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Interview for Desktop Support position

W

Whipped

Member
Hello,
I have an interview coming up, and I wanted to know what to expect. This is my first I.T. position. I don't have a computer science degree(I have a B.S. in marketing) or any certifications. I do, however have 2+ years of networking classes that I took at a local community college, and my present career is in customer service industry. I know my qualifications might be limited, but I was recommended by someone who works for the company.

A small description of what the job entails is: Hardware troubleshooting and maintenance, setting up users email accounts, install software applications etc.

Thanks!

 
Originally posted by: Whipped
Hello,
I have an interview coming up, and I wanted to know what to expect. This is my first I.T. position. I don't have a computer science degree(I have a B.S. in marketing) or any certifications. I do, however have 2+ years of networking classes that I took at a local community college, and my present career is in customer service industry. I know my qualifications might be limited, but I was recommended by someone who works for the company.

A small description of what the job entails is: Hardware troubleshooting and maintenance, setting up users email accounts, install software applications etc.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

From the description it doesnot sound like to much networking will be involved. With no experince other than class room its a strech.
Good luck.
 
I landed an IT position two weeks ago.

Just be confident, they like people with attitude. Tell them that your passion is to help people out and enjoy desktop support. Tell them what you think they want to hear. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Cal166
I landed an IT position two weeks ago.

Just be confident, they like people with attitude. Tell them that your passion is to help people out and enjoy desktop support. Tell them what you think they want to hear. 🙂
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advise. Is your position a Desktop Support position? Did you have any prior experience and/or degree/certifications?

 
What these folk look for is someone that has the skill, the experience, and most important, someone that cares to do a good job and wants to learn and progress further.
 
Originally posted by: Stark
how do you unlock a user?
Click to expand...

And what do you tell a user that keeps asking why they get locked out.


They may present you with a problem and expect you to provide multiple trouble shooting solutions.
 
Originally posted by: Whipped
Originally posted by: Cal166
I landed an IT position two weeks ago.

Just be confident, they like people with attitude. Tell them that your passion is to help people out and enjoy desktop support. Tell them what you think they want to hear. 🙂
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advise. Is your position a Desktop Support position? Did you have any prior experience and/or degree/certifications?
Click to expand...

Right now, I do deskside for Siemens and one of their clients.
They will want to know how your day is going and what you do to help out the users.
They might ask you technical questions.
They might want to know about your job history and how long you kept your job, if its a real technical job, they will have a HR person and a IT person there to interview you.

Thank You
Mohammed

 
Originally posted by: Bootprint
Originally posted by: Stark
how do you unlock a user?
Click to expand...

And what do you tell a user that keeps asking why they get locked out.


They may present you with a problem and expect you to provide multiple trouble shooting solutions.
Click to expand...

I would say calmly explain that she might be putting in the wrong password and that is why she is getting locked out.
 
it doesn't sound like you have the qualifications for the job, to be honest.

desktop support is a lot more than 2+ years of networking classes at a local community college.

keep us updated if you get the job.

let me give you an example of what i was asked at my interview last week:

- i was presented with an ISA network card with a BNC/coaxial and ethernet connection. i was told to tell the interviewer all the information regarding the network card (e.g. what kind of card, whether it be PCI, ISA, EISA, AGP -- i initially stumbled and said PCI, but how many PCI cards today have coaxial connectors?)

- i was asked about a user who had an IP address of 0.0.0.0 and couldn't access his "stuff." what to do? what kind of troubleshooting tips do you go through if you're doing this over the phone from miles away and can't get on site? (note: this requires ipconfig, tcp/ip properties, static vs. dhcp, and a working configuration to compare to)

- i was asked about a user who had problems uploading with a proprietary software using SSH protocol. the person using this program was unable to upload. the machine was upgraded from win98SE to winXP using the upgrade-only (not full install) method. what was the problem with the uploading? (this had to deal with the file attributes as a result of ownership that was not transferred using FAT to NTFS)

- when in my past experience have i been "fooled" -- where i thought i had the solution to a troubleshooting problem but was wrong? (i had a good one for this.)

i did surprisingly well on the interview, despite the fact that the questions WERE challenging and i have a number of years of tech support experience. i got a "second interview," where i'll meet the others in the company over lunch (this is a very informal job -- i get to wear jeans to the interview!) in other words, there's a 0.01% chance that i'm not gonna be hired.

i had another job interview where the guy just had me go over my resume, getting into detail about the 4 last IT positions. he didn't do much technical stuff, but he did like that i had a number of years of technical background. i definitely would not have been considered had i not had that stuff on my resume.

as you see, the technical side of things is what makes desktop support critical, and if you don't have those skills, it's hard to get a job like that. marketing and customer service don't really equal tech support at all, but it's nice that you got the interview.

in any event, let us know how it went.
 
You can be taught technical skills, people skills are a little more difficult and that is what is MOST important when dealing with users, emphasize your ability to work well with people from all walks of life and at all different skill levels.
 
one more thing i want to add: i'm not trying to scare you off, but a desktop support position means that you really need to have desktop support skills, and extensive ones at that, since you're dealing with anything from minor problems ("my monitor won't turn on!") to major problems (like problems accessing data due to improper SCSI termination). saying that "i want to help people" has occasionally gotten me an interview (it's in my cover letter as well) but never a job offer.

if this is a position where they WILL TRAIN, then you really need not worry about the technical questions, but just be confident that you can handle this stuff, especially from VERY frustrated computer users. however, there are so many IT-qualified individuals in today's job market that there really is no need to train for a desktop support position.

like others said in this thread, it's a stretch, but good luck.
 
Originally posted by: mike2fix
You can be taught technical skills, people skills are a little more difficult and that is what is MOST important when dealing with users, emphasize your ability to work well with people from all walks of life and at all different skill levels.
Click to expand...

This very true. Also, like Tami, I'm not trying to scare you off, but desktop support tends to imply previous job experience. We'd never hire someone w/o experience for desktop support position. Good luck.
 
while i was interning at my current company, i interviewed with another group for a network administrator / desktop support position. i had a technical interview with 5 people from that group. that was not a pleasant time to say the least. at the end, i had a non-technical interview with the manager of the group. i was totally unprepared for the technical interview from 5 people. be confident in yourself and it will help a lot. good luck.
 
I just received a call from Human Resources today, and they offered me the job. I haven't accepted the position yet because I need to discuss things over with the wife first(of course😉). It seems that the company has a great benefits package, but I would have to take a slight cut in pay. However, the annual bonus is more than my present job. Thanks for everyones support and help.
 
Originally posted by: Whipped
Originally posted by: Cal166
I landed an IT position two weeks ago.

Just be confident, they like people with attitude. Tell them that your passion is to help people out and enjoy desktop support. Tell them what you think they want to hear. 🙂
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advise. Is your position a Desktop Support position? Did you have any prior experience and/or degree/certifications?
Click to expand...


Congrats. As for your question. I had about 8 years of experience with my previous company that i was with. I was a Network Admin. Only certification I got was a completion of AutoCAD.

EDIT: How much did they offered?
 
Originally posted by: Cal166
I landed an IT position two weeks ago.

Just be confident, they like people with attitude. Tell them that your passion is to help people out and enjoy desktop support. Tell them what you think they want to hear. 🙂
Click to expand...

You are right, the need to have faith in your abilities, but if you don't know something don't BS them, say "I will find out" and resolve this.
 
Originally posted by: Whipped
I don't have a computer science degree(I have a B.S. in marketing) or any certifications. I do, however have 2+ years of networking classes that I took at a local community college, and my present career is in customer service industry. I know my qualifications might be limited, but I was recommended by someone who works for the company.
Click to expand...

They liked you, and your marketing may have helped you. Users can be totally clueless and interfacing with them will be the biggest challange. Fixing stuff is easy. Truth is, you really don't have to resolve all problems, you just need to be sure the end user is happy when you are done. The ability to interact with people is a major job skill for IT support, but you probably know that if you are already in customer support.
 
Originally posted by: Cal166
Originally posted by: Whipped
Originally posted by: Cal166
I landed an IT position two weeks ago.

Just be confident, they like people with attitude. Tell them that your passion is to help people out and enjoy desktop support. Tell them what you think they want to hear. 🙂
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advise. Is your position a Desktop Support position? Did you have any prior experience and/or degree/certifications?
Click to expand...


Congrats. As for your question. I had about 8 years of experience with my previous company that i was with. I was a Network Admin. Only certification I got was a completion of AutoCAD.

EDIT: How much did they offered?

Just under 40K.
Click to expand...
 
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