Job Responsibilities
As lead software engineer my major responsibility is to make sure
that our group provides a high level of systems and applications
support to one of our largest clients 2500+ locations in the US,
Canada, and Mexico. To achive this I spend approx 4 hours a week
on conference calls that are internal to Getronics and 10 hours
per week on conference calls and email conversations with the
client. Since we are a support orgranization I spend 1 hour per
week making sure that the our standby coverage will be in place
for the upcoming weekends and holidays. I spend the remaining time
of approx 25 hours providing technical support to the engineers on
my team, hardware field support engineers, our clients engineering
group, and working employees at the client locations. This is all
done via phone, email, and remote connection into thier systems.
We provide 3rd level support to our client. After going through 2
levels of client internal support we get the call.
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Job Requirements
When we look for new engineers we look at potential employees who
have one or more of the following, BS degree in computer science
or Management Information Systems; Experience level (which can be
used in conjunction with or in replacement of formal education);
personality - how well this potential employee can interface with
others; understanding - how well the potential employee
understands the industry in general; and versatility - the ability
to multi-task. Normally work hours do not exceed 40 hours per week
with some weekend standby availablility. But there is an
understanding that there might be times where work could exceed
this based on the complexity and urgency of a clients situation.
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Uppers
Versatility - As most support organizations there are times of feast and times
of famine. One moment a person can be extremely busy to the point of
overloading,
then there times when everything seems to working well and the workload is
light.
These time affords the opportunity to pursue technical advancement
opportunities,
study new technologies, and upgrade education status. Fix something of extreme
importance and you are an instant hero. Situations are never the same so there
is
a lot of varity in the position. You are not stuck doing the same thing day in /
day out.
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Downers
Major problems such as client systems not operating will cause the
client and your management to put extreme pressure on you to get
things operating correctly. This may require staying into the wee
hours of the morning to fix something. As fast as you can become a
hero, you can become the poorest excuse for an engineer.
Sometimes support type organizations are overlooked when it comes
to learning new technologies.
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Lifestyle
This field provides many different opportunities available and
allows one to switch careers without switching fields. One can go
from a computer hardware engineer to an international software
consultant to a developer to a support engineer all with different
responsibilites and challenges. I believe support provides the
most versatility and the opportunity for different challenges. One
moment you can be fixing an application problem the next you can
be trying to determine network problems. I believe that the
joboutlook for the support area is excellent and that as
technology grows and changes so will the support field.
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Compensation
The starting salary for these positions start in the mid 20's for
entry level engineers and can increase to the mid 90's. When
business good there are semi to yearly bonuses. There are also
recogition awards with monetary compensation attached. Stocks
options are available. Benefits include 2 - 4 weeks vacation, 4
personal holidays, 401K, a variety of full medical and dental
plans, pretax medical and daycare savings peograms, several
company holidays throughout the year, Employee discount programs,
full service cafeteria, full service exercise room, excellent
company on-line education programs, disability, stock purchase
plans, and saving bonds purchase plans.
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Advice to Jobseekers
This field provides many different opportunities available and
allows one to switch careers without switching fields. One can go
from a computer hardware engineer to an international software
consultant to a developer to a support engineer all with different
responsibilites and challenges. I believe support provides the
most versatility and the opportunity for different challenges. One
moment you can be fixing an application problem the next you can
be trying to determine network problems. I believe that the
joboutlook for the support area is excellent and that as
technology grows and changes so will the support field.
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