How is the world of IT Field Service changing in terms of the types of jobs which are available?
Carl Clough is an IT Field Service Engineer with more than twenty years of experience. He started his career working on IBM I series (AS/400) and P series (RS/600). In this article, Carl focuses on the changes there have been in IT Field Service and what it is like for someone who is job hunting. Carl is a Simulation Engineer for RTI Ltd and works in France and Ireland.

What are IT field service engineering jobs like now?

Introduction

So, it’s been two years since I was made redundant from a fantastic job as an IT field service engineer. I was working in the world of large IBM and other enterprise systems hardware. There have been no jobs in the two years since leaving my post that are remotely close to what I did. Plus, I don’t expect to see any in the future.

Data Centres

The world of going into Data Centres seems to be a shrinking market. I noticed my customer base shrinking with the advent of the cloud. Many companies now don’t have computers on site as they have for most of my career. Instead, they just store everything in the cloud.

Cost

The other factor in the shrinking market is the cost of maintaining a server. When I looked after an IBM System/38 in 1989 the maintenance would be around £50,000 a year and with peripherals it would be around £80,000 a year. Today the annual maintenance of a HP server is about £50 a year! As most servers are using virtual machines there is not much urgency on most calls even if a server is down. As well, parts that used to require a service callout are now Customer Replaceable Units (CRU) e.g. disks and memory (e.g. DIMMs dual-in-line-memory modules). Therefore, the need for a hardware engineer has become far less crucial.

Globalisation and IT Field Service Jobs

Business has also become more globalised with more SMEs being part of a global business or owned by a venture capital company. In these cases, the IT policy is dictated from the other side of the world. So, it was becoming harder to build relationships with the local IT department, as good service was something IT managers were no longer prepared to pay for.

IT Field Service Engineer to job as Operations Analyst

My first attempt at work was as an Operations Analyst. This involved sitting at a computer screen for twelve-hour shifts. This was a disaster for me. To be honest, I hated every minute and after 35 years out on the road to be sat looking at a screen all day was really difficult. So, I left for a less well-paid job back on the road.

Back to an IT Field Service job

I started working with printers, chip and pin, and PCs and I loved it. However, the company I worked for had no idea how to run a business and they cared little for the staff. For example, a colleague was attacked in a road rage incident, and they docked him half a day’s pay for being unconscious. The good part was that I worked with a great bunch of people and was happy to be back on the road again. I only left because I thought they were in financial trouble and two weeks after I left, they went into administration. Most of the staff lost money.

The railway industry and IT field service jobs

My current role is in the world of railways. My friends think I have the best job in the world because it is so quiet, but I just want to be on the road. I will stay for now and see if I can get into a routine that suits me. Although trains for me are not the best way of getting about, you can at least have a snooze.

Lessons learned looking for IT Field Service jobs

So, what have I learned in the last two years looking for IT field service engineering work? There are nine key things.

1. Computer engineers are no longer the best paid. If you want to be a field engineer, there is better kit to work on that pays a lot more.
2. Personally, I hate shift work and working weekends.
3. I don’t want to look at a screen all day.
4. The low paid jobs I saw advertised when first looking have had three or four rounds of hiring engineers. In my opinion, the most likely cause of this is that people take these roles while looking for a permanent job. These companies must spend a lot on recruitment and training. If they spent it on wages, they would make the staff and customers happier.
5. There is a lot less money in computer maintenance these days.
6. Having a nice car doesn’t matter to me in the slightest.
7. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.
8. It’s tough getting an interview if you are over fifty.
9. Job adverts like you to read five pages of what perks you get before they tell you what the job actually involves.

I get a phone call at least once a week offering me a job that involves setting up Microsoft products for end users. A lot of job agents have no idea how to read a CV and don’t understand the terms. Often HR people don’t seem to understand it either. I love being a field engineer it’s all I have ever wanted to do, so thanks for reading my blog and I hope it wasn’t too depressing.

Be careful out there and love being a field engineer, the greatest job in the world.

Further reading

IT field engineering transferable skills
Life and challenges of an Ophthalmic Field Service Engineer

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