Comment Start in the right place (Score 1) 613
If you want to get a foot in the door and eventualy become a developer, then start out as a software tester. Testers are known by the developers and PMs in charge of development. Support personnel, otoh, aren't generally known outside of their cubbies.
I did testing and support for over ten years, starting in the days of Windows 3.1. Back then (which really wasn't that long ago), you couldn't fake kills. There were very few databases of questions and answers, and you had to not only know Windows, you had to know DOS. You'd be surprised at how many applicants got shut out because they didn't know how to edit a config file via the DOS prompt. And that was a good thing, because the people that actually got the jobs were a lot more likely to know how to trouble shoot computers, operating systems and hardware. From my point of view, the worst thing that ever happened to tech support was Windows 95. Suddenly, anyone who could read a script out of an Access database was a Windows expert. If they ran into a problem that they couldn't find in the database, they'd have you format your machine.
It seems that your biggest issue is not knowing what you're doing -- your biggest issue is that you're not on the correct job tract. Get into testing if you want to start a dev career. Hell, even being a web designer/developer is a better choice than support.
Support -> Tech lead -> Management (which is non-tech)
Testing -> Junior dev -> Dev
I did testing and support for over ten years, starting in the days of Windows 3.1. Back then (which really wasn't that long ago), you couldn't fake kills. There were very few databases of questions and answers, and you had to not only know Windows, you had to know DOS. You'd be surprised at how many applicants got shut out because they didn't know how to edit a config file via the DOS prompt. And that was a good thing, because the people that actually got the jobs were a lot more likely to know how to trouble shoot computers, operating systems and hardware. From my point of view, the worst thing that ever happened to tech support was Windows 95. Suddenly, anyone who could read a script out of an Access database was a Windows expert. If they ran into a problem that they couldn't find in the database, they'd have you format your machine.
It seems that your biggest issue is not knowing what you're doing -- your biggest issue is that you're not on the correct job tract. Get into testing if you want to start a dev career. Hell, even being a web designer/developer is a better choice than support.
Support -> Tech lead -> Management (which is non-tech)
Testing -> Junior dev -> Dev
