Career advice in Technical Support....

I want to further my career and get out of my current job. I am wondering if I should go back to programming(1) or continue with tech support(2).

- Anyone with suggestions on either choice?
- And/Or what training/courses should I look into to improve and refresh my skills?

My Backgroud Info:
- CompSci degree
- Helpdesk support for about 2 years now with an outsource company (more like a call center but we have some limited access and do some troubleshooting as well).
- Only academic experience with programming

My Pro/Con reasons for Programming:
- Programming is an enjoyable technical challenge.
- The extra hours that is considered normal and not paid overtime sucks for your personal and family life in the long term.

My Pro/Con reasons for Tech Support:
- Nice mix of dealing with people and technical challenge (as you move up).
- I don't have the experience to move up and I need to move up to get the experience (AUGH!).

Originally Posted by Majoram

I want to further my career and get out of my current job. I am wondering if I should go back to programming(1) or continue with tech support(2).

- Anyone with suggestions on either choice?
- And/Or what training/courses should I look into to improve and refresh my skills?

My Backgroud Info:
- CompSci degree
- Helpdesk support for about 2 years now with an outsource company (more like a call center but we have some limited access and do some troubleshooting as well).
- Only academic experience with programming

My Pro/Con reasons for Programming:
- Programming is an enjoyable technical challenge.
- The extra hours that is considered normal and not paid overtime sucks for your personal and family life in the long term.

My Pro/Con reasons for Tech Support:
- Nice mix of dealing with people and technical challenge (as you move up).
- I don't have the experience to move up and I need to move up to get the experience (AUGH!).

If your current company is not willing to train/offer you for 2nd level positions (out of call centre) then you should move on. Like you said you enjoy technical challenges therefore call centre job is a waste of time. By 2nd level positions I mean system administration, networking, storage areas. If you pick option 2 you'll probably need some entry level certifications (MCP/MCSA/CCNA)

If you only have academic programming experience, your best bet is moving up the technical support levels in a company that encourages growth and gives projects to individuals to showcase their skills. It's not enough to say that you know perl, for example, but if you code a little program in perl that contributes to some function of the company, it gives you great leverage when a junior programming position opens up. This is how I eventually got out of support.

Technical support isn't all bad. You mention the people aspect, and there are also various levels of support (there are 3 at my company). At a higher level, you can be more technical. But there is a low ceiling in how far you can go in technical support. It is generally a starting role... those who make a long career out of it are the ones that couldn't cut at any higher level than that.

I would also suggest getting into a smaller growing company because the potential for individual growth is better when the company is booming as well.

Originally Posted by siriuskao

If your current company is not willing to train/offer you for 2nd level positions (out of call centre) then you should move on. Like you said you enjoy technical challenges therefore call centre job is a waste of time. By 2nd level positions I mean system administration, networking, storage areas. If you pick option 2 you'll probably need some entry level certifications (MCP/MCSA/CCNA)

Well, my current company is simply the 1st level outsourced and 2nd level is handled by the company we support. So they have no incentive to take employees beyond 1st level.

Yeah I think 2nd level is my best bet or at least 1st level for the actual company instead of outsourced.

What would you recommend as a good starter entry level certification??
I was thinking A+ at first but I want to aim for the same 2nd level jobs you mentioned. Financially and time-wise I just can't do them all.

Originally Posted by ezbst

If you only have academic programming experience, your best bet is moving up the technical support levels in a company that encourages growth and gives projects to individuals to showcase their skills. It's not enough to say that you know perl, for example, but if you code a little program in perl that contributes to some function of the company, it gives you great leverage when a junior programming position opens up. This is how I eventually got out of support.

Technical support isn't all bad. You mention the people aspect, and there are also various levels of support (there are 3 at my company). At a higher level, you can be more technical. But there is a low ceiling in how far you can go in technical support. It is generally a starting role... those who make a long career out of it are the ones that couldn't cut at any higher level than that.

I would also suggest getting into a smaller growing company because the potential for individual growth is better when the company is booming as well.

Good point. I don't want to get stuck as a tech either. I have always thought though that I would move to a lower management type role sooner or later or perhaps an administrative position.
The administrative position may be a dead-end but with the right company I hope it will offer benefits such as working from home and more flexible time. Something that would be useful when I start a family.

That pretty much brings me to why I don't want to be a programmer solely. Maybe a hybrid role perhaps.

Thanks for the advice and suggested path
As i asked previously what sort of qualifications/certifications should I go for to aid in my next step up?

You should move away from technical support and more into IS/MIS.

Like others have said, a cert would help greatly ... especially in the beginning.

Also a PMP might be useful too.

Originally Posted by coolspot

You should move away from technical support and more into IS/MIS.

Like others have said, a cert would help greatly ... especially in the beginning.

Also a PMP might be useful too.

mm...AFAIK for PMP you need some real project management experience. Defintely not a MS/Comptia type of cert.

I was in the exact same situation as Majoram about 2 years ago (outsourced call centre, 2nd level is in US - no meaningful advancement here in Canada). I pretty much started looking for new job after 6-7 month I was there. Anyways now I am completely out of end-user support type of role and work is much more challenging. During my time at the call centre, I wrote MCP 70-270 (XP - easy) and A+ (extremely easy), both complements the experience I gained there. I'll probably recommend MCP (skip A+) route.

Originally Posted by siriuskao

mm...AFAIK for PMP you need some real project management experience. Defintely not a MS/Comptia type of cert.

Well it takes a while to complete your PMP requirements... so might as well start it ASAP - and switch to a qualifying job in the process

Originally Posted by coolspot

Well it takes a while to complete your PMP requirements... so might as well start it ASAP - and switch to a qualifying job in the process

What's PMP? First time I have heard of that one.

If you have yourself a degree, I suggest you leave your dead-end call centre job and look for a job for an internal IT department, we have a couple of computer programmer positions at my law firm (one's from U of T Comp Sci) and they are definately making far more then what I think you are making doing tech support at a call centre.

Two years in a call centre? I think that's way more than enough for you experience wise. Move on and avoid being typecasted. Good luck.

Originally Posted by Majoram

What's PMP? First time I have heard of that one.

It is a Project Management Professional designation governed by the Project Management Institute.

And you can't just accumulate hours tagging along on projects (yes they must be legitimate projects), you also need a certain amount of time managing parts or all of projects as well.

Originally Posted by xwar

If you have yourself a degree, I suggest you leave your dead-end call centre job and look for a job for an internal IT department, we have a couple of computer programmer positions at my law firm (one's from U of T Comp Sci) and they are definately making far more then what I think you are making doing tech support at a call centre.

Two years in a call centre? I think that's way more than enough for you experience wise. Move on and avoid being typecasted. Good luck.

Yup I should've moved on a long time ago.

Originally Posted by jd82

It is a Project Management Professional designation governed by the Project Management Institute.

And you can't just accumulate hours tagging along on projects (yes they must be legitimate projects), you also need a certain amount of time managing parts or all of projects as well.

Thanks!

From the suggestions so far, the best thing is to go ahead with MCP and then move on to others MS certs from there.

I'm definitely applying now and hopefully I'll get lucky! Thanks all!!

Any advice on people interested in getting into MIS/IS?