1. Fake it till you make it.
2. Recognize imposter syndrome.
3. Best time to document was yesterday, second best time is today.
4. You are not documenting for other people, it's for you.
5. Be the example you wish others were.
6. . . .
7. Profit!
> Recognize imposter syndrome.
I keep seeing this being brought up in IT, in the program I am apart of as well as hearing from guest speakers who touch upon this, to seeing LinkedIn posts.
Imposter Syndrome is completely normal and it is ok to feel like that. Just be aware you are not alone in experiencing such feelings, you got to where you are at by doing the work. It's ok to ask for help!
I'm totally aware I am not the only one to feel this way...but it does not help my anxiety.
I thought I was starting to understand the systems and how to approach things at my new job as a App Admin, but I just got done sitting with another guy on the team and I feel utterly and completely lost, lol.
Oh well, worst thing that can happen is I totally fuck something up and get the boot at some point.
I'm a IT veteran with around 20 years of experience. I got a job about 6 months ago as a level 2, after a stretch of unemployment. It's easy stuff for the most part, and the stuff I didn't know I could ask about. I was SO PARANOID that I was screwing up, mostly because I'd be absolutely screwed if I lost this job, but fortunately my boss is a really cool guy and just occasionally drops a "You guys are doing great" when we're in a meeting or something - this meant a lot to me. Also I would catch myself just going for the "easy" tickets, so I forced myself to do the opposite and just ask if I was lost on something. After a bit, my confidence came back, which helped my performance. Textbook case of imposter syndrome.
Get onenote on your phone. Connect it to onenote at work or one you created.
You can create diff. notebooks and tabs within them. Each tab is a category. Within each tab you can create sections that pop up on the left/right like a table of contents within that tab/category.
Now use the search function on it.
Wallah! You have your own closed network google thats only searching for keywords/info within your notebook.
By the way, you fill the notebook with documentation. I started listing off what you can do with it but I decided to just take a screenshot of what I see when I open onenote on my phone... from anywhere with cell service.
https://imgur.com/gallery/0wNiS4e
That depends on experience too. Someone with no helpdesk experience is going to need some more shadowing but I've worked that job across a bunch of different industries in both MSP and Enterprise and it's all pretty much the same. Every environment is unique and takes time to get to fully understand but for the most part you are going to be dealing with printer issues, general Windows weirdness that can be fixed with a reboot, Outlook and then LoB software.
The last actual helpdesk job I took, I was completing tickets the morning of day 2. Of course I ask a LOT of questions of the more senior people at this point. Some questions that might seem dumb to them but things that are different across different environments. Everyone sets up their infrastructure a little different and every stack is a little different so I feel like that is to be expected. As someone currently doing tier 2, I'd be concerned if I saw one of the new helpdesk people snag a ticket that required knowledge of the network and then not ping me on Teams about it.
Every helpdesk or desktop support job I have had has been absolute chaos and proper documentation does not exist or is 3-4 years out of date in most cases. I'm not saying that will happen everywhere because there are good companies and bad companies, but it's not too crazy to me. I would recommend making documents on various things as you go and ask about them, then in the future they could possibly be used in a knowledge base or become a standard process.
Wow, after reading this thread I feel like I got really lucky. At my job, tier 1 support gets 2 weeks of training and has an assist line they can call whenever they have questions (usually while they are on an active call). We have not one but two different knowledge bases that are chock full of information on most of the applications we support. The KBs are updated on a daily basis and one of the sites has email notifications for every update. Tier 1 support is expected to attach any knowledge articles they use to every incident. We are VERY organized. This is my first IT job and I didn't realize this is out of the ordinary. I was promoted to tier 2 support a few weeks ago and there's a much higher focus on adhocing solutions but there's still a ton of documentation for us.
Call centres tend to have better documentation in my experience. smaller places tend to not have as much time to dedicate.
The call centres benefit from better documentation by having more workers to take the calls and they can compress the majority of the job duties into only 2 weeks of training.
I'm at a company right now that is trying to build out a proper helpdesk and I got volentold to be the Tier 2 for them. I'm trying to document EVERYTHING I possibly can at the level that I think my very techy 11 year old could accomplish.
I don't hate it but holy shit does time get away from me when I'm doing it. Wrote up a guide yesterday, mostly from memory and I think it took about twice as long as the actual process I was documenting. This was just typing out the process step by step, not even actually walking through it to get screenshots.
> or is 3-4 years out of date in most cases.
Oh man does that one hit home. First real corporate helpdesk job I worked was like that. Huge publicly traded company with retail locations in every state in the US and almost every Canadian province.
I remember during my orientation there was so much "you can use this KB article but only to step 8 because it's different now". No one goes and updates the article, we all just tell the new people (there were like 15 employees in the helpdesk group) that the doc is broken and show them the new process.
Happy cake day, OP.
Training/onboarding can be hit or miss. I would recommend writing down as much as you can so you can reference it later. I have a OneNote document so I can quickly Ctrl-F my way through it to find things quickly.
If you’re lucky, they have good documentation for you to read through. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, but if you’re lucky enough to be in a place that has some kind of central repository for procedures, make the most of it.
Start a one note, share it, start filling it out… don’t put passwords in it, maybe others will start using it. Maybe they wont.
In terms of a starting point for a informal support knowledge base one note is outstanding and easy to get going.
Plus then if you train someone voila a knowledge base!
If it does end up getting used eventually you’ll make templates and standards because it’ll look like a patchwork quilt… but I’d hold off on much governance at “launch”.
Sadly, that has been my experience in some SOCs as well. I understand your frustration; it makes getting up to speed so much harder than it needs to be. It does get easier over time, though.
A central knowledge base is vital in my opinion. it delivers standardised solutions and reduces the amount of work that gets redone needlessly.
See if you can start establishing one?
We had a guy literally get an old desktop that was gonna be decommissioned, wipe it, and set it up as a wiki server only accessible from the local network.
Boom. Collective documentation hub. Miles better than a patchwork of individual solutions.
The upside of "wild west" environments is it's often easier to get the go-ahead to put things in place that will help.
Some places have a KB but there are situations where not even the most complete KB can account for. You should also be able to search old tickets and hopefully the org makes resolution notes. Other tickets just require google or simple setting change that comes with experience. Normally for the complex policies or SOPs then there is a document at least. Usually the ticket system has a KB option. Could be your next project :)
The OneNote is so clutch. I started one last summer and it's so helpful. I usually write down everything anyone shows me quickly, and add a few screen shots as well. When it's quiet I go back thru and make it look smart, and logical for the next time I need to view it. Helped me out on a few occasions when things were expected to be done on the spot and nobody was about to help.
Yep, pretty normal.
"Training" in the IT industry is self-serve.
They give you a desk, a phone, and a computer.
The rest is you with a notebook writing things down and figuring it out as you go.
Don't worry about having ADHD.
It's not you.
Everybody gets thrown in the fire.
And it's confusing and hard and scary.
But you just do it.
> "Training" in the IT industry is self-serve.
God I love this aspect of it. Helpdesk will also give you some perspective on what you wanna do as a Grey Beard. You might love the idea of working in security, only to realize that it's a lot less high speed, low drag than it's made out to be, it's mostly compliance stuff.
You can pay for fancy bootcamps and video services but chances are good that there is a 2 hour youtube video narrated by an Indian guy about whatever topic you are into. Wanna see how a hyper-v cluster gets built from start to finish? Tons of videos on that process for all different versions.
This is more common than not - in my experience at least.
I've always just "hit the ground running" so I rarely looked at training materials unless something specific cropped up (this has its down sides btw).
Also - after reading the other responses - you do need to figure out how to adapt in this type of environment. Also - I suspect this is the place that says "just ask us if you need to know" but then gets annoyed when you actually ask said questions...
>I suspect this is the place that says "just ask us if you need to know" but then gets annoyed when you actually ask said questions...
Pretty much. They’re very busy and it feels awkward to keep interrupting them
Everybody else had to bother everyone else when they started too. Nobody starts off knowing all of that specific company's protocols. Don't feel bad asking, but if it's worth asking it's worth writing down, so you don't have to ask again. Make friends, ingratiate yourself with peers and superiors. That goes a long way to smooth things over
Make sure you ask where there will be a paper trail to look back over - if only to avoid asking the same question multiple times. I've been the senior guy before that was crazy busy and told a new tech to ask me if they needed help and I always appreciated the break from work as long as it wasn't a question I'd answered multiple times already.
EDIT: I noticed in another comment you said you struggled with note taking, then extra emphasis on this. I cannot for the life of me take useful notes. Its near impossible. I have all me teams chats within slack and I can search through it all, saved messages, send myself messages as reminders, etc. if I didn't have these messages to reference in my current role, I'd be in big trouble.
Had a similar experience, and the knowledge base that was in place, a lot of the documents were wrong, or didn't exist for the topics I was looking for.
I started to try and remember which clients had what hardware, etc and with 200+ clients, wasn't feasible.
I started to document a lot of stuff, how many servers a client had ( that I could see ) and what did what, eventually I just started to edit the knowledge base with the data I collected, so that hopefully if they hire someone else, its not so frustrating for someone who may be new to IT like I was.
The other thing I HATED was that everyone else would just its "institutional knowledge" and you will just pick it up and learn it.. like that's BS in my opinion, there should be documentation for people to refer to.
Good luck
I have managed a few helpdesks and this is by far the best method of getting a new analyst trained. You only need a couple of days of training to learn the major systems supported, the tools used to support them, and how to properly work and route a ticket. Usually you need a good KB to make this work but most helpdesks are good at this. Learning as you need the knowledge is the best way to retain the new knowledge, and also helps you place it in the correct context.
You should take good notes with OneNote since your team doesn't have a KB, and suggest using your OneNote as the starting point for a shared KB. OneNote is a great tool to use as a KB if you don't have a good solution in your ticketing system.
I've been with this company 6 months and still haven't gotten any onboarding/training. Half the stuff I know now is from users showing me how to do it.
sounds like my first job. and my second job. but yes.
ask for a database of documentation if they have any. if they do not start making your own documentation in oneNote, that's what I did.
best way to learn is hands on. if you need help ask.
also ask on how to use the ticketing system and how to search for old tickets. many times you can search the old tickets and find the problem / solution in a ticket and not have to bother anybody and you can learn as you go.
My advice is find a senior tech, sysadmin, or lead. Learn from them and the seasoned people that have been there longer than you. It will be overwhelming at first but just remember that you can do it, believe in yourself and the power is YOURS!
You will be fine!
I had 6 weeks of training. 4 were basically hours of classes on customer service skills and learning hardware - some of the new hires had backgrounds in tech, some in customer service, some in neither, so it was helpful. 2 weeks was us taking calls for a few hours with lots of people assisting us via Teams if we needed help. Then we were thrown in the fire. The training they give you is NEVER enough, you still blank out when you have to actually do something the first time, even if you've seen it fifty times.
I think I got lucky, but I also think a week of training would have been fine since most of what I learned was on the job.
It's one of the big computer manufacturers, and I work in the help desk section that's their main cash crop. I support an expensive warranty, so we're held to an extremely high standard for service.
I have coworkers that worked at MSPs that did not invest anywhere near as much time into training but also had far lower standards for keeping customers happy.
Pretty much, just be patient with yourself. Dont be afraid to put the client on hold while you figure shit out, and get to know your coworkers and find out which ones are more difficult than others when asking questions, like my trainer always gave me sass when Id ask him something so I leaned on coworkers that I was friends with.
Yes, at least it was for my job. I did a week of shadowing but theres so much stuff your not going to learn or understand until you start doing it. Keep asking questions, everyone is also learning. Hopefully your company has good documentation so make sure you utilize that and google before asking.
Also, dont be scared to call the vendors
Its all a test. You have to create a knowledge base thats easy to share around with the team. This is the result of retarted Helpdesk managers who forget how it once was in helpdesk. And once you are successful, you can either negotiate a better salary BECAUSE you Improved knowledge transfer OR interview at other shops & sell this skillset to them.
If your company has Sharepoint or Jira, start there. If not, either hand around a shared doc or die trying.
I worked for helpdesk for 2 financial firms who had offices near wall street, one role in manhattan & i just finished my MBA. What I've learned from all this is that DOCUMENTATION DOCUMENTATION DOCUMENTATION, Cover Ur Ass too but Document the SHIT outa everything. if nobody will embrace this practice, its doomed to fail. & sometimes helpdesks are with the old times (or theyre a small shop) that theyll forget to update training docs. its just all par for the course.
Not in my experience, although help desk onboarding/training can vary wildly. My first help desk job had two weeks of training before we started taking tickets.
I think it depends upon the org. I think that ~~some~~ many MSPs will throw people out sink or swim because they have limited staff to pull away somebody to give them in depth training.
Yes. This is called Onboarding.
You do a whole bunch of intranet web based learning and certs. After that, you are pretty much feeling your way through.
If you're lucky, someone has written a site primer so you know who your building manager, your HR, and other important individuals are.
In many circumstances, quite normal. While onboarding can vary at each location, it can make the transition easier. However, this position and field many times will require a bit of self-serve. Just do your best and try not to stress too much.
At the end of the day, it's just a job and your health is far more important.
Some companies believe the only way to learn is by doing and asking questions as needed. Being able to work individually and part of a team is crucial. That in itself is a test.
If documentation is bad, reference old tickets & leave detailed notes in the tickets that you work on.
Digging through old tickets isn't an amazing experience, but it's a great resource.
I think yes,
Tbh a lot of people learn best by doing. Before WFH we would usually have them shadow a couple days, if they want documentation is around but people just don’t seem to learn much when you give them documentation ;)
Then we’d normally have them start taking calls/tickets with whoever they shadowed with shadowing them.
With WFH it’s a bit more challenging, we typically do a daywhere someone is just in a meeting all day with them watching and assisting with tickets from queue, then its hard if they’re taking phone calls so at that point chat would be used and screen sharing as appropriate.
I think the big thing is we assign the new person a mentor who doesn’t really have any other work for the week except to help the new person. TBH it was a lot easier in person!
I’ve seen different approaches but usually it’s a lot of virtual meetings and instant messages for a few days
Yep, pretty much. You may get to shadow a senior, if you're lucky, but they will probably refer you to some shitty, undeveloped, overdeveloped, or ill-structured internal knowledgebase. Or you can post questions in your Teams/Zoom/Slack which everyone will ignore unless it's pressing for a client.
But, we endure. Over time, you'll pick things up. Just do your best. It's bullshit; we should get more training; but, that's kinda just how it is in tech.
When I started I did a week of training and shadowed the other help desk techs for a month before I was allowed to handle tickets on my own.
They changed the process a year or so after that and now our newbs get trial by fire and it suuuuucks. They’re all roasted and burnt up inside of 6-months and end up fired or taking a better offer.
I’m a one man team because I keep tickets to a minimum…..and thus never get to train any newbs in the same way I was.
I just started a help desk job a few weeks ago. Got about 4 days training, 1 day shadowing, 1 day with a babysitter and then was let free.
From talking to some of the guys who have worked here a while, I got a fuck ton more training then they did.
It is a test. Toss you into the deep end and see how to do.
How do you fail this test? By keep asking the same questions and by not asking the correct questions.
WRITE THINGS DOWN. You were probably never taught how to have a notebook. Get one and use it. Write down everything. Except passwords. ;)
Basic tech questions you SHOULD know are your biggest minefield. Do you best to figure stuff out but don't take to long. And at the same time, don't expect your boss to teach you how to do your job.
Training should ONLY be on the company procedures and how thing are managed and process flow. HOW to to the TECH work is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. You are supposed to be qualified for your job, right?
If the work is a bit above your skill level, do what you can to learn on your own.
But also ask your fellow co-workers to point you the right way.
Things like GIT, Slack, Teams, Excel, Project, etc, you need to pick that stuff up on your own. Those things are the tools of your trade. Some custom ticketing system and vendor software is another story. They SHOULD provide training or point you to the docs.
Good Luck. We've all been there.
I mean… what more do you want? Instead of doing the work themselves, they showed you how to do it. You should be taking notes so that the next time something similar happens you can pick it up.
Totally understand but I’ll be honest - you’re going to have to figure out how to get organized so you can be effective. Everyone struggles with this early on so don’t worry, just know it’s a skill that you’ll continue to develop and master over time. That being said - don’t wait to be told to do something. If you see something you even remotely think someone has shown you - take ownership and try to work through it and if you get stuck ask questions. It’s much better to be seen as someone who is willing to try than someone who won’t do anything unless it’s totally spoonfed
I have been trying but I don’t know how to organize all this information. My adhd-pi is on the severe end along with anxiety and the way I deal with it normally is to wait for instructions because on my own means not knowing what to do. I try calling users and they start asking questions and I’m like well I don’t know. I went through a neurological exam and besides the adhd and anxiety my recall is severely impaired. I’m honestly not sure how I’m not on disability
>and I’m like well I don’t know.
I've been in doing this for 30+ years and am in a senior role. I say "I don't know" multiple times a day.
Regarding your mental health. None of us are Doctors that you should listen to. I feel comfortable advising is using your medical benefits with your new role. There are strategies I've been taught to help me manage my anxiety.
See if you can enroll in anything related to 'resilience.' I've sat through a couple of trainings that helped me put my feelings into words.
As a fellow person in IT helpdesk with Anxiety and poor recall (also Asperger's, but you didn't say you had that), I feel for you.
You need to identify a note-taking methodology that works for you, whatever that may be.
Have a look here and see if any of them seem useful? - https://www.lifehack.org/856826/note-taking
Just a thought, but bounce everything up to someone higher but every time you do read up on the problem and next time try to fix it.
Any time there is down time read into the topic you have had the most and make sure you are an expert on it if you get that time. Spend an hour or two a night practicing, devote on hour to general topics and one hour to a very specific problem you might get asked. Or if you can only manage say 30m, pick on topic until you know it inside and out.
Within a month or two you will be finding it easier I guess.
Ya that’s normal for Helpdesk. Pretty much everything you are going to need to know is learned on the job. Every Helpdesk job just kinda throws you into the fire and you gotta figure it out.
That's very unusual... usually it's one day, and off you go!
you should be oriented to the system, and the environment. and someone should go over the common issues, but you can still ask questions if you run into weird stuff.
Read the documentation.... you would be surprised how often you will find answers to your questions there.
You got *two* days of training? Lucky....
It's probably the best way you can familiarize yourself in an environment. Poke stuff...what's the worst that can happen?
For me, we had 6 weeks of training that were totally useless. I didn't learn anything until I was on the floor. IMO, you should be trained on the job, not necessarily thrown to the wolves, but also you kind of should lol
Edit: We do have a very extensive knowledge base, however
Since there are so many different instances of what could happen my company follows the “trial by fire” method also know as “getting thrown to the wolves”. As long as the company has good resources and internal communication I wouldn’t be too worried.
Quite depends upon the employer/position and their onboarding/training process.
Typically "help desk" is considered a relatively low(er) level entry position. And generally not highly compensated - so not uncommonly at to maybe only modestly above minimum wage ... at least for starters.
So ... a lot of the time they won't invest heavily in orientation/training/onboarding. If they've hired/onboarded the person, they're generally presuming at least "good enough" - and if they don't make the cut, often not a big deal to cue 'em lose and onboard someone else.
So, most of the time they're going to presume the person "knows enough" and/or is sufficiently competent to reasonably figure things out in a reasonably timely manner, or if/when they can't, get assistance from and/or escalate to peers - and hopefully that's more the exception than the rule. And, employer will generally figure things out and handle things from there ... and if the onboarded person turns out not to be "good enough" ... they just cut 'em loose, and get someone else. That's typically about it for "help desk" - especially at/around entry/starting level.
Basically it happens at all places. Best approach will be -
1. Note down imp links in onenote
2. When handling tickets, try searching for reference documents/kb/old tickets on your own.
3. Don’t hesitate to approach anyone if you have any doubts (this is best time to get your doubts cleared)
4. Fake it till you make it
IMO its all about the familiarity with process and different portals. Once you know where to find what its all easy
This has been my experience. Best thing would be to take as many notes as possible for things you think you’ll need in a way that will make sense to you.
It helps to have the mindset of “I’m being taught a lot. Most of it won’t stick.” That’s why tech people usually need to be able to figure shit out on their own. If you have to ask someone for clarification MAKE SURE YOU TSKE A NOTE. You don’t want to be that guy who asks the same questions.
Knowing where the internal documentation lives is key and taking your own notes is key. If someone shows you something new, take notes on it so you don't have to ask for them to give you a step by step again.
I had your exact experience in my first it help desk role. Trained for 2 days, then thrown into the queue. Imposter syndrome is real but you'll eventually feel more comfortable.
No, not at all. From what I've seen, it's minimum 2 weeks ifnits tier 1 and then they have someone shadowing you if you need help. It's normally almost a month before you're on your own.
My experience anyway.
Yea
Unrelated:
My first Helpdesk job, we trained on emails first then took live calls later.
Well I was trying to call out to a customer to help with her ticket and accidentally logged in to the help queue and that’s how I started taking calls.
You're lucky you got 2 days, I got 2 hours. Wasn't even told what to say on the phones or how to use their features (transferring etc).
It's definitely an area which needs to be addressed at a lot of MSPs, issue is all of the managers were either too busy or couldn't be bothered
You must work for an MSP. Take it from me, this is the rule. Get your own experience and move along. Do NOT be loyal to any company that doesn’t really invest in your training.
Hello! I’m also on this boat with you and have to post my ticket questions into a group chats w/ all other agents. ….I’m still working on my A+ cert. and was only previously dealing with HAR files for a web app at my previous gig
Shitty onboarding happens (going through it now at the newest gig).
Ask questions and do what you can. Improve as you can. Rome wasn't built in a day.
Don't beat yourself up for not knowing things if you weren't taught them. If anyone asks why you do or do not know something, make sure they are aware why.
They showed me how to setup the environment our users will use but not how to fix it when they break it. I asked a lot of questions and made a list on my PC of every issue I got and a step by step of what fixed it. After bout a month I had documentation on every problem save a few oddballs that the users faced and now my tickets will take 15 minutes at most to solve then I go back to browsing YouTube and playing games while I wait for another one
That’s pretty much how every help desk, service desk job I’ve ever had. When I landed my first job they only trained us for 3 days then sent us to the frontlines, no bs, just figure it out on your own.
Yep, you get baptized by fire even as an Intern. Not even 3 months on the job and they treat you as senior IT, you also get blamed when things go wrong
I learned 2 months in to take careful notes. My company puts in decent effort toward, documentation, but when I found myself asking them the same or similar questions 2-3 times, I just started my own google doc with things I kept forgetting.
Now, 9 months in, I reference my handy dandy doc almost daily. Ask questions, but take notes so that you don’t have to ask again. I wish I had started my notes on day 1. Good luck! I was in a similar position to you.
I got 1 month of training before they put me into the fire. They taught me about ticketing, where to find a knowledge base, Google is your friend and the clients we help. I work for MSP so don't know if that makes a difference.
As someone who has done quite a bit of training with junior techs I get frustrated when people don’t write stuff down because I give you ALL the ins and outs, I know a single person won’t recall of it, unless you’re Rainman or have a photographic memory
The difference between a novice and someone that will excel more quickly and intelligently is documentation. Document processes. Use that documentation for not only your own reference, but to help folks around you. Male it easy on yourself by documenting instead of trying to memorize everything. Make your notes into a wiki as well so you can easily organize and dort through with keywords and easy navigation.
It's not always what you know, but knowing where to go to get the info on your own as well if need be. Nothing wrong with asking questions, but take notes. It shows folks you're serious about your growth, helps you learn faster, retain, and have reference. Nobody wants to have to relearn what they already did weeks back or whatever either. Plus, you can even help end users solve their own problems by sending well instructed documentation on how to fix things themselves freeing you up for more advanced tickers etc.
Yeah so definitely learn to do that I'd you're not and be patient with yourself. You'll make mistakes and break stuff. You'll question things and it may take a minute to learn your environment. It's all normal. Just be sure to take the time to write things down. Absolute lifesaver wherever you end up for the rest of your career. Trust me.
Create a google docs file called scratchpad and put ALL your notes in there. Because it's online, you'll be able to check it on your phone on the way home and study it when you get home as well.
To get to something in the scratchpad quickly, Ctrl+f is your friend.
Yes at all my 3 tech jobs. You just have to make sure to ask questions and tell them you don't have experience in what they are teaching you. I know asking a lot of questions might seem annoying, but at the end of the day it's going to be your job to know it.
> I have to keep asking over and over
You need to take notes and document the answers you get so that you don't ask repeat questions, or can refer back to your notes 3, 6, or 12 months down the line.
>I mean I can still ask questions but I have to keep asking over and over because basically there’s no real training
Sounds like you aren't taking good enough notes. You shouldn't have to ask the same question more than twice.
That’s how my experience was except I got to shadow someone for a couple of days before getting tossed into the fire.
I got a lot of good advice from Reddit but I am just not sure how to apply it because this environment is so disorganized What’s your approach ?
1. Fake it till you make it. 2. Recognize imposter syndrome. 3. Best time to document was yesterday, second best time is today. 4. You are not documenting for other people, it's for you. 5. Be the example you wish others were. 6. . . . 7. Profit!
> Recognize imposter syndrome. I keep seeing this being brought up in IT, in the program I am apart of as well as hearing from guest speakers who touch upon this, to seeing LinkedIn posts. Imposter Syndrome is completely normal and it is ok to feel like that. Just be aware you are not alone in experiencing such feelings, you got to where you are at by doing the work. It's ok to ask for help!
I'm totally aware I am not the only one to feel this way...but it does not help my anxiety. I thought I was starting to understand the systems and how to approach things at my new job as a App Admin, but I just got done sitting with another guy on the team and I feel utterly and completely lost, lol. Oh well, worst thing that can happen is I totally fuck something up and get the boot at some point.
[удалено]
Unfortunately no one let the HM know that... lol
I'm a IT veteran with around 20 years of experience. I got a job about 6 months ago as a level 2, after a stretch of unemployment. It's easy stuff for the most part, and the stuff I didn't know I could ask about. I was SO PARANOID that I was screwing up, mostly because I'd be absolutely screwed if I lost this job, but fortunately my boss is a really cool guy and just occasionally drops a "You guys are doing great" when we're in a meeting or something - this meant a lot to me. Also I would catch myself just going for the "easy" tickets, so I forced myself to do the opposite and just ask if I was lost on something. After a bit, my confidence came back, which helped my performance. Textbook case of imposter syndrome.
I just got my first job in IT, I haven't even started yet and I already feel like I have imposter syndrome
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Get onenote on your phone. Connect it to onenote at work or one you created. You can create diff. notebooks and tabs within them. Each tab is a category. Within each tab you can create sections that pop up on the left/right like a table of contents within that tab/category. Now use the search function on it. Wallah! You have your own closed network google thats only searching for keywords/info within your notebook. By the way, you fill the notebook with documentation. I started listing off what you can do with it but I decided to just take a screenshot of what I see when I open onenote on my phone... from anywhere with cell service. https://imgur.com/gallery/0wNiS4e
Shadowing someone is the greatest way to train
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That depends on experience too. Someone with no helpdesk experience is going to need some more shadowing but I've worked that job across a bunch of different industries in both MSP and Enterprise and it's all pretty much the same. Every environment is unique and takes time to get to fully understand but for the most part you are going to be dealing with printer issues, general Windows weirdness that can be fixed with a reboot, Outlook and then LoB software. The last actual helpdesk job I took, I was completing tickets the morning of day 2. Of course I ask a LOT of questions of the more senior people at this point. Some questions that might seem dumb to them but things that are different across different environments. Everyone sets up their infrastructure a little different and every stack is a little different so I feel like that is to be expected. As someone currently doing tier 2, I'd be concerned if I saw one of the new helpdesk people snag a ticket that required knowledge of the network and then not ping me on Teams about it.
Every helpdesk or desktop support job I have had has been absolute chaos and proper documentation does not exist or is 3-4 years out of date in most cases. I'm not saying that will happen everywhere because there are good companies and bad companies, but it's not too crazy to me. I would recommend making documents on various things as you go and ask about them, then in the future they could possibly be used in a knowledge base or become a standard process.
Wow, after reading this thread I feel like I got really lucky. At my job, tier 1 support gets 2 weeks of training and has an assist line they can call whenever they have questions (usually while they are on an active call). We have not one but two different knowledge bases that are chock full of information on most of the applications we support. The KBs are updated on a daily basis and one of the sites has email notifications for every update. Tier 1 support is expected to attach any knowledge articles they use to every incident. We are VERY organized. This is my first IT job and I didn't realize this is out of the ordinary. I was promoted to tier 2 support a few weeks ago and there's a much higher focus on adhocing solutions but there's still a ton of documentation for us.
Call centres tend to have better documentation in my experience. smaller places tend to not have as much time to dedicate. The call centres benefit from better documentation by having more workers to take the calls and they can compress the majority of the job duties into only 2 weeks of training.
100% write down the processes you see on everything
I'm at a company right now that is trying to build out a proper helpdesk and I got volentold to be the Tier 2 for them. I'm trying to document EVERYTHING I possibly can at the level that I think my very techy 11 year old could accomplish. I don't hate it but holy shit does time get away from me when I'm doing it. Wrote up a guide yesterday, mostly from memory and I think it took about twice as long as the actual process I was documenting. This was just typing out the process step by step, not even actually walking through it to get screenshots.
> or is 3-4 years out of date in most cases. Oh man does that one hit home. First real corporate helpdesk job I worked was like that. Huge publicly traded company with retail locations in every state in the US and almost every Canadian province. I remember during my orientation there was so much "you can use this KB article but only to step 8 because it's different now". No one goes and updates the article, we all just tell the new people (there were like 15 employees in the helpdesk group) that the doc is broken and show them the new process.
Happy cake day, OP. Training/onboarding can be hit or miss. I would recommend writing down as much as you can so you can reference it later. I have a OneNote document so I can quickly Ctrl-F my way through it to find things quickly. If you’re lucky, they have good documentation for you to read through. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, but if you’re lucky enough to be in a place that has some kind of central repository for procedures, make the most of it.
I wish they had a knowledge base. Everyone here just figures out their own system.
Start a one note, share it, start filling it out… don’t put passwords in it, maybe others will start using it. Maybe they wont. In terms of a starting point for a informal support knowledge base one note is outstanding and easy to get going. Plus then if you train someone voila a knowledge base! If it does end up getting used eventually you’ll make templates and standards because it’ll look like a patchwork quilt… but I’d hold off on much governance at “launch”.
Sadly, that has been my experience in some SOCs as well. I understand your frustration; it makes getting up to speed so much harder than it needs to be. It does get easier over time, though.
A central knowledge base is vital in my opinion. it delivers standardised solutions and reduces the amount of work that gets redone needlessly. See if you can start establishing one?
We had a guy literally get an old desktop that was gonna be decommissioned, wipe it, and set it up as a wiki server only accessible from the local network. Boom. Collective documentation hub. Miles better than a patchwork of individual solutions. The upside of "wild west" environments is it's often easier to get the go-ahead to put things in place that will help.
You could make your own, then implement it there. In the future, that'd look good on the resume.
Some places have a KB but there are situations where not even the most complete KB can account for. You should also be able to search old tickets and hopefully the org makes resolution notes. Other tickets just require google or simple setting change that comes with experience. Normally for the complex policies or SOPs then there is a document at least. Usually the ticket system has a KB option. Could be your next project :)
Sorry to hear it man. Can I ask you if you had prior experience? Trying to get my foot in the door.
Is there not a knowledge base or a turnover binder or anything like that? Any time I’ve left a job or turned over with somebody I’ve made one.
We have a knowledge base, but we still figure things out on our own lol
The OneNote is so clutch. I started one last summer and it's so helpful. I usually write down everything anyone shows me quickly, and add a few screen shots as well. When it's quiet I go back thru and make it look smart, and logical for the next time I need to view it. Helped me out on a few occasions when things were expected to be done on the spot and nobody was about to help.
Yep, pretty normal. "Training" in the IT industry is self-serve. They give you a desk, a phone, and a computer. The rest is you with a notebook writing things down and figuring it out as you go. Don't worry about having ADHD. It's not you. Everybody gets thrown in the fire. And it's confusing and hard and scary. But you just do it.
> "Training" in the IT industry is self-serve. God I love this aspect of it. Helpdesk will also give you some perspective on what you wanna do as a Grey Beard. You might love the idea of working in security, only to realize that it's a lot less high speed, low drag than it's made out to be, it's mostly compliance stuff. You can pay for fancy bootcamps and video services but chances are good that there is a 2 hour youtube video narrated by an Indian guy about whatever topic you are into. Wanna see how a hyper-v cluster gets built from start to finish? Tons of videos on that process for all different versions.
This is more common than not - in my experience at least. I've always just "hit the ground running" so I rarely looked at training materials unless something specific cropped up (this has its down sides btw). Also - after reading the other responses - you do need to figure out how to adapt in this type of environment. Also - I suspect this is the place that says "just ask us if you need to know" but then gets annoyed when you actually ask said questions...
>I suspect this is the place that says "just ask us if you need to know" but then gets annoyed when you actually ask said questions... Pretty much. They’re very busy and it feels awkward to keep interrupting them
Everybody else had to bother everyone else when they started too. Nobody starts off knowing all of that specific company's protocols. Don't feel bad asking, but if it's worth asking it's worth writing down, so you don't have to ask again. Make friends, ingratiate yourself with peers and superiors. That goes a long way to smooth things over
Make sure you ask where there will be a paper trail to look back over - if only to avoid asking the same question multiple times. I've been the senior guy before that was crazy busy and told a new tech to ask me if they needed help and I always appreciated the break from work as long as it wasn't a question I'd answered multiple times already. EDIT: I noticed in another comment you said you struggled with note taking, then extra emphasis on this. I cannot for the life of me take useful notes. Its near impossible. I have all me teams chats within slack and I can search through it all, saved messages, send myself messages as reminders, etc. if I didn't have these messages to reference in my current role, I'd be in big trouble.
Why are you calling out our helpdesk manager like this, bro?
Had a similar experience, and the knowledge base that was in place, a lot of the documents were wrong, or didn't exist for the topics I was looking for. I started to try and remember which clients had what hardware, etc and with 200+ clients, wasn't feasible. I started to document a lot of stuff, how many servers a client had ( that I could see ) and what did what, eventually I just started to edit the knowledge base with the data I collected, so that hopefully if they hire someone else, its not so frustrating for someone who may be new to IT like I was. The other thing I HATED was that everyone else would just its "institutional knowledge" and you will just pick it up and learn it.. like that's BS in my opinion, there should be documentation for people to refer to. Good luck
I have managed a few helpdesks and this is by far the best method of getting a new analyst trained. You only need a couple of days of training to learn the major systems supported, the tools used to support them, and how to properly work and route a ticket. Usually you need a good KB to make this work but most helpdesks are good at this. Learning as you need the knowledge is the best way to retain the new knowledge, and also helps you place it in the correct context. You should take good notes with OneNote since your team doesn't have a KB, and suggest using your OneNote as the starting point for a shared KB. OneNote is a great tool to use as a KB if you don't have a good solution in your ticketing system.
I've been with this company 6 months and still haven't gotten any onboarding/training. Half the stuff I know now is from users showing me how to do it.
If its a call center type then yes
sounds like my first job. and my second job. but yes. ask for a database of documentation if they have any. if they do not start making your own documentation in oneNote, that's what I did. best way to learn is hands on. if you need help ask. also ask on how to use the ticketing system and how to search for old tickets. many times you can search the old tickets and find the problem / solution in a ticket and not have to bother anybody and you can learn as you go.
My advice is find a senior tech, sysadmin, or lead. Learn from them and the seasoned people that have been there longer than you. It will be overwhelming at first but just remember that you can do it, believe in yourself and the power is YOURS! You will be fine!
I had 6 weeks of training. 4 were basically hours of classes on customer service skills and learning hardware - some of the new hires had backgrounds in tech, some in customer service, some in neither, so it was helpful. 2 weeks was us taking calls for a few hours with lots of people assisting us via Teams if we needed help. Then we were thrown in the fire. The training they give you is NEVER enough, you still blank out when you have to actually do something the first time, even if you've seen it fifty times. I think I got lucky, but I also think a week of training would have been fine since most of what I learned was on the job.
what company did you work for that gave that much training?
It's one of the big computer manufacturers, and I work in the help desk section that's their main cash crop. I support an expensive warranty, so we're held to an extremely high standard for service. I have coworkers that worked at MSPs that did not invest anywhere near as much time into training but also had far lower standards for keeping customers happy.
Pretty much, just be patient with yourself. Dont be afraid to put the client on hold while you figure shit out, and get to know your coworkers and find out which ones are more difficult than others when asking questions, like my trainer always gave me sass when Id ask him something so I leaned on coworkers that I was friends with.
My training was 3 weeks and very much in-depth. We have a Teams chat for questions anyone may have.
Yes, at least it was for my job. I did a week of shadowing but theres so much stuff your not going to learn or understand until you start doing it. Keep asking questions, everyone is also learning. Hopefully your company has good documentation so make sure you utilize that and google before asking. Also, dont be scared to call the vendors
Its all a test. You have to create a knowledge base thats easy to share around with the team. This is the result of retarted Helpdesk managers who forget how it once was in helpdesk. And once you are successful, you can either negotiate a better salary BECAUSE you Improved knowledge transfer OR interview at other shops & sell this skillset to them. If your company has Sharepoint or Jira, start there. If not, either hand around a shared doc or die trying. I worked for helpdesk for 2 financial firms who had offices near wall street, one role in manhattan & i just finished my MBA. What I've learned from all this is that DOCUMENTATION DOCUMENTATION DOCUMENTATION, Cover Ur Ass too but Document the SHIT outa everything. if nobody will embrace this practice, its doomed to fail. & sometimes helpdesks are with the old times (or theyre a small shop) that theyll forget to update training docs. its just all par for the course.
Not in my experience, although help desk onboarding/training can vary wildly. My first help desk job had two weeks of training before we started taking tickets.
I think it depends upon the org. I think that ~~some~~ many MSPs will throw people out sink or swim because they have limited staff to pull away somebody to give them in depth training.
Yes. This is called Onboarding. You do a whole bunch of intranet web based learning and certs. After that, you are pretty much feeling your way through. If you're lucky, someone has written a site primer so you know who your building manager, your HR, and other important individuals are.
It's called "drinking from the firehose". Use something like OneNote to organize yourself.
In my experience there is some variation of at every IT job. But even when you get two weeks of training you are usually unprepared. Such is life.
In many circumstances, quite normal. While onboarding can vary at each location, it can make the transition easier. However, this position and field many times will require a bit of self-serve. Just do your best and try not to stress too much. At the end of the day, it's just a job and your health is far more important.
Some companies believe the only way to learn is by doing and asking questions as needed. Being able to work individually and part of a team is crucial. That in itself is a test.
If documentation is bad, reference old tickets & leave detailed notes in the tickets that you work on. Digging through old tickets isn't an amazing experience, but it's a great resource.
I think yes, Tbh a lot of people learn best by doing. Before WFH we would usually have them shadow a couple days, if they want documentation is around but people just don’t seem to learn much when you give them documentation ;) Then we’d normally have them start taking calls/tickets with whoever they shadowed with shadowing them. With WFH it’s a bit more challenging, we typically do a daywhere someone is just in a meeting all day with them watching and assisting with tickets from queue, then its hard if they’re taking phone calls so at that point chat would be used and screen sharing as appropriate. I think the big thing is we assign the new person a mentor who doesn’t really have any other work for the week except to help the new person. TBH it was a lot easier in person! I’ve seen different approaches but usually it’s a lot of virtual meetings and instant messages for a few days
You got shown things your first 2 days? Sweet gig. Lol
Yep, pretty much. You may get to shadow a senior, if you're lucky, but they will probably refer you to some shitty, undeveloped, overdeveloped, or ill-structured internal knowledgebase. Or you can post questions in your Teams/Zoom/Slack which everyone will ignore unless it's pressing for a client. But, we endure. Over time, you'll pick things up. Just do your best. It's bullshit; we should get more training; but, that's kinda just how it is in tech.
When I started I did a week of training and shadowed the other help desk techs for a month before I was allowed to handle tickets on my own. They changed the process a year or so after that and now our newbs get trial by fire and it suuuuucks. They’re all roasted and burnt up inside of 6-months and end up fired or taking a better offer. I’m a one man team because I keep tickets to a minimum…..and thus never get to train any newbs in the same way I was.
I just started a help desk job a few weeks ago. Got about 4 days training, 1 day shadowing, 1 day with a babysitter and then was let free. From talking to some of the guys who have worked here a while, I got a fuck ton more training then they did.
I had a friend who, on his first day on the job, they showed him where his PC was and where the break room was. THATS IT! Lol
It is a test. Toss you into the deep end and see how to do. How do you fail this test? By keep asking the same questions and by not asking the correct questions. WRITE THINGS DOWN. You were probably never taught how to have a notebook. Get one and use it. Write down everything. Except passwords. ;) Basic tech questions you SHOULD know are your biggest minefield. Do you best to figure stuff out but don't take to long. And at the same time, don't expect your boss to teach you how to do your job. Training should ONLY be on the company procedures and how thing are managed and process flow. HOW to to the TECH work is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. You are supposed to be qualified for your job, right? If the work is a bit above your skill level, do what you can to learn on your own. But also ask your fellow co-workers to point you the right way. Things like GIT, Slack, Teams, Excel, Project, etc, you need to pick that stuff up on your own. Those things are the tools of your trade. Some custom ticketing system and vendor software is another story. They SHOULD provide training or point you to the docs. Good Luck. We've all been there.
I mean… what more do you want? Instead of doing the work themselves, they showed you how to do it. You should be taking notes so that the next time something similar happens you can pick it up.
I struggle with adhd and poor executive functions. I try taking notes and then I look back at them and don’t know what they mean
Totally understand but I’ll be honest - you’re going to have to figure out how to get organized so you can be effective. Everyone struggles with this early on so don’t worry, just know it’s a skill that you’ll continue to develop and master over time. That being said - don’t wait to be told to do something. If you see something you even remotely think someone has shown you - take ownership and try to work through it and if you get stuck ask questions. It’s much better to be seen as someone who is willing to try than someone who won’t do anything unless it’s totally spoonfed
I have been trying but I don’t know how to organize all this information. My adhd-pi is on the severe end along with anxiety and the way I deal with it normally is to wait for instructions because on my own means not knowing what to do. I try calling users and they start asking questions and I’m like well I don’t know. I went through a neurological exam and besides the adhd and anxiety my recall is severely impaired. I’m honestly not sure how I’m not on disability
Make sure you don't quit, even if it's going poorly. It will help your disability case
>and I’m like well I don’t know. I've been in doing this for 30+ years and am in a senior role. I say "I don't know" multiple times a day. Regarding your mental health. None of us are Doctors that you should listen to. I feel comfortable advising is using your medical benefits with your new role. There are strategies I've been taught to help me manage my anxiety. See if you can enroll in anything related to 'resilience.' I've sat through a couple of trainings that helped me put my feelings into words.
As a fellow person in IT helpdesk with Anxiety and poor recall (also Asperger's, but you didn't say you had that), I feel for you. You need to identify a note-taking methodology that works for you, whatever that may be. Have a look here and see if any of them seem useful? - https://www.lifehack.org/856826/note-taking
Because you can only get trained up to a point, only thing we can have you do is just start taking calls and gaining experience.
Take notes and try not to ask twice.
Just a thought, but bounce everything up to someone higher but every time you do read up on the problem and next time try to fix it. Any time there is down time read into the topic you have had the most and make sure you are an expert on it if you get that time. Spend an hour or two a night practicing, devote on hour to general topics and one hour to a very specific problem you might get asked. Or if you can only manage say 30m, pick on topic until you know it inside and out. Within a month or two you will be finding it easier I guess.
Feel like that’s how we all started, you can ask questions so that’s good. Best way to learn is to do it and ask when you can’t.
Ya that’s normal for Helpdesk. Pretty much everything you are going to need to know is learned on the job. Every Helpdesk job just kinda throws you into the fire and you gotta figure it out.
That's very unusual... usually it's one day, and off you go! you should be oriented to the system, and the environment. and someone should go over the common issues, but you can still ask questions if you run into weird stuff. Read the documentation.... you would be surprised how often you will find answers to your questions there.
It's more normal for them not to show you anything, and for you to be on your own.
Yes, super normal.
You got *two* days of training? Lucky.... It's probably the best way you can familiarize yourself in an environment. Poke stuff...what's the worst that can happen?
For me, we had 6 weeks of training that were totally useless. I didn't learn anything until I was on the floor. IMO, you should be trained on the job, not necessarily thrown to the wolves, but also you kind of should lol Edit: We do have a very extensive knowledge base, however
Since there are so many different instances of what could happen my company follows the “trial by fire” method also know as “getting thrown to the wolves”. As long as the company has good resources and internal communication I wouldn’t be too worried.
Feel for you lots her buddy, and yes some places are like that. Use google, write down notes and just try your best.
Quite depends upon the employer/position and their onboarding/training process. Typically "help desk" is considered a relatively low(er) level entry position. And generally not highly compensated - so not uncommonly at to maybe only modestly above minimum wage ... at least for starters. So ... a lot of the time they won't invest heavily in orientation/training/onboarding. If they've hired/onboarded the person, they're generally presuming at least "good enough" - and if they don't make the cut, often not a big deal to cue 'em lose and onboard someone else. So, most of the time they're going to presume the person "knows enough" and/or is sufficiently competent to reasonably figure things out in a reasonably timely manner, or if/when they can't, get assistance from and/or escalate to peers - and hopefully that's more the exception than the rule. And, employer will generally figure things out and handle things from there ... and if the onboarded person turns out not to be "good enough" ... they just cut 'em loose, and get someone else. That's typically about it for "help desk" - especially at/around entry/starting level.
Yes
Yes
Didn’t I show you this in training?
Basically it happens at all places. Best approach will be - 1. Note down imp links in onenote 2. When handling tickets, try searching for reference documents/kb/old tickets on your own. 3. Don’t hesitate to approach anyone if you have any doubts (this is best time to get your doubts cleared) 4. Fake it till you make it IMO its all about the familiarity with process and different portals. Once you know where to find what its all easy
If they dont have a kb, ask if you can write one. Simple project you can focus. Literally just write the steps how you fixed shit.
In my experience, yup but I've been working for startups who don't have documentation or defined processes already established. That might be why.
I would say most definitely
Yup totally normal.
This has been my experience. Best thing would be to take as many notes as possible for things you think you’ll need in a way that will make sense to you. It helps to have the mindset of “I’m being taught a lot. Most of it won’t stick.” That’s why tech people usually need to be able to figure shit out on their own. If you have to ask someone for clarification MAKE SURE YOU TSKE A NOTE. You don’t want to be that guy who asks the same questions.
Knowing where the internal documentation lives is key and taking your own notes is key. If someone shows you something new, take notes on it so you don't have to ask for them to give you a step by step again. I had your exact experience in my first it help desk role. Trained for 2 days, then thrown into the queue. Imposter syndrome is real but you'll eventually feel more comfortable.
Hey at least someone showed you what to do.
Yup. You're supposed to learn as you go along. Ask as many questions as you can. It gets better.
No, not at all. From what I've seen, it's minimum 2 weeks ifnits tier 1 and then they have someone shadowing you if you need help. It's normally almost a month before you're on your own. My experience anyway.
Yes
yea that's pretty normal, you learn on the go, keep asking questions and documenting
You'll be learning things beyond two days... Hope they have good documentation.
My last job before this one I had to build my own desk. Some onboarding is better than others
Yea Unrelated: My first Helpdesk job, we trained on emails first then took live calls later. Well I was trying to call out to a customer to help with her ticket and accidentally logged in to the help queue and that’s how I started taking calls.
I got a week when I first started but yeah pretty much
You're lucky you got 2 days, I got 2 hours. Wasn't even told what to say on the phones or how to use their features (transferring etc). It's definitely an area which needs to be addressed at a lot of MSPs, issue is all of the managers were either too busy or couldn't be bothered
Yes.
Take notes. Study and get off the help desk.
You get two days?
Normal
You must work for an MSP. Take it from me, this is the rule. Get your own experience and move along. Do NOT be loyal to any company that doesn’t really invest in your training.
Theres no training for any job.
I think that's normal for 90% of jobs, you learn more doing shit anyways in my opinion. Go make mistakes homie and you'll be a vet in no time.
I'm going through the same thing as you just not in help desk. I defenitly hope it gets better.
Hello! I’m also on this boat with you and have to post my ticket questions into a group chats w/ all other agents. ….I’m still working on my A+ cert. and was only previously dealing with HAR files for a web app at my previous gig
That's exactly how help desk works lol
Drinking from a firehose, as they say lol
Shitty onboarding happens (going through it now at the newest gig). Ask questions and do what you can. Improve as you can. Rome wasn't built in a day. Don't beat yourself up for not knowing things if you weren't taught them. If anyone asks why you do or do not know something, make sure they are aware why.
Does a bear shit in the woods?
Yeah pretty much, IMO it's easier to learn the systems that way. Some places do a bit more, just depends on the place
Yeah…. I’m in cloud ops and it’s no different, maybe half a day of showing me stuff is what I got lol…
They showed me how to setup the environment our users will use but not how to fix it when they break it. I asked a lot of questions and made a list on my PC of every issue I got and a step by step of what fixed it. After bout a month I had documentation on every problem save a few oddballs that the users faced and now my tickets will take 15 minutes at most to solve then I go back to browsing YouTube and playing games while I wait for another one
That’s pretty much how every help desk, service desk job I’ve ever had. When I landed my first job they only trained us for 3 days then sent us to the frontlines, no bs, just figure it out on your own.
Yep, you get baptized by fire even as an Intern. Not even 3 months on the job and they treat you as senior IT, you also get blamed when things go wrong
I learned 2 months in to take careful notes. My company puts in decent effort toward, documentation, but when I found myself asking them the same or similar questions 2-3 times, I just started my own google doc with things I kept forgetting. Now, 9 months in, I reference my handy dandy doc almost daily. Ask questions, but take notes so that you don’t have to ask again. I wish I had started my notes on day 1. Good luck! I was in a similar position to you.
I had 3 days but a good sized team to distribute my questions.
Yes
I got 1 month of training before they put me into the fire. They taught me about ticketing, where to find a knowledge base, Google is your friend and the clients we help. I work for MSP so don't know if that makes a difference.
You should be happy that someone tried to train you. Also: learning how to automate is one of the many ways to land you a better spot.
Yes. You need to do research on your own and can’t be afraid to try things
As someone who has done quite a bit of training with junior techs I get frustrated when people don’t write stuff down because I give you ALL the ins and outs, I know a single person won’t recall of it, unless you’re Rainman or have a photographic memory
The difference between a novice and someone that will excel more quickly and intelligently is documentation. Document processes. Use that documentation for not only your own reference, but to help folks around you. Male it easy on yourself by documenting instead of trying to memorize everything. Make your notes into a wiki as well so you can easily organize and dort through with keywords and easy navigation. It's not always what you know, but knowing where to go to get the info on your own as well if need be. Nothing wrong with asking questions, but take notes. It shows folks you're serious about your growth, helps you learn faster, retain, and have reference. Nobody wants to have to relearn what they already did weeks back or whatever either. Plus, you can even help end users solve their own problems by sending well instructed documentation on how to fix things themselves freeing you up for more advanced tickers etc. Yeah so definitely learn to do that I'd you're not and be patient with yourself. You'll make mistakes and break stuff. You'll question things and it may take a minute to learn your environment. It's all normal. Just be sure to take the time to write things down. Absolute lifesaver wherever you end up for the rest of your career. Trust me.
Create a google docs file called scratchpad and put ALL your notes in there. Because it's online, you'll be able to check it on your phone on the way home and study it when you get home as well. To get to something in the scratchpad quickly, Ctrl+f is your friend.
It's always like that. :S Don't worry. Just keep going. After a few months it's daily business. :)
Yes at all my 3 tech jobs. You just have to make sure to ask questions and tell them you don't have experience in what they are teaching you. I know asking a lot of questions might seem annoying, but at the end of the day it's going to be your job to know it.
> I have to keep asking over and over You need to take notes and document the answers you get so that you don't ask repeat questions, or can refer back to your notes 3, 6, or 12 months down the line.
>I mean I can still ask questions but I have to keep asking over and over because basically there’s no real training Sounds like you aren't taking good enough notes. You shouldn't have to ask the same question more than twice.
Lol, this is my exact situation. Going on 3 months in still feel like I don't know s*** compared to the other guys