Hi everyone,
I have been in the IT industry since 1988 and am still unclear as to what I want to do! I have been a hardware technician, Pre-sale config specialist, lead tech, network technician, analyst and I now supervise a small support center. All of these titles basically mean that I have been involved directly or indirectly in user support since I started working in 1988.
I have minimal certs (A+, CNA) and have attended a couple of Microsoft classes over the years but it seems as though these certs are not necessary to work in my “field”. I say this because it appears that one does not need to know much to support users these days. Am I wrong? I have seen my director turn people away that were “too qualified” and have hired people that could not navigate to the Device Manager! I know I may be mixing apples and oranges here…I mean…customer service skills are mutually exclusive from technical proficiency…but should all IT Support pros remain technically competent in order to survive?
If I am to stay in User Support what certs should I seek? I think the Help Desk Institute offers specific certs in this arena.
My last boss was a manager at another IT company and was possibly the most technically incompetent person I had ever seen (he did not even know what duplex printing meant and did not know the difference between an OS and an application suite) but my director thought he was hot stuff because he had “excellent” customer service skills.
I apologize for this rambling message, and I am sorry also if my concerns are unclear. Basically I am a 37 year old “IT-guy” that is not sure where to go from here.
I don’t think the Tech Republic community will be able to help me figure out what to do with my life either…just wondered how many others are out there like me that feel “stuck” in an IT job and remain there because the market seems to be drying up, or has been saturated, and are just spinning wheels because they are not sure what to do next, what cert. to pursue etc.
I forgot to mention that I have an A.A. degree in Electronics…which is basically meaningless in today’s IT-world. I plan to pursue my B.S. next year and take advantage of tuition reimbursement…so all is not lost…:)
Thanks for listening. I welcome any feedback.