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I think I'm the only person in the planet that enjoys doing tech support. I just _love_ it. You get to talk to real customers and fix real problems. Most of

I think I'm the only person in the planet that enjoys doing tech support. I just _love_ it. You get to talk to real customers and fix real problems. Most of the time the fixes are easy so you get quick wins. Callers are be delighted to speak with someone technically competent who doesn't put them on hold forever and all the other crap you usually expect from tech support. If only I could make a decent living doing tech support I would totally make that my career.

Boulth 8y ago
Great to hear that! I had a similar experience when I worked for a customer with people that really used my software. The fact that I talked with them without any managers in between was a complete game changer. When I've seen them happy when I implemented something small or fixed a bug that had a tremendous impact on my morale. Nowadays I'm earning a lot more but the abstract nature of my work, where you don't see any tactile effects of your efforts is discouraging.
RickJWagner 8y ago
I like working in support, too. I work for a company that helps developers working with our software frameworks-- we pay a decent wage. Good luck, maybe you'll find an employer that properly values your skillset.
dagw 8y ago
I think it depends a lot on the environment in which you work. I worked tech support at a large university and we had a lot of autonomy to when it came to troubleshooting and solving problems. It was also a very heterogeneous environment with a wide variety of users which meant we got all kinds of problems to solve. On the whole, I loved that job. On the other hand I've had friends that worked tech support for a large telecoms company and that was all scripts and zero autonomy. That job sounded like pure hell.
perl4ever 8y ago
My first job was doing tech support for an early dial up ISP, and it was not for me. On the other hand, in an environment with a corporate desk job where co-workers would come by and ask me questions, it was basically as you say, enjoyable to solve real problems, as opposed to my main job of working on things for clients that you could never interface with directly. Whether helping people is fun depends a lot on how civilized they are.
fatnoah 8y ago
I worked at a small startup (our office was a store room in a clothing store) and for the first couple years wrote the software and answered the phones along with another developer. Eventually we got larger and hired a support guy, but I still handled the tricker calls and covered during support guy's vacation. I did enjoy answering the phone and helping out the customers, though I didn't love the interrupt-driven nature of answering the phone. Being able to interact directly with customers did help improve our software, though. Over the course of many years, I got to know several customers pretty well, and even got invited to one's retirement party (sadly, it was in another state and I couldn't attend).

Boulth 8y ago

Great to hear that! I had a similar experience when I worked for a customer with people that really used my software. The fact that I talked with them without any managers in between was a complete game changer. When I've seen them happy when I implemented something small or fixed a bug that had a tremendous impact on my morale. Nowadays I'm earning a lot more but the abstract nature of my work, where you don't see any tactile effects of your efforts is discouraging.

RickJWagner 8y ago

I like working in support, too. I work for a company that helps developers working with our software frameworks-- we pay a decent wage. Good luck, maybe you'll find an employer that properly values your skillset.

dagw 8y ago

I think it depends a lot on the environment in which you work. I worked tech support at a large university and we had a lot of autonomy to when it came to troubleshooting and solving problems. It was also a very heterogeneous environment with a wide variety of users which meant we got all kinds of problems to solve. On the whole, I loved that job. On the other hand I've had friends that worked tech support for a large telecoms company and that was all scripts and zero autonomy. That job sounded like pure hell.

perl4ever 8y ago

My first job was doing tech support for an early dial up ISP, and it was not for me. On the other hand, in an environment with a corporate desk job where co-workers would come by and ask me questions, it was basically as you say, enjoyable to solve real problems, as opposed to my main job of working on things for clients that you could never interface with directly. Whether helping people is fun depends a lot on how civilized they are.

fatnoah 8y ago

I worked at a small startup (our office was a store room in a clothing store) and for the first couple years wrote the software and answered the phones along with another developer. Eventually we got larger and hired a support guy, but I still handled the tricker calls and covered during support guy's vacation. I did enjoy answering the phone and helping out the customers, though I didn't love the interrupt-driven nature of answering the phone. Being able to interact directly with customers did help improve our software, though. Over the course of many years, I got to know several customers pretty well, and even got invited to one's retirement party (sadly, it was in another state and I couldn't attend).