How a Tech Support job can lead you to multiple career options

by CareerJobstech support jobstechnical skills

When we start our careers, many of us aspire to become programmers or move straight into specialized roles like DevOps or database administrators. These are high-demand jobs that offer good salaries, so it’s understandable why we would want to pursue them. However, if you’re unable to break into these fields right away, don’t let that discourage you from building a strong career in tech support.

Tech support is a great way to get your foot in the door of the tech industry and learn about different technologies. It’s also a great way to develop your problem-solving and customer service skills, which are essential in any tech role. In addition, tech support can be a stepping stone to other, more specialized roles in the future.

So if you’re not sure where to start your tech career, don’t rule out tech support. It could be the perfect way to launch your journey into the world of technology.

What is a technical support engineer profile?

A technical support engineer is a professional who provides technical support to customers and users of software, hardware, and other technology. They troubleshoot problems, provide advice, and help customers resolve issues. Technical support engineers work in a variety of industries, including IT, telecom, healthcare, and finance.

From job opportunities point of view, the great part is that almost every medium and large company have its own IT or support department either providing technical support to the organization or its employees or providing support to the clients on the product and services offered by the organization

Responsibilities of a Technical Support Engineer

The responsibilities of a technical support engineer vary depending on the specific role and industry. However, some common responsibilities include:

  • Troubleshooting and resolving technical issues
  • Providing technical support to customers and users
  • Documenting and tracking technical issues
  • Keeping up-to-date on new technologies
  • Developing and maintaining relationships with customers and users
The roles range from helpdesk to L3,  Organizations also have different roles with similar job specifications like tech support engineer, application support engineer, support engineer, system administrator, system engineer etc.

Skills and Qualifications for a Technical Support Engineer

The skills and qualifications required for a technical support engineer role vary depending on the specific role and industry. You can read more about 10 best entry level tech jobs and skills required to get hired. However, some common skills and qualifications include:

  • Strong technical knowledge
  • Excellent problem-solving skills
  • Excellent communication skills
  • Ability to work independently and as part of a team
  • Ability to work under pressure

Benefits of a Career in Technical Support

Develop Strong Problem Solving and Communication Skills
Good Entry Point For a Career In IT
Opportunity to Learn New Technologies
Opportunity to Network
stable career
Tech support provides multiple career options

Working in a technical support role can provide you with the opportunity to learn about different technologies, processes, and practices. If you are focused and willing to put in the effort, you can become an expert in any of these areas and build a strong career.

For example, if you are providing support for a particular application, you will gain experience working on the daily issues that users face. You will also learn how to resolve these issues and coordinate with customers to understand their pain points. This experience can give you the opportunity to grow into a consultant or product manager role in the future.

Even if you don’t choose another career path,  you can expect to advance to the senior technical support level in 1-2 years. With continued experience, you can then grow to become a technical lead, manager, or other senior-level position.

If you are technically inclined, you can grow into roles such as tech lead, solutions engineer, QA engineer, or software developer. You can also build your career in DevOps or SRE roles. If you enjoy interacting with people and coordinating with customers, you can grow into roles such as customer success manager, account manager, or solution consultant. The possibilities are truly limitless.

How to Get Started in a Career in Technical Support

There are a few things you can do to get started in a career in technical support:

  • Get a degree in computer science or a related field
  • Get certified in a technical field
  • Gain experience working in a technical support role
  • Network with people in the tech industry

If you’re interested in a career in technical support, I encourage you to learn more about the field and explore your options. It could be the perfect way to launch your journey into the world of technology.

At Upspir we are on a mission to help young professionals build a successful career in tech support domain,  Our programs train candidates on both technical and non-technical skills to prepare them for the jobs and interviews. 

We have partnered with leading companies in India’s thriving tech market, and we can help you get hired in one of these companies.

In case you are interested in exploring our programs please feel free to fill the inquiry form here. 

We will be happy to hear from you and address your queries.

Tech support role - Challenges

Yes, initially starting in a tech support role is challenging and so is learning and growing in these career paths. The role itself can be challenging and will need a lot of patience and belief to sustain in these roles. Learning on the job will be the key, and you will have to put additional effort in building your skills while at work to get the chances to progress further.

While you select your strength area, you will again have to put additional effort into enhancing your skills and knowledge and putting your strengths to work. Apart from the effort, you will also need a to have a career plan and a process (within the organization or outside) in place for you, to follow the career plan, and a support mechanism that pushes you to follow the same.

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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.

Building a strong career journey starting in tech support

by CareerJobstech support jobstechnical skills

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.