Career Path Thread: Money is happiness

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Career Path Thread: Money is happiness

Altimeter: Sep 10, 2003

I've been thinking of making this post for a while, but never figured out where to put it.

I�m in a rather niche role at the moment within IT, and I�m trying to figure out what I should be doing to keep myself in demand. I currently working in Executive IT support - I am the IT guy for the C-Level execs at a largeish financial services company, and have performed the same job for a Fortune 50 retail business as well. I basically keep any bit of technology these C levels touch working; their office needs, as well as their home networks/devices and their half dozen iPads. I�ve been doing this gig for close to four years now, and it seems to work fairly well for me. I was recruited away from my current employer to go to the big retail gig, and headhunted back a year later. What I am trying to figure out is what to do now. I don�t have a college degree, and my only certifications are pretty old/outdated. My position seems stable, and provides a good income for the amount of effort I put in, but it is a very niche role - Most companies have maybe 4 guys doing this total. That leads to openings being a bit more uncommon than your usual desktop support role. It also leads to a lack of a simple advancement path for me. I essentially report to a guy who reports to the CIO, so not a whole lot of room opening up there any time soon either. This also leaves me without a lot of opportunity to lead a team and get some managment experience.

This job is really not as much of an IT job as you might think, its just the biggest Customer Service job you�ll have - my job is to keep them happy with their technology, explain issues to them in a manner that they understand, and help them use their equipment to the best of their ability. The thing of it is that now I am a bit nervous that my technical skills are going to atrophy away to nothing. From a purely technical perspective, I do the same thing that Geek Squad does, just for more demanding clients and for a lot more money. I work on desktops, laptops, iOS devices, and home networks.

So I�m trying to figure out what�s next - as far as I have figured I may have two options: Specialization or Management. Specialization would be tough to while I am in this role, as I don�t touch enough of the systems that could be potential career paths. Management might suit my soft skills better than specialization, but it�d pretty much require me to get more hands off on the actual technology, which is where I�m hanging my hat now.

I apologize if this is a bit of a stream of consciousness style writing, but I�ve had trouble organizing my thoughts on this of late. What do you say? What's next?

# ¿ Feb 11, 2013 19:23

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# ¿ Apr 23, 2024 07:28

Altimeter: Sep 10, 2003

Mutar posted:

I've been thinking of making this post for a while, but never figured out where to put it.

I�m in a rather niche role at the moment within IT, and I�m trying to figure out what I should be doing to keep myself in demand. I currently working in Executive IT support - I am the IT guy for the C-Level execs at a largeish financial services company, and have performed the same job for a Fortune 50 retail business as well. I basically keep any bit of technology these C levels touch working; their office needs, as well as their home networks/devices and their half dozen iPads. I�ve been doing this gig for close to four years now, and it seems to work fairly well for me. I was recruited away from my current employer to go to the big retail gig, and headhunted back a year later. What I am trying to figure out is what to do now. I don�t have a college degree, and my only certifications are pretty old/outdated. My position seems stable, and provides a good income for the amount of effort I put in, but it is a very niche role - Most companies have maybe 4 guys doing this total. That leads to openings being a bit more uncommon than your usual desktop support role. It also leads to a lack of a simple advancement path for me. I essentially report to a guy who reports to the CIO, so not a whole lot of room opening up there any time soon either. This also leaves me without a lot of opportunity to lead a team and get some managment experience.

This job is really not as much of an IT job as you might think, its just the biggest Customer Service job you�ll have - my job is to keep them happy with their technology, explain issues to them in a manner that they understand, and help them use their equipment to the best of their ability. The thing of it is that now I am a bit nervous that my technical skills are going to atrophy away to nothing. From a purely technical perspective, I do the same thing that Geek Squad does, just for more demanding clients and for a lot more money. I work on desktops, laptops, iOS devices, and home networks.

So I�m trying to figure out what�s next - as far as I have figured I may have two options: Specialization or Management. Specialization would be tough to while I am in this role, as I don�t touch enough of the systems that could be potential career paths. Management might suit my soft skills better than specialization, but it�d pretty much require me to get more hands off on the actual technology, which is where I�m hanging my hat now.

I apologize if this is a bit of a stream of consciousness style writing, but I�ve had trouble organizing my thoughts on this of late. What do you say? What's next?

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

# ¿ Feb 16, 2013 18:28

Altimeter: Sep 10, 2003

pancaek posted:

If you're in your late 20's/early 30's then you have plenty of time to gain management experience. What gets harder over time is playing catch-up with your skill set. If you let your technical skills lag, then you're going to have a hell of a time learning them all over again. If you feel comfortable that your job is still going to be around in the next year or two, start using your down time to brush up on your skills and get certified in new ones. Then, bounce to a company where you can see a more direct path to climb the management ladder.

This is what worries me - I am more or less using the technical aptitude of a Geek Squad agent in this job, just CJing all day. Haven't touched a server OS in years, etc. So going down the road of, say VMware for example, is both starting from scratch and not at all applicable to my day to day work in this position, and I doubt that'd change any time soon. The tricky thing is that I rather like this kind of work, I'm paid plenty of money that assuming more or less regular CoL increases I really can't complain. The IT jobhopper in me is terrified of settling on anything for too long, but at the same time it's hard to argue with the idea of doing this for 30 years - the compensation/work ratio is by far the highest I've had so far. But at the same time there are so few of these positions around that its hard for me to have a backup plan if something were to happen with my employer. Thats whats worrisome to me, and one of the things I'd like to get a handle on.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2013 14:31

Altimeter: Sep 10, 2003

Ultimate Mango posted:

Mutar: Where are you geographically speaking? There are likely IT career paths you aren't even thinking about, but where you are located and the types of companies where you are will dictate some of the possibilities.

Eh, this'll probably make me personally identifiable if anyone actually wanted to find out, but whatever. I'm in Minneapolis; big companies/players in town would be something like UnitedHealth, Target, Best Buy, Medtronic, GMills, St Jude, Ameriprise, etc.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2013 18:09

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Career Path Thread: Money is happiness