Where next in my career?

digitaldarragh

Before I start, there are a few things I should make clear.
1. I am very thankful that I am one of the fortunate ones. I have a job and I’m thankful for it.
2. I decided not to post this anonymously. True, it could reflect badly on me if read in a certain light but I think it’s important to get the truth out there as well.

Introduction:
I am a 31 year old man with a wife, daughter and mortgage. I received a degree about ten years ago in Dundalk institute of technology in Computer applications and Support. Since then, I worked as a technical support representative, a technical mentor, a system administrator and a support manager. I’ve enjoyed most of the rolls that I’ve worked in.

Here’s the interesting part. I’m blind. To use a computer, I depend on an application called a screen reader. In its most basic form, this provides the important or highlighted parts of the user interface into synthesized speech or Braille. I provide this software independently relying or asking for no assistance from either my employer or the state. This is a personal preference. I refuse to be treated any differently therefore I expect to pay my own way and work as an equal.

Not blowing my own trumpet, in most situations I work as efficiently as my sighted colleagues. In some situations, I’m even faster. However, in truth, there are areas where I’m not quite as efficient. I never shy away from a job. If I need to pay someone to help me do something that my screen reader cant access then I’ll have no problem doing that.

No. I’m not looking for a pat on the head or anything here. I’m introducing the background for my question.

Work
I absolutely loved my previous job. As a system administrator, I had a lot of autonomy. I love solving problems and I really relished the opportunity to enhance and improve the large environment that I was working with. I exceled in this roll. I learned a lot and I would like to think that I gave a lot to the company. However, the constant accessibility challenges, although not insurmountable, were a constant source of stress and strain. After a long day at work, there were all too many nights where I had extra work to do to bend my screen reader around a particularly badly designed application that wasn’t accessible. Again, I refused to do this kind of thing during work hours because that would make me less productive than one of my sighted colleagues. After five years, I decided to move.

My new job.
Now, I work in a very small company. They write really excellent software and the people that I manage are fantastic. I originally applied for the roll of escalation engineer. The description of the job was very technical and it seemed that I would finally get more exposure to software development. This is an area that I think I am very interested in so it seemed like an ideal opportunity. As things turned out, I’m expected to do that roll but I’m also expected to manage support, develop basic enhancements to the application and document a system that has been developed over 13 years that has never been documented before. It’s a bit of a nightmare. Long hours, a lot of responsibility, unrealistic and unattainable objectives and rapidly moving deadlines. I should say that I managed a team of 19 before but I wasn’t good at it and I really didn’t like it. I hated the thoughts of managing people here for the first few weeks but I’m quite a lot better at it now and I don’t hate it as much. However, I’d probably find it a lot easier if I wasn’t also trying to work on the escalations and the development stuff at the same time. I should also say that I hated support. It might be the wrong thing to say but I hate dealing with people. I took the job of escalation engineer because typically, this would mean taking support requests from level 1 or level 2 and then sending the solutions back down the line. I get on well with people. Don’t get me wrong but I enjoy working on a problem until it is resolved. Not necessarily getting involved with the person who is on the phone or sending an Email.

A friend has insisted that I am doing more work than I was employed to do but this doesn’t particularly bother me. He has also said that I should walk unless I get additional money for these extra responsibilities but I enjoy responsibility and I’m quite happy with the money I’m on. The main thing that is really irritating me is the really unprofessional environment, the stress that I’m constantly working with every day and the stress that the people who are working for me are also experiencing. I’d love to give them someone new but the company doesn’t have the budget for that. As it is, their over worked and excluding me and a few customers, very under appreciated. It’s frustrating to come in every day and have to ask people why customers are constantly complaining. I know that their doing everything possible but I also know that at the end of the day, I’m responsible for the work not getting done and I have to find a way of making it happen. Of course, that’s just an opportunity to do something inventive. I’ve tried. I’ve actually set up a network in the office, I’ve installed a server, moved them to Microsoft exchange, licensed all the PC’s, created shared storage, set up a VOIP system to allow people to work remotely when delivering training etc. I’m certainly up for a challenge but there are some parts of this company that refuse to change.

My question:
I don’t use the word stress lightly. When you can’t sleep because you can’t stop thinking about problems that you couldn’t solve that day or you’re so tired at the end of a Monday and a 13.5 hour day that you don’t even want to speak when you get home, these are things that I call stressful.

I’d look for another job and again, without blowing my own trumpet, I think I would be a good person to employ. I’m responsible, conscientious, very happy to learn, hardworking and dedicated. I also have a lot of experience and a degree so I generally know what I’m doing. However, I am tired of inaccessible software, making my screen reader work with difficult applications and just constant stress. There has to be an easier way. I absolutely love technology so my question to you is. Where do you suggest I go from here? I have an interest in development and although I have the basics of Python, Perle, .net, VB, ASP, Javascript and VBS, I wouldn’t consider myself qualified enough to work as a developer. Also, a junior roll wouldn’t really suit as I have a wife and daughter to support.

Sorry for such a huge post. But, to ask the question, it was important that you understood the background.

This isn’t a poor me post. This is an honest question. I’m willing to work hard to get what I want but I’m at a loss as to where to go next. If you know the IT industry, what would you suggest? There may be alternatives that I haven't considered. I don't necessarily have any intentions of moving today, tomorrow or even next year. However, I think it is important that I keep my eye on the ball.

Eoin

So you're the support manager, a support engineer with some dev duties, documentation writer and occasional sysadmin? That's quite a workload, and it's clearly not sustainable if you're working those many hours and feeling that stressed.

Rather than trying to solve every problem, are you pushing back enough on the targets and responsibilities that are being set for you? Or are they completely aware of the workload and still heaping it all on you? Other than you and your support team, are any other teams under the same sort of pressure?

With regards to your career path, you seem to have a wide skill set and the desire to learn new skills, which is great - but you may need to specialise a bit more.

Development could well be an option. It might be junior for the time being, but developers tend to get paid more than support engineers. If you find a company that offers some perks that you may not currently get (pension, healthcare etc) and any difference in pay might be narrowed.

Alternatively, you could get a good application support role with less stress and better structures. But if you're not into people management and want to be more hands-on than managing the support process and/or staff, then it's probably not a long term option.

I would say that you need to sort out your current workload first, but it sounds like part of that does involve picking what path you want to take. If they were to ask you what responsibilities can they give someone else to make your life easier, do you know for certain which ones you'd be happy to be shot of?