Devoted to Help Desk and Technical Support personnel and applications

I would like to address the first part of a question posted here on HelpDeskNotes.com that asks:
What qualifications and experience does a Help Desk support analyst require?

First and foremost, if you do not have people skills, you should not look for a help desk position.  Help desk positions are often considered entry level positions for jobs in technology, but it isn’t for everyone.  Some of the most technically talented people I have known have started out on a help desk, but they were not cut out for it.  I’m not saying those individuals were not fantastic for IT, they were just more skilled at networking, or writing scripts.  It is good to have a mixture of talent on a large help desk, but if you are talking to 25 - 50 different people everyday at a call center you need to be working your customer service finesse all day long.

If you do have people skills, and you are looking for a help desk position, highlight your Customer Service skills on your resume.  For starters, your resume objective should read something like this:

I would like to obtain a challenging position where I can apply my people skills…

You should also have a bullet somewhere that boasts about your ability talk to people. 

In your interview you should be prepared to answer a question about how you speak to an upset customer.  Your best bet is to say, you let people explain the problem, because frustrated customers really need someone who will listen.    

Help desk positions are for the most part entry level in IT.  This means you will need to know the basics in the following also:

1.    You need to know how to use “ping” and how to use “trace route” to troubleshoot.
2.    You need to know that when a workstation is suddenly not working right, you should have the customer shut it down and check to make sure everything is plugged in securely before dispatching a local tech.  

In summary, help desks need highly skilled technical people, but that needs to be in combination with quality people skills.  

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