Question by tony: what is the difference between Network engineer, network support, Help desk and IT support?
what is the difference between Network engineer, network support, Help desk and IT support and can I safely say I am looking for a position as network engineer, network support, IT support or help desk. or am I repeating myself if say that??? pleas help if you can and thank you!
Best answer:
Answer by Thomas M
Well, unless you are an engineer with an engineering degree from an accredited 4-year university, then no, you cannot say that you are an engineer. That is not just another term to sound smart, a lot will be expected of you.
A network engineer designs, plans, builds, test, and integrates systems. A high level of understanding and responsibility will be expected.
IT support would be the next level down, responsible for being able to configure all of the equipment that the network support staff have built. IT support is called upon to fix virtually any computer or network problem that arises within an office environment. This can be anything from replacing a broken mouse to figuring out what setting some idiot broke on his laptop and “can’t remember what he did.” IT support may also be required to reconfigure routers and access points at a moment’s notice when a customer arrives and needs access to the company network.
Network support covers wiring up cabling and power cords, hooking up networking equipment ( switches, routers, etc. ), debugging outages, and sometimes basic configuration of routers and wireless access points.
Help Desk support is the bottom of the barrel, ranging anywhere from lower IT support to reciting line-by-line how-to help documents from Microsoft’s website to people who cannot figure out the difference between a capslock key and a shift key.
Don’t shoot too high, be reasonable. Nothing angers busy engineers and managers quite like a computer problem that they know how to solve ( and simply do not have the time to ), but then they have an IT guy who is little more than a Help Desk worker claiming to be of IT proficiency who cannot have the problem fixed by the time the meeting starts. At the same time, if you find that you can genuinely answer most questions that people ask you about computers, now might be the time to go for a few certifications ( A+, Network+, CompTIA, etc. ) and move up the chain.
Hope this helps, good luck!
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