Career moves

[Glompbot]

So.. I'm currently (slowly) looking for a new job...
I'm in no rush, and I've had one fantastic interview so far and sent off maybe 5 resumes.

The job pays 50k plus super, plus commission of up to 5k per year paid monthly. This is a nice pay raise (i have previously gotten past the 50k mark, but this current job dropped me back down to near the 40k mark) but it seems to be a Tech sales job. In a callcentre. For a VERY VERY VERY large tech distributor. The role seems to be me doing a bit of client training, mostly taking calls and making quotes on license agreements (per server, per site, etc).

The only problem is I don't think its the place I want to take my career. I really would love to get out of working in a callcenter and move into more helpdesk roles than tech support roles.


I'm thinking if I get offered the job, I might use it as a stop-gap solution to find another job... the bonuses being that that job is a permanent role, i get annual leave I can use to get my surgery, and etc. The downside is that its SALES and its in a CALLCENTRE.. I've also heard that it is a very stressful company to work for.

I was at first willing to take it, but now I'm not so sure.

[dwarfthrower]

The licensing side of things is not a bad area to get into. We have two people out of our Brisbane office who do nothing but licensing. It's good money and their clients love them because they take away one of the major headaches that IT managers are faced with. That said, they are not salespeople, more of an account management role.

In terms of career direction, where do you want to be in 5, 10, 15 years? Tech Support -> Help Desk is not a huge leap and probably won't keep you satisfied beyond another 2 years.

[jasebert]

I agree with Dwarf. If you know where you want to go, write down what your dream job or career would be. Then research and find the best career path (note that best is not necessarily the quickest either) and then take it from there. That was how I did it anyway.

[Benwah]

If your not keen on Sales, DON'T get into distribution, Sales is a Distributors major goal, they do very little in terms of tech support. there is a small amount of pre-sales involved but it's not a major focus and the roles are few and far between.

Distributors rely heavily on Vendors to provide support, and Resellers to service the End User (customer) at the end of the day Disty land is all about holding stock, doing a fair bit in terms of figuring out pricing and promotions and in the case of licensing help resellers interface with Vendors, so yeah, very focused on Sales, Account Management and Marketing, not Tech support.

[dwarfthrower]

If you know where you want to go, write down what your dream job or career would be.
Very good advice. Write down what your dream job would be - in terms of what you would like to physically do on a day to day basis rather than in terms of a specific role or job title, they can be limiting to the thought process. So "Helping end users use IT more effectively and resolve their problems" rather than "Tech Support".

Then post it here.

[Glompbot]

I don't know where I want to go, but I know I want to be in a Tech role.

I'll think on it a few more days for this job, if I decide no, i'll call the agency and say I'm not interested in continuing.

[Glompbot]

I know what I DON'T want to do:
Programming
Web development
Anything that requires a fair bit of creativity

[dwarfthrower]

Which leaves:

Hardware -> Speccing and building servers & desktop machines, diagnosing hardware faults, performing upgrades etc.
Desktop Tech -> Designing and maintaing SOEs, diagnosing and resolving software faults on end-user machines.
DBA -> Managing an organisation's Database requirements (can involve some pseudo-programming elements)
Network Admin -> Managing access control, network infrastructure, diagnosing faults & bottlenecks, liaising with telcos.
Training -> providing education services to users
Technical Writing -> Preparing Instructions, manuals and how-to presentations
Knowledge Management -> Preparing strategies and policies regarding information management and delivery within an organisation.
Webmistress -> Managing web servers, databases, clusters, access protocols, security etc (as distinct from creating web content)
IT Security -> Analysing the security of the organisation's IT infrastructure, diagnosing possible points of attack, intruder detection etc.
Business Analysis -> Liaising with users, departmental representatives etc to formulate requirements for ongoing IT needs.
Consulting -> Providing advice to organisations as to how best to meet their IT needs.

[Glompbot]

The ones that I'm currently sort of aiming for are: Hardware & Desktop Tech
Interested in Network Admin, but at the moment its so far above my head its not funny.
Training seems like an OK option, but I'd rather do one of the above 3.

[dwarfthrower]

Both Hardware & Desktop Tech roles provide good opportunities to expand your Networking knowledge, especially around the development of SOEs - who gets to access what drives, who needs to use which DHCP server, figuring out why Jo Bloggs in marketing can't access the internet etc.

With that sort of role in mind, start looking towards the sort of organisations that best suit a) that role, and b) your target area. What you'd ideally be looking for is a big organisation with lots of users (government departments, universities, insurance companies etc - as distinct from large organisations that typically have fewer users like manufacturing companies) preferably one where the networking angle is nice and complex (multiple sites and departments are good, recent aquisitions are very good for sorting out networking issues)

Slide into a desktop support role at an organisation that fits the bill, then don't be afraid to stick your hand up to get further into the network side of things. Network Admins are notoriously overworked and usually relish the chance to hand things off to someone else.

The key to career advancement in the IT industry is picking your roles with your eye on the next one in the progression. It's hard to get a particular job without "experience" in the work that it entails, creating the loop of "Don't have the experience so I can't get the job, don't have the job so I can't get the experience." If the job that you're looking at doesn't give you the opportunity to get hands-on experience in what you want to do next, it's a dead end.

[Glompbot]

Thanks for your help Dwarf

Well, I have a client interview on Tuesday at 10:00am for Ingram Micro... This is the "Licensing Specialist" role I was speaking of..
Aparantly they're INCREDIBLY eager to meet me.

I guess my question is... Would it hurt my career to take on this role for 1 year at most?

[dwarfthrower]

It certainly won't hurt your career. It may delay doing what you really want to be doing, but it never hurts to get work experience of any sort. And Ingram Micro are a very big outfit, there's certainly room to grow or move sideways within the organisation as well.

[Benwah]

Certainly wouldn't hurt your career, would be a great opportunity to get more exposure to the 'industry' and general experience with supply and flow of business in the channel. You will also be introducted to Vendors and typically have regular training on the products Ingram would distribute (all be it fairly low level 'this is what it is, and this is what it does rather than actual training on how to use, install and support etc)

A step up from the helldesk/support role you are in now (not that there is anything wrong with that kind of role)

[Glompbot]

Thanks guys.
I think if I get offered the job then I think I will accept it.

I need to get a permanent job ASAP ... and they do know in advance of my needing 3 weeks off for surgery later in the year (around october/november is when I want to look at getting it)

I only need to give one week notice at my current job, so unless i get an offer soon....