Ever had a help desk job?

[Ob1]

By that i mean a job that's about any sort of technical help.

I've been here for 2 months now. And this is doubtlessly the most stressful job you could have, I'll shoot myslef if i have to help another client with configuring his/her Outlook client. Typicaly theyr XP users usually 30 or more, and as ignorant as i gets. In most cases they have simple questions that are answered in their manuals or windows XP's "Help and Support" ](*,) ](*,)

[the100thmonkey]

i had a helpdesk job for a major british bank looking after their CHAPS and SWIFT money transfer systems for end users, and dishing out password replacements for their office users. it was pretty boring, but i didn't find the users ignorant - it was all done through a termional on my computer - they just had a printer and a box to look at...

[xhaan]

I think you'll appreciate this little item...
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[der_joachim]

By that i mean a job that's about any sort of technical help.

I've been here for 2 months now. And this is doubtlessly the most stressful job you could have, I'll shoot myslef if i have to help another client with configuring his/her Outlook client. Typicaly theyr XP users usually 30 or more, and as ignorant as i gets. In most cases they have simple questions that are answered in their manuals or windows XP's "Help and Support" ](*,) ](*,)

I had a job on the IT department of a fairly large home electronics retailer. One of the things I had to do, was provide support to the salesmen in the field. Their POS systems were win98 based with analog modems to communicatie with HQ. I had one person asking me where the 'any key' was (no joke). Quite stressful yes.
On the other hand, I was always the one who helped the people at HQ itself, and since I was usually the one who to fix their computers, I was kinda popular. Even after 5 years, my former PHB sometimes tells me that they still miss me at HQ.

Outlook problems are the worst. Support-wise it is a horrible piece of um.. yesterday's food. :-#

[grte]

Yes, I have. I did internet connection troubleshooting for a major US ISP. Working for the large companies is worst of all, because they don't actually want you to fix the problem, that's secondary. What they really want you to do is follow the script they provide, whether or not it helps, and to make sure you brand the call. Say their friggin' name at the beginning and end of every call.

And yeah, we got bad customers. But the worst part? When you work tier-1 help desk, you're basically working in a sweat shop for the mind. The business itself and the people who ran it were cause for far more stress than the customers ever provided.

And the customers provided plenty.

[newlinux]

I worked 4 years at a help desk for a university (supporting faculty, staff, and students). I found it to be fun. you never know what questions you will get though, and you have to be in the right frame of mind. But since most public labs were UNIX OSs I received mostly UNIX related questions, which probably made it more enjoyable. No exchange servers, outlook, etc.

[Swab]

I worked helpdesk for a while, and yes it was stresful.. I found sneaking out for a beer during break helped... although I then had trouble concentrating on the callers :)

One time this guy called up...

Him: Yeah, I bought this CD Recorder, and I was wondering if you could help me with it.

Me: Sure! What seems to be the problem.

Him: Well, I'm looking at the instructions and it says I need to open my computer.

Me: Yup, and?

Him: So, do I actually need to have a computer to use it?

Me: Ummm, please hold.... bahahahahaha!!!

[mips]

I did a two week stint and that was ennough for me, my boss agreed :)

[Ob1]

It does have some fun moments. This one old man had such huge problems with configuring his ADSL router, i mean it took me 3 and 1/2 hours to teach him how to access it's settings, and if that was so difficult for him then using a web brwoser would be impossible. The call went like this:

Me: Ok, now please enter your username and password that your phone company gave to you.

old dude: I thought you just needed the box with the lights.

Me: eh...... you know what, i just recieved some bad news, the Internet has just quit, it's of no use to anyone now, good bye.

[MaximB]

I could never be a help desk more then one day...
or I'll shoot myself or they fire me.
I don't have the nerves to help ignorant people who ask you stupid questions and don't know what you are talking about.
but I can understand them...I'm new to Linux after all.

[funnyfraggle]

Tech support is a small part of my job. The company I work for builds data acquisition and control cards. Amongst the most popular of these are the USB based cards. This type of programming generally needs to be at least somewhat fast, and you Need unsigned types.

Recieving a call that begins with, "Well, I'm not really a programmer and I'm trying to do this in Visual Basic." is a major red flag that I am going to have a migraine within the next ten minutes.

Visual Basic doesn't support unsigned types, we don't support .NET, and there are about a trillion easier ways to do that don't involve either one. The problem is that since "Basic" is in the name everyone assumes it is the easiest way to do it.

Even the guys in hardware support joke about how hearing the words "Visual Basic" is an indication that the person they are dealing with is going to make an unintentional pain of themselves.

[MaximB]

it could be far harder...think C++

[caricc]

I worked a help desk for over 5 years....YES I SAID 5 YEARS!....until the bean counters shut our local office down. Now I still do support but not over the phone. I person is much more commical than the phone.

[Yossarian]

I was a temp LAN administrator for four months, I did desktop support, plus a little equipment management. It was a good potboiler and paid well for a dead-end job.

But everyone here's right, it can be pretty boring. I lucked out with really good clients, though, so it was bearable. That's really what makes or breaks, it, the way your clients treat you.

[Cyraxzz]

Only 3 months here, I agree with everyone above, it's quite difficult to deal with these callers.

This helpdesk skit shows how fun it can be (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DMJEHGW-Ok)

[fluffington]

I worked at my University's help desk for three years while I was still in school, and it was my favorite of all the jobs I've had thus far. Of course, I was doing everything in person and not over the phone, and most of the time I was just getting paid to sit at the desk and wait for somebody to come in.

I've done tech support over the phone, too, and that was hell. I recall one time I spent over an hour trying (unsuccessfully) to convince some guy that the Yahoo! search toolbar and the address bar in the browser were not the same thing. I made sure to not be at my desk when he called back just so somebody else would have to deal with him.