Modules that are in use for the current academic year are linked for further information. The Undergraduate Preparatory Certificates (UPC) prepare international students for a UCL undergraduate degree who don’t have the qualifications to enter directly. These intensive one-year foundation courses are taught on our central London campus. And holy crap, as someone who had almost zero prior coding knowledge this help desk engineer was excruciatingly diffucilt. While CS50 is a fantastic resource, I was extremely fortunate to have had access to a Computer Science tutor to help me get through the first 3 weeks of material in addition to pinging my developer friends for help. I almost gave up at multiple points but over the course of 2020, I slowly pushed through all 11 weeks of content while working full-time in my old IT Helpdesk job.
- Zippia has given me hope again that I can get out of my dead-end warehouse job and find something better, something actually related to my major.
- They may escalate complicated technical problems like faulty products to IT support.
- You’ll learn this whilst building your knowledge of engineering thinking and practice.
- Following the activity of industry leaders on social media or YouTube can be an effective way to keep up-to-date.
They are responsible for troubleshooting and resolving technical issues related to hardware, software, and network systems. Help desk engineers work in a variety of industries, including IT, healthcare, finance, and government. They communicate with clients, identify problems, and provide effective and user-friendly solutions over phone, email, chat, and ticketing systems. Help desk technicians belong to the occupational field of computer support specialists.
Your learning
Find a mentor that will help you understand the ins and outs of the technology that your organization is utilizing and sit in on any architecture or design meetings that you can. Take lots of notes and do your best to gain an expert level understanding of how the organization architected their infrastructure and also why they did. Time spent as a system or network administrator will be where you gain the bulk of your experience and knowledge of IT, and it will help you advance to more technically challenging roles later on in your career. Expect to spend a good chunk of your career in systems administration, starting as a junior sys admin and working your way to a senior admin before moving on. A desktop support technician is responsible for assisting end-users with their network issues, grant authorization requests, and create user accounts. Desktop support technicians maintain the safety and security of networks, preventing unauthorized access and illegal dissemination of database information.
Take an assessment to learn more about your skills and the careers that might suit you. A wise old man once told me, a journey of 10,000 miles begins with one step…Okay, no one actually told me that – but it’s a good adage to think of as you approach a career in IT. Let’s focus on a couple of different jobs you can do to get off to a good start in your IT career.
How to Become a Help Desk Technician in 3 Steps
A guide including rough estimates for these and other living expenses is included on the UCL Fees and funding pages. If you are concerned by potential additional costs for books, equipment, etc., please get in touch with the relevant departmental contact (details given on this page). This information is published a long time in advance of enrolment and module content and availability is subject to change.
«escalate,» «provide technical assistance,» «help desk,» and «mac» are skills that commonly show up on help desk engineer resumes. On the other hand, senior infrastructure engineers use skills like cloud, aws, azure, and powershell on their resumes. Help desk engineers and desk support technicians both require similar skills like «troubleshoot,» «help-desk support,» and «technical support» to carry out their responsibilities. With four unique strands running throughout each year of study, this degree brings together the key pillars of science and engineering for social change on a continuous basis. The ‘Context’ strand looks at the social and technical infrastructures in society, while the ‘Conversation’ strand tackles how engineers and policymakers think.
You’ll add necessary soft skills to your repertoire
The Information Technology field is one of the most rewarding and challenging career fields in the world today. It is one of the only career fields that changes almost on a daily basis, and requires you to be up on the latest trends in order to keep pace and stay relevant. I’ve been in the IT career field for 20 years and it has been an amazing experience to say the least. What I experience in my work now is not what I experienced when I first started 20 years ago, and it’s not just about the technology I was using, either.
Desktop support specialists tend to make the most money working in the finance industry, where they earn an average salary of $53,933. In contrast, help desk engineers make the biggest average salary, $67,498, in the finance industry. The annual salary of desktop support specialists is $7,482 lower than the average salary of help desk engineers. All students receive support to help them get job-ready through the degree programme. This includes a final employability assessment and practical workshops on different aspects of finding a job.
The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team. Life after college doesn’t seem as intimidating now that Zippia has helped me explore the different career options available to me. Get job recommendations based on your background, workplace preferences, and career goals.
- Help desk work is an excellent place to refine the soft skills that will serve you well as you progress in your career.
- The annual salary of desktop support specialists is $7,482 lower than the average salary of help desk engineers.
- As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you’ve taken on a leadership role.
- Take an assessment to learn more about your skills and the careers that might suit you.
- Additionally, a senior infrastructure engineer has the authority to make decisions, train and supervise junior engineers, establish goals and timelines, provide technical support, and implement policies and guidelines.
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you’ve taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a help desk engineer can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as systems administrator, progress to a title such as information technology manager and then eventually end up with the title information technology director. You will learn if you pay attention to what goes on around you and ask plenty of questions. This is also a job where you might have some down time, which if utilized productively can prove to be a great time to study for certifications or read up on what you don’t quite understand. This is exactly what I did 20 years ago, and it helped me get to the next step.