Career Advice on How to Become a Help Desk TechnicianGeneral Career Information |
| Welcome to the technology world’s version of a human punching bag. The help desk technician is the person that has the extreme pleasure of dealing with e-mails, instant message conversations and, of course, phone calls from angry and even enraged customers. These customers have either been screwed over by hardware and software companies or are themselves ignorant of technology. |
Career Facts: |
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Help desk technicians act as a shield between corporations and the customers that they have often let down with inferior, horribly designed malfunctioning products. This fact could be sugar coated, but those considering the career of help desk technician should realize what they are getting themselves into.
Once help desk technicians have taken their verbal lashings from upset or even irate customers they enter this “data” as that is exactly how this information is seen, into a computerized “feedback” system, where accountants and decision makers will later use this feedback. It will be used mostly to decide how the product should be redesigned.
Normally, the redesign will not work any better than the originally flawed product, but this feedback plays an important role in everyone “covering his or her posterior.” As a help desk technician, this is one part of your job; the second part is to make the customer happy if possible. Well, at least you want to keep the customer from being furious by the end of your conversation. Of course, all the way you will be expected to extract as much feedback from the customer about the product as possible. |
Career Opportunities and Job Outlook-Fair: |
| The help desk technician roughly falls under the computer support category. The computer support category is expected to enjoy a thirteen percent job growth between now and 2016, which is roughly average. |
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A Day in The Life: |
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Is this a fun job? Should you add it to your career planning or job search list? Well, only if you like abuse or find irate and irrational people, loads and loads of fun, fun, fun. As a help desk technician, you will most definitely have the pleasure of trying to calm down people have been screwed over by crappy products made by your employer. Or at least you will need to calm down stupid people who don’t have any idea why their computer won’t turn on.
The stories of people calling help desk technicians furious over the fact that their new computer does not work only to discover that they have failed to pull it in or turn it on, is, sadly, quite true. This fact should put the career of help desk technician into clear and proper perspective. In short, before diving into this career, make sure you have plenty of patience to spare.
You will soon discover two facts. One fact is that large corporations are excelling in manufacturing crappy products. The second fact is that people can be extraordinarily stupid.
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Average Salary: |
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The help desk technician should expect to earn around $41,000 per year.
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$40k -$45k |
Career Training and Qualifications: |
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The level of education varies depending upon the company and the skill level required for the job.
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