Page 1 of 2
I'll never do helpdesk support again.
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 8:47 pm
by MaCaBr3
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.
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 8:49 pm
by MKJ
so where did you work before, and what company did you just leave ?
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 9:04 pm
by R00k
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.
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 9:25 pm
by diego
I was helpdesking myself while I was studying and I can honestly understand why you quit.
Money sent.
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:26 pm
by lars63
Have never done help desk work doesn't sound like a walk in the park though
Good luck on the job hunt.
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:27 pm
by bitWISE
sbc?
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:35 pm
by Dr_Watson
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)
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:45 pm
by R00k
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.
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:47 pm
by Guest
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.
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:49 pm
by andyman
Macabre...dont you live in belgium, if i remember correctly?
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:49 pm
by Dr_Watson
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?
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:50 pm
by R00k
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.
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:53 pm
by bitWISE
I vowed to never two things: tech support and food service. In fact any kind of customer service fucking blows.
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:54 pm
by R00k
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.
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 11:51 pm
by Guest
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.
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 11:57 pm
by R00k
Well, I was supporting tire salesmen -- it definitely wasn't a walk in the park. :icon19:
Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:01 am
by Dr_Watson
tire salesmen are probably an "interesting" slice of the population.
did you get to make any SUV roll-over jokes.

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:10 am
by R00k
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.
Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:17 am
by MaCaBr3
andyman wrote:Macabre...dont you live in belgium, if i remember correctly?
Yep, Brussel to be more specific
Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:19 am
by MaCaBr3
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.
Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:21 am
by MaCaBr3
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.
Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:25 am
by Guest
It's a very liberating experience though isn't it?
Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:28 am
by MaCaBr3
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.
Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:32 am
by Guest
No just quiting a job in general.
Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 8:16 am
by MKJ
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