Whenever we think of a great career in tech the focus is on software engineering / programming jobs, which is true and recently with rapid need of digitization and strong SAAS product ecosystem the opportunities for these roles and demand have increased multi-fold.
But with this advancement, the doors have also opened for people who are not in core development profiles, as the words move towards the digital era post covid, more and more opportunities are also available for someone starting their career in the tech support career path.
A career in tech is not linear, you start as an individual contributor, working as a team member, as you grow and gain experience, either you grow as subject matter expert or consultant or solution architect, and remain an individual contributor (IC), or you grow as team lead, manager and so on. An IC role will require building depth in your core domain, where as a people manager role requires more breadth and people skills. Tech support also allows you to move in different domains so apart from above you also get a choice to to choose your stream
Where do you start and the journey
Developing your career working in tech support has its challenges, one of the most important expects is to start strong, which means having the right fundamentals and knowledge about the work that you do, tech support itself is not same in every organization it can take multiple forms like
- Helpdesk Engineer
- L1 Engineer
- L2 Engineer / Technical Support Desk
- Desktop Engineer
- Network Engineer
- System Administrator
Your organization and environment also play a major role how you develop, learn and grow in your roles, large organizations have refined processes, and very well defined roles, that need specific and documented actions on your daily tasks, at times limiting your ability to learn more, but they provide a good exposure to processes and practices, on the other hand smaller organizations and startups provide a dynamic environment where you have to go beyond your defined tasks and deliver, this promotes lot of exposure on the technologies and gaining new skills in short amount time.
Which ever place you are in the start, it is important to have clear concepts, understand your daily tasks and focus on them, at the same time understanding your organizations policies around growth and promotions, this will give you an idea around the skills you need to acquire to move ahead. In case you feel restricted by the opportunities available in your organization then you should be able to assess the other organization to understand the areas of focus.
Importance of functional and soft skills
At times these skills are undervalued, your ability to communicate effectively has an immense influence on your growth, your ability to think critically about say your own career and positoin will determine your actions, your ability to write a correct email and document an incident or proposal will influence your seniors and other stakeholders to judge your capability and position you for promotions and opportunities. Lacking these skills slows down your growth much much more than you can imagine. At jobs we work in teams, even for an IC role, interpersonal communication becomes huge factor in our success, similarly it also becomes a huge factor when some one considers us for a team lead role in future, so even if you are good in technical skills but not so good in these skills you will find it challenging to grow beyond a certain level. You do develop these skills as you gain experinece but it is important to develop them. These skills become more and more important as we reach senior levels,
Choosing the right stream for growth
As mentioned above tech support role will allow you to gain the breadth of the technical landscape, as well allow you to developer customer handling skills, it is very important to assess your skills and fit, and decide the domains where you can grow further. It is very important to note that you will get more opportunities to grow as you gain more experience and knowledge and this journey just continues.
Summary
Working in this industry for the last 16 years gave me firsthand experience where people who joined as tech support were able to grow into strong project managers, technical managers, and as well as product managers,
A career in itself is not just about starting it is about how you build after you start. Growing in your career doesn’t only mean your proficiency in functional skills but as you reach senior levels it will also need building soft skills, managerial skills etc, as you go along.
All this will need introspection, identifying the knowledge and skills that you will need, and then acquiring it, today knowledge and also self-help material are available online almost free of cost.
Finally, things like discipline, consistency, and taking responsibility for your work, will also matter, so your seniors can depend on you and want to take you ahead will also be required.
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Author
Nikhil Kumar Ahluwalia
Founder Upspir
Nikhil has over 16years of experience in the industry, before starting UPSPIR he was heading the support, services, and delivery function at Ameyo/Exotel as vice-president, and he has vast experience in managing and leading technical support and delivery teams, With Upspir he aims to take his passion of developing and mentoring people to next level by sharing his experiences and learning with those who want to build their career in the tech support domain.