Hello everyone, I will take this chance to reintroduce myself to the community. I was a member on the Daniweb forums back in 2006 and 2007. I can see a lot has changed on the site since then, and its great to see that the community is still alive. In the past 10 years a lot has happened in my life. I have started and stopped school several times, eventually earning a Bachelor of Liberal Studies degree from Iowa State University last year. I recently left a job as a machine operator in a factory, and I am trying to secure an entry level position as a desktop support technician. The job is for a part-time desktop support role at a medical clinic briefly summarized as: "Technician responsible for imaging, configuring, deploying, and supporting new desktops and laptops as part of a Windows 10 enterprise deployment/migration"

My question to those who have worked in a similar role, or who hire candidates for roles like this is about my qualifications for this position, and how to best present my skills. I feel very comfortable troubleshooting Windows software and hardware problems, and my customer service skills are adequate. My problem is, I have sporadic training in different technologies that aren't necessarily relevant to this role. For example, I have used imaging software to create and mount .iso files, but I have no experience with Windows SCCM. In college I did well in two Java programming classes, and I was trained to use an SSH client. I am great with Microsoft office, and I know the basics of managing data in Access, but beyond that, I don't have much formal training in enterprise tools. Although about 1/3 of my college credits were towards an MIS major, I ended up also concentrated on psychology and art, and it's difficult to sell my education during an interview.

As I put together my resume and prepare for the interview, I am feeling some doubt as to whether my background is adequate for this role. Besides having relevant experience, I do meet the other requirements. I live in a small market, and opportunites like this are few and far between. If my near term goal is to get hired in a desktop support role, would it help to get CompTIA certifications to bolster my resume? What are some good ways that I can sell my education and limited experience in an interview? I gave up on being a computer science major 10 years ago in order to be a musician, and here I am 10 years later back on Daniweb asking for career advice. I am passionate about working with technology, but I don't know what I should be doing to break into the industry. I would be grateful to hear any interview tips you have, as well as suggestions for gaining experience. Is there another job that is more entry level than this?

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The clue here is the job description. Deployment technicians are not going to need much background beyond "That's a keyboard, this is a PC, here's the instructions to install our ready to go image."

I hope you know how many of these shops operate as to deploying images. If you know what they mean by deploying images, we're halfway there to you being a deployment technician.

It sounds like the job will mostly involve upgrading the clinic's PCs and laptops to Windows 10, so basically backing up data, upgrading the OS and reinstalling everything then helping people put back all their preferences/settings (or just installing a ready to go image depending on the size/competency of the current IT people). You might have some hassle with installing some niche medical-records software but otherwise pretty standard stuff. I expect patience with people who know literally nothing about computers will be the most crucial skill.

commented: People skills at par with computer skills. Yup. +0

My general advice for anyone trying to get a job without the "relevant experience" is that you need to make sure that you make up for that deficit by making your NON-relevant experience relevant. If rproffitt is correct regarding the job, you can "fake it till you make it" once you get onto the job. They aren't expecting much in the way of actual relevant experience on the technical side, but rather expect to train you and expect someone to get from 0 to 60 right away. That's IF he's right, which he may well be. Hard to say. They might be a small shop with no time to train and basically want a beginning IT guy who can hit the ground running WITHOUT much training.

Regardless, play up the life experience, general job experience, maturity, and responsibility angles. You know, the intangible, non-technical stuff. Ditto what Agilemind wrote. You're dealing with medical office types. Expect them to know nothing about computers nor have much of a DESIRE to know much about computers. That's YOUR job.

I'd get the phrase "adequate customer service skills" out of your vocabulary and thought process. If you're lacking in the computer experience and only "adequate" in customer service, why would anyone hire you? Also, leave off the "trained to use an SSH client". It only highlights your inexperience. No one WITH experience would point that out unless it was in response to "Have you used XXX SSH client?", in which the response would be "I've used it", not "I was TRAINED to use it".

Talk up HIPAA and privacy and hit hard that you know how important all that is and you are someone who respects the sanctity of medical records and can be trusted to safeguard them regarding security and privacy and authorized use. Point that out EVEN IF IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR ACTUAL JOB. Everyone, top to bottom, at any level of IT and database management or dealing with computers at all needs to be on board with this in a medical setting.

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