Getting Out of Tech Support?

An anonymous reader asks: "For the last year or so I've been working in 1st line tech support at a small call centre that's part of a much larger outsourcing company and to be honest it's sucking the life out of me, I want change but I don't know what direction to take in order to get out and I really need some advice from others who have made the jump. I suppose what I'd like to know is what kind of jobs one should be looking for coming from technical support with decent knowledge of UNIX, networking, scripting and 'light coding'. Is there any hope for me or will I have to go back to school in order to even have employers look at my resume?" I'm in my mid-twenties and I've taken a number of college-level courses, a couple of those being computer engineering courses, some math and a few others that I found interesting, in the process I also managed to procure a fairly large amount of debt in the form of student loans, nothing I can't handle but I don't really want more debt although going back to get a degree is one possibility. I'm not entirely sure what I want to do except that I want to do something a bit more "real", to actually fix problems instead of just talking to customer after customer and then submitting tickets for someone else to fix the problem. From what I've understood from older acquaintances moving from tech support to other positions was actually a good way to go back when a lot of companies handled their own tech support, but for me there isn't much of a career path at this company as we only handle 1st line support, 2nd line and all above is done by the client companies themselves.

I'd really like to get more into sysadmin type work, or at least something where you spend more time solving problems and managing systems than you do arguing with irrate customers over how they have to call customer service for billing questions as technical support can't handle those problems."

Comments

Get some certifications.

[Anonymous Coward]

A+ and Net+ to start. Go from there.

Remember:

Certifications prove you know something.

Degree's prove you can stick with something and are willing to invest time in something.

References prove you've worked with people.

Experience proves you've been trusted to do the job by someone.

Re:Get some certifications.

[Fubar420]

As someone who interviews far too many who believe the same: Certifications prove you can pass a test (like HS) - that is, rote memorization. Proving knowledge is an exercise left to the reader. In answer to the original question, discover what interests you, what you want to do, and learn more, be it networking, unix, coding ( or sales :-) ). If you're not interested in it, you won't advance in it.

Re:Get some certifications.

[wiz_80]

I disagree. A degree beats certifications, at least in my experience. Annoyingly, the degree is just a tick in the box, but it is pretty much an absolute requirement. Certifications, on the other hand - I have a couple, but I stopped bothering about them because they did not seem to make any noticeable difference.

Basically, I would recommend that you try to work out a way of getting a degree that builds on the courses that you already took, which should save some money, and also features work experience. This can be an excellent way to get good things onto your CV, get hands-on experience in other areas (not just technical areas!) and make useful contacts for later.

Also, something to bear in mind for the future: I find that it pays to look at the career path a job offers, not just the immediate benefits. Make sure that you can go up the ladder, but also sideways in a couple of different directions. After three years of tech support, I went to pre-sales support, which is a whole different kettle of fish, but hugely rewarding in its way.

"Unix System Administrator"

[subreality]

It sounds like you should move up to a run of the mill sysadmin position. You have the basic skills, you've paid your dues with a little time in a tech support job... Look for "System Administrator I" positions on your favorite job listings site. Apply to them. See what happens.

This is a textbook career move. Why do you even need to ask us?

Re:"Unix System Administrator"

[s0l0m0n]

I remember being in a similar position and asking myself the same question. "Where do I go from here?"

It turns out that the answer for me was get demoralized by the tech support nightmare, get fired, bum around for a while, go back to college for something else. I'm much happier studying engineering than I ever was working with computers, even though much of the mindset still applies.

I wonder if the originator of this question doesn't need to ask himself "Is this what I want to do with my life?"

College

[sporkme]

Stop screwing around and get a college degree. Your jobs will suck until you do. Work at a crappy job with crappy pay if you have to, so long as it lets you get that degree.

Time spent at school affords you the people network and insight to answer this question yourself. Plus, you will have a college degree. Choose wisely and you will need a big wooden club to keep the headhunters away. Everything starts with college, and it is never too late. Assuming you are a citizen of the United States, you get more money after you turn 24 because your parents' income cannot be considered.

Bootstrap yourself

[ma11achy]

Here are a few pointers from a Unix sysadmin and programmer for the past 10 years.

1) Motivate yourself. Get a Unix/Linux Sysadmin book and read it
        from cover to cover. Stick Linux on your PC at home and
        break it/fix it/mess with it.

2) Do more at your workplace (if you can). Start helping out in
        the areas that interest you. You might be surprised, people
        notice these things.

3) Sell yourself. This is very important. I don't mean telling
        everyone you meet how great you are, but dropping hints when
        chatting to sysadmins/programmers about what you can do.

        People like me usually remember people like you, and have
        a little influence in recommending people to the boss.

Best of luck.

Sysadmin prereqs

[Sobrique]

System's admin is a big subject, as I'm sure you're quite well aware.

However, it's pretty much always a support service. Therefore you should expect that you'll end up on call. Personally I don't like that part, but can't deny the extra pay is nice.

It's also a field where experience is what really really matters. Which means it can be tough to break into. Certifications and degrees are nice, but it's my '5 years in the industry' which opens doors, not the other bits of paper.

However as a starting point in 'building your career', I will suggest you look at:

• ITIL - IT infrastructure library. It's something that put me off initally, as it look a bit too much like icky-yuck processes and procedures. However, I've run into a _lot_ of companies that are starting to 'buy in' to the model. That wouldn't convince me, though. What did, is it's actually a fairly good way of 'doing IT'. Not the only way by any means, but one worth looking at, if only because then you have a basis for comparison.
• SAGE Systems Administrators guild, a subdivision of Usenix.
• BCS British Computer Society
• The Practice of System and Network Administration (Paperback) - A personal favourite, this is a brilliant book, because it covers the _theory_ of systems admin.

Don't neglect the 'soft' skills though. I know many hardcore techies hate the idea, but the ability to wear a suit, and look good and confident when doing so is _very_ useful. Also 'social interaction' skills. Systems admin is as much about the people (ab)using the system as the system itself.

As far as I can tell, your bits of paper serve to help you secure an interview. But the field's .... well sufficiently complicated and convoluted that your ability to learn, research and innovate are far more important. As is your ability to show you can do this.