How to get out of IT support?

[ohmide]

To give you a reader's digest view of things:

Degrees:
BS MIS (2002)
MS MIS (2006)

Experience:
University student worker positions in IT support (5 years)
University staff positions in IT support (4 years)

Responsibilities:
Support of all PCs, Servers, Printers, etc. (All around gopher).
Implementation of COTS systems (Asset management, ticket tracking, etc)
Supervising student workers.

Personality/Life Problem:
I'm getting very very tired of the support arena and can't picture doing it for the rest of my life. Technology always changes so fast that if you're not totally into tech anymore, you will fall behind really quickly. IT jobs are too specialized in that a specific skillset is needed to do any one thing, so for example, if I went to a random company's website to look at available jobs, I would not be able to apply to everything under the "Information Technology" category becasue I am not, for example, a networking guru or a programmer. Every other job I apply for is still "support" becasue it seems like the only thing I have experience for; sad thing is that it is and probably will always be the bottom of the IT totem pole.

Trying not to take anything for granted:
I totally know about being unemployed during the bubble crash of 2001-2002, so I'm very grateful I have a job and can pay the bills and such even though I'm not working for a big company and learning new stuff. It's just seems like my overall happiness and interest in new, emerging technology is fading becasue there is always something new that I have to support and fix.

Solution/Advice:
I've been seriously considering doing something ballsy like-
1) Going over to Asia to teach English and maybe find some sort of clairvoyant answers by doing new things.
2) Applying to accounting programs. I didn't really mind those classes in college and it's at least a job that doesn't change a whole bunch over time and you can apply to pretty much all jobs under the "accounting" pulldown if you have a CPA. And the whole SOX requirement with IT experience would be helpful.
3) Some people I talked to just went to Law school and after they were done they were set for life with a professional job that was the "same" even though there are various specializations. You can easily work for a different firm that specializes in a different aspect of law and learn from there. Jumping from a support job to a programming job is not as easy.

So does anyone have any insight or experience with this dilemma of mine? Anyone else ever jumped ship to a whole new career?

 

[AreaCode707]

Business analyst. Basically you go into the business side of the world, where your IT knowledge and technical skill become a huge asset, and you consult to non-technical people on how to build requirements, put in specialized systems for their area of the world etc. There's a need for this in groups like HR, sales, customer service, etc.

 

[yowolabi]

I'm in IT and i've been seriously contemplating a switch to law. I actually enjoy what I do now that i'm off the phones, but I still have doubts about whether this is what I most want to do with my life. I do it more because I know how to do it, I like/don't mind doing it, and it pays me enough to more than meet my needs.

 

[child of wonder]

I'm a Linux Sys Admin and I love my job. However, once my kids are grown up and moved out I'm going to pursue my true love:

PhD in Philosophy, with a minor in Theology

 

[randomlinh]

If I were so bad, I'd try to make photography work... but that seems highly unlikely for me.. hah.

But good luck. If you can afford to just jump into something you like (read: willing to take possible pay cuts) I'd say go for it.

 

[Rage187]

try SQA.

That will at least get you started in development. Plus you get to break things and don't have to fix them.

Pay is usually better than it is for the IT world.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Have you thought about IT Professional services/Consulting? Means a bag of travel though.

 

[Imdmn04]

Originally posted by: Rage187
try SQA.

That will at least get you started in development. Plus you get to break things and don't have to fix them.

Pay is usually better than it is for the IT world.

SQA= Software Quality Assurance?

That actually takes quite a bit of programming background, for a white box test engineer.

 

[Rage187]

Originally posted by: Imdmn04

Originally posted by: Rage187
try SQA.

That will at least get you started in development. Plus you get to break things and don't have to fix them.

Pay is usually better than it is for the IT world.

SQA= Software Quality Assurance?

That actually takes quite a bit of programming background, for a white box test engineer.

Not any of the SQA jobs I have done. The most advanced stuff I had to know was some SQL. Enough to profile a stored procedure and figure out what in the execution broke it.

You can learn that from SQL in 10mins by SAMS.


EDIT: Also, if you have enough programming experience, you wouldn't be doing QA. The SQA positons that I know of that require a lot of programming are those that automate testing and write VB scripts. Other than that position, you just have to learn the product.

 

[Passions]

Originally posted by: Rage187
try SQA.

That will at least get you started in development. Plus you get to break things and don't have to fix them.

Pay is usually better than it is for the IT world.

BWAHAHAHAHHAHA...did u just say SQA? What a total joke. Thank god I got out of that.

 

[DivideBYZero]

SQA do NOT get a good rap at my company...

 

[Kadarin]

You can go from support into development (software engineering), product marketing, documentation, sales, consulting... It all depends on where you are at in your career and how good your skills are. Soft skills are important as well: Can you present material in front of a group? Can you close deals in sales? Do you know any coding languages? Can you deal effectively with customers in person?

 

[Jawo]

I would look into being a business analyst. I don't know how the MIS program was structured where you went, but where I went it was using computers to solve business problems. ie lots of analytics, using Project, Visio, SQL/Access, Process (re)engineering.

Officially I am a Business Analyst, although I deal alot with intra department communications and analysis (newsletters, reports), and process documentation. Its interesting since I only considered myself a technical savy guy....but where I work is all engineers!

 

[ohmide]

Yeah if I actually enjoyed programming I would have gone into it. I can do some php/java but it's nothing "good" or as fast as a real programmer. I wouldn't mind delving into the business aspect of things; I guess that would be one way of doing something different.

 

[Feldenak]

Originally posted by: ohmide
Yeah if I actually enjoyed programming I would have gone into it. I can do some php/java but it's nothing "good" or as fast as a real programmer. I wouldn't mind delving into the business aspect of things; I guess that would be one way of doing something different.

I know how you feel and am contemplating a move myself.

<-- MIS as well

 

[desertdweller]

Originally posted by: ohmide
To give you a reader's digest view of things:

Degrees:
BS MIS (2002)
MS MIS (2006)

Experience:
University student worker positions in IT support (5 years)
University staff positions in IT support (4 years)

Responsibilities:
Support of all PCs, Servers, Printers, etc. (All around gopher).
Implementation of COTS systems (Asset management, ticket tracking, etc)
Supervising student workers.

Personality/Life Problem:
I'm getting very very tired of the support arena and can't picture doing it for the rest of my life. Technology always changes so fast that if you're not totally into tech anymore, you will fall behind really quickly. IT jobs are too specialized in that a specific skillset is needed to do any one thing, so for example, if I went to a random company's website to look at available jobs, I would not be able to apply to everything under the "Information Technology" category becasue I am not, for example, a networking guru or a programmer. Every other job I apply for is still "support" becasue it seems like the only thing I have experience for; sad thing is that it is and probably will always be the bottom of the IT totem pole.

Trying not to take anything for granted:
I totally know about being unemployed during the bubble crash of 2001-2002, so I'm very grateful I have a job and can pay the bills and such even though I'm not working for a big company and learning new stuff. It's just seems like my overall happiness and interest in new, emerging technology is fading becasue there is always something new that I have to support and fix.

Solution/Advice:
I've been seriously considering doing something ballsy like-
1) Going over to Asia to teach English and maybe find some sort of clairvoyant answers by doing new things.
2) Applying to accounting programs. I didn't really mind those classes in college and it's at least a job that doesn't change a whole bunch over time and you can apply to pretty much all jobs under the "accounting" pulldown if you have a CPA. And the whole SOX requirement with IT experience would be helpful.
3) Some people I talked to just went to Law school and after they were done they were set for life with a professional job that was the "same" even though there are various specializations. You can easily work for a different firm that specializes in a different aspect of law and learn from there. Jumping from a support job to a programming job is not as easy.

So does anyone have any insight or experience with this dilemma of mine? Anyone else ever jumped ship to a whole new career?

I love what I do. I work for a small company as an IT consultant. Basically I bounce around town all day, visiting different clients for different things. Sometimes its desktop support, sometimes its infrastructure support, sometimes its an off the wall project. But the nice thing about is, its always something different.

I'm around different people each day, solving different problems each day at different locations. I rarely get called after hours and rarely have to work weekends, unless I'm doing some sort of big upgrade that will take the whole system down. For some clients I am the IT staff and for others I supplement the IT staff.

You might look into something like that.

 

[ultimatebob]

Going into consulting wouldn't be a bad thing! You'll get paid better, get to travel and learn new technology, and you get to pawn most of the IT drudge work off onto the poor flunky who actually has to support the project once you're done designing it

 

[Oakenfold]

If you have an interest in Accounting I suggest you look at Auditing as a career, it seems like you have referenced this with your SOX comment. Your background in IT would prove beneficial in assisting you in performing IT related auditing.

What about information security? If you are interested in internal controls have you thought about looking into this line of work?

Granted both of the above will require more schooling and continuing professional education but it seems you have already recognized that.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Depending on what you do in accounting, it can change daily.

 

[Imdmn04]

Originally posted by: Rage187

Originally posted by: Imdmn04

Originally posted by: Rage187
try SQA.

That will at least get you started in development. Plus you get to break things and don't have to fix them.

Pay is usually better than it is for the IT world.

SQA= Software Quality Assurance?

That actually takes quite a bit of programming background, for a white box test engineer.

Not any of the SQA jobs I have done. The most advanced stuff I had to know was some SQL. Enough to profile a stored procedure and figure out what in the execution broke it.

You can learn that from SQL in 10mins by SAMS.


EDIT: Also, if you have enough programming experience, you wouldn't be doing QA. The SQA positons that I know of that require a lot of programming are those that automate testing and write VB scripts. Other than that position, you just have to learn the product.

Well some SQA jobs are pretty easy, especially the ones just doing blackbox testing.

But some SQA jobs acutally require an extensive amount of programming experience, writing unit tests requires you to actually understand the code and what each method/function is doing.

 

[ohmide]

I interviewed for PWC and Deloitte to do both IT auditing and/or consulting but I didn't get picked. Now that I'm one year out of my master's it tends to be more difficult to get the attention of the larger firms. Flying around constantly would not really be my cup of tea but yes, consulting would be an option I'd consider. It's all up to the companies to hire at this point.

Yes I'm actually really good with face to face interaction, sales was suggested to me but I'm not very good with lying or quotas. If I didn't believe my company's solution is the "best deal" I would not suggest it and that totally goes against the wood in terms of sales.

Yeah I'm not too bad with accounting; I already do monthly audits on software compliance at work just for kicks becasue I get so frustrated with my clients who constantly want help for the simplest tasks like plugging in a USB cord. Yeah more school = more money and probably a bunch of prereqs becasue all I have are managerial and financial accounting which I took close to 6 years ago. Thanks for all the suggestions though, I've pondered many of them already but in the end I think it will depend on who in HR is looking at my resume and if they do or do not file me under just "support" positions.

 

[Chaotic42]

I tried going into IT for 6 months. If I had to do that for the rest of my life, I'd drink myself to death. Such a horrible career.

 

[ScottFern]

Different strokes for different folks.

 

[shuttleboi]

What is MIS? Is that the pussy version of Computer Science?

Disclaimer: I have a BS, MS, and PhD in comp sci.

 

[Feldenak]

Originally posted by: shuttleboi
What is MIS? Is that the pussy version of Computer Science?

Disclaimer: I have a BS, MS, and PhD in comp sci.

Depends on who you ask. If you ask your sterotypical, stick-up-the-a$$ coder...sorry, I mean software engineer then yeah, it's the "pussy version of Computer Science". To the rest of the people who don't have their head shoved so far up their own ass that they could lick their small intestine...it's a business oriented degree that focuses on hardware & software solutions for business problems.