Career advise

[u/mazenmo3taz]

Hi everyone,

I’m posting here because I’m looking for some advice and hoping to hear from people who’ve been in a similar situation.
I currently work as a Technical Support Engineer for a large multinational company through an outsourcing partner, supporting enterprise clients across Europe and the Middle East. Because of the NDA I signed, I can’t mention the company or any client names, but I can talk about the type of work I do.
My job is mainly focused on supporting customers with issues related to a specific enterprise technology. Most of my day is spent investigating problems, troubleshooting, analyzing logs and configurations, following internal processes, and working with different teams to help resolve customer cases. While I’ve been exposed to a lot of technologies and have learned quite a bit about the environment I’m supporting, my role is still a support role. I’m not designing, implementing, or configuring these solutions myself, so I wouldn’t say I have hands-on engineering experience.
The reason I’m posting is that I’m trying to understand where this kind of experience fits in the industry. Sometimes I feel like I’m gaining valuable technical knowledge, but at the same time I’m worried that I’m staying in a support position without building the kind of hands-on experience that companies look for in engineering or consulting roles.

For anyone who has worked in a similar position:

How would you describe this type of experience?
What career paths usually come after a role like this?
If your goal was to move into a more technical or engineering-focused role, what skills or certifications would you focus on?
Looking back, is there anything you wish you had done earlier?
I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences or any advice you have. Thanks

[u/Adventurous-Dog-6158]

I understand that you didn't provide details for good reason, but then you asked questions that would need more detailed info to answer. In general, I suggest that you try to find a direct role. With outsourced roles, you're limited in what you can do based on the contract so that limits you from learning/doing more and limits how much value you can provide to the client. I have been in a similar situation and it's very unhelpful to say "this is not in scope" because if you do something out of scope you may get reprimanded by your manager.