What to do what to do

I'd go for the permie role and enjoy the perks of being permie as you say, hols, training, sick pay.

There's always progression in IT. If there wasn't how did I go from a mainframe operator to tools specialist to server engineer to solution architect. It's like anything in life. You need to make it happen with hard work and sheer will. The only thing I'd say is don't be scared to take a drop in money, if you can afford to, to learn skills that will earn you top dollar in the long run. Research what's hot. AWS. Azure. O365. Architecture for the likes of me. Being under worked and over paid is the goal. You can do it! Don't let anyone convince you otherwise

 

I applied for an internal role today. Microsoft Azure Architect for our Microsoft practice. Job description said if successful you must pass the two Azure Architect exams. Right up my street I thought

 

Ditto I care nothing for titles. I'd be called paper clip manager if it paid enough ha ha interesting projects and proposals are a pleasure though. I still love IT when I get something technical to do

 

There's loads to learn and get into. Work your way up. First line. Second line third line. It gets more interesting with each hop and the money should go up with it, as will your rate if you go back contracting. Infrastructure architects get a pretty penny contracting. Cloud. Loads to get interested and excited about

 

Sort of mate. Word doc proposals and designs. Visio. Excel cost models. Basically my customer needs something doing so I gather their requirements, speak to technical teams and then write it up, draw it and say these are the resources you'll need, the kit and licensing of applicable. I can't do it alone. I consult other architects and get my work peer reviewed. Tower reviewed. Commercially reviewed then I can issue it to the customer. If they like it they raise a purchase order, a project manager gets assigned and that's how projects are born. I'll do a handover to the PM.

My point was, in 2009 I was resolving issues mainly with Anti Virus and SCCM. In 2011 I was what we call Wintel BAU. Server support. On call resolving issues. I moved into building things in Wintel. Made senior. All working in a team in an office. Applied for an Architect position. Got it. Work from home 100%. Roll out of bed onto a keyboard unless a customer wants to see me.

In infrastructure roles it's all about progression and while I don't care about job titles, that's easily said when you're top of the tree. To get there you need key roles on your CV. In the infrastructure world. Want to be a network architect? They want to see network engineer on your cv. You will of done some design work on a project you did. You get the job. Maybe. Certification in infrastructure is very well laid out and will get you progressing. To say there's no progression in infrastructure roles is not correct. If there's none where you work you need to move. Join a global IT company possibly.

At my stage now I'm looking to get into a cloud architect role as these offer good progression for me with a long road ahead of me. Also offer top dollar. If I'm lucky.

 

Everything is a stepping stone if you look at it that way mate. I'm not support at all. I don't log onto any servers at all now. How did I get here. I was in support and now I'm not. Why can't you do what I've done? There is no reason why you can't. If you wanted to my job is nothing special. I used to do harder work in support. I've been on 12 hour calls starting at two am on a Sunday night when a host has died. The difference is conpanies pay more for what I do now. It's just how it is. I don't do on call or any overtime now but I have zero travel costs. It's just different not better at all

 

Ah OK I get what you mean, if you stay in support the options are limited. I agree but that is true of any job. If you stay a gardener your options are limited to gardening. If I stay in my role I'll continue to not resolve issues and not log onto the kit. Where I work, what I've done or similar is the common path taken but each to their own. It's all good fun. My point was, if you work in support, there are other jobs you can move into. Out of support or you could support something you don't at the moment like networks or O365 or become a senior as I did.