Telephone interview with a headhunter yesterday and she goes…”What 3rd Line Support roles have you carried out?”
Good question.
Resume says “Experienced 1st, 2nd and 3rd Line Support…” having been in IT 10 years-ish from ISP Helpdesk roles supporting dial-up Internet access to Helpdesk Analyst for a global blue chip company to being a Network Engineer, POP Administrator and a bit of Project Management, etc.
From hardware/software installation and support to installing ISM band radios for last-mile Internet access delivery to getting involved with VSAT installations and support, managing a TDMA network, some server management (Active Directory, File and Print), etc.
The question is…is there a clear and cast-in-concrete reference out there that clearly defines what responsibilities or tasks fall in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd line roles categorisation?
Sounds like a no-brainer but methinks too many grey areas. If I administer NTFS permissions on a file server for instance, is that 1st or second in comparison to running dcpromo on a member server at a branch office to have a DC locally?
What about when I have to remotely connect to a user’s machine to resolve a problem as against a verbal walk-through?
For every escalation, does that mean my role (at that moment) is one line below the person I’m escalating to?
At some point, I expect a post will read something like “If after 10 years in IT you still don’t know, then you have no business in the business or are a bloody charlatan…”. Please lay it on me!
My answer to her question?
“Well, IT Support on a daily basis cuts across all three…blah…blah…”!
Not sure if I made any sense to her…
