Automated Teller Machines to a solid IT career

mguy

I will be with a corporate help desk gaining relative experience in a device hooked to a corporate financial networking for almost a year now. My function is part technology and part business.

It is the management of ATMs (thousands) for a big bank.

Management of this device encompasses hardware troubleshooting, software, and networking. There is also management from an ITIL perspective (pre-production to production). I have been exposed to a lot of IT processes and the technologies that run them.

On my downtime, I try to stay productive and study networking. I study networking for growth and I feel there is a lot of opportunities here. I currently have my Network+, CCENT, and am 75% to CCNA. I work 15% of time with telecom equipment at a not so technical level.

I wanted to get input on how I should proceed. I feel like I spent much time in persuing networking that I could leverage my experience to get into networking. I like the stability of networking and I like to be an engineer/specialist, getting paid for highly specialized knowledge. At the same time, I can go become more broad -- problem is I don't want to be diluted (I have an economics degree and this contributes to it). It seems like my function is broad and will always be management + technical.

What should I do? How should I make my decision? I care about getting a good return, a leverage, and a nice income with least hours.

quinnyfly

Sounds to me like you have it all going on as far as networking is concerned, I'd perhaps push the company for a networking role or something closer to it, or apply elsewhere. Clearly you have business and management skills and networking aswell, you are a highly prised individual for employment, a very well-rounded package, perhaps a little more experience might see you well placed. You have choosen very good certs for networking.

Are you an aussie also? Just how you mentioned Telecom equipment had me wondering?