What IT majors or IT job positions are least likely to or will not need to provide Phone support?

WhatShouldIDo

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I should have rephrased my question a long time ago and kept it concise. Unlike my two other threads.

What I really wanted to know are which IT majors in general or job positions that someone should go for if Phone support is something they really would not want to do, or even least likely ever will do on a regular basis on the job?

Or even if they had to provide support by phone, they would have still more flexibility and options which I will explain below.

Would it be mostly majors like software and applications development such as Computer Science that won't really have to provide phone support?

Or what about IT majors such as Database Programming Support and Administration? Or something like Management of Information Systems? The current school I attend also have a 2-year degree and a Certificate program for Database Programming, Support and Administration, but I wasn't certain if that would be for me or not.

What about specific work or job environments that is least likely or don't even have to provide support to end users by phone? Would it be IT positions within Retail Stores (e.g. Best Buy's Geek Squad or Microcenter's Repair Services), Internet Providers, Healthcare or Hospitals? Or positions that are avaialable in some other environment?

Also what about Phone support jobs that will likely to include the ability to provide support by remoting into an end user and client's computer and try to troubleshoot problems remotely?

Or what about the ability to dispatch a technician into the field to where they are located or dispatched within the same location to a client or end user that is having problems with their computer or devices such as within the same building?

Because the phone support kind of IT job that I had before where I had been laid off from had absolutely no possibilities or opportunities whatsoever for our tech support staff to be able troubleshoot the problems remotely by remoting into any clients' machines (no way to provide support by remote access) and neither could we dispatch and send someone out to the client's home or location when we were troubleshooting and providing technical support.

We were getting calls from customers from all over the nationwide and sometimes from overseas, so no possible way to dispatch anyone to help resolve their problems which I really wished we had been able to do as it would be substantially much more efficient.

But it wasn't, so thus providing support primarily through phone support without those possibilities are significantly more difficult and frustrating.

I look forward to any and all of your responses as soon as possible.

Thank you.
 
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3rd line support, normally do not touch a phone and just deal with escalations and project work.

systems admin - never talk to users just your 2/3nd line colleagues.

network engineer - however there will be phone calls but only to other network engineers or 3rd party ISP etc..

Developers - never touch a phone unless its to another colleague, all back end.

design and build engineer - never speak to customers, unless you really need a pool of end users to test a build (depending on company size you may have testers to do this)

on that note, dev testers - never speak to customers, just to dev and PMs.

maybe missed a few??
 
3rd line support, normally do not touch a phone and just deal with escalations and project work.

systems admin - never talk to users just your 2/3nd line colleagues.

network engineer - however there will be phone calls but only to other network engineers or 3rd party ISP etc..

Developers - never touch a phone unless its to another colleague, all back end.

design and build engineer - never speak to customers, unless you really need a pool of end users to test a build (depending on company size you may have testers to do this)

on that note, dev testers - never speak to customers, just to dev and PMs.

maybe missed a few??

I see. The position I had at the time was "Technical Support Specialist", so now I have a clearer picture and idea of what titles and positions are least likely if at all ever had to do phone support and which position I should apply or at strive for.

What about specific IT majors that are offered in schools? From what you're telling me Computer Science majors and any similar Computer Software Development majors such as Computer Applications Developer or Software Engineer majors are unlikely to ever have to do Phone Support?

What about majors or studies for the Administration, Programming and/or Support of Databases?

And I am presuming that type of major or studies are meant for those that will mostly just work with Database type of software applications, specifically Microsoft Access along with knowing and being familiar with Structured Query Language.

I also see another computer IT major at my school for Digital and Computer Forensics butI think theyare similar to IT Security but specialized in investigations of Computer crimes like computer fraud, abuse, hacking, spying, etc.It seemedvery specialize and advanced to me.
 
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Developers - never touch a phone unless its to another colleague, all back end.

on that note, dev testers - never speak to customers, just to dev and PMs.

I would say mildly false on the first one, and possibly false on the second one as well; entirely depends on where you work really.

Sometimes devs talk directly to clients, usually in meetings with their PM. Testers will also sometimes be included in this, and testers may speak with clients about test cases that need to be looked at; though these interactions could also be done entirely through the PM/Scrum Master (if in an Agile/Scrum shop), and devs/testers not directly interacting with clients, but rather the PM or SM working with clients then relaying that info to the devs/testers. But like I said...entirely depends on the company you work for.

I see. The position I had at the time was "Technical Support Specialist", so now I have a clearer picture and idea of what titles and positions are least likely if at all ever had to do phone support and which position I should apply or at strive for.

What about specific IT majors that are offered in schools? From what you're telling me Computer Science majors and any similar Computer Software Development majors such as Computer Applications Developer or Software Engineer majors are unlikely to ever have to do Phone Support?

What about majors or studies for the Administration, Programming and/or Support of Databases?

And I am presuming that type of major or studies are meant for those that will mostly just work with Database type of software applications, specifically Microsoft Access along with knowing and being familiar with Structured Query Language.

I also see another computer IT major at my school for Digital and Computer Forensics butI think theyare similar to IT Security but specialized in investigations of Computer crimes like computer fraud, abuse, hacking, spying, etc.It seemedvery specialize and advanced to me.

I have a BS in CS, as a preface to this and work as a software developer for a government entity in the US.

Developers don't really do "phone support" at all - besides calling other programmers, project managers, or speaking with clients in meetings. Usually clients wouldn't contact developers directly for assistance; they'd go through a different Point of Contact (POC): usually a project manager or analyst.

CS/SE/etc. are all geared towards programming and working with databases. Supporting / architecting databases is more the role of a DBA (Database Administrator) traditionally.
 
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3rd line support, normally do not touch a phone and just deal with escalations and project work.

systems admin - never talk to users just your 2/3nd line colleagues.

network engineer - however there will be phone calls but only to other network engineers or 3rd party ISP etc..

Developers - never touch a phone unless its to another colleague, all back end.

design and build engineer - never speak to customers, unless you really need a pool of end users to test a build (depending on company size you may have testers to do this)

on that note, dev testers - never speak to customers, just to dev and PMs.

maybe missed a few??


This is just for my workplace but:

systems admin - never talk to users just your 2/3nd line colleagues.
Ha! I wish...

3rd line support, normally do not touch a phone and just deal with escalations and project work.
Again, I wish !

network engineer - however there will be phone calls but only to other network engineers or 3rd party ISP etc..
Sigh.. yep, I wish, lol

Developers - never touch a phone unless its to another colleague, all back end.
The developers near me probably get 5 to 10 end user calls a day

design and build engineer - never speak to customers, unless you really need a pool of end users to test a build (depending on company size you may have testers to do this)

on that note, dev testers - never speak to customers, just to dev and PMs.
Note sure on these, we don't have these positions are my place

I think what you are saying is perhaps true at very big companies, but I work at a company with 250 to 500 people and they can't afford to have completely segregated roles whereby everything is perfectly split 1st / 2nd /3rd and have certain people interacting with users and others not. You're expected and required to be multifaceted. For example there are only two operations guys including me. One minute I might be doing some Mediawiki and PHP server migration work, the next minute guiding a sales guy through attaching a picture to an email over the phone. Even our developers have to help out with support at times.
 
Guess the places you work suck!

I rarely talk to internal staff - I am an infrastrucuture ops engineer.

sys admin - yes can vary, but from people I know and exp never talk to users, maybe 1 or 2 every 2 weeks to a month..


The Devops and dev guys I know NEVER talk to customers, ever! and yes Im talking more larger orgs, with SMs and PMs. (not sure youd even get devops and SM, PM in small orgs...)


network engineers seniors that I know - never ever talk to customers..

you get more junior roles or internal network engineers that do, guess depends on company.



you all need better jobs lol..

I too hate talking to customers or end-user staff...
 
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Guess the places you work suck!

I rarely talk to internal staff - I am an infrastrucuture ops engineer.

sys admin - yes can vary, but from people I know and exp never talk to users, maybe 1 or 2 every 2 weeks to a month..


The Devops and dev guys I know NEVER talk to customers, ever! and yes Im talking more larger orgs, with SMs and PMs. (not sure youd even get devops and SM, PM in small orgs...)


network engineers seniors that I know - never ever talk to customers..

you get more junior roles or internal network engineers that do, guess depends on company.



you all need better jobs lol..

I too hate talking to customers or end-user staff...

You're an ignorant little ****.
 
Carnage said it the nice way. Rulezero, big/small company has little to do whether it's a "good" company or not. You could work at CD Project Red with a couple hundred employees making world class games, or you could work at Wal-Mart with 500k employees. I know where I would rather work.

I have worked at DHL which has hundreds of thousands of employees and now the company I work at has about 100 employees and only half of them are office based. I would never go back. At DHL I was just a number, and like every big company it has a tonne of bull**** big enterprise politics, health and safety, rules bla bla bla. Where I work now I can do and get away with stuff that i'd have been thrown out the door for at DHL. I see and speak to the CEO everyday and he laughs if I throw something at him when he walks through the door. Try that at whatever big company you work for..
 
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