What is considered help desk experience?

 entry level help desk jobs

Working at a help desk or in a support role is a great way to be tapped into the core of any business: customers and products. In a help desk job, you get to connect with customers, understand their experience with your company, and get to know the product inside and out. It takes a certain mix of skills, values, and personal characteristics to really go far in a help desk or support career.

I sat down with Rick Bal, a Premier Support Manager here, and asked what impresses him most when looking for and interviewing help desk or support candidates. With over 5 years leading and staffing Atlassian support teams, Rick knows what makes for a stellar help desk support agent.

12 traits hiring managers look for in help desk job candidates

1. A real desire to help people.

This person does a great job because they truly want to help others, not because it’s “their job”. They work hard to play hard, find joy in their day-to-day tasks, and have passion for their role.

2. Works ‘with’ and not ‘for’ the customers.

A superior support agent sees the customer as an equal partner, and considers themselves an extension of the customer’s team. Identifying with the customer as a partner helps support agents treat problems as their own and provide a level of service that they would expect themselves.

3. Positive and optimistic approach to problem-solving.

Support jobs can be difficult, but this person doesn’t allow negative customer interactions to become contagious. In the face of a tense or charged situation, this person knows how to stay logical and focus on solving the issue at hand. They approach customers with empathy, don’t complain about customers when things get tough, and look for what can be learned from the situation.

4. Creates and cultivates a playful and relaxed work environment.

This person enjoys themselves at work, spreading a positive can-do attitude. A great support agent integrates a bit of fun into their daily tasks to make everyone’s loads a little lighter. Office pranks are always a fun way to do this.

5. Collaborative team spirit.

This person feels responsible not only for their own tasks, but also cares about their team’s workload, too. They know when to ask for and offer help, and understand how much they can take on at a time. They care about the team’s success, and are happy to sacrifice personal goals when needed to help the team achieve its goals. There are times you will get pulled into a call that lasts for hours on end, so it’s good to know the team can cover for you.

6. Passion for the product.

An awesome support agent is an informed champion of their products. They’re enthusiastic about using them, understanding how they work inside and out, and seek to improve them. This natural curiosity drives them to tinker, and truly understand how the product works, not just how to fix it when something breaks. This type of passion for the product shows up in customer interactions, and it’s infectious.

Is help desk a dead end job?

  how much does a help desk technician make

"Some people use it as a launch pad, and other people make it a dead-end job," he says. The greatest opportunity for help desk technicians lies in their ability to learn about different facets of the business, "which makes them more valuable than a pure IT guy," says Rosen.

12 essential skills you need in a help desk job

Working at a help desk or in a support role is a great way to be tapped into the core of any business: customers and products. In a help desk job, you get to connect with customers, understand their experience with your company, and get to know the product inside and out. It takes a certain mix of skills, values, and personal characteristics to really go far in a help desk or support career.

I sat down with Rick Bal, a Premier Support Manager here, and asked what impresses him most when looking for and interviewing help desk or support candidates. With over 5 years leading and staffing Atlassian support teams, Rick knows what makes for a stellar help desk support agent.

12 traits hiring managers look for in help desk job candidates

1. A real desire to help people.

This person does a great job because they truly want to help others, not because it’s “their job”. They work hard to play hard, find joy in their day-to-day tasks, and have passion for their role.

2. Works ‘with’ and not ‘for’ the customers.

A superior support agent sees the customer as an equal partner, and considers themselves an extension of the customer’s team. Identifying with the customer as a partner helps support agents treat problems as their own and provide a level of service that they would expect themselves.

3. Positive and optimistic approach to problem-solving.

Support jobs can be difficult, but this person doesn’t allow negative customer interactions to become contagious. In the face of a tense or charged situation, this person knows how to stay logical and focus on solving the issue at hand. They approach customers with empathy, don’t complain about customers when things get tough, and look for what can be learned from the situation.

4. Creates and cultivates a playful and relaxed work environment.

This person enjoys themselves at work, spreading a positive can-do attitude. A great support agent integrates a bit of fun into their daily tasks to make everyone’s loads a little lighter. Office pranks are always a fun way to do this.

5. Collaborative team spirit.

This person feels responsible not only for their own tasks, but also cares about their team’s workload, too. They know when to ask for and offer help, and understand how much they can take on at a time. They care about the team’s success, and are happy to sacrifice personal goals when needed to help the team achieve its goals. There are times you will get pulled into a call that lasts for hours on end, so it’s good to know the team can cover for you.

6. Passion for the product.

An awesome support agent is an informed champion of their products. They’re enthusiastic about using them, understanding how they work inside and out, and seek to improve them. This natural curiosity drives them to tinker, and truly understand how the product works, not just how to fix it when something breaks. This type of passion for the product shows up in customer interactions, and it’s infectious.

7. All-star communication skills.

A great help desk agent simply enjoys communicating with customers. They know it’s essential to listen and understand before being heard. This person strives for transparency, and communicates with tact. They know how to adapt their style to different kinds of customers – from those that want to be your best friend, to those that just want the problem solved. Their natural teaching skills help customers understand the product enough to even solve issues on their own.

Tek systems careers

 tek systems careers

Whether you’re searching for contract or direct placement positions—or even executive roles—we can connect you with the right people, at the right time.

We have deep connections with prime companies in your market. The benefit? We help you get in front of decision-makers at top-tier organisations. Transformation starts with a single opportunity.

To ensure your IT candidate is right for the job, check and see if they have any desktop support certifications. Along with education and experience, this ensures they have the knowledge your company needs.

There are many certifications for each IT niche. There are broader ones that cover all basis, niche certifications such as help desk, and even more niche certifications for Apple and Windows products.

Would you rather than hire an in-house IT specialist, would you rather outsource the best IT professionals? Take a look at our services.

Tags: business tools, business trends, customer service, desktop support, desktop support certifications, internal operations, it support certifications, service desk, service desk certifications

How long should I stay in help desk?

  entry level help desk

How Long Should You Stay on the Help Desk?

We all have to start somewhere, and helpdesk work is as good a place as any for tech professionals to dive in. Helpdesk teaches important communication skills, technical troubleshooting techniques, and how SLAs and call escalations work. If you aren’t much of a conversationalist, then working on the phone all day can help draw you out of your shell. These are all great foundational skills to learn early on in your career and can help you to understand how support roles generally work. How long you should be looking to work in such a position depends on you. You need to consider the important details — career development and room to grow are big ones.https://www.fieldengineer.com/blogs/what-does-a-help-desk-technician-do

Becoming a Lifer

Different people generally have their own long and short term plans, and not everyone wants to move on from working in a helpdesk role to one like customer support technician or customer service professional.

However, if you are someone that really needs to get their hands dirty with practical work, then moving on is essential. The general rule of thumb is that two to three years is probably the longest you want to be in a helpdesk role if you plan on moving up into a more specialized field. That is assuming that you are using such a position as a stepping stone. Staying any longer and you risk becoming a ‘lifer’ and breaking out of that mold is tough.

Signs of Stagnation on the Helpdesk

There is nothing “wrong” with working in a helpdesk position. Things are good if you are employed at a nice company and you are satisfied with your hours and pay. Some people really enjoy the predictability and security of scripted work. The problem with any entry level role is that it suffocates your potential in the long run if there is no room to grow. If you have any aspirations beyond repetitive tasks, then you are wasting your potential

What skills do you need to be a help desk technician?

  entry level help desk technician

The (IT support) times they are a changin’, and IT service desks have already reacted not only in how they operate but also in how they recruit and train their staff. The average service desk, if there is such a thing in reality, is now focused on recruiting people with service desk skills like customer service, communication, and problem-solving skills – rather than previous support experience or deep technical knowledge.

It sounds great from a customer service point of view, but is this merely a plateau before another step change in end-user expectations of IT support (and associated industry best practices) change the qualities required of service desk staff again?

The service desk status quo in 2015

At the end of 2015, HDI – a professional association for the technical support industry – released its annual support center practices and salary report. Naming the top ten sought-after skills for hiring and promoting staff as:

1. 1. Customer service
   2. Communication skills
   3. Ability to learn quickly
   4. Troubleshooting/problem-solving skills
   5. Ability to work under pressure
   6. Adaptability
   7. Teamwork skills
   8. Interpersonal skills
   9. Support experience
   10. Integrity

With the provided training also emphasizing the need for customer service skills (please note that this HDI table includes only those organizations that have each position)

Source: HDI, 2015 Support Center Practices & Salary Report

And just to really underline the importance of customer service skills, the top five factors that influence salary increases for service desk people were said to be [Source: HDI, 2015 Support Center Practices & Salary Report]:

1. Customer service skills
2. Quality of work
3. Meeting performance metrics or standards
4. Help desk or support experience
5. Increased job responsibilities

One can’t argue with the importance of customer skills to IT support but the times are still a changin’, with two factors in particular anticipated to change the requirements for service desk staff as we work our way into 2017.

Looking to 2017 and beyond – the growing importance of customer experience

Many service desks are already aware of the growing use of customer experience in the business-to-consumer (B2C) world – with improving customer experience a method of winning and retaining customers. This growing use of customer experience is raising customer expectations of services and service; and employees (who are, after all, consumers) are bringing their new expectations of customer experience into work and measuring the IT department, HR, and any other corporate service provider against them.

These customer-experience-adopting B2C companies will testify that a focus on customer service alone is no longer enough. And thus service desk management and staff (and the wider IT organization) will need to fully understand the constructs of customer experience, what it means in the context of corporate IT service delivery, and what they need to do to at least keep up with the growing expectations of employees.

How much does a help desk make?

 help desk pay

Help desk professionals manage customer service requests and address support tickets. Often, they also use specific software which, when used properly, can save time, effort, and money. Creating a help desk service consists of assessing your needs, training staff, and giving them tools to help them respond to customer concerns before the competition does.

We recommend Freshdesk for any small business that is looking for a help desk service. Freshdesk makes it easy for agents to organize and manage all customer tickets, and the system comes in different pricing tiers to meet the needs of most companies. Click the button below to get started with Freshdesk for free.

What Is a Help Desk?

In basic terms, a help desk is a central online hub where your customers can talk to customer support staff. It can be a physical desk but is more commonly a virtual space where your customers can reach out to you when they need help. Depending on the size of your company, a help desk can be staffed either by one individual employee or a specialized team dedicated specifically to support.

In some way, all companies have a help desk of sorts as part of their customer or account management system. If a customer has a problem with your product or service, they will probably call your organization to get the issue sorted out. A help desk management software solution is designed to make customer support easier thanks to ticket management, communications, automation, and other features.

How to Set Up Your Help Desk in 5 Steps

When setting up your own help desk operations, it is important to decide how you want to use your help desk. From there, you should identify any gaps between your goals and your current support operations. These five steps will give you the knowledge to map out a process that can adhere to at any level within your management structure so that your help desk can easily scale with your company’s growth.

Here are the five steps to take when setting up your help desk.

1. Decide What Support Your Desk will Deliver

Traditionally help or support desks are a place for receiving basic customer tickets and fixing customer issues as they’re reported. However, they can also serve a more strategic function by acting as a centralized location for managing customer service workflows, centralizing customer data, and building a self-service knowledge base.

Help desks can also be expanded to include company-wide service requests. This means the help desk assists both internal and external customers and can act as a central hub for a customer relationship management (CRM) process.

What do I need to know for a help desk job?

  it help desk jobs

12 traits hiring managers look for in help desk job candidates

• A real desire to help people. ...
• Works 'with' and not 'for' the customers. ...
• Positive and optimistic approach to problem-solving. ...
• Creates and cultivates a playful and relaxed work environment. ...
• Collaborative team spirit. ...
• Passion for the product.
• 
  

  Working at a help desk or in a support role is a great way to be tapped into the core of any business: customers and products. In a help desk job, you get to connect with customers, understand their experience with your company, and get to know the product inside and out. It takes a certain mix of skills, values, and personal characteristics to really go far in a help desk or support career.

  I sat down with Rick Bal, a Premier Support Manager here, and asked what impresses him most when looking for and interviewing help desk or support candidates. With over 5 years leading and staffing Atlassian support teams, Rick knows what makes for a stellar help desk support agent.

  12 traits hiring managers look for in help desk job candidates

  1. A real desire to help people.

  This person does a great job because they truly want to help others, not because it’s “their job”. They work hard to play hard, find joy in their day-to-day tasks, and have passion for their role.

  2. Works ‘with’ and not ‘for’ the customers.

  A superior support agent sees the customer as an equal partner, and considers themselves an extension of the customer’s team. Identifying with the customer as a partner helps support agents treat problems as their own and provide a level of service that they would expect themselves.

  3. Positive and optimistic approach to problem-solving.

  Support jobs can be difficult, but this person doesn’t allow negative customer interactions to become contagious. In the face of a tense or charged situation, this person knows how to stay logical and focus on solving the issue at hand. They approach customers with empathy, don’t complain about customers when things get tough, and look for what can be learned from the situation.

• 
  

Technical Support Specialist Salary Range

  help desk technician hourly rate

Is your technical support specialist salary on point for your location, experience, certifications and skill set? Here's a dynamic look at tech support and help desk wages, including salary comparisons derived from the leading salary surveys and employment data sources. Use our custom job search and school finder tools to maximize your technical support specialist salary. Explore the IT help desk career path for a deep dive into this essential technology role.

Historic Technical Support Salaries

Average salary ranges for technical support specialists, help desk technicians and related occupations for the past three years:

Job Title	2018 Salary	2019 Salary	2020 Salary	2-Year Change
Computer Repair Technician	$32,000 - $54,000	$32,500 - $55,250	$33,500 - $55,500	+ 3.5%
Help Desk / Tech Support	$38,000 - $63,750	$38,250 - $64,500	$41,500 - $65,250	+ 4.9%
Desktop Support Analyst	$50,500 - $85,000	$51,000 - $86,500	$49,750 - $86,500	+ 0.6%
Systems Administrator	$67,250 - $113,500	$68,000 - $115,750	$69,250 - $117,250	+ 3.2%

Sources: Robert Half Technology 2018, 2019 and 2020 Salary Guides

Skills To Boost Your Tech Support Salary

Master these expertise to increase your earnings in technical support and IT help desk positions:

• CompTIA certifications inc. A+, Network+ & Security+
• Windows desktop and server administration
• Cisco network management skills and certs
• Cyber security skills and credentials
• Cloud computing and virtualization
• Superior customer service skills
• Soft skills inc. critical thinking, problem solving, and communication

Technical Support Specialist Salaries by State

U.S. State / Location	Average Annual Wage	Average Hourly Wage
Alabama	$49,120	$23.61
Alaska	$57,270	$27.54
Arizona	$52,090	$25.04
Arkansas	$42,180	$20.28
California	$66,350	$31.90
Colorado	$60,440	$29.06
Connecticut	$59,990	$28.84
Delaware	$58,780	$28.86
District of Columbia	$71,020	$34.14
Florida	$49,260	$23.68
Georgia	$53,090	$25.52
Hawaii	$47,990	$23.07
Idaho	$48,990	$23.55
Illinois	$53,020	$25.49
Indiana	$46,990	$22.59
Iowa	$49,100	$23.61
Kansas	$45,360	$21.81

hat does a help desk analyst do?

 how much do help desk jobs pay

Search Results

Featured snippet from the web

An early career Help Desk Analyst with 1-4 years of experience earns an average total compensation (includes tips, bonus, and overtime pay) of ₹282,531 based on 13 salaries. A mid-career Help Desk Analyst with 5-9 years of experience earns an average total compensation of ₹361,741 based on 5 salaries

Help desk analysts are on the frontline of customer support. They are focused on helping to resolve technical issues end users encounter, or connecting those users with more intensive IT support, when needed.

The help desk analyst is one of the most visible IT roles – as well as an evolving one. In fact, it’s one of the few public-facing IT jobs. But what does an average workday look like for this professional? Here’s a quick overview. 

A tiered role

Help desk analysts are on the frontline of customer support. They are focused on helping to resolve technical issues end users encounter, or connecting those users with more intensive IT support, when needed. Here are the three levels of analysts:

• A Tier 1 help desk analyst typically takes the initial inquiry and manages relatively simple hardware, software or network issues. If they can’t address the problem, they escalate it to a Tier 2 analyst.
• A Tier 2 analyst is able to resolve more complex systems and applications problems. These help desk analysts generally decide whether or not to generate a trouble or work order ticket, or escalate the issue to the next level.
• Tier 3 analysts research and resolve the most complex issues that other help desk levels have been unable to fix. They also identify trends in issue reporting and come up with preventative solutions.

Remote assistance

A help desk analyst spends the majority of the day performing remote support. This can take a number of forms:

• Over-the-phone support
• Screen sharing or remote control
• Live chat support
• Email support

Performing any kind of technical support is challenging enough, but remote support can require even more skill.

If screen sharing or remote control tools aren’t available, help desk analysts must depend on users to be their eyes and hands when trying to resolve a problem. The help desk analyst must visualize what the user is seeing on his or her screen and know exactly what suggestions to give, and how to word that guidance so the user can follow it.

Providing remote support can be particularly tricky during busy periods of the day when the volume of calls picks up, queues get longer and pressure mounts. The help desk analyst therefore needs to know how to keep cool and work efficiently – and it doesn't hurt to have a sense of humor, particularly when receiving requests like these. (Although laughing at end user requests while helping them is obviously not a good idea!)

Ticket maintenance

Help desk requests are tracked using a ticketing system. The most efficient help desks have standards set for ticket quality, like average time to resolution and percentage of tickets that are escalated to higher levels.These standards are used to measure the quality of service, as well as to detect trends in product quality. This is why a help desk analyst must regularly maintain tickets.These professionals typically spend a portion of the workday reviewing existing tickets and looking for cases that should be closed, following up with users where appropriate, and setting reminders for future action.

Help desk analysts who deal with especially time-sensitive issues will spend a larger share of their day on ticket maintenance and following up on reminders to make sure their tickets are on track for a speedy resolution.

How much do process technicians make a year?

 

 data center technician salary

Chemical plant and system operators, sometimes called process technicians or operations technicians,operate machines that process chemicals and make sure that they are functioning correctly. Process technicians usually work in factories. This is an entry-level position, and most employers don't require process technicians to have formal education beyond a high school diploma.https://www.fieldengineer.com/blogs/what-does-a-help-desk-technician-do

Average National Pay

As of 2013, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that process technicians earned an average wage of $26.29 per hour and an average salary of $54,690 per year. Half of all process technicians employed in the United States reported annual earnings ranging from $42,290 to $67,790. Nationally, the lowest-paid 10 percent of process technicians made $32,840 or less per year, while the highest-paid 10 percent earned $76,850 or more annually.

Differences in Pay by State

Process technicians tend to make more money in South Central and Mid-Atlantic states and less in the Midwest and certain areas of the South. As of 2013, Texas was the highest-paying state for this occupation, where the average annual salary was $66,420. Louisiana ranked second at $62,640, followed by Delaware at $62,370. The lowest-paying states in the nation were Arkansas ($42,800), South Dakota ($39,670) and Indiana ($36,540).

Salary by Industry Sector

Over a third of all process technicians worked in basic chemical manufacturing as of 2013, where they earned an average salary of $55,980 per year, close to the average for all industry sectors. Some manufacturing sectors tend to pay a bit less, such as pesticide and fertilizer manufacturing ($52,230) and pharmaceutical manufacturing ($52,790). Other industry sectors offered substantially higher wages, such as petroleum and coal products manufacturing ($58,540) and plastics manufacturing ($67,070).

Job Outlook

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 38,300 Americans worked as process technicians in 2012. However, this number is expected to decline substantially as manufacturing declines, and most job opportunities will arise only when current workers retire, says he BLS. While the overall U.S. economy was expected to grow at a rate of 11 percent between 2012 and 2022, the number of chemical systems operator jobs was expected to decline by 11 percent. At this rate, the number of jobs for process technicians is expected to decline by about 4,400 jobs by 2022.