On a daily basis, this individual is in charge of coming up with a schedule for each technician, engineer, and other staff members. The first thing that is done each morning is figuring out which issues are the most urgent and having them dealt with immediately. Sometimes there are complicated issues that come up that must be dealt with very swiftly because the last thing the help desk manager wants is for the entire network to go down. Another important aspect of this career is simple maintenance of things like desktop computers and cell phones, just to ensure that no problems will arise in the near future.
The administrative portion of this career includes writing a monthly report on all of the issues that occurred and come up with ways to deal with them even faster. There must also be a business plan and budget included at the end of every month because those who are higher up in the company will always want to know that the individual is trying to save the company money. This budget must also include potential new employees and software upgrades, as these are parts of business that will come into play.
The manager of the IT help desk must have good communication skills and be a natural leader because he or she will be in charge of a number of people. While all of the individuals who work under this manager will be professionals, they will need someone to keep them moving and dealing with the most important issues of that day. In addition, many of these professionals will not be experienced with customer service, so it is up to the manager to make sure that the customers are always happy in every situation.
Finally, the manager must be able to meet up with vendors and also people within the industry to ensure that the company is using the best technology to meet their needs. The IT help desk relies heavily on vendor software to protect all of its technology, so the manager must be able to meet with these other companies and find the best software on the market. This will be included in the budget, so the manager must be prepared to find prices that the company is willing to spend on the software that it needs. This is a very challenging career with many different responsibilities, but it is definitely a great career choice for anyone who is interested in information technology.