Request 1st line support course

Skyline

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Tell me what it takes to get to 3rd line. I'm nearly 2 years into 2nd line. Could do with some advice :)
Depends.
If where you work now has 3rd Line roles, you may be able to get moved over to 3rd line without the need of qualifications etc.
Get your head down, get stuck in and learn as much as possible. Anything you need escalating to 3rd line, ensure you follow it up and figure out how it was done. If you show willingness and determination it should get recognized and you'll be within a chance of moving up to 3rd line.

Qualifications do help at this stage in your career though. Not sure how willing your employer is to provide training and funds for the exams?

But yeah - Get stuck in is the best advice I can give.
 

Omnibus

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Dec 9, 2021
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Depends.
If where you work now has 3rd Line roles, you may be able to get moved over to 3rd line without the need of qualifications etc.
Get your head down, get stuck in and learn as much as possible. Anything you need escalating to 3rd line, ensure you follow it up and figure out how it was done. If you show willingness and determination it should get recognized and you'll be within a chance of moving up to 3rd line.

Qualifications do help at this stage in your career though. Not sure how willing your employer is to provide training and funds for the exams?

But yeah - Get stuck in is the best advice I can give.
Where I work has 5 3rd line engineers. I was told by one of them that Database is something they are looking for so I am thinking about that now :)
 

Skyline

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Where I work has 5 3rd line engineers. I was told by one of them that Database is something they are looking for so I am thinking about that now :)
Database...?
Assume it'll be SQL.

That's will be a totally different path and goes more towards programming.
 

Karl

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Tell me what it takes to get to 3rd line. I'm nearly 2 years into 2nd line. Could do with some advice :)
This is really difficult to answer. It's all going to depend on your company. What you already know and what areas your third line deal with.

My company is predominantly web/email hosting. So a real good understanding of the ins and outs of nginx, apache, mysql, dovecot etc etc - how they work, how they break and how to troubleshoot/fix things on the Linux side of things, or IIS/Exchange/Powershell/AD on the Microsoft side of things.

In general, the higher down the tech support line you go, the more specialised rather than generalised you become. We have people who's sole job is to administer MSSQL, who know absolutely nothing about exchange but know everything about SQL for example.

If you're trying to get promoted within your company, your goal is to be able to fix problems yourself without escalating them where you possibly can. This kind of thing gets you noticed.

Being brutally honest with things, if your company isn't willing to promote you from 2nd to 3rd and keep overlooking you when positions become available - you're highly likely not going to be good enough to get a role elsewhere.
 
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Martyn

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reading this just wants me to ditch my current job and go into IT haha. IT has always been a passion, self taught, pretty much do most bits from the basics of building/rebuilding systems to setting up servers in Linux/Windows, fault finding and solutions is another passion :P love networking also, past few years been messing about with the Ubiquiti equipment and the power of the firmware is unreal.

almost tempted to get Starlink just because its new tech, plus my net is **** where I am haha :P

But I'm the same as popcorn though, can't just give up work to go train somewhere for it, mortgages to pay mental gas and electric prices to pay for now also ;)
 

PoPcOrN

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reading this just wants me to ditch my current job and go into IT haha. IT has always been a passion, self taught, pretty much do most bits from the basics of building/rebuilding systems to setting up servers in Linux/Windows, fault finding and solutions is another passion :p love networking also, past few years been messing about with the Ubiquiti equipment and the power of the firmware is unreal.

almost tempted to get Starlink just because its new tech, plus my net is **** where I am haha :p

But I'm the same as popcorn though, can't just give up work to go train somewhere for it, mortgages to pay mental gas and electric prices to pay for now also ;)
You can always do comptia+ in your own time which the exams cost about £300.

I've got an interview Tuesday purely based on my own knowledge of the basics and my eagerness to learn and develop in my own time. I've really tried to sell my eagerness and passion in IT and so far its got me 1 interview out of 30 applications. I'll be going suited n booted n giving it my all. Promising to dedicate my life to that company. Long term, the money is crazy good so I genuinely will dedicate myself to it.

My only issue is that I'll have to negotiate the salary which is 18k-24k depending on experience. And I'm bare bones but the 1 hour commute will cost £250 a month so I have to.
 
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Skyline

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Guys I ain't gonna lie and it's all dependant on location. I'm North and our prices are much lower than south, therefore wages are lower.

But I ain't paying someone who is new to the field with zero experience much more than the minimum wage, which is what, 17k ish if you're over 23?
Especially when you can pick up someone with a year or two experience on not much more.

If you apply blindly for loads of 1st line jobs and you have zero experience they ain't going to look twice. I seriously recommend using agencies, talk to them, tell them what you want and what you are doing in your spare time to do it... E.g. self learning, CompTia
Let them do the leg work in finding you an interview. They will sell you much more than you applying with a CV that has no previous IT roles on it.
It's tough moving to a new profession, but if you want it that much you'll put in the leg work.

I fell lucky. I worked for a company for 5 years in an admin role, worked my way during that time to different roles and eventually got moved into IT as they saw my passion for it. Sounds like it's a bit too late for you guys to go down this route, plus not that many companies have a dedicated IT Team these days, they out source it to people like me :P

Learn what an MSP is then find your local MSP companies. Ideally the smaller ones. The big fish want experience only.

www.simoda.co.uk - this is who I work for as an example.
 

Skyline

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reading this just wants me to ditch my current job and go into IT haha. IT has always been a passion, self taught, pretty much do most bits from the basics of building/rebuilding systems to setting up servers in Linux/Windows, fault finding and solutions is another passion :p love networking also, past few years been messing about with the Ubiquiti equipment and the power of the firmware is unreal.

almost tempted to get Starlink just because its new tech, plus my net is **** where I am haha :p

But I'm the same as popcorn though, can't just give up work to go train somewhere for it, mortgages to pay mental gas and electric prices to pay for now also ;)
Ubiquiti kit I love. It's not the best, but brings a lot of simplicity into it. Their controller which shows you all the manager kit in one place is brilliant.
My old company used them a lot. We literally had one controller with about 70 customers kit assigned. Meant we could manage and monitor all their routers, switches and AP's in one place.
It's great you have played about with it.
 

PoPcOrN

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Guys I ain't gonna lie and it's all dependant on location. I'm North and our prices are much lower than south, therefore wages are lower.

But I ain't paying someone who is new to the field with zero experience much more than the minimum wage, which is what, 17k ish if you're over 23?
Especially when you can pick up someone with a year or two experience on not much more.

If you apply blindly for loads of 1st line jobs and you have zero experience they ain't going to look twice. I seriously recommend using agencies, talk to them, tell them what you want and what you are doing in your spare time to do it... E.g. self learning, CompTia
Let them do the leg work in finding you an interview. They will sell you much more than you applying with a CV that has no previous IT roles on it.
It's tough moving to a new profession, but if you want it that much you'll put in the leg work.

I fell lucky. I worked for a company for 5 years in an admin role, worked my way during that time to different roles and eventually got moved into IT as they saw my passion for it. Sounds like it's a bit too late for you guys to go down this route, plus not that many companies have a dedicated IT Team these days, they out source it to people like me :p

Learn what an MSP is then find your local MSP companies. Ideally the smaller ones. The big fish want experience only.

www.simoda.co.uk - this is who I work for as an example.
18k @ £9.50, 40 hours a week. Would you recommend I ask for that? I'll be giving it my all to learn the stuff I need to get a promotion.

For eg, any tickets I wouldn't be able to do, I would then learn how to fix them
 
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Skyline

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18k @ £9.50, 40 hours a week. Would you recommend I ask for that? I'll be giving it my all to learn the stuff I need to get a promotion.

For eg, any tickets I wouldn't be able to do, I would then learn how to fix them
Yeah, you have to be realistic and give yourself the best chance.
Start low, aim high.

How old are you? I'm not sure if you can look at apprenticeships?

 

Karl

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18k @ £9.50, 40 hours a week. Would you recommend I ask for that? I'll be giving it my all to learn the stuff I need to get a promotion.

For eg, any tickets I wouldn't be able to do, I would then learn how to fix them
South West - our starting pay is 22k + Bonus + Sales commission. 18k seems very low tbh.
 

PoPcOrN

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Yeah, you have to be realistic and give yourself the best chance.
Start low, aim high.

How old are you? I'm not sure if you can look at apprenticeships?

I'm 31 so not really unless the wage is OK.
South West - our starting pay is 22k + Bonus + Sales commission. 18k seems very low tbh.
I'm birmingham, not far from skyline. Our living wage is considerably lower.
 

Karl

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South... That's why :p

£18-22k is about right here in Sheffield.
£22k being someone with experience
I mean, I don’t really class Gloucester as south, although it’s officially south west. It’s only an hour from Birmingham lol.

I was considering a move further up north (Doncaster/N lincs area) maybe I’ll have to reasses that if the pay is so much less lol.
 

Seanofsmeg

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I'm the same as popcorn though, can't just give up work to go train somewhere for it, mortgages to pay mental gas and electric prices to pay for now also ;)
Don't know if it helps but our situations sounded similar.

8 years ago I was working call centers for min wage. Got promoted to training team again pretty much min wage. 3 kids, rent to pay ect.

I did open uni. Was free as I wasn't earning much (I say free but was student loan but you only pay back 20 to 50 quid a month depending on how much earn)

I did it in halfs so took me 6 years while working call centers and now 18 months into my graduate Dev role working remotely doing full stack JS/node/react/typescript for a sport data company.

What I learned:

* Lots of company's want a degree. 2:1 and above before you apply but is if you look around and they are a bit more rare but some that don't need any degree or qualification. Mine is an example of this so raging I waited until my degree was complete before applying.

* Starting grad salarys are better than sht jobs pay wise. Call center I was on 19k. 1st year in new job 23k 2nd year 25k 3rd year if you do well 30k+

* Unis and degrees are shyte at teaching you for the real world. So if you have already done your own projects and stuff you could be better experienced than people walking out of uni as unis focus way too much on written assignments instead of code

Hope it all works for you bud
 

PoPcOrN

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If anybody feels up to it could you pm me some general interview questions and I'll reply without using Google and then give me some feedback?

This is the job advert.

IT Support Technician 1st and 2nd Line​

you will be working as a part of a small helpdesk team providing telephone and remote assistance IT Support to our corporate clients.

Our business prides itself on high levels of service. The successful candidate with have good general IT skills and knowledge, with a good telephone manner, to enable them to deal quickly and effectively with end user issues.

In addition to general IT knowledge and experience, and the ability to work as part of a team, skills and experience with the following are advantageous:

- Microsoft Active Directory

- Exchange

- Windows 7 & 10

- Basic networking (TCP/IP, ping, tracert etc)

@Skyline @Karl @zedina

I know you're all very busy people so no offence if you don't. Just want to smash this interview.
 

Seanofsmeg

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I know you said PM but thought I would just post here my thoughts encase it helps others.


We did 1st line support for 8 years for clients having any internet / connectivity issues. Was a lot of talking non technical people through wires, cables and checking connectivity issues on device such as some of things you have mentioned ping/tracert to check if it was network issue vs device.


With 1st line support your probably going to get some general customer service questions throwing in there as well as some technical ones. Some people only prepare for the technical side. Your also having to bare in mind while your being interview your going to be interacting with clients who might be 0% technical so all about communication.

Some communication questions we used to ask / what we were looking for:

1) Give me example of time you felt you delivered great customer service and why?

* Communication - using an array of communication methods * Voice, pitch, tone * sending images for visuals * signposting - saying what your going to do before hand * positive language - will, can vs maybe, possibly * Inclusive language (ie how you would explain a technical problem to your granny as not everyone will understand technical phrases jargon)

* Problem + Resolution - Clearly being able to explain problem and resolution in a way the examiner understands

* Ownership - Issue fixed but if happens again how they can quickly pick up where they left off / offering call-back to check issue now resolved.

2) You have complaint. Customer furious not listening ect...

* Emotion - important part is not trying to fix something with an angry customer. Need to manage the emotion before you try to help them fix it so its exploring the reason for anger and offering assurances such as if anger is failed call backs take their number give them your direct number

* Again communication / resolution / ownership form above

3) You have disagreement with team member over how to resolve a clients issue.

* Friction is a good thing - Disagreeing means your both passionate about fixing and working with passionate people helps a company thrive and customers that benefit from it.

* Doesn't matter which idea go with - Doesn't matter which idea choose yours or theirs as long as when yous do decide a path yous both give 100% and not 10% because your ideas wasnt the one picked

* This the big bit - .... What did you learn? what would you do differently?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

General advice for technical questions ..... I can't help too much on this bit but being able to give examples of how you used the above technology to help fix something is great so even if you have never used the technology simply taking 10 mins for each one... looking up what it does, how it can help fix X situation and jotting it down can be of a great help.

Good luck!
 

Omnibus

LOMCN Member
Dec 9, 2021
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Don't know if it helps but our situations sounded similar.

8 years ago I was working call centers for min wage. Got promoted to training team again pretty much min wage. 3 kids, rent to pay ect.

I did open uni. Was free as I wasn't earning much (I say free but was student loan but you only pay back 20 to 50 quid a month depending on how much earn)

I did it in halfs so took me 6 years while working call centers and now 18 months into my graduate Dev role working remotely doing full stack JS/node/react/typescript for a sport data company.

What I learned:

* Lots of company's want a degree. 2:1 and above before you apply but is if you look around and they are a bit more rare but some that don't need any degree or qualification. Mine is an example of this so raging I waited until my degree was complete before applying.

* Starting grad salarys are better than sht jobs pay wise. Call center I was on 19k. 1st year in new job 23k 2nd year 25k 3rd year if you do well 30k+

* Unis and degrees are shyte at teaching you for the real world. So if you have already done your own projects and stuff you could be better experienced than people walking out of uni as unis focus way too much on written assignments instead of code

Hope it all works for you bud
University can't guarantee you a job in the field.

Many people have degrees that aren't IT and have IT careers.

I started in IT at 17k and then a year later, moved company and went above 22k in salary. Now I got promoted to 2nd Line, just time to keep going.
 

Skyline

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University can't guarantee you a job in the field.

Many people have degrees that aren't IT and have IT careers.

I started in IT at 17k and then a year later, moved company and went above 22k in salary. Now I got promoted to 2nd Line, just time to keep going.
I have interviewed many people who have a degree in IT and they have been useless.
Not all, obviously, but some (Probably most of them)

Honestly, getting a year experience working in IT will mostly give you the upperhand on someone with a degree.

It does kind of flip round as you progress... Someone with experience and degrees/certificates will get the upperhand of someone with just experience.
But if you find that one right company that is willing to promote internally you have hit the jackpot. Because you'll likely get all three
Experience
Certs
Promotions


Popcorn, when is the interview? I'll send you a PM monday if I remember!
 
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