Benefits Of Starting In The Help Desk
One question that I frequently hear from folks looking to start their career in IT or cybersecurity is whether or not they should start in a help desk role. In this blog I’m going to outline some of the benefits to starting your career by working in a help desk position. Before diving in, I’d like to acknowledge that no two career paths are the same and there are many valid ways to land non help desk roles in IT and cybersecurity, with and without working at a help desk.
What Does Help Desk Actually Do?
Let’s kick off by establishing some baseline tasks and responsibilities help desk analysts will perform on a day-day basis.
Frontline Support:
Help desk professionals are the front line for support requests from either external customers or colleagues. They field support requests via multiple channels such as phone, email, tickets, or instant message. Help desk staff need to be able to triage the issues, gather relevant information, and determine if they can fix or troubleshoot the issues themselves or escalate to another member of their team.
Troubleshooting Technical Issues:
A large portion of the support requests the help desk receives are when things aren’t working properly. Depending on the issue, the help desk will be responsible for troubleshooting and fixing the issue. This can range from problems with hardware, software, operating systems, and network issues.
Installing and Repairing Hardware:
The help desk are frequently required to install new hardware such as monitors, desktops, printers, phones, TVs, and projectors. They may also perform troubleshooting and repair for hardware components such as desktop or laptop computers.
Installing and Configuring Software:
In a lot of organizations, the help desk is responsible for installing and configuring software for users who may not have administrative rights to do so. Frequently this can include some light training for users on how to launch and use the software.
Account Management and Password Resets:
The reality of the help desk position is that one of, if not the most, frequent tasks is performing account management such as resetting passwords for users who forget theirs or have been locked out.
Maintaining and Creating Tickets and Documentation:
A large part of most help desk roles is to keep tickets used to track requests, and internal documentation, up to date. This can include writing new documentation on how to perform common tasks or troubleshooting scenarios. This covers some of the core tasks and responsibilities of the help desk, however, the roles and responsibilities can vary depending on factors like the size and industry of the organization you work for.
How Help Desk Skills Transfer to Other IT and Cybersecurity Roles
The skills and experience gained from working the help desk directly translate to those required for other IT and cybersecurity roles. Whether you work in a help desk role or not, you’ll need to have a solid understanding of these to succeed in other IT roles. Working at a help desk will aid in sharpening these skills and provide experience you can demonstrate to prospective employers. Here are some of the top transferable skills from help desk to other roles.
Gaining a Strong Understanding of Fundamentals:
By troubleshooting issues and setting up systems you’ll gain a strong understanding of the fundamentals of IT, such as operating systems, networking, and computer hardware. This hands-on experience helps develop foundational knowledge that is essential to succeed at more advanced IT and cybersecurity roles, such as “pentester” or “security analyst”.
Customer Service and Soft Skills:
One of the most important skills acquired from working in a help desk is providing customer service and interacting with customers or colleagues. This can include calming the nerves of a frustrated customer, explaining technical details or steps to a non-technical colleague, and briefing a team member when escalating tickets. These direct communication skills can come in handy for penetration testers briefing customers, security analysts reporting findings to management, and even C-level executives communicating the importance of budget requests. Having strong soft skills will help you stand out in your organization, with customers, and also help you excel in interviews.
Developing Strong Troubleshooting Methodologies and Skills:
In every technical role I’ve worked in, the reality is that things frequently don’t work, and acquiring troubleshooting skills and solving these issues on your own is very important. Working in a help desk role will provide you with daily opportunities to hone your problem solving and troubleshooting skills and develop your own methodologies that you can apply to different types of technologies and issues.
Hands On Experience:
Many job postings will look for specific hands-on experience with the various technologies, software, or hardware used in their organization. Working at the help desk will expose you to many different pieces of software, hardware and technologies. This ranges from operating systems, Active Directory, security software, SaaS/cloud applications and much more. Being able to list relevant hands-on experience with the specific requirements of a job posting will help your resume stand out and give you excellent points to talk about in your interviews.
Introduction to IT:
Working on the help desk provides an understanding of how IT departments function, how different roles inside of the department operate, and allows you to interact with them. Not only will this give you an idea of what roles you might be interested in, it will also be integral in other roles to have a deep understanding of the IT department.
Conclusion
While working at a help desk isn’t the only way to break into other IT and cybersecurity roles, many people currently in those roles got their start working at the help desk and have positive things to say about the skills they learned. The help desk is considered one of the default or standard routes to working in IT because it provides an excellent introduction to IT while giving you the skills and experience that will be required in other roles.
To learn more about working on the help desk, check out our FREE Practical Help Desk course in TCM Security Academy. With over 16 hours of content, the course will introduce you to everything you need to know to be successful on the help desk.
About the Author: Andrew Bellini
My name is Andrew Bellini and I sometimes go as DigitalAndrew on social media. I’m an electrical engineer by trade with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and am a licensed Professional Engineer (P. Eng) in Ontario, Canada. While my background and the majority of my career has been in electrical engineering, I am also an avid and passionate ethical hacker.
I am the instructor of our Beginner’s Guide to IoT and Hardware Hacking course and I also created the Practical IoT Pentester Associate (PIPA) certification.
In addition to my love for all things ethical hacking, cybersecurity, CTFs and tech I also am a dad, play guitar and am passionate about the outdoors and fishing.
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