Getting into IT Support with no experience?
Discussion
IT Support is good to get exposure of how the IT department works and delivers services to customers. Beyond that, it's a dead end operational role. Operational roles rarely pay well. In addition to that, it's quite a comfy area. So if you have little ambition, it's very easy to rest your laurels and lo and behold you've wasted 6 years in one role. It's not testing, it's not intellectually challenging, it's not cutting edge or innovative, it's not strategic in any way.
I've known service owners who are on decent salaries, but the amount of s
t they have to put through...what skills exactly do you need for that job? I can think of a few (good stakeholder management, working well under pressure when your director says it's the fifth time a key application has gone down and you're a numpty), but in my opinion it's a dog chasing job where all you do is reactively put out fires. Hardly sounds like job satisfaction to me?
So by all means wet your feet and try it out. You'll pick up stuff about key applications and how incidents and problem records are dealt with, how new applications and services flow through to the live environment and the chaos that usually ensues. But it's not a career. It's a starting point and you need to be conscious of that - don't stay in IT support!
I've known service owners who are on decent salaries, but the amount of s
t they have to put through...what skills exactly do you need for that job? I can think of a few (good stakeholder management, working well under pressure when your director says it's the fifth time a key application has gone down and you're a numpty), but in my opinion it's a dog chasing job where all you do is reactively put out fires. Hardly sounds like job satisfaction to me?So by all means wet your feet and try it out. You'll pick up stuff about key applications and how incidents and problem records are dealt with, how new applications and services flow through to the live environment and the chaos that usually ensues. But it's not a career. It's a starting point and you need to be conscious of that - don't stay in IT support!
Edited by silent ninja on Thursday 18th July 22:20
OP, I see you are in West Yorks, are you flexible on location?
I got into IT 25yrs ago as a grad trainee but was living in Birmingham, where there were bugger all roles, and not much further north. Meanwhile in Reading where I relocated to for my first job people were falling over themselves to offer me a job. You’ve sometimes got to go where the work is - IT in the UK is very much South East/London centric, with of course the associated higher cost of living.
Ultima are a big local provider, they have a team in at my client co. They take entry level people, always hiring and promote from within, MD a massive petrolhead. Worth giving them a call to see what opportunities are on offer.
https://www.ultima.com/join-us/current-vacancies/1...
I got into IT 25yrs ago as a grad trainee but was living in Birmingham, where there were bugger all roles, and not much further north. Meanwhile in Reading where I relocated to for my first job people were falling over themselves to offer me a job. You’ve sometimes got to go where the work is - IT in the UK is very much South East/London centric, with of course the associated higher cost of living.
Ultima are a big local provider, they have a team in at my client co. They take entry level people, always hiring and promote from within, MD a massive petrolhead. Worth giving them a call to see what opportunities are on offer.
https://www.ultima.com/join-us/current-vacancies/1...
Jimmy No Hands said:
To update this, I've not had much luck at all yet. I had an interview today which involved a degree of 1st line support, but for a certain set of products rather than general IT. I'm now debating looking at some more sales roles but deep down I know I don't particularly want to..
How close to Leeds are you?PurpleTurtle said:
OP, I see you are in West Yorks, are you flexible on location?
I got into IT 25yrs ago as a grad trainee but was living in Birmingham, where there were bugger all roles, and not much further north. Meanwhile in Reading where I relocated to for my first job people were falling over themselves to offer me a job. You’ve sometimes got to go where the work is - IT in the UK is very much South East/London centric, with of course the associated higher cost of living.
Ultima are a big local provider, they have a team in at my client co. They take entry level people, always hiring and promote from within, MD a massive petrolhead. Worth giving them a call to see what opportunities are on offer.
https://www.ultima.com/join-us/current-vacancies/1...
My partner starts a 12 month post-grad course in Leeds next month, so I'm sort of tied for the immediate future. I completely agree however, but at the moment it just wouldn't be feasible to relocate. I got into IT 25yrs ago as a grad trainee but was living in Birmingham, where there were bugger all roles, and not much further north. Meanwhile in Reading where I relocated to for my first job people were falling over themselves to offer me a job. You’ve sometimes got to go where the work is - IT in the UK is very much South East/London centric, with of course the associated higher cost of living.
Ultima are a big local provider, they have a team in at my client co. They take entry level people, always hiring and promote from within, MD a massive petrolhead. Worth giving them a call to see what opportunities are on offer.
https://www.ultima.com/join-us/current-vacancies/1...
geeks said:
How close to Leeds are you?
I'm looking for a rental in Leeds right now, currently with family in Bradford. I wouldn't get too hung up on qualifications. I'm 15 years in, fairly senior now and without hesitation my preference in new candidates are the ones that can display good old fashioned common sense, thats it, knowledge can be trained in. The amount of applicants we get with no common sense at all have no hope as i can't train that into them.
The reality of 1st line support is that common sense closes calls faster than any in depth nerdy knowledge. Most support environments already have matured knowledge bases, so its really your job to use those and let 2nd line keep it up to date. Also its worth being aware that IT support these days has very little to do with computers, so if you are hoping that it is for you because of your involvement with computers then you might be disappointed.
When applying for jobs try to figure out what support models that company follows. It goes a long way if a candidate is already alware that we follow ITIL for example, even if they are not certified.
The reality of 1st line support is that common sense closes calls faster than any in depth nerdy knowledge. Most support environments already have matured knowledge bases, so its really your job to use those and let 2nd line keep it up to date. Also its worth being aware that IT support these days has very little to do with computers, so if you are hoping that it is for you because of your involvement with computers then you might be disappointed.
When applying for jobs try to figure out what support models that company follows. It goes a long way if a candidate is already alware that we follow ITIL for example, even if they are not certified.
Gassing Station | Jobs & Employment Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff