Need help in determining next career move...

Knavery

Hey all,
I'm a new member here, and I thought this would be the best place to pose the question I'm about to ask.

I've been working for the same company for about 14 years. I started on help desk and worked my way up to development. Or rather, I was moved over to a development team at my request to gain more experience. Since then, I've mainly been working on Remedy or BMC ITSM. I've been responsible for customizing the tool based on incoming client requests.

I'm also ITIL certified and have played the role as a release coordinator, incident and problem coordinator, and change and release implementer.

Unfortunately, I feel I've reached a dead end working with 3rd party programs. I've tried learning programming languages like Java, JavaScript, and C# on the side, but I don't think I have the head of a programmer. Most of the material flies over my head. However, I tend to do well with the creative side like HTML, but it's been some time since I've played with it.

I'm not looking for a magic bullet here, but am looking for input on what the most marketable certifications would be based on my experience. I'm open to learning new things outside of my comfort zone as well. There are so many emerging technologies that it's hard to decide what areas to focus on. Thanks in advance for your input.

techfiend

You'll probably have to take a step down to have a better chance of advancement. I think Web development can be lucrative if you really know how to market yourself, otherwise it's not. I'm not aware of any certification for developers. Is there anything you did at help desk that you enjoyed? Network, admin, analysis,etc.

StussyNz

Why not look at progressing into a Management role? - Change Manager, Release Manager, Problem Manager? It seems that you have experience of the coordinator roles; That with your ITIL foundations certification and experience should help you progress into a Management focused role?

N2IT

Maybe leverage your knowledge and experiences from your previous role into a UI or UX designer. You won't be responsible for developing the back end logic, you'll focus more on the front end design and UI. If you are lucky you could land in a position where you work with web analyst and product managers to deliver top flight software.

Good luck!