So, here i am after 10 years, having been a mobile desktop support engineer. Not a bad one too. Team leader on rollouts for major clients and 3 months after having a disciplinary (told an African numpty to Fxxx off home---------------- to Leeds) they have made me a hardware engineer. I am a qualified MCSE in 2000. Hp accredited, Toshiba accredited, Hp accredited on Servers, Desktop and laptop. In the last 3 months i have now been accredited in all of the HP printer range. 9000 MFP`s, mono and colour laser printers and also IBM servers, laptops and desktops. Don`t get me wrong the job is great, home for 3`O`clock most days but, do you think it`s fair to cover hardware and software? I feel like i`m a Jack of all trades but master of none. Guess that`s IT all round. It`s the future i am told.

Depends where you want your career to lead I suppose.

It sounds like your job is all hardware break/fix, is that correct? In which case do you use the MCSE knowledge you have?

Yes. I do use the MCSE knowledge i have and yes i am HW/BF, thing is i don`t know where my career is headed. Don`t get me wrong i was happy plodding along managing and implementing 1000+pc rollouts, Exchange support, Help Desk Support. Every day was different. Guess just like contracting> But now i have Team Leaders that no FA about IT and more about business. Should be pleased really as most IT colleagues i know steer clear of printers and now to me they are a piece of cake. Wether setting up print queues or changing the formatter board. Most people in IT i know are responsible for a certain part of the infrastucture and have teams dedicated to them. Web, Network, Helpdesk ETC. I can do them all and am happy doing the job i have been assigned.

Just really putting the feelers out to see if my company is setting a trend.

I have at least 8 recertifications to take every year just to keep up to speed. (boring)

In my job (as a theatre technician), people have traditionally been specialised to one disipline, be it sound, lighting, carpentry, flying etc.

But recently there's been a big rush to make everyone "multi-skilled". It's basically to save them money.

I'm fine with it, having come up through years of am-dram where you have to be multi-skilled, but some of the old-timers are having difficultly with certain things now.

Ho-hum

Hi Mouse, I've worked for my comapny for nearly 8 years now & it depends on what team your in within the department on if your role is very broad or more speiclised. The lower levels of support tend to be wider ranging & when you get up to MCSE/A levels it tends to be more focesed. But then again we are only just moving from NT4 to AD!

Seems to be the way that IT's going these days. More non-techie staff coming in, who know nothing but claim to be menagers, while those of us with a bit of nous are becoming a rare species.

The problem with hardware is that it's more and more a commodity, with little value (and I speak an ex hardware bod myself), so you need more software skills to support it. Unless you find a real niche part of the business (which I have) you're just another engineer (no offense meant).

The only way out seems to management or going to a more specific techie role. You sond as though you're a kind of IT General Practitioner at the moment, when you probably need to specialize and become a consultant!

Phil

I used to be a technician for a school and before that worked for a small company so ended up doing everything satellite systems for motor dealers, websites, cabling, Windows, Novell, desktop everything.

Now the Information Security Officer here where I need to have done ^ because anything can come up.

I multi task in my job as a communications sales engineer, I had to make that up as I don't know my actual job title. today I:

Visited a customer first thing to quote for a cabling job

Then I went to an Age Concern branch to determine why their line was noisy, faulty router which led me to have to carry out some jiggery pokery with their network so they could access the server when they didn't have a working DHCP server.

Off to another customer to connect a call logger to a telephone system, more fannying about with routers as it was an NHS site and I couldn't connect the call logger PC to their network, it had to go through the business centres network.

Back to the office to find some messages to call potential customers and offer advice on what they need.

Draft quotations to their specs and email them out.

Catch any overflow calls if they appear on my phone.

Off to London tomorrow to install the voice and data network in some portacabins.

My boss described me as golden balls to a supplier the other week

Lol @ Goldenballs. Thanks for all the comments. Seems i may be stuck in a middle age mindset. Gonna take a good luck in the mirror this morning and appreciate the pros more rather than the cons.

Hey least they are getting you the certifications to go with all this.

Totally agree with you that you are expect to know and do everything but after all everything in IT is the same isnt it