IT support jobs

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Pardon me if this is a stupid question. But what exactly is the meaning of 1st,2nd,3rd line support ?

Their knowledge. I dont know if its 321 or 123 so I wont comment... But its basically like a trained monkey at the lowest and more knowing people at the top.

Escalation !

the customer usually call the help desk for a trouble with thier equipment or access. The first one to answer is the level one clerk. That person is responsible to document the demand and try some basic troubleshooting (ask to reboot the comupter, verify that the customer is allowed to do what they want and that they know how to do it well...).

If nothing of this works, the level one will escalate the problem to a level two technician. The level 2 technician have a specified amount of time to resolve the problem. If it is not resolved in that time, he will escalate again to a level 3 engineer.

The level 3 engineer is expected to find and solve the problem. If he cannot find the problem in a pre-specified amount of time, he will escalate to the boss who will then form a "crisis team" (this is not good for the record of the level 3 engineer).

Normally, even a high level engineer cannot be hired directly in level 3 cause even if he knows well his stuff, he doesn't knows the specific environnment of that company. He must learn the setup, normally by supporting level 2 technician a certain amount of time.

Hope this is what you were looking for. Don't forget that this is general and that each company will have some sort of variation on this theme.

thanks ! that was a great summary, now i understand.

Just im applying for support jobs and they re asking for experience in different levels and i didnt know know what they were on about. Looks like ive done a bit of 1st and 2nd line support.

thanks