Windows 7: Calling all 1st, 2nd and 3rd line support tech guys

Hey peeps,

Really hope someone here can help, should do considering the type of forum, he he. ::cheeky::

Anyway, I have been doing my job as an administrative assistant (or a glorified data inputer) for over two years now (Getting on 3) and its getting tedious, badly, same thing day in, day out, same paper work and same information.

For a couple of weeks now i have been thinking about my career path and I now want to progress a career in 1st line support, eventually leading to second and then third (Data centre) as this is what i can do, i can enjoy thoroughly and what a lot of people keep banging on at me about.

Now my question is, what certificates are required?

What would be the better way of gaining proven experience?

I have a few years of personal and it was mainly XP based, some very basic Vista (But not a lot to shout about) and now Windows 7.



The reason i ask for proven, is because most companies want someone who is already experinced with about 18 months + behind them and i don't have that.

Can someone help me here as this is really a matter of life and death (or at least the death of any hope of gaining what i want.

Please also keep in mind, i am in the UK so obviuosly i want something that is recognised in this country, unless its a global certificate.

Many, many, many thanks in advance,

Lucky

I am a retired LAN/WAN Network and Hardware Help Desk Manager for a US Federal Agency. I had both Level 1 and Level 2 Help Desk techs working for me and also contractor LAN engineers (originally Novell CNE's and later Microsoft certified Engineers) that could be consdered Level 3, although in our system the Level 3 support was mostly Computer Analysists at our agency's national computer center headquarters.

A lot of what you need to do depends on which direction you want to go - operational or hardware support. If it's network operations and administration then you need to become certified in whatever system the prospective employer uses, such as Microsoft for Microsoft client server systems and maybe even some programming knowledge. If it's hardware then obviously you need to have some formal hardware training to break into that area and along with the PC's you will need router, modems, etc.

When we started our networking and help desk, it was in the early 80's and everything was new, thus all my HD Techs were mostly on the job trained. Some of my HD Techs came from an electronics background, some from communications background and some were mainframe computer operators, but since this was a new career field we couldn't send them for any type of formal training. I did have in-house training that I did myself - in specific areas as needed.