Career Advice IT

[Massimo]

To give a little back story I started my career as a civil drafter/designer working in that field for 6 years unfortunately the GFC took its toll and I was with out a job Dec 2012.

Fortunately enough I new someone who got me a job working at HP in Feb 2013. I work at a service desk (Call Center) where we support all of the commonwealth banks IT, if you don't understand the magnitude of this well we are the biggest service desk in the southern hemisphere.

So I have been there for a year now and have taken this job with no experience or qualifications in IT and grabbed it with both hands ;D 1 year on and I have lost count with how many times they have given me a new role and opportunities. here is a small list.

Service desk Anyalist.
Software Defect Tester.
Subject Matter Expert for Bank Applications
Subject Matter Expert for Commbiz Netbank
Subject Matter Expert for Service Request Management.
Also had a stint in Sydney for 4 weeks where I had to learn new applications to on board them to HP, and create the knowledge base and support our agents.

While they may sound impressive they all pay the same but do offer more opportunities. Recently there was an internal job advertisement for Midrange Engineering so I applied for it, and this is where I now have a conundrum.

The new Engineering job will start in a month and is a Technical role which I have no skill in but am willing to learn and can pick up quickly, also comes with about 10k more a year. But my current manager and also the guy who got me the job both had a chat to me and think I would be better suited staying on and moving into a management role, this may not develop for another 6 months but will come with the same kind of pay.

I have also been told that the current manager of the site see's me as the number 1 rising employee and also thinks I should go into management.

So now I have two choices follow a career in management or technical, I have about the same experience in both and enjoy both just as much as each other. What choice would you make and why, have you had experience in either and would you choose the other one if you could do it again?

[matthugie]

Management for sure. A wise man once told me that you'll never make any real money unless you have people working for you. While not entirely accurate, as a general principle it works. People in management get paid more than the people in the trenches. The skills you will learn getting into management (it sounds like you have a good situation and internal support) are incredibly valuable, and transfer to any other job you might have in the future. Also, once you're in management, it's much easier to transition upward because you already have shown you have the base skills.

That said, from my experience with moving through ranks, 6 months in business terms is at least a year. Your company may be different, but things move slowly in large companies, and though your people may want it corporate HQ may have other ideas.

[nyChris]

IT management, and engineering will both pay very well. It really comes down to what you want to do day to day. I am two years into my IT career, and I am still unsure of which path I would like to take. IDK if it is different working for a vendor, but either role will have you on-call 24/7 365.

[318isbmw]

It depends on what you want to do. If you want to do work then take the technical role, or if you just want to tell people to do work then go management. It's all personal but just think what would make you happiest.

Personally I would never do management. The money doesn't make up for the bullshit. I would much rather make a bit less and have the flexibility to be gone on weekends and have a life outside of work. I also hate delegating work, I would rather just get it done and move onto the next task that needs to be done.

[Klug]

4+ year IT Engineer here. (4 years technical pre sales architect for a VAR and today an internal managed services engineer)

The way I look at it in my career is to take the technical path for a few years and then once you have a good lay of the land and know your expertise to then move into management. I have a few older friends and colleagues that started out technical and then moved into management or sales later in life. Today they make more money and are much more well respected than the manager/sales guy who has been doing the same role their entire careers.

I feel when it comes to IT- having a good foundation and technical knowledge leads to much better and bigger things down the road. I mean, there will always be managment roles available for you to hop on in the future.

[Massimo]

4+ year IT Engineer here. (4 years technical pre sales
architect for a VAR and today an internal managed services engineer)

The way I look at it in my career is to take the technical path for a few years and then once you have a good lay of the land and know your expertise to then move into management. I have a few older friends and colleagues that started out technical and then moved into management or sales later in life. Today they make more money and are much more well respected than the manager/sales guy who has been doing the same role their entire careers.

I feel when it comes to IT- having a good foundation and technical knowledge leads to much better and bigger things down the road. I mean, there will always be managment roles available for you to hop on in the future.

That is my thought but my managers seem to be competent in my technical knowledge which I know is stuff all. I am thinking of going in to management but still going on to study Network Security something I find interesting and will also give me a base to work with technically.

[Massimo]

Management for sure. A wise man once told me that you'll never make any real money unless you have people working for you. While not entirely accurate, as a general principle it works. People in management get paid more than the people in the trenches. The skills you will learn getting into management (it sounds like you have a good situation and internal support) are incredibly valuable, and transfer to any other job you might have in the future. Also, once you're in management, it's much easier to transition upward because you already have shown you have the base skills.

That said, from my experience with moving through ranks, 6 months in business terms is at least a year. Your company may be different, but things move slowly in large companies, and though your people may want it corporate HQ may have other ideas.

Yeh that is how I see things as well, and I do want lots of money to build crazy Australian e30s.