Infrastructure is the foundation of every IT company. As more and more technology companies are outsourcing their Infrastructure Support functions to specialist companies, there is an increasing demand for Infrastructure Technical Support Executive to provide around–the–clock global technical support and customer service. An Infrastructure Technical Support Executive is responsible for efficient provisioning, operation, installation/configuration and proper maintenance of systems hardware, software and other related infrastructure. The Infrastructure Technical Support Executive’s work can fall under either of the two categories:
- Providing support to internal teams within the company: The job is that of a System Administrator who provides operational support, maintenance and provisioning for systems hardware, software and other infrastructure.
- Providing Support to Customers: The Executive provides support services to clients in terms of troubleshooting problems, identifying and correcting technical issues, providing advice on infrastructure related upgrades and improvements.
The Job Role and Responsibilities
The primary responsibilities for an Infrastructure Technical Support Executive would be:
- Operations and Support
- Daily system monitoring, verifying and reviewing all hardware, server resources, systems and key processes etc.
- Regular security monitoring to identify possible disturbance, performing daily backup operations.
- Investigating and troubleshoot all issues related to IT infrastructure for internal teams or clients using telephone/emails etc.
- Maintenance
- Maintain operational, configuration, or other procedures. Performing regular updates and upgrades as and when necessary.
- Provisioning
- Install new / rebuild existing servers and configure hardware, peripherals, services, settings, directories, storage, etc. in accordance with standards and project/operational requirements of the company/client.
- Develop and maintain installation and configuration procedures and system standards.
Competencies and Skills Required
Needless to say that the job requires a strong foundation in IT Infrastructure domain knowledge. Domain knowledge is the prime criteria for selection in this role. The major competencies and skills that recruiters would look for are:
- Strong IT Infrastructure Domain knowledge
- Good Problem Solving skills.
- Decision making ability
- Good communication skills specially if the role is a client facing role
Assessment for the ‘Right’ Infrastructure Technical Support Executive
The following table illustrates how various skills and personality traits map to assessments required for the role:
| Infrastructure Technical Support Executive Profile | AMCAT Mapping |
| Knowledge of IT Infrastructure | IT Infrastructure Domain Test: High |
| Problem Solving Skills | Logical Ability: Mid to High Numerical Ability: Mid |
| Communication Skills | English: Mid |
Assessments’ Correlation to Performance
Globally, standardized assessments have been used for hiring of Infrastructure Technical Support Executives. The scores of these assessments show high ‘validity’ in predicting the success of the candidate in their job. The objective criteria consist of assessments in domain knowledge and cognitive skills. Assessments in domain skills consist of IT Infrastructure module. Our research shows that domain knowledge shows highest correlation to the success of an IT Infrastructure Technical Support Executive, closely followed by Logical Ability and Numerical Ability. A company can improves its efficiency by as much as 21% by using objective and criterion-validated benchmarks on standardized assessments.
