Cut the $hIT Recapped: Improving your IT according to the people who support it

Host and Plow Networks’ COO Bryan Link is joined by Plow Networks’ very own IT Service Desk Analysts Hannah Poston and Ryan Vaniman for this two-part series about how to make your IT more effective.

If you are starting your IT career or have been in it for years, this two-part series is for you. In each episode, you will hear from Hannah and Ryan about how they found themselves pursuing careers in tech and what they have learned that other IT teams can do to make IT more effective for their businesses.

In both episodes, we quickly learn that a career in IT wasn’t something that either Hannah or Ryan had known they wanted to pursue from day one. This is more common in the world of technology than you may think. Hannah studied history in college and worked in accounting before pivoting to tech. Ryan has many talents and, therefore, had many different careers before switching to IT. From touring with his band to working as a chef, Ryan’s a self-proclaimed “late bloomer in IT.”

The two share a common interest in helping people, which attracted them to and fulfills them in their current IT Service Desk Analyst roles. Of course, helping clients is a great feeling; however, Hannah and Ryan had a lot to learn before they could feel confident in their ability to do that since they were new to this industry.

An overall theme throughout the two-part series is that you won’t know everything when you start, so you must jump in knowing that. In tech, there is this pressure to be an expert on everything. However, like anything else, there will be so much you don’t know when doing something for the first time. Hannah said this was something that she had to “learn to be ok with.” She knew everyone started somewhere and acknowledging that you don’t know what you don’t know is part of the learning process.

Ryan shares a similar sentiment when he talks about his first job in tech supporting Macs. He had to be willing to jump in and learn fast, but that mindset helped get his feet wet in the tech world and gave him the confidence to branch out and desire to gain more experience across various technologies.

Through both of their experiences working in IT support, they share a few best practices that they think can make an internal IT team more effective.

• Have a good infrastructure for your ticketing system, one that makes sense for your workflow.
• Have a detailed and precise knowledge base for the clients you are working with.
• Have experienced, good people around you willing to answer questions and help you learn.
• Automate what you can when you can.

If you’re looking to create a stellar internal IT team, these are some of the most important elements that make the most significant difference to the people working on the front lines. Check out our website to learn more about Plow Networks support services.

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