Field Service / Traveling IT work

InfantryRaider

Good afternoon, I am currently going to school for IT via Syracuse University and will have my A+ by the end of the summer followed by my MTA: Net and Net+ by the end of the year. My question is what kind of work / where can I look for work that requires a good amount of travel with what certs I have?
I used to work field service for a pharma company troubleshooting their PLCs, uploading new code / updating the code with help from the engineers at home, and replacing parts of PLCs. This included flights to various states, hotel stays, car rentals, and eating out on the company dime. I am wondering if any of you have experience with these benefits working in the IT field and if you can please share what to look for and where to look for work that would include this type of lifestyle? Thank you in advance for your time and assistance in this matter.

hoktauri

While I don't have any advice for the rest I can tell you you can pretty much skip getting the Networking Fundamentals MTA, it's so basic it's not worth very much. I got mine for free.

pinkydapimp

There are plenty of jobs in this field now with the amount of technology, hardware and software being sold to organizations. Typically these jobs go by the names: Pre/Post sales engineer, Field Engineer, System Engineer and such.

The only difference between these positions and traditional IT are that you need soft skills since you will be customer facing. Otherwise, you can find roles like this in pretty much every area of IT. I would however say that having a wide range of skills or a strong foundation will help you in this field.

Regarding the lifestlye, i did heavy travel for 8 years and loved it. I would say its probably better to do it earlier than later as for many its tough to do heavy travel with a familiy. However there are many of these type of jobs where you stick to a more localized region as well which doesnt require much overnight travel(what i do now).

But i think its a great field and one thats overlooked by folks in IT. The positions run the gambit from mostly technical to more sales focused so you can really find the right fit for yourself. It also seems to pay much better then most areas of IT.

I will also add that being in the field, you get to see how many different IT departments do things which will definitely be beneficial down the line and in future consulting type roles.

InfantryRaider

Thank you PinkyDaPimp for letting me know that it is possible to get this type of work in this field, that is good news What are some of the entry level job titles and possibly some companies that utilize these personnel?

pinkydapimp

InfantryRaider wrote: »

Thank you PinkyDaPimp for letting me know that it is possible to get this type of work in this field, that is good news What are some of the entry level job titles and possibly some companies that utilize these personnel?

Well there are entry level positions in the field. However, i think more often than not, they require some experience so going really any entry level IT would be beneficial. I did helpdesk and desktop support prior to moving to a field position. I know my job has hired a few people with no experience, but they also have are right out of grad school with Masters in Comp sci. If you can find consulting type roles, that might work. Really, the more you can interface with people in an IT role the better it will be for getting into these roles. Keep in mind that for roles that are heavy travel, those are not going to be entry level. Companies aren't going to fly people around the country/world if they arent technically strong. So keep that in mind as well.

As for the companies that have these positions? It seems any company that sells software or technology has these roles. Big companies like Microsoft, Cisco, VMware all have roles like this and even smaller companies need technical folks to assist in the pre/post sales process. There seem to be tons of folks hiring for these roles right now.