Help desk technicians need to have a customer service mentality. That means
talking to people in a way that makes them feel respected.
"People get tired of being talked down to and being told about gigabytes,
megabytes, and megahertz," says Dan Slentz. He owns a company that provides
technical support to school districts.
"They just want to be talked to like a normal person. That is one of the
key points I stress to our people: when you try to explain a situation or
a problem to a client, use everyday terms and analogies to help them understand
the problem and the solution. Never talk down to them.
"I was told by my father that Albert Einstein said, 'We are all idiots,
just about different things.' This is a quote we refer to often with our technicians
-- it just keeps things in perspective."
Slentz first worked with computers while serving in the U.S. Navy during
the Gulf War. He was stationed on a hospital ship. During that time, he created
a blood bank database for his ship that tracked all the blood types for crew
members. If they needed a certain blood type, they could find it quickly using
the database. He received a Navy Achievement Medal for that work.
When Slentz got back to the U.S., he started helping the techs make network
cables. He volunteered to do this because he wanted to glean as much knowledge
as possible from them -- they were the experts.
"I made network cables until my fingers bled, but it got me in the door,"
says Slentz. "Soon they were letting me go out and close simple help tickets.
And by the time I left the Navy in 1997, I was managing the laboratory computer
network and servers as well as taking care of all of the troubleshooting within
the laboratory.
"What appealed the most to me about IT was the unlimited potential it offered,"
says Slentz. "It seemed as if there was nothing that couldn't be accomplished
with computers."
Slentz says a love of technology is an important quality for anyone considering
this career.
"I spend all day at work, then head home and study new trends in technology.
I buy and spend way too much -- according to my wife -- on the newest gadget
and then play a little [video game] before I head to bed. I wake up the next
day and do it all over again. Which, if you love technology as much as I do,
is not a problem."
"The thing about help desk is, it's really not about the technology," Russ
Gouveia. He's a professor of computer and information science at a college
in Massachusetts that has a help desk certificate program.
"It's really all about communicating, figuring out what the real problem
is, trying to help people get their work done," says Gouveia.
"A lot of times, people think of technology careers being all about the
computer, and help desk really is not. Help desk is really about helping people
get their job done, helping the company succeed, and working with people."
Technical instructor Orrett Morgan also emphasizes the importance of people
skills. Morgan's work experience includes working as a help desk technician
at an Internet provider.
"A career in IT is not a career with the computer at the outset," says
Morgan. "You're interacting with the computer, but you're interacting with
people and how you deal with people either face to face, remotely by email,
remotely by chat... A lot of that is going to determine how successful you
are at the beginning and going further on."
Morgan says IT employers tell him they are looking for applicants with
customer service skills. This makes them appreciate restaurant experience
or other service related experience.
"For instance, one person mentioned specifically that, 'Anytime I see anybody
who's worked at McDonald's, I typically want to interview that person and
that's because McDonald's has a very strict and very regimented training program,'"
says Morgan.
"It's consistent across the board... and it's customer service oriented,
so those skills are transferable across lots and lots of industries. In particular,
it's transferable across IT and specifically in help desk."
Gouveia says help desk technicians need to love learning and solving problems.
The field is constantly changing.
"If you want to just do the same thing day after day, this is not the
field for you," says Gouveia. "You have to understand that your real skill
isn't knowing how to do stuff. It's knowing how to figure out stuff. Because
the technology's always changing. There's always going to be new things coming
in. And you have to be able to grow with all the new technology."