Discussion on:

Are jobs for support pros disappearing?

Take a look at my original post .


I firmly believe that user support is its own IT skill set, but not everyone sees things my way. My fear is that in tough economic times employers might look to cut support techs.



Have you been seeing any signs that support capacity is being trimmed back? Are any of the fears I list in my post coming to fruition?

but I think that a general support role is becoming more and more a junior assignment from where eventualy one chooses a more specialized career path.
With support per se as a career you can not advance too much.

There are of course individulas that do not need/want to advance, they just like an easy/cosy comfortable position with not much stress. Problem is that when you're above 35-40 and you loose a job you don't have the age or the skills to get another very easily.

Working for city government, not to mention the water department (generates revenue, everyone needs water), I traded off higher pay for job security. With our first round of cuts back in October, the water department filled vacant positions from cuts in other departments. Yesterday I revised our organizational chart for the director so that he could make another round of cuts reaching even into the water department. We have our own IT section independent of the city IT department, but now it looks like we may be getting outsourced....

I feel you. I found this job by accident/made it happen. I don't just do tech support. I do everything (or try too). I will be here till they close the doors on this place. But I tell you what, they wont close the doors because of me. and their systems will run top until they do. SO my answer to this is, diversify diversify diversify. Learn other skills and get that job, worked at a truck dispatcher until i got this job, yes it sucked, yes it was not related to my skill set, necessity overrides want in my book.

As an IT recruiter I have to say there are still an abundance of IT support positions and I would still highly recommend IT support as a career path because of every company needs IT support infact there remain thousands of open positions in IT support. While I feel the article raises valid points the reduction is small in comparison to the total number of IT support openings nationwide and world wide. I am actively seeking referrals for IT workers if anyone knows anyone looking.

Greig Wells

Homebased Recruiting Expert
www.cashinyourcontacts.com

We had our helpdesk outsourced out of state and after 27 years with the company I'm out of a job. The IT department now consists of three people.

On December 15, I was given notice that IT for my former place of employment would be outsourced the first of 2009. Bare in mind that I was the network admin and sole IT person on staff for a company that provides mission critical, time sensitive, financial market driven information in real-time to clients all across the United States. I was on call 24/7 for *years* and had a sterling reputation among the partners and employees of the company. No one had any complaints; they were just looking for a way to cut overhead and my salary was on the chopping block.

True to their word, on January 15 I, the sole IT person at my company, was given my pink slip and a decent severance package. The company's new theory of operation involves outsourcing 100% of the management and support of their IT infrastructure. Oddly enough, a lot of it has been outsourced back to *me* for the past few weeks (as an independent consultant) but I'm slowly weening them off of my support so that I can pursue other clients and diversify my risk profile.

I say all of this to illustrate a point: Companies are throwing caution to the wind right now just to save a buck or two. Sadly, common sense and a calm demeanor are not prevailing in the current economy but rather are giving way to fear motivated decisions.

We're only seeing the tip of the iceberg right now. The situation is going to get much worse and more competent IT professionals will find themselves facing layoffs and downsizing in the year ahead.

...it's been my experience that cleaning up messes created by IT cutbacks have been very profitable. I've made quite a few bucks through the years from people who cut back my services or replaced them with something cheaper, who then get in trouble and need me back to get things working the way they used to after someone else "improved" them.

Lesson: Always leave on good terms.

A career spent in healthcare, part as an IT professional, tells me that if we want to provide IT support (in healthcare), we have to understand the business you support. I get so tired of know-it-all people who are technically proficient that think they are God's gift to the computer industry. Those support guys are a dime a dozen & they want to sit on their duffs and eat pizza, call in sick and gripe about how busy they are, when they don't even have a clue.

Give me a company whos support techs know what it's like to be patient care givers, frustrated with their systems, PCs, or whatever IT-related problems they are having, who knows what it's like to have some smart-alecky IT helldesk tech laughing at them when they get off the phone, and I'll give you a company who won't be outsourced when the going gets tough. Been there, done that; now I have to go help someone who is really contributing to the world.

In December 2005 CSC terminated 140 dedicated, talented professionals at Aon Group to replace them with techs whose previous career was - I kid you not - PIZZA DELIVERY in one instance. No nothings but cheap. Helpdesk in Bangalore too. All the smart hardworkers were canned in favor of cheap. And Aon has bought what they paid for too.

These IT support layoffs have started happening here where I work. With so many companies laying off thousands of employees weekly or simply going out of business completely it is just of matter of time before the IT support layoffs visit a location near you!
This economy is in free fall and the wheels are coming off. Brace yourselves!

Yes, it seems more and more support roles are being contracted. I've seen this trend for a couple of years now.

They are laying off our entire help desk as well as our field techs and project coordinators and telecom support people. They've come up with a new job that combines all of our roles into one. Of course there are far fewer open positions than there are laid off workers. Our help desk of 15 supports a hospital(11,200 employees) where sometimes patient care is affected if equipment goes down. I have no idea how they are expecting someone to be out in the field and handle potentially time sensitive help desk calls at the same time. Has anyone seen this model in action before? Does it work?

Honestly I don't think there *IS* a model for this sort of thinking. Based on my recent experiences, I would say that the vast majority of the moves companies are taking to "cut operational overhead" are purely reactionary decisions being made by the very same executives who put the companies in dire straights to begin with.

I'm quickly finding out that it is better to be The Man rather than work for The Man. Good luck to you.

I work in the construction indusrty and have stayed busy over the last 5 years working on construction projects (when one ends another begins), but currently our company does not have any work lined up after the project that I am on.

Unfortunately for the specialists, the consolidation of support roles is tending to prove that Lazarus Long was correct: specialization is for insects.

In my experiences both in-house and as a consultant/contractor I see many organizations letting people go that really should have stayed. The issue is that management didn't see the value in keeping that individual. As an IT resource you have to sell yourself every day--in good economic times as well as bad--to ensure management knows your value.

I've written about this a few times (http://daileymuse.com/2009/01/technical-jobs-in-a-downtrodden-economy/) and I always end up getting emails or comments from people saying "I didn't think of that." The problem is that we need to be thinking about this, and we need to think about it every day. An organization isn't going to shed a technical resource that is needed to keep the company in business. It is our job as that resource to show that we are a valuable asset that results in profitability.

It's also wise to put the time in to preparing your career in case you are affected by a layoff (http://daileymuse.com/2009/01/5-things-you-should-do-before-the-loss-of-your-it-job/). The worse possible time to work on your resume, references, etc. is AFTER you've been let go.

-Mike D
http://www.daileymuse.com

You still get laid off because, after all, how can you be doing all this stuff if the network isn't going down and PCs aren't breaking and the website runs like a top and all you ever do is wander around and putter here, then putter there?

Now what? Have you ever tried to explain preventive maintenance to a manager with no technical experience?