Started first IT job and I am stressed and confused is this normal?

Question

I started my first IT job Tues as a TSS and I am really lost, I am in my 2nd year of college and even though I have had several IT classes I still am lost. They ask me during my interview if I had ever worked with active directory or servers and I told them no and they still hired me and have been training me on it little by little for the last few days, and I am right now just following another TSS around like they told me to so I can learn the ropes.

But I feel like I will never remember all the passwords or which server is for what, also I feel like I'm just standing there at times and not really helping them much because I don't really know what to do. They keep sayti

Are all of these just common fears of a new job and am I just trying to get into to big of a hurry by trying to learn to much to fast. The boss said I am doing good and to just keep doing what I am doing and when I feel comfortable I can just jump right in, but I really think that I am not impressing them much.

Answer 1

The first month is real scary, but it does get better and you will begin to understand it all. Man they have their own slang and it doesn't always match the book learning we got in school either!

Me I am 5 month into my first gig and just getting to where I know where things are and how to do the daily stuff. Printers are a big black hole to me still!!

Hang in there and don't get arogant and always pitch in in whatever capacity you can.

AAS Comp Networking

Answer 2

You will be okay, don't be afraid to "NOT" know everything.

I own a computer break-fix company and we work on different networks everyday. I got thrown to the wolves when I first started out. It's not the way I treat any of the interns or newly college grads that I hire. Just remember to practice on your own.

Get a server and make a ton of mistakes. That way you will get to figure things out on your own. Set up a few clients if you can and make up your own network including AD and print scripts. Never stop learning and take labs and certification courses from Microsoft and Cisco. I would even look at Novell, I still have customers that use Netware. Novell has an open source Linux flavor besides the old Netware OS and you can certified as well.

Your wanting to be good and apply all that you learned is probably a stress point for you. Most college courses don't even come close to real world applications, so just go with the flow and learn from all and whom ever you can.

I hope this helps, good luck

Answer 3

Trust me, all those passwords you say you can't remember....you'll have such a hard time forgetting them eventually, you'll start typing them in to login on school computers.

I am just about 2 years into my first gig and it took me a good 4-6 months to finally start catching on and understanding how things work. But as someone stated above, learning to know where to look to find the information needed to get things done is key.

For example, for just about everything we install and configure, we have a procedure on how it is done. They are all filed away on paper and in the IT share drive. If you got something like this, take some time to read up on these procedures, it may not make any sense to you, but it could help you later on.

I spent the first few weeks on the job reading the companies intranet web sites cause I didn't know what the hell else to do.

Stick it out, and you will be fine

Answer 4

You are fine. The best part is that you are anxious and want to do a good job. But, remember that you are human and that you need to learn. One thing to keep in mind is that IT companies do not follow the same approach to everything. This leaves alot of detail to the training which is what you are going through. Your anxiety also makes it seem like you think you are supposed to know everything. The only thing you should know is where to look in order to read up on issues. Admitting that you dont know everything is key. Couple it with some reference material. Also keep in mind that alot of companies are documentation-phobic. This is understandable from a security perspective. But, they end up with sloppy ways of fixing issues. You should take comfort in knowing that IT shops are probably not as perfect as you think they want you to be.

Answer 5

That is quite normal. What you study in school are just basics (no matter how complex they may be) and what you see in real life are realities. You will quickly realize, the rules you learn in school really don't apply in most cases. Instead, you will be forced to think your way though most challenges.

You will see really poor implementation of technologies. Before criticizing such implementations, think how it got there.... Usually, there are good reasons.

Don't even try impressing anyone. Instead, show your willingness to learn from them.

Give yourself at least a year to start feeling comfortable.

Answer 6

Wow. That sounds just like me. I used to work for tech support, and the first few weeks I was there, I felt like a horrible employee. The same as when I was a receptionist for a doctor. Both of the jobs had so many codes and so many different problems that I didn't anticipate. Really, you just have to stick it out. Just do what they tell you, and if you're not doing it right, they'll let you know. Or should. That's their obligation.

Answer 7

You have a lot to learn and remember. No one can do this instantly. Take a deep breath. You'll make it. You'll learn everything. Because of the struggle while learning it, you'll remember it better.

Just be patient.

Also, look for ways to capture what you're learning (either by finding good reference books or by organizing your notes in a way that makes it easy to retrieve the information you need).

Answer 8

This is perfectly normal for ANY job, and makes even more sense in a fast-moving high skill job like Tech support. Just hang on and I'm sure you'll do fine.