Solved Confused with IT Posts names, what's the difference ?
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Hello All,
In IT support category, I am confused with following posts, can someone clarify which post is for what ?
- Desktop Support Specialist
- Helpdesk Specialist
- Helpdesk Technician
- IT Support Specialist
I feel, almost all are same, and my confusion increased when I seen these posts posted somewhere in Job Vacancies in same page, which reveals all of them are different.
Thanks !
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Titles in IT are generally made up.
They mean different things to different companies.
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@openit said in Confused with IT Posts names, what's the difference ?:
In IT support category, I am confused with following posts, can someone clarify which post is for what ?
Keep in mind that the job you do and the title that you have have no reason to specifically match. Most companies use terms like "IT Director", "IT Manager" or even "CIO" to mean "someone with the skills of an Intern than manage nothing and do very basic general IT work, mostly bench work and have no authority."
So title does not imply role, and the smaller the company, the less likely that the two match. In the enterprise, they are normally very exact and spot on (but not always, I was at IBM and they used titles like "Support Analyst" to mean the senior most person in IT controlling the budget, managing people and being the top level of technical escalation for the company. So it can go both directions.
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@openit said in Confused with IT Posts names, what's the difference ?:
- Desktop Support Specialist
- Helpdesk Specialist
- Helpdesk Technician
- IT Support Specialist
These are all close and you must use the role, never the title, to know what a post is. But, here is basically what these loose titles should imply about the job...
Desktop Support Specialist: Someone who is a specialist, non-generalist, who administers (aka supports) desktops rather than servers. This is an admin role, but limited to desktops.
Helpdesk Specialist: Someone who is a specialist, non-generalist on the helpdesk which normally means a call center or other centralized ticket or on demand based support. The helpdesk is the IT group that make front line contact with the users.
Helpdesk Technician: Same as above but only implies specialist instead of stating it explicitly.
IT Support Specialist: A specialist generalist. The title means nothing. It's self conflicting. A term for someone working in IT and nothing more.
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@JaredBusch said in Confused with IT Posts names, what's the difference ?:
Titles
in ITare generally made up.They mean different things to different companies.
Fixed for you.
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@scottalanmiller Have to agree a lot with this. I was an IT Manager before, I performed all the functions of it and no one in our MSP company knew it officially.
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Titles don't matter that much except for companies that literally base your pay range on it. If they are going to do that, then fight for the best paying title!
And yes, I do work for a comp that does it. I started as "IT Helpdesk" and could not get my title changed even once I began supporting Linux web servers and doing all the purchasing and essentially being responsible for all-the-things.
The person before me who remained on staff for a while was called "IT Coordinator", whatever that means.Eventually I had to write like a 6 page letter explaining what I do and what titles actually mean and finally got my title approved to be "IT Systems Administrator" (a most appropriate and generic title for my position and duties). And then negotiated my pay as a separate thing. Plus I like calling myself a "SysAdmin" and can celebrate national SysAdmin Day.
What's funny is that when my boss would send phone calls or emails to me to do things, he would use important-sounding titles to look impressive to the other person. Like "I'll pass you on to our CTO to handle that" even though I'm no such thing, lol
