Which is the better entry job?

paigow

i had two successful interviews one for PC Tech at a mid size computer shop and the other is Technical Support Rep (phone)

at the moment i want my IT career to lean toward network admin but who knows the more im exposed to this it could change. My question is which job choice would prove most helpful if this is my career choice as an Network Admin.

my role as PC Tech will be assembling computers, servers, troubling and configuring. pretty much anything computer rated in a computer shop. During the interview i felt that position was mainly for a computer/server assembler but they pretty much said i would be taught as much as they knew and was free to learn anything they could provide.

Technical Support Rep will be providing support for warranty corporation of america. I was told i would be providing support for Dell computers, Ipods window OS pretty much all kinds of things with extended warranties. This being a Large company i feel growth potential within the company is better.

If you were to just focus on what i would learn and add to my resume which of the 2 positions would be a better fit if your career focus was Network admin type. Dont think about the benefits and pay, i got that covered from my spouse who works for SAS. I just want to learn and add to my resume thanks guys.

Mrock4

Honestly, the PC Tech job would be my choice. Depending on the type of place, phone support centers can really limit your ability to *really* troubleshoot via the phone. Physically working with the systems is an invaluable skill for every admin. It also sounds like the computer shop sounded more than willing to help you further yourself..that's always good.

AlanJames

I would go for the PC tech role. Phone support can be frustrating. You will probably learn more as a PC tech, and it will be a nicer atmosphere to work in.

HeroPsycho

Don't necessarily look at promotion within the company at this point. You can get those positions within that company by getting experience at other companies.

The PC Tech position I would agree with is the better choice. The phone support one sounds much more like you're locked into consumer OS/device support and rarely touching servers. The PC Tech position sounds like you're gonna get much broader experience, and much more so in servers.

The money in this industry tends to go to the positions that deal more with servers, not clients.

Netstudent

PC tech for sure. depending on your personality, you could burn out fast talking on the phone all day to people who have no technical literacy.

paigow

This was a big help thanks a lot guys, I had that same feelings in my mind but wanted to be sure what you pros thought too. I guess in a sense this PC tech is also like Phone tech support only the difference is the customers bring the PC to me :P I was told that on rare occasions i would have to go to the clients office but again he said not often.

cisco_trooper

paigow wrote:

This was a big help thanks a lot guys, I had that same feelings in my mind but wanted to be sure what you pros thought too. I guess in a sense this PC tech is also like Phone tech support only the difference is the customers bring the PC to me :P I was told that on rare occasions i would have to go to the clients office but again he said not often.

Take this into consideration too. In a larger company they are more likely to take advantage of specialization, meaning you get to do just a few things VERY VERY WELL. In the smaller company you are more likely to wear far more hats, and be exposed to alot more. I would take that PC Tech role, you won't likely be pigeonholed into the role of phone drone...and it will be hands on rather than the scripted crap they will probably give you at Dell, or wherever you said that was...

undomiel

Just to play the devil's advocate here a bit, and considering that I've done phone support for Dell as well, there are some plusses to the phone support job. Even though you would be consumer PCs you would be getting hit with a lot of different issues from all areas live as they are happening, and not just some issue that was hauled into a shop, especially networking issues which will usually be residential but you can get some pretty nice corporate troubleshooting experience as well. Especially if they happen to put you in the business unit instead of the consumer, though your description sounds more like consumer. This can really help sharpen your technical skills more so than a hands on environment. It will also help for sharpening your people skills since you will be having to work with them to get them to troubleshoot with you. It'll help improve your skills in sifting through information for what's the truth and what is a red herring. Sure they give you a script but it doesn't really lock down the troubleshooting you do. That you can do either your way or the Dell way just as long as you can get everything fixed. There's also a few really sharp cookoies that work in there too and if you can identify them and learn from them you can find out some things about the internal workings of Windows that you never knew before.

Now of course the down side is that you won't be touching servers and you won't get any experience in that area but if you're enterprising you will work with server operating systems at home in a VM to gain that experience. I wouldn't look for growth within a large company either. At least I never saw it happen around me during the year I was there. I would still say it would be a hard choice between the two but I would lean more towards the Dell job than the hands on job, just because of the probable range of issues you will be presented with.

paigow

the phone support isnt for Dell alone its for a company called warranty corporation of america which from my understanding has contracts all over the world supplying phone support. Keep in mind also this is a first level support and from the description it sounds mainly for the home user. Meeting new friends and finding someone really good with IT is a plus in a large company but so is finding great forums like this

and to be honest about the PC Tech job im sure ill get to build servers sometimes but i'd bet 99% of the builds will be desktops i'll just have to find out and if it isnt working out i'll just continue my job search and maybe try phone support.