I'll never do helpdesk support again.

Post by **MaCaBr3** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 8:47 pm

So I've allways worked in the ICT sector, ISPs more specific. I had a kick ass job as field network engineer with car, mobile, free internet etc, installing and managing cisco routers and general internet connectivity.

Yes, nice one, till I got layed off because the ISP was merging with the mother-company or whatever so, since then I've been back to zero and doing helpdesk support.

Today, is the last time I'll do helpdesk support ever again, because the company I worked for launched interesting products on the market: adsl, voice and mobile in one. Only problem is, the fucking product doesn't work half of the time, resulting in -get this- 1u30 min of wait queue every day.

It's frustrating not beeing able to help customers because you know the company is at fault and all you do is apologize and tell em to wait a bit more. So after I got screamed at for the billionth time, I quit my retarded job and looking out for something in the likes of sale reprentative for network solutions.

God, I'll be jobless forever :icon32: :icon32: :icon32: :icon32: :icon32:

Point is, u guys are rich , I'm poor, my paypal account is gimmesomemoney1234.

Post by **MKJ** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 8:49 pm

so where did you work before, and what company did you just leave ?

Post by **R00k** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 9:04 pm

Bad move man, you should have stuck it out until you found something better. It's never easy.

Good luck on the job hunt though.

Post by **diego** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 9:25 pm

I was helpdesking myself while I was studying and I can honestly understand why you quit.

Money sent.

Post by **lars63** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:26 pm

Have never done help desk work doesn't sound like a walk in the park though

Good luck on the job hunt.

Post by **bitWISE** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:27 pm

Post by **Dr_Watson** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:35 pm

i feel you're pain.
these are from when i worked helpdesk for an ISP that was rolling out "new technology" :

(they're small because they came off my cell phone)

Post by **R00k** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:45 pm

Logging some serious hours there.

I started off on a helpdesk myself. I self-studied to get my MCSE while I was there.

Maybe it's just because I came from doing much harder, manual work before I got the job, but I have a completely different perspective of helpdesk than most people do. I see it as an easy opportunity.

Of course, for the 3 years prior to that I was loading/unloading UPS trucks, digging ditches, building decks, framing, general construction, doing labor at a barge plant, installing duct work, and various other shitty forms of work. I think it's all about perspective. Don't get me wrong - I hated it at times, but never as much as I hated some of my other work.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:47 pm

Yeah beleive me, I did my time in tech support and even at management levels the job doesn't get much less stressful in that enviroment. I quit as well and now I work in sales. Much less stressful even if it isn't in my field of choice.

Post by **andyman** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:49 pm

Macabre...dont you live in belgium, if i remember correctly?

Post by **Dr_Watson** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:49 pm

R00k wrote:Logging some serious hours there.

I started off on a helpdesk myself. I self-studied to get my MCSE while I was there.

Maybe it's just because I came from doing much harder, manual work before I got the job, but I have a completely different perspective of helpdesk than most people do. I see it as an easy opportunity.

Of course, for the 3 years prior to that I was loading/unloading UPS trucks, digging ditches, building decks, framing, general construction, doing labor at a barge plant, installing duct work, and various other shitty forms of work. I think it's all about perspective. Don't get me wrong - I hated it at times, but never as much as I hated some of my other work.

yeah, its a cushey job with decent pay and benefits... its the anger, stress, and disenfrachisement that comes with it that gets to ya.
from my experiences, even if you know ways to fix problems and make things better... management doesn't care.
the only thing management cares about is your numbers, its all about bean counting.
the harshest thing is the time management being scruitinzed to the second that gets annoying.
have you ever worked another job where you get in trouble if you're 5 seconds late coming back from your break?

Post by **R00k** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:50 pm

Kracus wrote:Yeah beleive me, I did my time in tech support and even at management levels the job doesn't get much less stressful in that enviroment. I quit as well and now I work in sales. Much less stressful even if it isn't in my field of choice.

Shit, management level is 10 times as stressful when you're a helpdesk manager. All of your time is spent dealing either with the users who are so pissed off they won't talk to a normal agent, or with other managers who are pissed because of the pissed customers.

Post by **bitWISE** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:53 pm

I vowed to never two things: tech support and food service. In fact any kind of customer service fucking blows.

Post by **R00k** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:54 pm

Dr_Watson wrote:
R00k wrote:Logging some serious hours there.

I started off on a helpdesk myself. I self-studied to get my MCSE while I was there.

Maybe it's just because I came from doing much harder, manual work before I got the job, but I have a completely different perspective of helpdesk than most people do. I see it as an easy opportunity.

Of course, for the 3 years prior to that I was loading/unloading UPS trucks, digging ditches, building decks, framing, general construction, doing labor at a barge plant, installing duct work, and various other shitty forms of work. I think it's all about perspective. Don't get me wrong - I hated it at times, but never as much as I hated some of my other work.

yeah, its a cushey job with decent pay and benefits... its the anger, stress, and disenfrachisement that comes with it that gets to ya.
from my experiences, even if you know ways to fix problems and make things better... management doesn't care.
the only thing management cares about is your numbers, its all about bean counting.
the harshest thing is the time management being scruitinzed to the second that gets annoying.
have you ever worked another job where you get in trouble if you're 5 seconds late coming back from your break?

Mine wasn't nearly as bad as most. I worked for Bridgestone/Firestone, and only had to support employees - it was a corporate helpdesk.

I guess when I hear the word helpdesk, that's what I associate it with. A job doing phone support for the general public at large seems almost more like customer service, or telemarketing to me - meaning that I can see how shitty it must be. I had a job telemarketing once too -- I was there about 10 minutes and only made 2 calls before I told the guy who hired me "Yea, I can't take this anymore, don't worry about paying me anything," and walked out.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 11:51 pm

Yeah, when I worked for HP life was pretty good cause I was supporting printers that only a company could afford so I'd always be speaking with other IT proffessionals.

Post by **R00k** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 11:57 pm

Well, I was supporting tire salesmen -- it definitely wasn't a walk in the park. :icon19:

Post by **Dr_Watson** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:01 am

tire salesmen are probably an "interesting" slice of the population.
did you get to make any SUV roll-over jokes.

Post by **R00k** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:10 am

It was about a year before all that happened, so I never got to make any inside jokes.

Funnily enough, I had the same model Ford Explorer at the time that was having problems. But I bought Bridgestone Duelers for it instead of Firestones. So after I left and heard about it I was pretty happy with my choice.

Post by **MaCaBr3** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:17 am

andyman wrote:Macabre...dont you live in belgium, if i remember correctly?

Yep, Brussel to be more specific

Post by **MaCaBr3** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:19 am

MKJ wrote:so where did you work before, and what company did you just leave ?

I worked 4 years for Skynet untill they merged with Belgacom, I was out of a job for while, so I did some stuff to get arround like beeing a personal driver for a guy a who owned a tv production company, then I did some tech support for Versatel and Telenet and from january till yesterday I worked for Scarlet.

Those names should ring a bell for dutchees too.

Post by **MaCaBr3** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:21 am

R00k wrote:Bad move man, you should have stuck it out until you found something better. It's never easy.

Good luck on the job hunt though.

Yes, probably the dumbest move I made. But I couldn't stand it anymore.

I got 2 job interviews this week tho. One of em is to be monitoring firewall activty in a security network operation centre for a big ICT company who has offices all over Europe, only downside is that it's 24/7 so i'll be doing night and weekend works. Don't have an idea of the salary and benefits yet tho.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:25 am

It's a very liberating experience though isn't it?

Post by **MaCaBr3** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:28 am

Quiting helpdes support you mean?

Well, I vowed never to do helpdesk again, when I was on the field, but you can never predict the future and as stated above, it's easy money and probably the most easy job to get. But know i'm done with it. I'd rather be the guy who brings everyone's mails to their desk.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:32 am

No just quiting a job in general.

Post by **MKJ** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 8:16 am

MaCaBr3 wrote:
Those names should ring a bell for dutchees too.

indeed, thats why i asked.
it sounded like you were at a versahell company (with the merging n all), and then i figured it be scarlet indeed.

versahell is a bitch, especially now it wants to ride on the success of its daughter companies. glad i got out of there before all this crap started