Building a strong career journey starting in tech support
What if we told you that you could build a high-paying, respected career in tech --- even without being a programmer? That you could start in tech support and still reach leadership roles, six-figure salaries, and top companies?
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.
Understand Career Paths
A career in tech isn’t a straight path. You might start as an individual contributor, working within a team. Over time, you could grow into a subject matter expert, technical architect—deepening your technical expertise. Or, you might choose the leadership route, moving into team lead and managerial roles that require strong people skills. Or, you might develop yourslef as a consultant and solution consultant, if you feel you can communicate with customers and enjoy consulting. You can read more on How a Tech Support job can lead you to multiple career options
At the end of the day, everyone aspires to a career that offers financial growth, stability, and industry respect. A strong career journey isn’t just about where you start—it’s about building skills, making strategic moves, and unlocking bigger opportunities. Tech support is not just an entry-level job—it’s a launchpad to diverse career paths in the tech industry.
Starting 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 jobs 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
Structured training programs like the Upspir Boot Camp provide hands-on experience, industry-relevant skills, and direct exposure to real-world challenges. This kind of guided learning can fast-track your career progression and help you transition into specialized or leadership roles faster.
Role of Organization and Environment
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
Soft skills are often undervalued in tech careers, but they significantly influence your growth. Effective communication, critical thinking, and documentation skills can shape your career trajectory. The way you write an email, document an incident, or assess an issue and propose solutions impacts how seniors and stakeholders perceive your capabilities, directly affecting your chances for promotions and growth. Lacking these skills can slow down your career growth far more than you might expect.
Even for an IC (individual contributor) role, interpersonal communication plays a crucial factor in our success. These skills become even more essential when transitioning into senior positions like team leads or managers. So simply being good technical skills is not enough, if you struggle with these functional and soft skills, you will find it challenging to grow beyond a certain level. Read More Technical Skills Alone are Not Enough in the IT Industry!
Choosing the right stream for growth
A tech support role gives you exposure to both technical skills, product knowlege and customer interactions. You get exposure to number of technologies as well as complex situations. However, long-term success depends on your ability to assess your strengths, identify your interests, and align them with the right career path.
Instead of waiting for opportunities to come your way, actively evaluating your skills can help you decide whether to specialize or grow in technical domain or move to managerial postions in support roles, or choose to move in consulting roles,
The key is to stay focused, continuously build your skills, and keep evolving —because in tech, your career can evolve in ways you never imagined.
Summary
Having worked in this industry for 16 years, I’ve seen firsthand how individuals who started in tech support have successfully transitioned into project managers, technical managers, and even product managers. A career is not just about how you start—it’s about how you build upon that start.
Career growth isn’t solely about mastering technical skills. As you move into senior roles, soft skills, managerial abilities, and strategic thinking become just as important. This will need introspection, identifying the knowledge and skills that you will need, and then acquiring it. Finally, things like discipline, consistency, and taking responsibility for your work, are also crucial, When your seniors can depend on you, they’ll be more likely to trust you with greater opportunities and career growth.
To dive deeper into this mindset, read Small Wins Lead to Big Success, from Deepak Khokhar to understand more.and understand how small, consistent efforts shape long-term growth.
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.