Move on from 2nd line?

pespro

pespro

pespro

Associate
Joined
26 Jan 2011
Posts
268
Hello all,


Firstly sorry for the long post, I wanted to include as much information as possible.
32 years old and currently been with same employer for 6 years. They are public sector so excellent benefits.
I have a degree in networks and about 10 year's experience working.


I have been doing 2nd line desktop work. But current employer moving me back to 1st line help desk in August.
I have been told this is funding issue. We are losing another 4 engineers on this date as well. Contracts not being extended. They can't extend my secondment from 1st line anymore.
I estimate that we need 4/5 more engineers on current staffing. 9 more if 4 of us leave.
We have customers waiting months for support as we don't have enough people.


Unfortunately I have severe stomach issues at the moment. Doctor and myself think this is anxiety related. On tablets and also got appointments to see our health team who are good from previous experience.
This is due to relentless workload. Our team has 1000 open tickets. Another team over 2500.
I would say I sometimes am too sick to work in the office and have to work from home. However I've not had any sick days in two years. Stomach problems far less of an issue after work and at weekends.
Our 1st line is made up of good on the phone people, not good IT people. So I would do more work than everyone else and get asked all the time for help, as they are not technical. This is already happening now while I am still on 2nd line.


I like 2nd line desktop work because if I am being honest, not a social person. I have made friends being here 6 years. Out and about so not sat in an office all day. If I was to do a work from home job.
Wouldn't talk to anyone face to face most weeks I feel. Over 50% of my phone contacts are from this workplace. But wouldn't call them real friends. We don't do anything outside of work. Hence me thinking keep work and personal life apart.


However I want to save £20K a year into ISA to retire as early as possible. Around 40-45 age and work PT.
I currently can do this, but I still live at home. Looking to move out and will need a considerable wage increase to keep this saving rate up after I get a mortgage and spend my current savings on a mortgage.
Looking at jobs, £30K is the upper limit of wages for 2nd line desktop work. I get this now.
Contracts is around £40K but will be harder to get a mortgage.
Wage will go down to £25K back on 1st line.



Question is should I look into another career, potentially cyber security which pays significantly more.
But might be less social of a job. Keep work and personal apart. I didn't enjoy networks at university.


Options I see are

  1. Stay in current employment until anxiety issues fully recovered then leave.
  2. Leave asap and get another desktops role.
  3. Do more training or gain certificate in another field then leave for basic job in that new field.
 
As you have degree in networks, you can easily move to cloud or even cyber security. I moved from 2nd line desktop support role to IT systems engineer which I am doing now. Just finished my getting my 2nd Azure certification and got my Security+ certification back in November. Thanks to the pandemic, it gave time to self study at home because I didn't to commute into work. Now I am being interviewed for Cloud and Cyber Security roles because I want more money for my skills.

You can gain a cert in AWS or Azure in a few weeks if you knuckle down then see what else is out there in the job market for those newly obtain skills. Even see if any networking roles are still around if you have a degree in networking.

Dont drop back down to 1st line support. You are suppose to move upwards in jobs, not down. Sideways at best if it pays more.

Know your worth and never devalue yourself. This is something I am starting to learn myself.

So you have an 4th option.

4. Get more IT training in current skills needed, get certificated then leave your current job.
 
Move, if you're decent and find the right opportunity you'll be far better off.

Update your CV, get it checked over, and get it out there.

Is there a reason you are limiting yourself to 'desktop support'?
 
The job is making you ill - time to move.

Work is not looking after you, you are just a bum on a seat - time to move.

You have been moved down, not up - time to move.

You have more education, skills and experience than what you are using them for currently - time to move.

IT workers are doing well in the current climate - time to move.

Btw - time to move.
 
Can't see how option 1 is even valid if the current job is adding to your anxiety.

There's so many red flags in your post that if it wasn't a pandemic I'd say get out ASAP. It's quite clear your current employer doesn't care about you, your team, or the service they provide, you can't grow in a place like that so start looking to move.
 
Do a combination of 2 and 3, look for another job while training. Take advantage of the secondment to 2nd line by using that as experience to cite when applying for better jobs. The good news is you have a couple of months notice to sort things out. Sounds like you'll be very short staffed by that point with 4 people leaving so deffo the time to make a move.

It sounds like by living at home you have very low outgoings at the moment so potentially can afford to take some risks employment wise.

Saving £20k/year on 2nd line support after moving out will be hard, if not impossible. £30k/year is ~£24k net, so after saving you'd have about £80/week to pay for everything - depending on location that won't even cover rent on a house share, and you have to eat. Really you need to be on £45k+ if that's your savings goal.
 
I don't think anyone should do support full time for more than a few years. Most people burn out on it.

I wouldn't go back to 1st line support. I'd be mercenary about and just get a different job that not entrenched in firefighting.

I got trapped in support for too long, and the relief when I got out of it was enormous.
 
pespro said:
  1. Stay in current employment until anxiety issues fully recovered then leave.
  2. Leave asap and get another desktops role.
  3. Do more training or gain certificate in another field then leave for basic job in that new field.
Click to expand...

Anxiety isn't necessarily something that will get better by itself, if your job is the cause then 1 seems like a contradiction. Presumably, the stomach issues you say are related to anxiety are acid reflux or gastritis related or something? I guess that might be masked if your doctor has advised antacids or PPIs etc.. but if the anxiety itself is still there then staying in that role doesn't seem like a good idea.

2 might be good as a stopgap if you're doing some more training then moving to another role where you can carry on doing the job you're currently doing rather than having to move back to answering phones etc.. (which presumably will be rather unhelpful for anxiety)might be better for you if you're also going to be studying part-time.

Might be worth seeing if you have a shot at a different role regardless - I mean you've got a degree.

Also, given you have a relevant degree, you could perhaps look at an MSc in IT Security or similar - should be various options for part-time and/or remote study. Likewise, there is also the option of pursuing other advanced MSc courses but tailoring the dissertation to a security-related topic - some of these might depend on how mathematical your undergrad was though - for example, someone on a data science course might do a security-related MSc dissertation and in that case it might not even be confined to just IT security either - could be, for example, a machine vision related project involving airport scanners, or perhaps a counter terrorism related project involving people connected via social media, perhaps the embedding and/or detection of hidden messages in images, documents or other file types etc..etc..
 
pespro said:
I have been doing 2nd line desktop work. But current employer moving me back to 1st line help desk in August.
I have been told this is funding issue. We are losing another 4 engineers on this date as well. Contracts not being extended. They can't extend my secondment from 1st line anymore.
I estimate that we need 4/5 more engineers on current staffing. 9 more if 4 of us leave.
We have customers waiting months for support as we don't have enough people.
Click to expand...
I'd look for another job and this is grounds for redundancy. If they're changing your role that drastically, it's grounds in my mind for redundancy. While it's only like 6 weeks pay for stat. it's something and if you can get another job it's added money.

I'd agree with Hangtime that saving that amount requires a higher take home really. I'd be looking at another 2nd line role to start but that looks like more of a role that is varied and in a company where it could lead to more opportunities.

Don't wait for anxiety stuff to go, this is a change, change makes people anxious and once you've done it you'll realise it was a lot less of a ballache than you thought :)
 
randomshenans said:
I'd look for another job and this is grounds for redundancy. If they're changing your role that drastically, it's grounds in my mind for redundancy. While it's only like 6 weeks pay for stat. it's something and if you can get another job it's added money.

I'd agree with Hangtime that saving that amount requires a higher take home really. I'd be looking at another 2nd line role to start but that looks like more of a role that is varied and in a company where it could lead to more opportunities.

Don't wait for anxiety stuff to go, this is a change, change makes people anxious and once you've done it you'll realise it was a lot less of a ballache than you thought :)
Click to expand...

Sounds like his current 2nd line "role" is a secondment from his 1st line role. As such I'm not sure making him go back to his actual job is grounds for redundancy seeing as he never actually held a 2nd line role contractually.

I'd definitely move on though, 6-10 years in IT is a serious amount of time, at 4 years in I was applying for 3rd line roles (and bagged one that ultimately led me to being the IT Operations Manager at the same business).
 
Is your job title currently 2nd line desktop engineer? If so get of there while you can, easier to get a roll in second line now than if your job title changes back

Where are you based? The organisation I work for will be looking for first and second line technicians soon

All easier said than done though, I've been with current employer 10 years, started out 1st line and been 3rd line since 2017, I do wonder if the grass is greener if I moved on but good benefits keep me in place
 
OspreyO said:
I don't think anyone should do support full time for more than a few years. Most people burn out on it.

I wouldn't go back to 1st line support. I'd be mercenary about and just get a different job that not entrenched in firefighting.

I got trapped in support for too long, and the relief when I got out of it was enormous.
Click to expand...

What did you move on to out of interest?
 
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