Feel like I'm stuck in a role I don't enjoy

Danger781

Hi

I'm currently working in a technical customer support role for a large multinational company. My job involves troubleshooting issues with software by reviewing logs, providing workarounds / resolutions to the problems customers are facing, providing documentation, etc.. Sometimes it's interesting. I used to enjoy my job until our case handling system changed a few months ago and it completely changed how I work. I no longer enjoy my job because I can't work the the same number of cases I used to work, I can't work the type of cases I used to enjoy working, I have to work on products I am not very familiar with, etc.

I feel like I'm stuck because I'm gaining very niche experience - i.e. Most of the knowledge I am gaining from this job is not transferable to any other role outside of customer support. I come from a computer science background but haven't used anything related to my degree for the two years I'm in the this role. Obviously I would like to get into something related to my degree but my lack of experience rules me out of the running for most roles instantly.

• Web development - I have experience working with HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript but have barely touched anything web-related in two years outside of getting two WordPress sites up and running.
• Java Development - I think I'd like to get into a Java development role but again I have little to no realworld experience here. Outside of college projects there is very little I can show to prove experience. I have some background in Android development also from my college FYP.
• QA Testing - This kind of role seems interesting, but from discussions with a recruiting manager for a role in this field, he said they mainly recruit developers with years of experience already. Maybe that was for this specific company - I'm not sure.
• Technical Writer - I enjoy doing write ups on products as it helps me to understand how things work. I would like to think I have a excellent level of English also, but again I have nothing to show for this. There are some products in work which documentation / training is certainly lacking for to say the least, so I could put together some info on these.
• Sysadmin - Another role I've considered but they all look for experience in related field. I mainly deal with sysadmins in my role so I would have a fair idea on the role.

As you can see from above I have trouble deciding what to focus on.. I don't know what avenue I want to pursue either which is just as frustrating..

I have applied for countless jobs for other roles both internal and external. So far I have had two rejections and no response from the remainder. I have had one phone interview which I got via a recruiter on LinkedIn.. The call went pretty bad overall because I couldn't remember anything that I was being asked. If he had asked me these questions three years when I was just leaving college I could have rattled off answers no problem...

/rant

pillphil

Danger781 wrote: »

Hi

I'm currently working in a technical customer support role for a large multinational company. My job involves troubleshooting issues with software by reviewing logs, providing workarounds / resolutions to the problems customers are facing, providing documentation, etc.. Sometimes it's interesting. I used to enjoy my job until our case handling system changed a few months ago and it completely changed how I work. I no longer enjoy my job because I can't work the the same number of cases I used to work, I can't work the type of cases I used to enjoy working, I have to work on products I am not very familiar with, etc.

I feel like I'm stuck because I'm gaining very niche experience - i.e. Most of the knowledge I am gaining from this job is not transferable to any other role outside of customer support. I come from a computer science background but haven't used anything related to my degree for the two years I'm in the this role. Obviously I would like to get into something related to my degree but my lack of experience rules me out of the running for most roles instantly.

• Web development - I have experience working with HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript but have barely touched anything web-related in two years outside of getting two WordPress sites up and running.
• Java Development - I think I'd like to get into a Java development role but again I have little to no realworld experience here. Outside of college projects there is very little I can show to prove experience. I have some background in Android development also from my college FYP.
• QA Testing - This kind of role seems interesting, but from discussions with a recruiting manager for a role in this field, he said they mainly recruit developers with years of experience already. Maybe that was for this specific company - I'm not sure.
• Technical Writer - I enjoy doing write ups on products as it helps me to understand how things work. I would like to think I have a excellent level of English also, but again I have nothing to show for this. There are some products in work which documentation / training is certainly lacking for to say the least, so I could put together some info on these.
• Sysadmin - Another role I've considered but they all look for experience in related field. I mainly deal with sysadmins in my role so I would have a fair idea on the role.

As you can see from above I have trouble deciding what to focus on.. I don't know what avenue I want to pursue either which is just as frustrating..

I have applied for countless jobs for other roles both internal and external. So far I have had two rejections and no response from the remainder. I have had one phone interview which I got via a recruiter on LinkedIn.. The call went pretty bad overall because I couldn't remember anything that I was being asked. If he had asked me these questions three years when I was just leaving college I could have rattled off answers no problem...

/rant

There are two kinds of testing, manual and automated. Automation requires coding skills, manual doesn't strictly, although it would be useful. I'd guess they were talking specifically about automation.

Manual testing sounds a bit like what you used to do. It's a mixed bag though.
The interesting parts for me is figuring out why an error has occurred and trying to figure out a workaround. I end up reading a lot more code than my job would normally involve. Also messing with SQL.
The bad parts are writing manual test scripts and executing them. It's pretty tedious. Really, really tedious, actually .

Danger781

pillphil wrote: »

There are two kinds of testing, manual and automated. Automation requires coding skills, manual doesn't strictly, although it would be useful. I'd guess they were talking specifically about automation.

Manual testing sounds a bit like what you used to do. It's a mixed bag though.
The interesting parts for me is figuring out why an error has occurred and trying to figure out a workaround. I end up reading a lot more code than my job would normally involve. Also messing with SQL.
The bad parts are writing manual test scripts and executing them. It's pretty tedious. Really, really tedious, actually .

See all of that sounds interesting to me, but I guess I may have tinted glasses looking from the outside..

Senna

pillphil wrote: »

There are two kinds of testing, manual and automated. Automation requires coding skills, manual doesn't strictly, although it would be useful. I'd guess they were talking specifically about automation.

Manual testing sounds a bit like what you used to do. It's a mixed bag though.
The interesting parts for me is figuring out why an error has occurred and trying to figure out a workaround. I end up reading a lot more code than my job would normally involve. Also messing with SQL.
The bad parts are writing manual test scripts and executing them. It's pretty tedious. Really, really tedious, actually .

But most QA roles are only testing, there is no working out why a test failed, you just sent the results of the test back to Dev and move onto your next test.

pillphil

Senna wrote: »

But most QA roles are only testing, there is no working out why a test failed, you just sent the results of the test back to Dev and move onto your next test.

I'm still in my first role, and not all that long at it either, so I'm not sure how typical my situation is. The kind of thing I'm thinking of is when a bug turns up and blocks all testing. Sometimes a few minutes spent figuring out what has actually happened can prevent work from stopping completely while the problem is sent back to the devs to fix.

pillphil

I should add that no-one has asked me to do that, but no-one has told me to stop either

bpmurray

The reality is that working as L2 support gives you an insight into deployments and configurations that probably nobody else in the company fully understands, and you know that across multiple products: you actually have a level of expertise that is extremely valuable. If you're losing interest in your current role, why not transition into services, i.e. product delivery to customers, configuring them according to their particular setups? Companies like Accenture and IBM have a huge need for your skills.

Danger781

bpmurray wrote: »

The reality is that working as L2 support gives you an insight into deployments and configurations that probably nobody else in the company fully understands, and you know that across multiple products: you actually have a level of expertise that is extremely valuable. If you're losing interest in your current role, why not transition into services, i.e. product delivery to customers, configuring them according to their particular setups? Companies like Accenture and IBM have a huge need for your skills.

I actually applied for an internal role in this position (Delivery Specialist is the official title). While I am officially a level 2 support (As of this week..) there is absolutely no difference in this role. I already take more cases on than anyone else on my team quarter-after-quarter. I have a higher close % than anyone else on my team.

Whether are you level 1 or level 5 it doesn't matter. We cover the same queues. We work the same cases. We all have the same expectations on us. We all cover Severity 1 cases right down to Severity 5 cases. The title is meaningless.