Career Progression - IT Support Help

DJMK4 said:
I find to keep yourself on your toes, if your current position is at that stage where you are really not getting anymore out of it, look at moving, trust me its so easy to get in to too much of a comfort zone.
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+1 couldn't agree more, it's something I see in IT A lot, whilst I don't agree to moving every year it seems strange to stay in the same post, in the same employer year after year once you've stopped learning. 3 - 4 years on the same post? Get looking for another, even if it's internal, it's the only way to progress your career.
 
randomshenans said:
What do you enjoy? That's the main thing. Do you prefer hands on technical solving, or project roll outs, or operational management?

etc etc etc.
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Technical, hands on. Definitely.

I like being faced with problems, challenges and the feeling you get when you beat something that's been put in front of you. Even the hardware side of things, I don't get to do that in my current job and I do actually miss getting my hands dirty. Some guys turn nose up at touching a physical box, but I am over the moon doing cable management, installing a new rack, replacing a PSU, etc etc.

Hades said:
That pretty much sums it up and each has pro's and con's:

Specialise - Great for short term highly paid work and in some industries (e.g. certain products used in investment banks) it can mean being highly sought after. But equally it's harder to get a job when there are few about. This is the route I htink I should have followed however (and didn't).

Generalise - More job opportunities but there is always someone who will do it cheaper than you so salaries will erode over time.

Design and Architecture - Quite a good route I think. Can't see too many downsides although a little prone to redundancies when companies start cut-backs as there is little development going on. Well paid though.

IT Sales - Very delivery driven so expect pay to vary a lot between very good and very poor. Requires a certain outgoing character.

IT Management - Depending on the specific management role it can either be very rewarding, mind numbingly boring, lots of pressure and hish risk of redundancy every few years.
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Specialise - I hinted at this route above regards PS. Other areas of interest being virtualization (already got a chunk of HyperV knowledge but Citrix would be a massive advantage). SQL, SCCM2012 I am gaining more knowledge every day with this and also seeing a lot of contracts looking for SCCM specialists so this could be a route to take.

Design and Architecture seems to be dominated with 40+ year olds for the most part. This is obviously for a reason being they have the experience all round under their belts. This more a long terms aim to settle into once I have spent 15-20 building a knowledge base that will crush the young un's once I get to that age? haha.

Sales, really does not appeal to me at all unfortunately. I do not fit the bill of outgoing salesy type really I would doubt my ability first of all but the whole sales area annoys me quite a lot when it comes to products I have to support and see mis-sold all over the place. Not a nice field from my experience also in my last job I seen so many sales guys come and go like they were worthless pieces of junk getting praised, sacked, tormented on a daily basis haha.

Managment, yeah, I mean I see what you say it is either going to be a semi hands on managerial post or full on paperwork job. I certainly couldn't see myself leaving the tecnical hands on aspect of things any time soon. Again I see this as a settle into progression for a bit older age. But it would totally depend on opportunities that arise, this is a very company/manegement type role dependant generalisation. My experience of managers so far in life can be summed up by saying, get all the yes, that does count as disguised swearing, and don'[t argue with moderating decisions and the rules flung at them and get very little in return when they do actually do well. You're the fall guy.
 
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JBod said:
I'd say (despite your job title) that you are barely a "System Administrator" in terms of what that job actually means. I am reading high level support which is not what System Administration is, at least at the top end of the scale.

A typical route is to move more in System Architecture, many job roles are even called "SysArch". This is more around designing platforms and systems and moving more into a coding environment but pretty low level coding. You hang different systems together with your own code in order to achieve a business goal or create a product etc... This way then often collides with senior developers who's career paths take them in the same direction (moving from web dev, to proper development of applications to then development of platforms).

Once you get here you are commanding £50k+ salaries (at least in The City), you get your experience under your belt over a few years - start encountering modern techniques such as DevOps, automation, agile, kanban, scrum... *then* you move into contracting and ask for £500 a day.

My advice would be to now learn about Linux administration, having both high levels Microsoft and Linux administration experience will make you more appealing to hire.

If you want to specialise in the SysAdmin arena looking into Web Operations as a specific area. Really know your HTTP protocol and how to manipulate it. Then you can start looking at jobs at big high traffic dotcoms, the advantage of working at a dotcom is you get to choose two things that interest you. Both the technical side and whatever it is the dotcom does. I work at a Music dotcom, but I am realibility informed if you work at a place like ASOS you do the techie stuff while hoards of hot woman are 90% of the non-technical staff.
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Thanks for the advice man.

I'd agree with you. My official job title is "techincal system specialist". Vague, and pointless. It's 3rd line+ but as I say, location wise means the wage I get for it is shocking. I've seen 1st line desktop support roles paying £5k per year more than I currently get. And it's a MASSIVE company as well, not a little local firm I work for. So it's frustrating to say the least.

I am actually touching up majorly on my Linux knowledge overall recently in my own time. But for business level support environments I have no experience at all. I do agree this would be beneficial due to half the jobs advertised now wanting guys to have knowledge of absolutely ALL aspects you could imagine. They can afford to be specific and look for a lot of skills from people due to current climate and availability of guys.
 
DJMK4 said:
I find to keep yourself on your toes, if your current position is at that stage where you are really not getting anymore out of it, look at moving, trust me its so easy to get in to too much of a comfort zone in some places, and some places once you have been there 3-4 or 5 years you tend to get to that point where you really are not getting much more out of it.

Unless they offer good opportunities and progression to adapt in the business, as believe me some places don't.

I am glad after 4 years in my previous job, I decided to move, I am in a new job now been here a month and already getting much more than I did in my last place, so many new things to learn, much better opportunities (and a big salary jump) which is good.
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100% agree also. I have never been more than 5 years in a job, last one being just under 3. I have come to the progression thoughts so quickly in this role I think mostly based on lack of advancement oportunity again due to location. They do not offer good, or any progression options at all really, unless you relocate but even then it would be a struggle so I think relocate but to a new company/job is the only solution initially.
 
I am thinking of moving jobs at the moment but it is a big hassle to go to interviews and it is very easy to just keep going on a job that in comparison to some others jobs i have had is not bad job. I have been there three years and have been put in to a position where i have to do all the work. The companies will always just exploit as much as they can out of their staff, they don't care they have the attitude that everyone is expendable.
 
Learn enough about a technology to add "architect" to the end of that technology on your CV. Install small money-printing press in your spare room shortly after.
 
Opportunity appears to be arising at work for me to move more into a marketing/digital media role so I'm going to jump at the chance as I can't really be bothered pursuing a career in IT - its a completely thankless career imo and unless you're certified up to your eye balls its difficult to earn top dollar!

At least this way I can flex some of my creative side and have a bit more variety in my work!
 
danielanthony said:
+1

Yep, you can earn into six figures from just using Visio and chairing a few technical workshops.
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I'm a seasoned pro with Visio. I remember importing all of the Dell and Cisco graphic sets to make super pretty rack diagrams to impress the magpie -type MD who thought graphs and flashy data presentation was awesome.
 
xdcx said:
I'm a seasoned pro with Visio. I remember importing all of the Dell and Cisco graphic sets to make super pretty rack diagrams to impress the magpie -type MD who thought graphs and flashy data presentation was awesome.
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Our presales architects earn big money just doing such diagrams and presentations, they then get professional services to do the low level design and implementation. The guys who are the technical specialists earn about half what the architects get and yet do the `real` work.
 
danielanthony said:
Our presales architects earn big money just doing such diagrams and presentations, they then get professional services to do the low level design and implementation. The guys who are the technical specialists earn about half what the architects get and yet do the `real` work.
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This all sounds AWFULLY familiar.... It's horrific isn't it?
 
I wonder how some of these people became directors.... they know nothing about IT sometimes.

I just moved away from support as a 3rd line systems admin in a Wintel environment to become an infrastructure design engineer. Its 80% project work but 20% i have to drop in and do a little support which is not so bad really. Some projects i will be doing the architecture work and some project management so its a really good role to get an insight into different things. Had some really fun existing projects given to me. Infrastructure is what i have always wanted to get into. Also a lot to learn in terms of Cisco/networking.
 
xdcx said:
This all sounds AWFULLY familiar.... It's horrific isn't it?
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If pitching to boards/ctos and closing deals was easy, everyone would be doing it. Having good technical skills, a customer facing persona and a touch of business acumen is rare in the industry.
 
Contracting. Even if you do the same job in smaller firms, it'll be a change and you get to cherry pick jobs after a while. If you sit in one place long enough you'll either become to good to promote and you’re needed in your current role or you'll of built a little empire of knowledge and people will resent you for it.

If you thinking of moving jobs though actually moving is defiantly the best option before you start resenting it.
 
Thanks again for all of the input guys. Much appreciated.

I've also had some very useful info from a member on here via email which is very beneficial and has got the ball rolling a bit motivational wise in a certain area, long term.

My girlfriend also seems to be a job finding ninja. I am constantly looking and seeing nothing but she found 2 roles advertised LOCALLY which is stupidly rare in this area of the world. But from this I am taking it as a positive she has taken it upon herself to look and see what there is to help us get out of this little sticky patch we are in and wanting to move on from.

I'm actually thinking CCNA might be a good thing to do as a small booster in terms of taking in something new, working my brain a bit and having something very useful for the CV which is relevant in any field I would choose to look at or move into eventually. I can't see any negatives or reason not to do it so might contact some previous people I worked with and see how I could go about doing CCNA on the cheap as possible haha.
 
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