Have you looked in the south? Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta, and the like are all growing very quickly.

Cost of living is much less in those areas, too.

Too hot down there :(

Tech support (phone) and IT are different in my opinion.

Almost ALL Tech Support sucks ***.. specially phone support. I work with a group of 4 guys now and I take 2 phone calls a day if that from our employees. I can just go to their workstation and fix things with them. My primary duties as 'Hardware Manager' are to do all things hardware... building new PC'*.. installing servers, switches, etc. I get to play with all the new hardware and then move on to more new hardware.

My customer interaction level is very low.. and even when it'* high, it'* all of the 50 employees we have here and everyone is cool about stuff. There are no quotas, etc.

Thank you. That'* the point I've been trying to make. Maybe I was being too delicate in my wording!

Well, the interview went great as far as me answering questions, etc. and making a good impression. The job however, sucks. More of the same mundane tasks with worse working conditions (seven people in a room that should probably house four max.) and only slightly better salary. Plus, the interviewer said she didn't really care for her job a lot (???) and that I would essentially be her right-hand man. Factor that in with the fact that she spoke poorly about an employee because everyone praises him for doing a good job and you can see why I'm not too excited.

I've got an opportunity that I've kept on the back burner while I sorted this stuff out. It'* a drafting job at a friend'* company with some IT mixed in on the side supporting two small offices as the need arises. I had some reservations about it for a couple of reasons but those are starting to look less severe the more I interview for bad jobs. I'm going to contact the hiring manager this afternoon.

Man, sounds like you passed up a heck of an opportunity there... Way to seel a position, huh???

Yah really. I still put on a smiley face through the whole thing regardless!

Just like this guy >>>

...even though I was like this on the inside >>>

Wow, sounds exactly what I did!

I was an engineer/drafter for a millwright company, pretty much inventing things on a daily basis (the nature of millwright, rigging). It paid failry well, as I was also the Network Administrator (not much of one, 12 PC'* on a mixed environment workgroup ).

Then I, too, took a pay cut to get my foot in the door at a communications company (Windstream Communications, although it was Alltel'* landline/DSL until July of '06). My pay increased, but not near what I was being paid before, and never was able to get out of taking calls all day. The part I started in was the DSL tech support. We're all pretty much level 2 support starting out, beginning with a 4-week training (pretty much just to learn their applications, and their way of networking). It was a crash-course, and many didn't make it through.

Oh my goodness, the stories I could tell of the customers that called into that place needing technical support...

Anyway, last August, a disk herniated in my neck. I still went to work day in and day out with a herniated disk for the next 4 months. Finally, at the end of December, I just couldn't work anymore, and have been disabled since, now with cubital tunnel syndrome, and something causing the entire left side of my body to go weak (my doctor and two neurologists are stumped). I walk with a cane now.

I just want my life back...

I hear ya! Hope you get better soon man.

Not really. You're doing basically the same thing, only you're having to talk someone through it instead of doing it yourself.

Besides, that'* exactly how many company'* IT personnel start out.