ME: Life of a support engineer

Its a myth in software industry that a support engineer is less technically proficient and usually one adopts this profession not by choice. Well the later is true is my case. I always wanted to code as i enjoyed coding. Never made it as a developer and I still regret it. However having said that I have always enjoyed my life as a support engineer.

I initially started working for a semiconductor firm where in I was involved in providing phone / email support to customers across the globe. And at this job , unlike the call centers, you never needed accent training and never needed a fake english name. Nor could people even remotely get closer to abusing you. You had to work in shifts but the pay was very encouraging ( 30K plus). Now that is where the positives stop. You were in the most advanced industry and being a support engineer meant you were always under pressure. Time was indeed money here and a small mistake would be worth a 50k US $. Plus the training particularly did not help.

I think the intention of the management was always wrong (give less, extract more). Well this does not work in a industry as advanced as this where in you need specialists. When the support team first started, I have been told, they got first hand training for six months. Well that was a good way to start. But this did not continue for later batches. When i joined , it was the 5th batch and we were just given one month of what i would call diluted training. But we got off not particularly bad. After spending exactly 3 years at my job, I did learn a few important but very basic things. But technically , the job did not help me greatly.

Now what are the things that i did learn and how is that important.
1. Being customer focused and using the STEPS method of troubleshooting issues.
2. Being a team player, trust me this helps in a team where the knowledge base is not that particularly well maintained and all the knowledge you get is based on how good you are to people or how bad the situation is.
3. Prioritize work and negotiating quick fixes.
4. Last but not least, understanding the business impact that support can make.

I quit my job exactly after 3 years and joined a Product company as a Product Consultant and I am still continuing there. I am gonna be posting more on dynamics of support teams and the challenges they face , as I have seen them.