I dunno, having worked both sides of the fence i would say whilst network skills are more valuable because the barrier for entry is higher, in that you need apecialist knowledge, the general knowledge a service desk tech is not to be underestimated (im talking those techs that actually fix and attend jobs as opposed to those on the phones)
The number of problems a tech can fix and the amount of work they get through can be astounding. sure, it’s something anyone can be trained to do, but to say it has inherently less value, i dont agree. i do networks in a hospital, and the number of people who appreciated the work i did when i worked the desk is vastly larger than the number of people that even know i exist now.
It felt alot better getting a bit of software working or replacing hardware, or recovering someones emails etc that got a doctor or a nurse working again and lowered their stress levels and made them smile than it does to upgrade cisco call manager from version 1 to version 1.1…
I agree to an extent that its not harder to work the service desk, but i dont think you should look down upon them. We all have an important role to play…
Except execs… they can fuck off.
I had basically the same experience at my last job. I worked my way up on the service desk and after a few years basically everyone in the IT side of things new my name. I probably had more general knowledge of how to get things done in that place than just about anyone. Obviously I didn’t have access to do a lot beyond general troubleshooting myself but I’d assisted with enough issues to know who to talk to and what info they’d need. Eventually I moved to an app support team and I hated it because it was more meetings and talking to vendors and trying to coordinate shit with other teams. I went from basically a constant stream of doing shit for people and getting their gratitude in return to waiting weeks on end to even get simple tasks through. My self esteem nose dived because I felt like I wasn’t accomplishing anything and all I got from others was requests for updates on things I was waiting on other people to do.
This hurts how accurate it is.
I am constantly worried i am not doing enough whilst simultaneously getting mad that i have to wait for vendors and review/approval meetings to make the tiniest change.
When im most of the way through something and i just need someone in apps to make a small change, I’ve got all this steam and im almost done with the task but my priority is not their priority so it stops. And a user ibwas helping is now left hanging. And i can’t do anything.
If the pay was better i would go back to the desk.
If the pay was better i would go back to the desk.
Same, what really pisses me off was our help desk had a “lead” position that was on the same pay scale as the app support role I moved into and was basically my dream job of handling escalations and more difficult issues and developing process (which I was pretty much already doing) but without the inbound calls, unfortunately the last time that position was open I was still in the “cooldown period” after getting promoted to a senior role so I wasn’t eligible. Then the next time one opened they just got rid of it. The only guy that was left was a massive POS too that never got anything done and the managers all acknowledged that I was working circles around him even with my normal responsibilities on top of it.
