Current Events > Who here ever worked at an IT call center?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Ok so i got some IT experience under my belt but i don't have much experience beyond trouble shooting and repairing hardware

I just started an IT support desk job for medical contracts(nurses,drs,medical staff and their computers, tier 1 first call troubleshooting)

It's crazy asf and im already thinking about quitting. Like you are constantly on calls with dumbfucks and theres like a million different issues they could be calling about. You also have to document everything to a T. It isnt exactly hard shit, but its weeks worth of training and a lot of the people who call in either don't listen or they are just dicks

Anyone work any helpdesk shit?

I did but not in a call centre and not following a script. Worked my way up from there to sysadmin

My IT life started at AT&T Uverse. It's easy, they gave me a script.

Kloe_Rinz posted...

I did but not in a call centre and not following a script. Worked my way up from there to sysadmin

What do you mean not in a call center? Onsite? Yeah ive done that too. Its cake compared to call center.

VeggetaX posted...

My IT life started at AT&T Uverse. It's easy, they gave me a script.

Yeah this aint like that. This is learning their systems and shit and rerouting/escalating calls based on a KB and fixing a bunch of permissions and active directory type shit. Some of it is just resetting passwords and shit and easy af but most of it is some bullshit.

They hired and trained you to take care of business did they not? You saying they throwing you to the wolves?

How's the dough though? The good places will pay well to have the best people as the first line of defense even though they aren't SMEs. Avoid escalation unless absolutely necessary.

VeggetaX posted...

They hired and trained you to take care of business did they not? You saying they throwing you to the wolves?

Im still training actually.

I can tell it will be hella stressful already. There is no script where theres only a few different problems they can have. Theres like a million different problems they have and a million different kbs.

I can do it and im just bitching but ill probably find something different tbh. Just wondering if anyone else thought it was as soul sucking as it appears.

Any customers bitching at you will be soul sucking. Use it to humble yourself IMO.

sabin017 posted...

How's the dough though? The good places will pay well to have the best people as the first line of defense even though they aren't SMEs. Avoid escalation unless absolutely necessary.

Im getting $16 from a temp company. If they buy me (which would take 6 months to 1 year based on performance from what i see) I would get significantly more especially if I was tier 2.

Tier 2 is actually a better job because you're actually figuring out problems and calling people back/follow up calls instead of just taking first calls from idiots that have dumb problems.

It's difficult. I worked tech support for a company that makes robotic vacuums. The biggest issue for me was trying to translate the things they described so I could understand the problem, then explain what I need them to do.

When the Wi-Fi ones came about then shit got crappy because I can barely set up my network, walking someone worse at it than me through it over the phone was a nightmare.

The biggest tip I can offer is patience and empathy. That and recognize when the person isn't understanding and think of a different way to approach.

The old "who's on first, what's on second" video was actually part of the training material back in the day for precisely that reason.

yemmy posted...

What do you mean not in a call center? Onsite? Yeah ive done that too. Its cake compared to call center.

I guess I mean not a super busy call centre. Probably 75% on the phone and 25% walk ins. But all for one company and not many companies, so I got to know everyone. I had a bit of time to do non-help desk work as well which is how I started becoming a sysadmin

Kloe_Rinz posted...

I guess I mean not a super busy call centre. Probably 75% on the phone and 25% walk ins. But all for one company and not many companies, so I got to know everyone. I had a bit of time to do non-help desk work as well which is how I started becoming a sysadmin

Yeah this is tech support for hospitals and clinics all across the country(and their staff who work from home). 6 different contracts lol. The longest you stay off the phone might be 5 minutes. Usually you get about 1-2 minutes between calls.

Im kinda like looking at it as a challenge to conquer, but im ngl its gonna fucking suck when they first throw me out there by myself. And you can't have bad days, you gotta be on your shit all the time.

L1, 2, 3 and management. It can be brutal.

Handy tip: The customer is always wrong
Handy tip #2: Always assume that the customer is lying
Handy tip #3: Let your brain turn off to deal with the above

xGhostchantx posted...

L1, 2, 3 and management. It can be brutal.

Handy tip: The customer is always wrong
Handy tip #2: Always assume that the customer is lying
Handy tip #3: Let your brain turn off to deal with the above

Yeah this shit makes me wanna just say fuck it and go work at a grocery store lol.

yemmy posted...

Yeah this shit makes me wanna just say fuck it and go work at a grocery store lol.

This will be 90% of your work:

Customer: It's not working
You: Okay but like, what exactly isn't working?
Customer: Oh .. like .. everything
You: Any error messages? Specifically, what isn't working?
Customer: Oh ... I don't know
You: What did you [click] [on]?
Customer: ... the thing, it just won't work
You: What thing though?
Customer: It says password invalid?

xGhostchantx posted...

This will be 90% of your work:

Customer: It's not working
You: Okay but like, what exactly isn't working?
Customer: Oh .. like .. everything
You: Any error messages? Specifically, what isn't working?
Customer: Oh ... I don't know
You: What did you [click] [on]?
Customer: ... the thing, it just won't work

I've shadowed a dude for a week lol. It is like that a lot, but a lot of times its like "i cant access x" and i look up the kb (hopefully) and then try like 5 things and if that doesn't work i kick it up to tier 2. A lot of it is active directory bullshit(if im lucky). If not its figuring out why they are blocked out of whatever system.

Which isn't all that bad, but there's like 10 systems to learn. Its a lot to throw at someone with adhd.

Yeah, that's why I never did helpdesk. I know I wouldn't have the patience to troubleshoot any one of a million different issues with people who are (usually) already frustrated and not tech literate. It's basically just customer service.

My IT career started out in call centers. I did 4.25 years doing ISP tech support and then 1.5 years doing remote desktop tech support. At the time, I was OK with he job in its purest sense, but there were way too many dumbasses you ha to deal with on a daily basis and it was wearing on my mental health. Not to mention the company I worked for when I did ISP tech support was shady as hell in so many ways.

Did someone float down there besides Georgie?

Poorly posted...

Did someone float down there besides Georgie?

We all float down here

Trickfinger posted...

Yeah, that's why I never did helpdesk. I know I wouldn't have the patience to troubleshoot any one of a million different issues with people who are (usually) already frustrated and not tech literate. It's basically just customer service.

I can see why they are frustrated sometimes. A lot of times the shit they are calling about is not their fault. We control the systems that give them the problems. Most people know im just some poor bastard on the phone trying to help but my biggest issue is probably gonna be when people don't listen and I gotta keep repeating myself. Or just people throwing 10 things at me at one time.

thats was the first jobs., and it sucks. You can easily get stuck there. Work on your cert, you Knowledge, and get a better job.

Morning bump.

I called in sick to go to my doctor. I'm going on about 3 hours of sleep and I need a day off to get something other than pot to make me go to sleep because I'm just not able to fall asleep after looking at screens all day

As other have said, use this opportunity as a stepping stone into the IT world.

VeggetaX posted...

As other have said, use this opportunity as a stepping stone into the IT world.

I have tier 1 IT experience under my belt. Over a decade, managing whole contracts even. It has always been hands on type shit though and a hell of a lot more straightforward.

Certs are what I need to get into more advanced IT.The only way this advances my career in IT is by moving up in tiers of more help desk or to management/training.

If I'm too mentally exhausted after 8 hours of doing this shit to actually work on certs then it is pointless for me to stay at this company unless I'm wanting to do more call center shit. And that's not me making excuses, there are plenty of less stressful jobs I can work and do certs at the same time.

I would rather die than ever do that job. I only have mad respect for people that can do call center jobs let alone IT ones.

I work IT at a lawfirm and boy is it insane how technologically inept lawyers are and even more insane how they never ever provide any of the information needed to troubleshoot the issue. I dont get it, they have know that we need information like they do for their work dont they?! Also always get a Yes response to a paragraph list of questions in bulletpoint to make it easy to read, none of which are yes/no questions.

Bass posted...

I would rather die than ever do that job. I only have mad respect for people that can do call center jobs let alone IT ones.

Yeah I'm putting in applications today lol honestly fuck that. It isn't worth making my already shitty mental health worse

I would find a job that pays for your education. My 2nd helpdesk job payed for my SQL certs and that got me to be a DBA.

I took fake Vegy's advice and I'm at an IT help desk right now. Luckily we don't work with the public, it's a help desk for Boeing so we don't get many crazies. Most people here are nice but there are a few bad callers. Since it's remote it's not too bad, I get to be on my personal laptop all day on the side while I'm off calls. And I'm doing this after working part time at a supermarket doing closing shifts so it's a relief.

LightHawKnight posted...

I work IT at a lawfirm and boy is it insane how technologically inept lawyers are and even more insane how they never ever provide any of the information needed to troubleshoot the issue. I dont get it, they have know that we need information like they do for their work dont they?! Also always get a Yes response to a paragraph list of questions in bulletpoint to make it easy to read, none of which are yes/no questions.

I would trade places just to be able to be on-site instead of always on the phone. Also I doubt lawyers use quite as much shitty proprietary database shit that you have to manage the back end of (that is always fucking up, even if it isn't the user's fault, but most of the time it is).

The people you call whenever the law firm software is fucking up beyond what you can fix is basically who I would be, but imagine you're managing like 20 different systems(as well as hardware) to a bunch of doctors and nurses that are already pissed off and stressed.

It looks like a gd nightmare so far

VeggetaX posted...

I would find a job that pays for your education. My 2nd helpdesk job payed for my SQL certs and that got me to be a DBA.

Yeah I have an expired A+ from a contractor I worked for in the past.

That was actually a good company/job. This company even seems shady tbh.

Puglia77 posted...

I took fake Vegy's advice and I'm at an IT help desk right now. Luckily we don't work with the public, it's a help desk for Boeing so we don't get many crazies. Most people here are nice but there are a few bad callers. Since it's remote it's not too bad, I get to be on my personal laptop all day on the side while I'm off calls. And I'm doing this after working part time at a supermarket doing closing shifts so it's a relief.

How long are you off calls usually(time between calls on average)? I'm not with the public, just medical staff which is a problem in its own.

Also I will have the opportunity to work from home once I am trained, at least if I do well(some people train and work remotely exclusively who live further away, they did not give me an option yet).

But all this shit probably doesn't matter as I'm most likely jumping ship for about anything that isn't helpdesk related.

I do and I imagine it depends on your company and callflow, mine could not be much better. I work from home, got to choose my schedule, boss is super chill. Doesn't micro manage us, and call flow usually is slow unless something breaks.

I also support the computer systems of people for the company I work for, much better than being IT support for customers on the outside when working for an internet company for instance, though I liked that job too but again chill place and callflow wasn't too high usually unless something breaks. The people I support for the company can be absolute idiots sometimes and make me question, how did you get hired but I still prefer it to dealing with customers.

I'm often inbetween calls for 15+ mins, an hour or more when it's slow which happens fairly often, so I can game, watch shows, etc.

yemmy posted...

How long are you off calls usually?

Also I will have the opportunity to work from home once I am trained, at least if I do well(some people train and work remotely exclusively who live further away, they did not give me an option yet).

But all this shit probably doesn't matter as I'm most likely jumping ship for about anything that isn't helpdesk related.

Usually a good 10-20 minutes. There's an hour around 4-5 pm where it's super rare that I'm on a call, but usually it's about 3 calls between each break. This job so far seems better than the supermarket but I've only been here a few months so far.

Puglia77 posted...

I took fake Vegy's advice and I'm at an IT help desk right now.

That's awesome but I don't recall this.

Puglia77 posted...

Usually a good 10-20 minutes. There's an hour around 4-5 pm where it's super rare that I'm on a call, but usually it's about 3 calls between each break. This job so far seems better than the supermarket but I've only been here a few months so far.

Yeah this is WAY fucking higher volume. 5 minutes is a long time to not have a call

Unanimous opinion in the IT world is that hospital/medical is one of the worst fields to work in. Add to that you're working call center instead of standard internal IT. No wonder you're miserable dude. lmao

Also if you have a decade of T1 IT experience? Why have you not applied for T2 or sysadmin jobs yet? Certs help advance your career but they aren't necessary. Experience trumps certs. It doesn't have to be on-site experience either. Self learning at home is a requirement to advance in IT. Get a home lab built up, learn some scripting/automation, create a free tier AWS account and tinker.

An IT call center seems like a downgrade for someone with a decade of IT experience.

BlazinBlue88 posted...

An IT call center seems like a downgrade for someone with a decade of IT experience.

Well I've had some employment gaps but I've been in the IT field since 2009. I started at local PC repair store and did stuff like virus removals/hard drive replacements and did custom PC builds for gamers and small business contracts.

Then I went into full corporate retail which sucked pretty badly(office supply chain). The worst part about that job was having to sell extended service plans to old people that sometimes costed more than the device itself. No commission

Then I worked for a contractor that resold/repaired all of the student laptops for a very very large school system. I then went on to manage my own contract in Memphis TN for all of the teacher laptops where I risked getting stabbed by fentanyl and meth addicts on a nearly daily basis.

Then I moved back home after that contract ended and worked for IT support for my local school system. They were a bunch of assholes who didn't take the time to actually train me and then acted like I was bothering them everytime I called them to ask a question. They laid me off when it came to renew my contract because they didn't like me taking up for myself when I pointed out the fact that I wasn't trained to do basically anything when they'd get on my ass about asking too many questions.

So I've been basically tier 1 support for a while but at 3 of those 4 places I was promoted multiple times and the job only ended due to lack of work or me finding a better gig.

Technically but not really. No script or anything.

I started call center at my current job with no job experience wanting to get into IT (were a smaller ISP). There was no script and the training was minimal because engineering is tiny and our manager also had no idea how anything worked. This was about 2 years ago.

I started studying routing and switching and fixing shit on my own until I got promoted and promoted again until I became one of the bitter network engineers making fun of the call center clowns.

when i was in college i worked at a directv call center and it was the most soul crushing job i ever had. constantly talking on the phone to idiots for 9 hours at night with two 15 minute breaks and one 30 minute lunch and practically no down time. some of the stuff would be funny like pervy old dudes that ordered porn and couldn't get it to play but mostly it was just morons who couldn't follow the simplest directions.

i wouldn't recommend anyone working at a call center if they can help it unless they just really like talking to strangers

andel posted...

when i was in college i worked at a directv call center and it was the most soul crushing job i ever had. constantly talking on the phone to idiots for 9 hours at night with two 15 minute breaks and one 30 minute lunch and practically no down time. some of the stuff would be funny like pervy old dudes that ordered porn and couldn't get it to play but mostly it was just morons who couldn't follow the simplest directions.

i wouldn't recommend anyone working at a call center if they can help it unless they just really like talking to strangers

This sounds more like my situation except I'm dealing with medical staff instead of just tv customers. As far as the 30 minute lunch, 15 minute break and high volume calls from people who simply won't follow directions.

The only difference is that direct tv probably had a script and you also only had a handful of actual problems you could handle(I could be totally wrong though, just guessing from the people I know who did direct tv). There are literal thousands of kbs(knowledge base articles, basically how to fix shit) for my job, and I gotta troubleshoot like a thousand different things depending on the call. A lot of calls are easy like unlocking an account or changing a password but most are pretty much searching a database for a KB until you find a solution (which either tells you possible solutions or who to route the call to that has more access).

Also this is 24/7/365. Since I'm new, fuck Christmas, fuck Thanksgiving etc and also I don't even get extra money for working holidays or holiday pay or pto until I've been there 9 months. It's definitely a downgrade. I'm used to 1 hour lunches, not as busy of work but I contractors that sell devices to school systems can afford to treat their workers right.

Like honestly considering I can stand around at target as a cashier or customer service and make about the same it's not really encouraging considering it takes years for most people to move up the ladder to something different