The new gig: Hitting the ground running

Starting a new job means getting an idea of what the work environment will be. While some companies take the time to provide an orientation period, in many cases once you're in, you're moving. If you have the time to do so (say, the weekend before you begin your new job), try the following:

Spend some time getting familiar with the area around your new place of work: This will give you an idea of the environment, possible places to go for lunch, where to go when you're almost out of gas, and other useful bits of data.

Spend an hour or so checking your favorite online map site for alternate routes to and from your new gig - where do you go if the freeway is at a standstill? Can you get from here to there on surface streets alone?

Get an idea of the size of the company. A company with 120 employees "supports" differently than a larger, more spread out company.  The kind of support you provide (ie: sterling) should not change, but the manner in which you provide that support might be different.  Do they have a system in place to log requests or is it a more informal "can you help me with this?" environment?

Learn the location of the restrooms, fire exits, break rooms and vending machines. This information will help keep you sane when it's time to get up and walk away for a moment.

Read over any information your company provides in regard to internet usage. This is a big one especially as some companies are beginning to crack down on the use of streaming media sources like YouTube and Pandora. Find out what's OK and not OK to do at work before you try learning the hard way.

Learn people's names as quickly as you can. Start with your immediate supervisor and coworkers, then work your way out from there to the other teams and support people.  Always learn the names of the admins, secretaries and receptionists. They're the ones who really run things.

The more you know about where you're working, the easier it will be to work there!

Seek Free Knowledge

There are always a few - a few - moments of relative quiet in the day of a tech support rep. If you have access to the internet, why not use it to track down additional information you can put to use?

Try running a search for free (your area of interest here) tutorial - most of the results you will encounter will provide at least a basic education in the field, programming language or program you're interested in, which can justify your adding it to your skills and experiences list mentioned in Monday's post... which can lead to improving your options and opportunities moving forward.

On top of all that - it's free knowledge, which is always a good thing.

Update! Update! Update!

This holds true for most jobs, but especially in the area of IT and Tech Support:  When you learn a new skill, get it on your resume as soon as possible.  Partially because it follows the Write Everything Down rule, and partially because you can use your resume to remind yourself about your skills and experiences when it comes time to think about your next assignment, job, or career choice.

It also doesn't hurt to have an updated resume just in case someone points out an opportunity, of course...

Carry Your Knowledge

RTFM - Read the (freaking) Manual.  It's an old phrase, and one which has a lot of truth in it. Most of the issues a customer will encounter are documented somewhere.

If you have the resources, consider picking up "portable" versions of the manuals you reference most often - versions which will fit on a smart phone, in a cloud storage service such as DropBox, your personal laptop, netbook or tablet.

Electronic formats are generally searchable, notate-able, and far easier to carry around than the telephone-book sized "dead tree" versions.

Starting Out: The Contract Gig

It can be challenging to get into the Tech Support industry - although there are plenty of postings for job openings, there are also plenty of applicants for those openings.

One alternate way to get experience in Tech Support is to work short term "contract" assignments.  Many companies need IT personnel for their internal "Help Desk" or Technical Support for their customers on a temporary basis. Even more companies use contract employees to fill the need for more bodies on a seasonal basis, or to "try out" new employees before committing to full-time employment.

If you're starting out as a tech, do a few searches for "technical staffing" on the search engine of your choice. The odds are good you will find at least two agencies in your area who provide temporary employment (also known as "contract").  Call, email and make appointments with the understanding that you're just starting out.

If you're an experienced tech and currently "between jobs", a contract agency can help you fill the gaps between full time employment. Some techs simply go from contract gig to contract gig, as it allows them flexibility and the ability to decide when and where they work.

Working with agencies can make job-hunting easier: the agencies are paid by the companies who are looking for help, so they're motivated to help you get work!

Winning in Tech Support

It's hard to remember that when you're dealing with a caller, you're dealing with a person who has a result he or she is trying to achieve and is being frustrated by some part of the product you're supporting.  It helps if you can put yourself, even slightly, in that customer's place - most people do not muck about with technology for the entertainment value (with the exception of, say, game consoles) but rather use technology as a tool to achieve a specific goal.

"Winning" for the customer is being able to achieve that goal. "Winning" for the tech should be helping the customer to "win'.

(Why should Charlie Sheen have all the "Winning" around here?)