Job offer, a good fit?

I got offered a new position with a new small, startup company, growing fast. The money is a good bit more than what I'm making now. And thank god, ITS NOT a call center. There are a few things about it though.

For one, the job is senior desktop tech but the support is really only for their proprietary software and hardware. No windows or usual applications or desktops. No active directory account management stuff. So I don't know how much of what I learn here is going to transfer into future positions. It is supposed to be heavy on networking which I'm excited about but not in the traditional NOC or router situation.

Im wondering if this will hurt my resume or future prospects since it's so specialized. I will continue to get certs while there though. It's not traditional help desk. Can this be a bad thing? This is my second IT job after doing service desk, level one, for two years. I'd really love your thoughts.

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Snrussell09

Side note: I also don't really know where I want to work yet per say. I've been thinking about database or security/networking. I'm 24 and the service desk I work on is closing down in 4 months.

LeBroke

I had end-user prod support for SaaS suite my company made tacked on to me as a part of my previous (Linux Admin) job, and even though it doesn't really suck (most people are quite happy to have it resolved)... Almost everything I've learned for that is completely and absolutely useless. It's 100% proprietary, in my case with a MySQL (query) component that I've learned slightly faster if I was just sysadmining it.

The girl that was doing support before me was making 46k (same salary as me when hired), and was bumped up to 50k the same time I left... She's been with the company for 6 or 7 years, is completely instrumental to most of their support processes (no-one else except maybe the architect really understands how some bits and pieces work), and has been doing developer work for a long time too.

Don't get pigeonholed as proprietary support, it's the easiest way to kill your career unless it's something you want to do.

That said, do you have any IT education, any certs other than an A+, and what kind of a call centre was it? Were you allowed to troubleshoot stuff, or was it "tell the client to reboot their device, and pass the ticket on to level 2 if it doesn't help?"

Snrussell09

LeBroke wrote: »

I had end-user prod support for SaaS suite my company made tacked on to me as a part of my previous (Linux Admin) job, and even though it doesn't really suck (most people are quite happy to have it resolved)... Almost everything I've learned for that is completely and absolutely useless. It's 100% proprietary, in my case with a MySQL (query) component that I've learned slightly faster if I was just sysadmining it.

The girl that was doing support before me was making 46k (same salary as me when hired), and was bumped up to 50k the same time I left... She's been with the company for 6 or 7 years, is completely instrumental to most of their support processes (no-one else except maybe the architect really understands how some bits and pieces work), and has been doing developer work for a long time too.

Don't get pigeonholed as proprietary support, it's the easiest way to kill your career unless it's something you want to do.

That said, do you have any IT education, any certs other than an A+, and what kind of a call centre was it? Were you allowed to troubleshoot stuff, or was it "tell the client to reboot their device, and pass the ticket on to level 2 if it doesn't help?"

I just started my network plus class and should have it by March. I don't have any other it education though. I had zero experience before my current job. We actually do get to troubleshoot but not to the extent that I would like. It is remote support. But we got to troubleshoot basic things with virus clean ups, network connections, Vpn clients, various applications, office, browsers and printers. We didn't get into the command prompt much, couldn't do registry stuff or recovery modes or anything. So its level one and remote,Mao there was only so much we could do I suppose.

There is supposed to be a lot networking involved. They mentioned monitoring, POE, pinging ips. They said there might be some internal calls from employees with basic issues but basically if it isn't involving our product, we don't support it.

LeBroke

I honestly wouldn't do it. The networking stuff you mentioned sounds fairly basic.

If it's a good pay raise, I'd say accept it, but keep looking for something with better experience.

Snrussell09

The pay raise is significant. I'd be going from 28k to the 40k+ area. I'll have to find a new job in the next few months anyway with our desk getting laid off soon. I could accept it while I get my certs and kind of figure out what I want to do. Maybe it ends up being more networking than the questions in the tech part of the interview. The properitary thing worries me a little though. They use team viewer to remote in to the systems.

Snrussell09

Not sure if this makes a difference but I've found that I don't necessarily want to do helpdesk or even desk side helpdesk. I'd like to find something and specialize, which why data base stuff like SQL and Oracle or infosec appeal to me.

LeBroke

That's a good pay raise, so why not go ahead and do it while you study and look for something better? Don't stop looking, though. Always easier to find a job when you already have one, and you can afford to be more picky.

Snrussell09

LeBroke wrote: »

That's a good pay raise, so why not go ahead and do it while you study and look for something better? Don't stop looking, though. Always easier to find a job when you already have one, and you can afford to be more picky.

Very true. I got an interview and offer five days after finding out about being laid off(or will be laid off). The only thing about this particular job is that it's for my old boss. It would be hard to leave him after a short period of time but it's not like I have any intention to do so. The job could be awesome. I appreciate your help! I really wanted some experience IT folks to weigh in on this just because I'm new to it all.

goatama

I have a good friend who's been doing highly specialized product support for a healthcare company for the last 12 years. He's come to the realization that he has no skills that he can take anywhere else because of how unique it is. However, he's also not motivated to do anything else. He doesn't do anything to better himself, and has now decided he doesn't really even like computers anymore. Not sure if the burn-out is because he's never done anything else, or because he actually hates computers.

I realize this is extremely anecdotal, but just think of it as advice to take the job because it's a huge pay increase, but never stop learning, never stop acquiring skills. Figure out your passion and pursue that. I was a call center tech, went to the Geek Squad, and then got into desktop support. Decided after a couple years that I wanted to get into security. I found ways at my various jobs to incorporate that desire into my regular job duties, and just kept building on that; learning, going to school, getting certs. Now I'm a senior security engineer. I had no formal experience but I just kept pestering my bosses at my various infrastructure jobs to let me handle the security aspects. Then I was able to leverage that experience along with my training to get where I am now. (However, I probably wouldn't be as effective at my job if I didn't have all the groundwork first.)

The point is, find what you want, and do whatever it takes to make that happen, your experience doesn't always have to define what you can do.

pinkydapimp

I made a similar move over 10 years ago. While its not traditional IT, through troubleshooting that app you will learn plenty of skills that translate to many other IT roles. Not to mention, there are many roles out there supporting apps that pay well. I make well over six figure and still support apps just in a pre sales engineering role now. I say go for it and work on certs while there and see how it plays out. IT is a huge field and its more than just the "Traditional" roles. Maybe you spin this to another gig with other software or hardware like security or storage or another enterprise software.

Snrussell09

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback. It helps. One cool thing is that it is a small company and they're growing so there's plenty of work and learning to be done. I should be able to figure out what I want to do while getting my certs. Just started net+. Sec + after that and then probably something like the database MTA from Microsoft.

Snrussell09

So just to follow up, I ended up taking the job and I'm still here now.

It's definitely not as technical as I would like but it's also a bit different than I thought because while we do have a product to support and to provide customer service for, it is a Windows 7 PC that operates everything. I've already learned more about networking and continue to use troubleshooting skills. Networking is basic troubleshooting, same with the PCs. I'm still learning things though which is what is important.

I love the company so far though, people are great and the money was a big step up from what I was making. Thanks for your input!

ITSpectre

Snrussell09 wrote: »

So just to follow up, I ended up taking the job and I'm still here now.

It's definitely not as technical as I would like but it's also a bit different than I thought because while we do have a product to support and to provide customer service for, it is a Windows 7 PC that operates everything. I've already learned more about networking and continue to use troubleshooting skills. Networking is basic troubleshooting, same with the PCs. I'm still learning things though which is what is important.

I love the company so far though, people are great and the money was a big step up from what I was making. Thanks for your input!

Good Job!

DoubleNNs

If it's not as technical as you thought it'd be, I'd take this time to study some technical topics on your own. Possibly some higher level networking topics (Network+, CCNA) or even MCSA desktop, since they'd at least have some overlap with what you do at work.

Even tho you love your current position, make sure you learn enough during this time that when/if you're ready to go on to the next role you have something to offer. Or maybe enough that you can offer to improve some things at work -- such as upgrading the Win 7 computer to Win server, or even a cloud instance.

Phillies8607

You mentioned your role doesnt require you to support Active Directory and if that is important to you, you can learn it outside of your job. If you cant get a full legal copy of Windows Server for free (its expensive) you can download a free copy from Microsoft that is totally legit and supported for 180 days. This way you can practice account permissions etc at home. I know its not the same as on the job experience but hey its some experience and may help you get that much closer to where you wanna be.