Software tech support career advice

Alee83

Hello my name is Al and I am looking for a bit of career advice on steps I can take to help advance my spot in the IT field. Recently I accepted a role doing technical support for real estate software program that will begin in one week. It is a company that will be expanding and I have the chance to advance and even consider management if I put forth some effort to learn new IT skills. My background is an associates degree in information systems and certificate in network support. I worked for 5 years as help desk for Time Warner and in gaming industry for EA client. So it has been over 5 years since then and I am trying to find a way to stay in the IT industry. I am very interested in earning some certifications that will make me very valuable and increase my worth but need advice on a direction to go. I run Linux on a few desktops at home and work to understand it more. Windows skills definitely come easier and working in a data center or with web services is of interest. I know I don't want to be in computer repair or entry level help desk long term, so I hope you guys can give me helpful advice and direction.

Thanks

Shoe Box

Win the lottery and retire and avoid the hassle of work and dealing with employees who don't know anything about computers?

That's my long term plan.

But until that happens, I would try for more desktop support than supporting a specific program, I have gotten calls for jobs like that and I just don't want the hassle of dealing with clueless end users.

I am studying for my first VMware certification now and aiming for jobs in data centers, for minimal human contact. I have limited patience for end users. And after 3-1/2 years of Desktop Support, I've had all I can stand.