Tech Support, the Spartans of the IT world

I have been working in support departments for more than 10 years, playing at different levels, Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, Manager, etc. And one thing I have been thinking recently is this job is very similar to being a Spartan in the IT industry. Is not for everyone.

Is something about passion to dig into issues, something about watching black boxes and interpreting how they work and what we can expect from them. Something about understanding a lot of different worlds, like networking, programming, Sysops, FrontEnd, BackEnd, etc. sometimes even psychology, when trying to think how the customers are thinking.

The Spartans were known for being separated to become soldiers since they were kids, and once they were able to become soldiers, they had to live their entire lives differently. In support, you need to have discipline, because the entire company expects there is always someone defending the wall, so your shifts tend to be a little more strict than other engineering areas. In support we don′t fight for the credit, we fight for the company, even sometimes the credit is taken by others, we don′t care about it. In the office, while other people can be celebrating, sometimes we just can′t, we are taking care of something in real-time, but this is what we live for. So, when you plan to be part of a support team, you are planning to be a Spartan. When you go and take a ticket “Come back with your shield – or in it” (Plutarch, Mor. 241)