[c-nsp] telecommuting support jobs for BGP guys?

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net
> [mailto:cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net]On Behalf Of Roy
> Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2008 9:08 AM
> To: cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net
> Subject: Re: [c-nsp] telecommuting support jobs for BGP guys?
> 
> 
> It isn't just BGP jobs.  I do routers, switches, firewalls, VPNs, etc.
> 

The problem is your competing against all the other guys out there
who will do on-site support PLUS telecommuting support.  A company
that has some telecommuting infrastructure work is going to ask
their on-site consultant about it first - and just about all of them
would be foolish not to take it on, as it's far less time consumptive.

My employer does on-site computing and infrastructure support and
when we first get a relationship going with a customer, we agressively
move their network to a mode where it can be remotely administered.
A common scenario is after a couple years any time there is a problem,
with either a router, a desktop, a software install on a desktop,
a server, you name it - we can completely solve it remotely without
having to go on site, and the few things that have to be on site (like
someone unplugs a network cable) we can usually talk the user through
solving over the phone.

Naturally, those customers are our cash cows, and we agressively
protect them.  We aren't going to spend a couple years of hard and
minimally-profitable work, burning up tech time on driving to and
from the site, training customers to "unlearn" their expectations
that every time they get an error message on the screen they deserve
a tech sitting next to them as a response, and getting their network
into a model where we can actually make decent money supporting it,
only to turn over the fruits of our labor to a consultant who never
leaves his house.

Sorry to sound harsh, but telecommuting jobs like your looking for
are carved out by people who start off on-site.

Blame the current generation of business managers who mostly learned
how to manage people by seeing them sitting at their desks.  It takes
a long time for an employee (or consultant) to build up the kind of
trust with these people for them to allow them to go off and work
where they cannot see them.

Maybe in another 2-3 generations things might change but I doubt
any of us will be around then.

Ted