Hey everyone, James here, and I’m going to talk you through my first week in Tech Support here at Pamoja!
There’s a chance that the mention of tech support has you yawning already, but I promise to try and keep this interesting (and to limit my references to the I.T crowd!).
It’s a great time to be involved with the Tech Support department at Pamoja because of the number of projects in the works. This week I’ve been mainly getting stuck into a project which aims to revamp the help and support system- looking at areas which can be improved, either for the people working on the ticket, or the person who submitted a help request.
Let’s be honest, we’ve all at some point had to deal with an awful support experience, whether it’s being on hold for hours or never hearing back after you send an email… therefore having a well automated system with correct service level agreements in place so that the user isn’t waiting for ages is a big deal. Service level agreements are basically agreed upon times that the person working on the help request has to have updated or replied to that ticket. I’ve been helping to set these up on ZenDesk, testing them with dummy ticket requests. So far so good. Also having an inclusive and informative help centre full of useful articles will help in reducing the amount of tickets that need to be sent, as the user will be able to find the answer to their problem themselves. That’s the theory anyway. I’ve been helping out with this as well and have even been able to peek at the development of some JavaScript source-code, which I find very interesting (don’t worry, I’m aware I’m in the minority for that one).
As well as the big programs there are always little side projects to do too. Whilst the tech support office is one of the smallest at Pamoja HQ, the door is always open with people coming in for help. Printer issues and forgotten passwords seem to make up about 70% of all tech support requests, so I’ve been shown how to reset passwords which I’m sure will prove to be an invaluable skill.
Overall, I’d say that my first week in Tech Support has been hectic at times, but really enjoyable. I like the way that I am being put in a position to make a real impact on a core technological system that Pamoja uses, it’s so different to university where you turn up to lectures (hmm) and submit coursework but never get to oversee a project which causes actual change – everything stays within that particular project’s bubble. However, I am now being given the scope to affect change, which is a new and refreshing concept.
Special thank you shout out to Tech Support Consultant David Newman for showing me the ropes and keeping my workload manageable!
James – Pamoja Intern Programme, BA Computer Science Undergraduate at Oxford Brookes University
Sign up to our monthly newsletter to keep up to date with all the latest Pamoja news.
