Editor’s Note: This is the 3rd Place winning essay of our Words for Training Contest written by Paula Greenlee. If you missed the other winning essays you can read them here: Grand Prize winning essay and 2nd Prize winning essay.
What is the best and most difficult part of being in the IT field?
Let me say right now that the best part of my job is, in fact, the most difficult part.
I currently work the help desk phone in the IT Department. I can flatly say that I just love helping people.
Of course, having said that, it requires all of my Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Phil and the Amazing Kreskin skills in order to accomplish this feat.
The help desk phone is the first line of attack, um, I mean the first number our employees call for any type of IT help.
Unfortunately, some people within our city limits have also felt that this was an IT help line for the public too. I guess, because they found the number in the government section of the telephone book, they felt that this "service" was for the people. For example, a resident (in town) called me one day to help him figure out why he could not get on the internet.
The calls range from how do I log onto my computer to the dreaded (((THE ENTIRE CITY NETWORK JUST WENT DOWN!!!!)))). I mean, to a larger citywide computer issue. Anyway, my fellow employees are actually my customers. I treat them as such and really enjoy helping them through their IT problems.
The issue that makes this best part of my job the most difficult is the fact that these people are computer illiterate and they are unable to explain the exact problem that they are having. Thus creating the catch 22 of the help desk.
I find it a little difficult to solve your problem Mr. Employee if you can’t explain to me what problem you are having. For example, my fellow employees are using rarely used technical terminology like: thingy, gizmo, gadget, roller thing, spinning thing, typewriter, TV screen and the ever popular "where it plugs in".
This is where the job becomes exciting! I use my finely tuned interrogation skills, that a seasoned FBI agent would be proud of, to drag the info out of these people. I use all my Sherlock Holmes’ deductive reasoning to ferret out what these people are actually talking about.
Putting on my Dr. Phil hat for a moment. Let’s use this psychology word play test. When you say the words "Log On" … you mean you clicked on the Internet Explorer icon to open it.
When you say that your computer "doesn’t work" … you mean that your screen saver came on and your monitor is just black.
When you say "I don’t know what happened" … you mean that you know exactly what happened but you aren’t going to tell me incase it makes you look bad.
Of course, with any job, talking the customer off the ledge (I mean through the problem) is the rewarding part. Even as we sit here at the 21st Century mark, we still have people out there who will never be comfortable talking the IT talk.
I guess I enjoyed that 20 questions game as a child because this is one of the best jobs I ever had!
Discussion
No comments or trackbacks for “Words for Training Contest — 3rd Place Winning Essay”Post a comment