Break into IT as a Support Specialist

Break into IT as a Support Specialist

Working the support desk and troubleshooting IT problems is common for people looking to start a long-term tech career. Many employers will want to test the abilities of their IT support professionals at the help desk before allowing them to tackle other projects—especially for those with a lot of knowledge but limited experience.

It’s a job that can carry a high level of stress but if you can handle the pressure, it can also be the perfect entry point to an IT career. For long term success, working the IT help desk as a support specialist is the ideal way to gain the scalable knowledge and valuable experience in the industry.

You need to keep your skills current.

This seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how quickly many IT professionals stop adding to and updating their skills once they get on the job. Technology is constantly evolving and changing. It’s important to stay up-to-date by reading tech blogs, talking to other professionals, and enhancing your skills with online courses and certifications.

One of the first certifications earned by many IT professionals is the CompTia A+ certification which is highly valued in the industry and the first step to higher level and more specialized credentials. (It is also required by many companies before you will be considered for a help desk role.) In addition, learning about programming including Java, C#, SQL and others, database development, and even web design will help you better understand how to fix IT problems in the help desk role as well as move toward your chosen future career.

You might gain clarity in your career.

While working in an IT support position, you will be exposed to many different parts of the field, and this can help you determine the best career path. It doesn’t matter if you decide to broaden your scope or if you narrow your focus and pursue a specialized path.

Your experience learning how to troubleshoot and fix common computer problems is valuable to helping you understand how hardware and software works. This is an important foundation of knowledge should you choose to gain more specialized certifications.

You’ll never have all the answers.

No matter how long you work the IT help desk or how many skills you gain, you will never have ALL the answers. Others in may expect you to be the expert on all tech support issues, but this is an impossible task for any one person.

The important thing is knowing where you can go to get the information you need to solve problems. The internet is a great resource as well as the people around you. If you haven’t encountered a problem before, you can bet someone else has and you can benefit from their experience.

You will work through problems with potentially difficult people.

When someone calls the IT help desk, it means they are facing a problem that they can’t solve themselves. No one likes to have their productivity interrupted by error messages or malfunctioning equipment, and we all handle stress differently.

You’ll need to put yourself in their shoes and empathize with them. Set clean expectations, and keep your cool no matter what happens. You should view this as more practice for handling issues as you move up in your IT career.

Patience and good communication are key.

As a professional working the IT help desk, you will need to have a lot of patience. To be successful in your role, you will  have to calmly handle the simplest issues over and over again. It’s important to stay quiet and not degrade the person who repeatedly forgets his password or can’t properly save her documents to the correct drive. It will happen.

You also need to pair this patience with the ability to communicate well. Knowing the keys to effective communication and having the ability to explain even the most complicated topics in a way that people who aren’t tech-savvy can understand, will go a long way in helping you perform your tech support role.

While working in IT support and figuring out how to fix common computer and network problems isn’t the most glamorous job, you will pick up critical skills to launch your IT career. Put in your time working the IT help desk and use the opportunity to learn as much as you can. You’ll be on your way to your dream IT career, and you’ll be a better professional because of it.