Just wondering what your View is

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Hi guys,

I have had quite an indepth discussion with my fiance about this and thought I would open it out to a wider "Tech" audience and forum friends.

I have been in a Desktop Role for almost two years. I like the company I work for and I like my colleauges.
However, I do not like my role.

September 2014, the 3rd Line Manager took me to one side and asked if I would be interested in a Junior 3rd Line Role. I said yes, I really would, but I must make you aware that my Skillset needs work. He appreciated that and explained it was a Junior role, he also stated that my Line Manager and his Manager has put me forward. For a few weeks I had the 3rd Line Manager and other people telling me the job was mine etc. Had the Interview with the Senior 3rd Line and the Tech Services Manager. Just asked me about previous roles and what I do. When they said the interview was over I asked them if they had any Technical questions and they said no, it would be fair as its a junior role. 5 weeks later, I got an email from HR saying that I didnt get the role as I didnt have the experience. To say I was annoyed was an understatement. Had a meeting with the 3rd Line Manager and he apolagised and said they under re-structure and sorry to have wasted my time.
About 8 / 9 Months ago we done a Tech Blast where we went to everyone in the business and said what can we do to help you. Become the Face of IT as it were. A Mixture of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd line as well as SDM's, and Managers. We had a lot of issues raised, mainly "I need a new screen / PC".

To cut a long story short, all the calls for Screen's / PC were raised and assigned to me, pending sign off. 9 Months later and we are still awaiting sign off. All "Desktop Support" seem to do is hardware changes. I cant close off the calls as we are awaiting a budget review.

To be pro-active, I have started asking the 3rd line manager for work. Just little projects I can work on while we wait for the Hardware to be approved. My Manager at my appraisal said "People are asking me why your looking for other work to do when you have 40 calls in your Queue" I explined that all the calls were awaiting sign off (As he should know) and explained that I felt more like Facilities that IT and I would probably get more IT based work if I was working in Service Desk. He agreed with everthing I said, but stated that I am not allowed to request more work from people (I CC'ed him on every email and made sure I had approval first).

I just really feel like I am in a Dead End role. I am studying, I want to improve my knowledge and I want to move on. I just think I may need to go elsewhere to do that. I do plan on staying here till I get some exams done. Just yesterday it really hit home when one of the SDM's asked me why I am still working here when I could do so much more somewhere else.

Sorry to go on for so long, Jane and I were up late talking about this so I needed to give you the whole picture.

Thanks.

Ron

 

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I'm afraid it does look very much like its time to move on, if what you're after is a technical challenge then it sounds a lot like you won't be getting it in your current role.
If you're unfulfilled at work it can really run you down in every part of your life, better to take the risk and make the leap otherwise you'll just end up bored, frustrated and miserable (trust me, I've been there).
The only thing I can say is if the majority of the calls you are holding on to are waiting on budget sign off why are they even sat in your queue? Until it gets sign off it isn't really your problem, I'd be very tempted to try and punt them back up the line a bit as they are waiting on admin rather than actual work.
On a wider point, I truly hate it when management limit their engineers. If you've got a guy hungry for opportunities and willing to learn, for gods sake use it don't leave them sat there twiddling their thumbs.

 

Thank you @Josiah, Its exactly how I feel.
Dont get me wrong, I dont mine hard work, in fact I enjoy it as it makes the day go quicker. However, as you say, I want to learn, I want to improve and I want to gain more knowlege, all I am doing at the moment is installing screens and rebuilding machines.
I have no idea how / why I have them, its been frustrating me for the last 8 months but every time I mention it, all I get is " We are working on it" Saying that, we have had stock in so I have just started dishing stuff out. Frustrates me having 40 odd calls all just sitting there while everyone else is on 10 / 11.
Thank you Jim, I find that to be a great post. I am not going to look for a role for the Money, whats important to me is the opportunity to learn (Be it hands on or training provided), with more experience will come more money is the way I look at it. I just don't want to be sitting here in a years time with serious regrets. I have given my company a chance in letting my line manager know that I need more work. I will speak with him again tomorrow. My appraisal went really well, just frustrates me when I know I can do and want to do more, and your stuck in a rut.
Thanks guys, really appreciate the time taken to comment as well the comments themselves.

 

Hi All,
Brief update. My line manager has informed me that a few of us will be going on a 5 day Microsoft SCCM training course before September.

I know it's a few months away, but I think I can stick it until I find something new until then.
Will keep you all up to speed.

Thanks guys,

Ron

 

Welcome to the automation bandwagon that is SCCM

the course is a good start - however.... what will they be asking you to do once you've completed the course? if it's managing SCCM then it could be a good idea to stay on board with that new role looking after the environment.

on the flip side - if it's just for you to get an understanding of it, and troubleshoot log files for failed software deployments - you might want to re-think your position on it.

SCCM is a great system to get into - however, it takes a good couple of years working with it to get a full understanding and be up to speed with supporting and managing everything it offers and can do (Should they ask you to take an active role in administering it) - SCCM is a career path in itself, which I've gone down the road of.

If they're sending you on the course then I'm assuming they'll ask you to manage the SCCM environment you have - which is good, and if they do so, and you enjoy doing that, i'd say stick at it for a couple more years if you're happy with that route.

SCCM 2012 has been snapped up quickly by a lot of businesses, and there's an increased demand for that skill right now, there's not a great deal of people with extensive experience of it, and is sought after. If you were to start managing SCCM at the company, stay on for a couple years, get some solid experience with it, and then look elsewhere. If you enjoy it, you can make a solid career out of it, and it does pay pretty well.

Either way, good luck

 

Thanks Apexes,

I would LOVE to get more involved with SCCM. I used to work with Alteris at my previous placed and loved it. Enjoyed the scripting side, the delpoyment side, all of it.
We have had SCCM here for over a year, we have had 1 days training!!
Really hoping the training comes off. A Few false dawns here so really hope that this comes off.
Should it come off and I do get more exposure to SCCM, I will have to re-think the situation. Not holding my breath but we shall see.
Will keep you updated.
Cheers,

Ron

 

I spent a number of years being an SCCM specialist, it's a hard sell sometimes to tell people that yes, it really is a full time role just managing SCCM and everything to do with it.

It's a good thing to get in to so good luck

 

I spent a number of years as an SMS specialist, then it became SCCM ;)

 

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the lack of communiction, been doing lots of studying and dipping in and out of CF.

Well things have changed dramtically over the last month or so. The Company have brought in a Contractor who has been dealing with Screens and machines. My Call queue went from 45 to 6 in the space of an hour which is great. I am now doing REAL Desktop Work like trying to resolve an issue with Cognos for our finance machines (Just as an example), bit of Powershell etc etc.

Work have also just confirmed that I am going off to a SCCM training course at QA in July.

Thank you for the input guys, I have taken everyones comments on board and I still keeping an eye open should the perfect role become available, jut hope it is after July ;)

 

If your role is changing and changing for the better with training etc I would be inclined to stick it out for a while. Get some real world experience also with SCCM and then you will be in a great position in a year or two to really move up into a bigger role.

Assuming you do get to stay hands on with it that is of course.

Good luck dude!

 

Thanks Coupe, I have been looking at some YouTube videos to try and get an idea. Once I have this exam out the way (Hopefully very soon) I am going to rebuild my VMware with Server 2012 (AD and SCCM) so I can play around and see what I can do with it.

That way, even if I am not getting too much exposure at work (Which I hope I do) I still have some hands on experience.
I have been looking to move towards 3rd Line, but is SCCM Administration a Job Role in its own right?

 

Depends on the size of the organization I would say, but we have 2 guys at our place who JUST do SCCM, alongside about 6 others that do desktop and other various bits but who also get involved and help with SCCM. So it certainly can be.

 

Cheers Guys,

Really looking forward to it.
Catch you all next week once I am MCTS Certified (Hopefully)

 

Yep

I manage a 4,000 client estate by myself, not a huge number - however, that's every single item inside of SCCM. packaging, deployments, in-place app upgrades, app-v environments, supporting operating system deployment across 25 sites, software and security update/patching on a monthly basis.

As SimonD mentioned earlier, it's a hard sell but SCCM really does warrant a full time job. My last place we had 30,000 clients and there was 5 of us.

 

Absolutely, again I have to say the problem is that most managers don't appreciate the complexity of SCCM, it's not just about patch management or OS deployments, or Applications, it's about all of it, it's a full time job troubleshooting intersite connectivity, replication, SQL db, records, reports and queries. The list goes on and on, I could very easily have just stuck with SCCM for the rest of my career but having worked with SMS and SCCM I wanted more from my career and that's why I moved towards virtualisation with VMware (rather then Hyper-V and System Centre).

 

I would also look at moving on...