up one level
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2016-10-30
2017-01-01
w̶i̶e̶l̶d̶l̶i̶n̶u̶x̶.̶c̶o̶m̶

Previously Unpublished Rant from a Few Years Ago on Support Not Being a Thing

I just found this rant that I had written a few years ago and never published, on Support Engineer Not Being a Thing. I’ve since reconsidered a lot of the points and found them to be largely untrue. However, the unedited rant pasted below reminds me how, even though Support can be, and is, a thing, sometimes it *feels* like its not.

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“Is Support a thing? No, it is not a thing.

After some thought, Support is not a thing. Meaning Software Support Engineer or Software Customer Support Agent is not a thing. There is no college degree that leads up to it. It is an operational job like a military job. Events like UserConf is a product of its parent company. And SupportOps.co is close and I love it, but it is small, and its panelists are from software companies that market software to Support agents.
At the manager level, Support starts to become a thing. But at the agent level it is not a thing.
It’s a role one falls into, not one chooses.
What is the main point here? The point is Support is not a career, not a chosen profession, not a thing.”
——

Conclusion is that although Support can be a thing, and is a thing, sometimes, one in a support role can *feel* like it is not a thing and not a career.

Note: This post was pre-published on 2016-09-09.
Note: This post was re-pre-published on 2016-10-28.



[2019 edit: Moved to: https://i̶n̶v̶e̶s̶t̶o̶r̶w̶o̶r̶k̶e̶r̶.̶c̶o̶m̶/2016/... .html.]