wish me luck

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

tomorrow begins my foray into the world of tech support. first day of training. hold me.

i have a feeling online support will be less distressing for me personally than phone support would be...

Comments

[superbus.livejournal.com]

Is this your first exposure to the IT industry?

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

first direct exposure, yeah. they put me through all sorts of fun testing to get the job.

[thecrazyfinn.livejournal.com]

Oh you poor soul.

Because you're not going to have a soul soon enough.

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

awesome. D:

I call dibs!

[wowgrilledcheez.livejournal.com]

One can never have enough souls hanging around.

Re: I call dibs!

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

hey why do YOU get souls?

Re: I call dibs!

[wowgrilledcheez.livejournal.com]

Well, shards of souls, at least.

They are useful for a number of things- soulstones (ressurect yourself after getting killed by a bear/hippogryph/Alliance cheeseweasel/guard/etc...), summoning pets, health stones, summoning party memebers, the list goes on.

I keep mine in a little bag hanging on my waist.

[wxgeek.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry.

[taleya.livejournal.com]

See your icon? Yeah, that's gonna be you come 5pm....

[hemlock-martini.livejournal.com]

It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.

And now that someone is you.

Start planning your escape route now. By the time you get so sick of support that you would rip off your own leg just to get a sick day, you'll need an escape route.

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

well, i do want to get back to tech writing. supposedly this will help. but as it stands right now, uhhhh a job's a job. ha.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

Iz cake. Fuhgeddaboudit.

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

i dunno man, i've heard stories...

...don't we have a common LJ friend? >_o

[xforge.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmyup. And apparently similar political leanings.

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

o rly.

[gilmoure.livejournal.com]

Good luck. I lied my way into a tech support job 15 years ago (art school drop out) and it's worked out for me. I'll admit, I do like the chair thing and not having to move my feet around all day, but yeah, some customers do get to you. At least with online support, you won't have the customer's hearing you roll your eyes. Some of the 'em know they're PitA's and can tell just when they've got the tech ready to burst of blood vessel. I hate them all!

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

lol i didn't lie, just happen to know some shit and did well on the tests. :)

best case scenario: this leads to other areas of IT/documentation. i'm ambitious. ;p

and yes, that's precisely the benefit of online! ;-)

[gilmoure.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's my wife's path as well. She's also working the tech support I do (two desks over) but after a year, is already being tasked with writing up KB articles. From there, she's planning on moving up into documentation. Can't wait until she makes enough to keep me in the manner I'm accustomed to and I no longer have to work.

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

sweet. i've done tech writing, but it was just contract and in a different industry. my friends in IT swear this will give me a better chance to get in with IT tech writing.

[ptstech.livejournal.com]

"i have a feeling online support will be less distressing for me personally than phone support would be..."

Don't you believe it...

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

me personally. ;-) i find it easier to pretend to be patient when tone of voice is not involved.

[superbus.livejournal.com]

Let us know sometime this week how that goes. This could be legitimately interesting.

[azurelunatic]

Speaking as an online support goon, it really helps when your fellows know and appreciate what's going on, rather than having Management slam a tight lid down upon venting.

I use a handy Firefox thing called "Clippings" in addition to the official support tools that the workplace provides us with. I have a bunch of polite business-speak phrases (such as "Unfortunately, company policy does not allow representatives to make these changes. They must be done through the customer account in order to proceed.") in there, with their names as (approximately) what I want to say (such as "We can't. You do it.") as well as additional frequently-asked issues that haven't made their way into our canned answers.

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

Lol why does that make me feel like some kind of experiment? You just wanna laugh at me. ;p ah weel, the first three weeks are training so it might take a bit to get to the STORIES. ;-)

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

I've done both email and phone support, and I find email to be less stressful. Good luck!

Re: I call dibs!

[zendequervain.livejournal.com]

Stupid Alliance Cheeseweasels. They're as bad as gnomes.

Dirty Jobs

[kenbrody.livejournal.com]

Quick! Someone call Mike Rowe!

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/dirtyjobs/about/about.html

[superbus.livejournal.com]

Of course you're an experiment! What, did you honestly think I cared about your well being? ;)

Actually, I'm interested in seeing what they're going to have you doing. Three weeks of training tells me you work for a large call centre, and since you're starting out, I'm wondering if they're going to train you just to be a script monkey. Yeah, you're a guinnea pig, but at least you'll have us to talk you through the coming bullshit? :)

Re: I call dibs!

[mouse-from-marz.livejournal.com]

FOR THE HORDE!!!!

Re: I call dibs!

[bonivus.livejournal.com]

I like the squeaky noises gnomes make when I step on them. cute as a button.

Re: I call dibs!

[zendequervain.livejournal.com]

I think that /punt should be a valid emote/action.

Like, shift the person a few feet, unless it would knock them off a significant fall. For fairness.

[gorthx.livejournal.com]

I have a bunch of polite business-speak phrases ... in there, with their names as (approximately) what I want to say (such as "We can't. You do it.")

Oh, what a great idea! I'm going to start on mine now.

[emsporter.livejournal.com]

I do email/phone support and have a similar list of (mostly email templates) for the exact same purpose. It lowers the blood pressure when you don't have to think of a new way to say "Piss off fuckwit" for the 42nd time that morning.

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

thanks! :)

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

well, they've now changed it to two. but yeah, this is a new department (more or less) for a big company...basically they are going from an email-based system to chat-based and it's a big project. so i guess since not many people would have done it this way before, they are going to be getting into the ins and outs of live chat.

[azurelunatic]

It gives me the great personal satisfaction of having said it, without the corresponding Quality Assurance scores. I'm so very polite and helpful. I feel that everyone attempting to deal with DNS should be given a lollipop. Those who screw it up should get a jalepeño lollipop. Those who willfully screw it up or ought to know better? Habañero.

[azurelunatic]

Yes!

One thing this position has taught me is many new and exciting ways to say "No."