Technical support and help desk personnel can be found in organisations where computer networks and IT systems are used. They are the IT team’s backbone, providing assistance to anyone who uses the IT systems in place, not just fellow team members.
We’ll look at what to expect from support and help desk positions in this article. Although the job’s day-to-day responsibilities vary by organisation, the role it plays in the organisation remains constant.
What is the role of a technical support and help desk employee?
Jobs in these positions, as the name suggests, play a critical role in providing IT support. This can include everything from forgotten passwords to email access problems to network configuration, error troubleshooting, and malware removal.
The front line of the IT support team is made up of technical support and help desk personnel. When those in the company have a technology issue, they will go to them first. Although you through work in a face-to-face environment, more people are working remotely via phone or help desk software that connects them to other team members.
Help desk managers, technicians, and repair engineers are all technical support personnel who are critical to the performance of an organization’s IT networks and systems.
Tasks and responsibilities
Depending on the type of device they’re working with, technical support staff can perform a variety of tasks such as:
- Identifying and advising on IT machine and network issues.
- Queries and solutions are logged and kept track of.
- Analyzing logs to identify common problems and assist in the discovery of the root causes.
- Developing and improving self-help guides to enable employees to troubleshoot and resolve issues independently.
- On more serious problems, collaborating with IT field engineers.
- Equipment that isn't working as it should be tested, configured, and fixed.
Technical support and help desk workers are expected to have certain abilities.
Technical support workers with all levels of education can find work, but they must have at least a GCSE in IT, Science, English, or Math to qualify. More qualified candidates with degrees in related computing subjects or who have completed specialist courses such as those offered by the Helpdesk Institute can also find more demanding and rewarding roles in support teams.
Members of the technical support team spend a lot of time communicating with employees and clients. As a result, in addition to their hard skills, they are expected to have a mix of soft skills. To name a few abilities:
- Assessing the IT skills of those seeking assistance.
- Excellent communication skills.
- Analytical and problem-solving abilities.
- Up-to-date technical knowledge of client and employer systems.
- Accurate records keeping and analysis ability.
- Equipment that isn't working as it should be tested, configured, and fixed.
- An ability to handle difficult callers.
What does a career in technical support and help desk?
There are technical support and help desk teams everywhere there are IT systems and networks. As a result, both those seeking entry-level positions and those with more experience, qualifications, and certifications have a wide range of options.
Many technical support workers are part of a larger organization’s internal IT support team. This means that their IT department primarily receives requests for assistance from other departments. Others provide support for client-facing systems and services, essentially acting as a customer service representative in addition to providing IT support.
As a result, many technical support professionals work full-time, often on a permanent basis. Those with specific knowledge of certain systems and software, on the other hand, can make a good living as a freelancer.
Upload your resume to IT FieldEngineer.com to see which types of technical support roles are right for you. It can match your skills with the most relevant job openings. This is an excellent way to see what kind of work you might be able to do as freelance technical support and help desk employee.