Currently a TAC engineer but have the opportunity to move over to HTOM soon. Which is the better place to be during a recession or layoffs?
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If you are over 45, You can switch to HTOM as all you will be doing is to chase people around looking for an update. Zero absolutely Zero technical skills in this role... It's just a good retirement position.
A safe place to be is in a job were you put in the work and do a great job. If you suck, neither job is safe. If you’re good, they both are. Pretty simple
As an HTOM, like any job, you can become extremely valuable to your team and your customer or you can coast. If you put in the effort to care about the customer, have empathy for them etc and act on their behalf - its a great job and well respected. If you want to just punch a time clock like a bunch of the folks who wine on this board you'll be valued as such.
A lot of people here dunking on HTOMs but the reality is a lot of fu----s can’t hold a conversation even if someone held a g-n to their head. Now with that being said if you are both technical and a people person, you really shouldn’t have a problem holding a job even if it’s not at Cisco.
Neither. Although, skills as a operations dweeb is going to possibly keep you employed longer or easier to find a job. HTOMs are nothing more than admins running down little petty issues and reports.
Being technical is always better as you can adapt and become an HTOM if you had to but it’s harder become an engineer. Technical skills are more sought out for on the market as well.
I can’t remember the last time they axed a lot of HTOMs so…
Most of the HTOMs I’ve met actually like their jobs
That's like asking if you'd rather live in North Korea or Iran
HTOM it is
Tac used to be a safe haven till 2 years ago 2 centers closed. Seems like many other things tac is now also playing the corporate game of lr. The question which you should ask yourself if where you want to go long term. Doing engineering/technical stuff or otherwise. The answer to this question should be the primary driver of your dilemma.
That being said as I did not have any form of sarcasm before in this thread , I haven’t met a htom in years of cx who didn’t say “how can I help” whilst you know the were and are clueless on the technical side of things and hence it was a irrelevant question.
Never met an HTOM that wasn’t clueless so probably HTOM