Why Tech Support Still Matters

When I graduated college, I still didn’t know what I wanted to do besides being involved with technology. If I graduated today with that same mindset and fewer entry-level opportunities, I would have a tougher row to hoe.

I was fortunate enough to start my professional career working in technical support, which was like a second liberal arts education around technology. It gave me more exposure to technical areas I could learn about. It opened up opportunities to work on server admin tasks, development tasks, and, of course, database tasks.

I came across this article on 7 Reasons Why Tech Support Is an Underrated IT Career Path recently that highlighted some of the reasons why the sometimes maligned technical support role is underrated. A few of the 7 reasons stuck out to me. Highly dynamic work, growth opportunities, and engagement with people go hand in hand.

Getting to work in different areas allowed me to spend time working with experts more knowledgeable than me, make connections with them as mentors, and ultimately help me into new roles as they became available. There’s a reason people say it’s “who you know” when it comes to getting new jobs and roles.

If tech support jobs are getting reduced due to reliance on AI, what does that do to the future of system engineers, database administrators, and other roles? If tech support roles are undervalued, that hurts the next generation of professionals across all IT-related fields.

So many want the perfect role and fancy job title “right now,” but that’s not realistic. One should not expect to walk off the street and step into a senior role.

Consider the progression of NFL quarterbacks. How many of the greatest quarterbacks were starters right out of college? Tom Brady sat behind Drew Bledsoe. Aaron Rodgers sat behind Brett Favre. Patrick Mahomes sat behind Alex Smith. There’s a learning curve when moving from college to the pros, and getting the time to settle in that environment and learn from those with more experience is important for future success.

Tech support jobs aren’t easy. The hours aren’t the greatest. It’s stressful dealing with frustrated customers. But the knowledge to be gained there is worth the challenge, both to the individual and the technology workforce.

Thanks for reading!