Asking this on behalf of my cousin brother who broke down on me this week.
He is 42 now and is into IT support but given his age, by now he should have been working on the position of a manager or somewhere high up the ladder into management but he still is kinda stuck with his usual IT support work.
He seems to be lost and would like the push up the ladder to come out of the support work. He has excelled at Microsoft support, vmware, citrix, patch management, vulnerability remediation, azure, client billing etc.
He indirectly have managed projects and teams but just the jobs given or delegated to him by his managers so indirectly he has a very good exposure on leading teams, managing clients, billing, escalations and so on.
He is very much underpaid if compared with the market norms and standards given his exp. of 15 years while even his juniors or peers earn way more than him.
He is settled, married, kid, his own house, car and all but now he feels its high time he should be doing something else he fears he might retire doing the same chores he has been doing till now. He is the sole earner in his house.
Yes, he has been trying to apply for slight higher position like team leads but hirers ask for ex-exp into same position so ends up getting offers for same support jobs.
Hence here for guidance from you guys as the majority of the masses here are into IT and can help guide him on the certification and paths which can do some justice to his stuck career.
Ideally he should look to switch and apply for better positions, keep doing this every 2 years till he reaches his desired salary/position. As for certifications, there are numerous from VMWARE, Azure, AWS. He can start collecting the certificates as he applies. Also since he has alot of experience, he can opt for management certificates like PMP(project management), ITIL(Service Management), CISSP and CISM(security and governance). Certs should open doors through recruiters and help him get through ATS systems. Also since you mentioned vulnerability remediation, if he is into cyber sec, OSCP is a popular certificate amongst people in that field.
His co. got 90 days notice period and the hiring cos. ask for immediate joining or 15-30 day max.
Itil is on the cards but what he thinks is merely earning a cert isnt going to land him direct job as the position will ask for an exp. in say Itil CISM etc.
Your cousin’s situation is common in infra/support, and he isn’t stuck, he just needs a few focused changes. The main issue hurting him right now is the 90-day notice period; most companies filter these profiles automatically. If he can negotiate it down to 60 days or at least indicate that he can manage a 30–45 day join with partial buyout, his shortlisting will improve immediately. He should avoid going directly for people-manager roles because Indian HR filters heavily by past titles. Targeting roles like Infra/Cloud Technical Lead, Senior Infra Engineer (L3), Incident/Major Incident Manager, Azure Infra Specialist, or Vulnerability Management (remediation) is more realistic and usually comes with better compensation. For certifications, he should focus on short-term ROI such as ITIL 4 Foundation and AZ-104 (cloud infra ops; currently the most useful for shortlisting), and consider VMware VCP only if he already works deeply on that stack. A rewritten CV that highlights ownership, incident handling, coordination, patching/vulnerability remediation, and client interactions. These will also make a big difference. In the long run, once he has a Lead/Incident/Azure role on paper, he can aim for Service Operations Lead, Cloud Ops Manager, or Vulnerability Management Lead, which are natural progressions from his background. This overall approach should give him movement within a few months while still keeping a solid growth path ahead.
Agreed but he wants to move to a manager or service delivery manager role as he is done doing and serving the same mechanical like jobs. He wants to lead technically but without actually doing anymore direct technical work but leading teams and drive projects.
And the technical roles are mostly 24x7 and it has already taken a toll on his health and now given his age 42 yrs he wishes to stabilize in a company for a longer run before he retires maybe in the next 2 cos.
I understand the aspiration, but moving into people-management without prior formal leadership roles is rarely offered. Companies don’t create manager positions simply because someone wants to step away from hands-on work. A transition is still possible, but it has to be staged through roles that demonstrate ownership and leadership on paper. Once he secures one of those titles, he becomes a viable candidate for the non-technical leadership path he’s aiming for.
I am exact age of your cousin brother and looking for a change in job. I feel underpaid (but my company thinks otherwise as it is one of Indian IT ones). I even asked my ex-colleague / friend from a previous Indian IT company who says I won’t be paid what I am expecting as I am already in higher side of salary bracket for the role they will offer me.
The 90 days notice period is the biggest thing holding right now it seems. Ironically, the companies that want less notice period folks themselves have 90 days notice period. I am certified in some of the latest technologies in my domain and do technical delivery and full hands-on work and still getting 0 calls.
I have updated my resume on Naukri and have the “open to work” badge displayed on LinkedIn. Nothing is working out. I have even put my request in the careers and employment thread here and bump it every week once.
For you brother, i suggest to see if he can keep sharpening his skills and such and keep applying. Also, as you told, he has got family, own house, car and all. Esp if he has no EMI to pay, he is actually sorted. There is no harm in doing same work all life if it paying decent and you are also comfortable as you know the stuff.
It is great to be ambitious and keep challenging yourself but then not all want to do it and it is ok I feel.
The Indian IT companies have entered into a kind of a holding pattern because of the uncertainty around the use of AI. The general expectation is for jobs involving manual work being automated en masse, and even productivity around coding improving significantly using copilots.
If the HIRE bill passes in the US, that will also significantly impact the Indian IT companies. The older Indian IT model of throwing people and hours for cheap at migrations or support will definitely no longer be sustainable. The sucking up of capital by only the AI companies has also impacted a lot of other companies and industries around the globe.
People who have moved out of these Indian IT companies into the GCC ones managed to get a raise but are also stuck having to put in 12 hours a day or working on weekends to be safe about their job, disrupting their family life very badly.
Overall, just isn’t a very healthy time career-wise for most in Indian IT companies.
Do you think moving into the client’s organization (which is primarily a manufacturing company but has IT department running large projects with likes of infy, TCS, Oracle, Capgemini etc) is a good idea?
This makes me move out of IT service companies. I am not getting any job in my client company but it is something I am considering.
It could be, but think about why the client is hiring through IT service companies instead of building their own internal team. In most manufacturing organizations, unless they are very large enterprises with significant IT needs, there’s usually limited demand for in-house IT support. Even then, many large companies still outsource much of their IT to service providers. Your best move would be to look for a software product or cloud-based organization where IT support is critical and continuous. However, even in such environments, the hierarchy may be flat with limited growth unless you target companies with structured IT career paths—e.g., Microsoft, AWS, or large financial or telecom firms. If you plan to stay in IT support/services, prioritize organizations with clear upward mobility, or consider pivoting to related domains like cloud, network, or ICT roles, where your IT support experience can be an advantage.
I previously worked in IT support domain (L1 through L3). By the time I reached 7 years of total exp, I made a decision to study-certify-jump knowing the writing was on the wall. This was about 10 years ago.
For that exp, employers expect you to be in engineering, service delivery, project management or service ownership. IMO, he need to up skill on those technologies he is already familiar with and move to engineering role with the existing employer, spend some time ( say 6-18 months) and apply outside. Example: If he is good at VMware support, he can explore their learning path starting from VCTA to VCDX.
What i would suggest is to keep learning and upskilling but in their areas of interest. As someone who has conducted a decent amount of interviews i have always looked for people with a certain level of zeal and passion for what they do and believe in. Along with the certifications what i would suggest is to come up with an idea or build something on your own using the knowledge that you have gained.
All the best in finding the jobs but a 90 day notice is absurd. The govt should enact laws so as to protect the people who form a large chunk of the tax paying group.
Peeps mentioning here about getting certified, its not an easy road.
Its easy to get certified but when you apply for such jobs the HR backfires saying aka asking if you got relevant exp. for the ex position and for the certification you did for eg: PMP.
Doing PMP doesn’t guarantees or lands you directly in a managerial grade position or higher levels else every tom dick hairy would have been sitting on these roles.
Also if you do any cloud based certs you are anyways going to start from scratch irrespective of you working under a cloud architect and handling most of the biz unless the exp. and skills reflect on your cvs.
I practically do not believe in getting lamely certified unless you have actually work on those domains and technologies and at least have competent to proficient level of expertise which can be even showcased in your resume and does reflects one you site and interact at such interviews.