans via GPS, show them TV and movies in the living room, and protect homes and offices. Computers are everywhere, and the differences between Windows and Mac OS X are getting less important.

Back in the day, it was all about the applications. Now it’s all about access to tools on the Internet. Millions upon millions of people use Gmail, Yahoo!, and MSN for email, Twitter and Facebook for social networking, and the Internet in general for all manner of information, shopping, banking, and whatnot. People use the Internet on phones and tablets, too, and even on some watches and in their eyes via Google Glass. Business cannot operate without access to the Internet, and countless productivity services are available for all manner of business operations. If you take away the Internet from people, they generally start to complain rather quickly. The Internet has become an indispensable tool in their daily lives.

With the growth of Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome web browsers that run on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and other less popular operating systems, the OS you use has become unimportant. That means that it doesn’t really matter whether you use a Mac or a PC for the most part. Certain applications are still exclusive to either Windows or Mac OS X, but most of the big programs are made for both, including Microsoft’s own Office. Compatibility is not really much of an issue any more, but the platforms remain different enough to warrant cross-training for technical support staff.

Why Companies Care about Technical Support

The history of the personal computer market speaks for itself when determining why companies care about technical support, but the reasons are far more nuanced than just a collection of market shifts. Technical support started very early in the PC market. Back in the 1970s and early ’80s, there was no history for people using technology. If a company wanted users to be happy with its products, everything had to be documented and described, and in many cases, support had to be offered.

Companies care about technical support for a number of reasons, most of which revolve around the bottom line. Without satisfied customers or employees who can perform work, companies aren’t left with much to generate revenue from, such as working products or people to create them.

It behooves any company to provide comprehensive support to users inside and out. This seems like a great time to list those reasons:

Providing a sense of security: Companies do well when their users and customers feel like they can go somewhere to get help when needed. Not everyone is a technical genius, and it’s nice to know that someone can help out when problems arise.

Guaranteeing consistency: When offering consumers a product, it helps to keep as many of them as happy as possible. When managing internal systems, it helps to make sure everything is working as expected and meets all requirements of IT policies.

Keeping a close watch on bugs: No developer likes to offer broken software to users, and a crack technical support team is key to keeping close tabs on any bugs. Watching trends through ticketing systems helps establish a form of triage for issues to be fixed.

Acting as a another conduit for customer service: Technical support is one of the primary faces of any company that provides products or services to consumers, and, as such, companies must provide customer services that please consumers.

Providing customer satisfaction statistics: A helpdesk is a perfect source for collecting information about how customers feel about both services and products offered by a company. Never waste an opportunity to gather statistical data; just try not to annoy paying customers.

Having a solid understanding of these principles will help guide you on your quest. Having a good 10,000 foot view of how companies view IT operations is critical to understanding why companies make decisions about how IT is used to forward a company’s needs and wants. Ultimately, everything a company does reflects the need to generate revenue. It will serve you well to remember that.

The IT Help Desk Job Market

You are looking at joining one of the most stable and consistent growth industries on the planet. Information