How would you go about starting a career working in help desk ? What is the starting salary? How long does it take to move between levels?

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Originally Posted by touise4

How would you go about starting a career working in help desk ? What is the starting salary? How long does it take to move between levels?

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If you mean askme help desk we are not employees, some of the experts volunteer their time and answer posts to help people.

Well there are many areas to work in... ISP, software, enterprise, and 1-800... you need to have a good skill level or understanding of computers... the easiest and lowest pay is helpdesk for small ISP (internet service providers)... if you have highly developed skills you can work in software, enterprise or 1-800... there are f few good resources for finding jobs... craigslist.org,, or search computer help by phone... isp generally want you to work from their local office... also networking knowledge helps...

IT is very difficult to bust into, even if one has excellent credentials and training. You almost have to start at the bottom and work for a call centre which is pretty low pay, long hours, bad shifts.

I am saying this from my son's viewpoint he is computer science technology graduate and it isn't easy getting what he wants in his field.

IT help desk jobs are getting harder to find since most computer companies are using foreign countries for this endeavor. I used to do help desk with a national company, but they closed our office and sent all the work over to India. So if you ever call in for help and seem to get someone with a heavy foreign accent, it because that's the country where the 800 number goes too.
Since working in the field I've talked to people in Ireland, Canada, and India.
I wish you luck in finding an entry level job in this field.
Starting pay in this field will depend on where you live. Best place to start though is your local college or a good technical school in your area that offers classes in computers. As for moving up the "levels", that depends on how much you know and how good you are with customers.
My son-in-law worked at the low end for a few years until he moved up. Now he makes good money with a nationally known company. Expect to take lots of knowledge tests too. You'll be given one if they are considering you for hire. Then they'll pick the people who had the highest scores from there. Good luck.