Ask HN: Will a support engineer position hurt my career as a software engineer?

I may be an oddball, but I expect engineers at at startup to help with support, and would absolutely hire someone who had worked in a support role over someone who hadn't if they're otherwise equally qualified.

The experience is super valuable - especially if you leave with a spidey-sense for what product features and UI gimmicks will cause users the most trouble. It's way better (and cheaper!) to fix issues like that during development than after a product has been released.

So much stuff released now is frankly user-hostile. Hidden, undiscoverable but essential actions and controls, and needless complicated interactions. Ugh.

It is more efficient to know what product features and UI gimmicks cause the most trouble getting an aggregate of feedback from multiple support people. One of my first jobs I was the lead and sole UI engineer for a startup that had about 15 people doing UI training and support. In addition to filed bugs they'd deliver me summaries of the paint points along with ideas on things we could improve.

The support engineering role can vary from organization to organization. In a support role, you probably won't grow all your coding skills as fast as if you worked full-time developing. You will get good at debugging and some other aspects of development, but you will likely build less and grow less in some areas (unless you spend time during or outside work building). You will still grow, though.

These roles can pay less, it depends. Your market rate is largely a function of interviewing skill and negotiating skill. Work on both of those. Keep interviewing and find the right fit somewhere. Sell yourself (technical and non-technical skills). Did you lead a team at your previous company? What value can you add to projects in your potential new job?

Ask 3 at interviews - "How many support engineers in the past year now work 75%+ time building software for people, internal or external?" If there are previous support engineers, that will give you insight.

Keep practicing your interviewing. You may need to learn some node and a latest (e.g. React, Angular) front-end library. One way to demonstrate is by building a small project, hosted on GitHub, which shows you can build software. These two things (especially interviewing better) is very likely the only thing between you and the job you want (full-time software engineer).

Ways to interview better include practicing white boarding by doing algorithm problems. Think out loud during that, and ask clarifying questions. Same with onsite coding- think out loud, ask clarifying questions.

You have cs degree from a top school, and some entrepreneurial experience. These have value. Many roles are open to you- find one that's a good fit for your and your employer's sake.

Referrals will help you, too. Having an advocate inside the company who knows you will make it more likely to give you a chance.

Good luck!

I would wait it out and look for a true software engineer position somewhere else. With a BS from a top school, startup and management experience under your belt you should be a solid candidate for software or product management jobs and shouldn't have to settle for support engineer.

From what I've gathered a support engineer is a combination between a QA engineer and an applications engineer, both of which are considered to be way less technical than a SWE. You likely wouldn't be responsible for new feature development at all as a support engineer.

In general they're not on the same ladder, so it's not a natural transition from support to software engineer. Like you mentioned, you'll have to settle for quite a bit of a pay difference, which will still exist if you transition within the same company. However, if it's absolutely your only way of getting your foot in the door at this company and you're set on working there, it may be something to consider.

No, it shouldn't but it depends.

You need to find the right position for you, if possible find a company where support engineers have moved on to software engineering roles.

If you are rusty, you'll want a role that will give you the ability to develop the skills you're lacking to get a SWE role.

There are a lot of different things support engineers do and it will vary wildly between companies. A bulk in my experience are very weak on the engineering side, so it may help to join as an early support engineer on a team that will allow you to have some autonomy.

Edit: Also consider how much time it will take you to become a SWE if you're working full time, versus how long it would take if you dedicated yourself to brushing up on skills and interview prep full time.

1. Customer success / support is fine in combination with other skill sets that are higher value such as SWE. But I would still say that the employer history is more important. For example, I'd rather be a customer support engineer at Google than an architect at a terrible, no-name software company or one of ill repute.

2. It can widen your perspective into how to better write more maintainable / usable software but it won't help you a lick for getting through first or second round interviews with reputable software companies that drill you on algorithms and code fluency.

3. I've only ever seen customer support engineers promote up to managers in my experience. In my case, I was hired on as a team lead for a combination of support and operations and after burning out I'm starting my own gig with some lessons and insight I may not have learned otherwise. I wasn't held back so much by technical ability as much as runway saved up and finding a set of ideas I could imagine committing up to a decade of my life on. However, the loss of fluency in coding over time ironically makes it take longer for me to get out an MVP than if I had just pumped out code for years.

Be extremely careful with not very well defined positions regardless of title - they can quickly become "do everything other people don't like to do" jobs that burn you out with few real skills of actual business or technical value. It is truly a sacrifice for anyone with potential to do speak up and just go do some of that work, and most companies have zero capability of recognizing when that's happening both large and small. Would you feel bad giving John Carmack a job telling customers how to fix their IPC/SPX networks to play Doom or resetting keys for people that misplaced them? Because that's what these jobs can devolve into if you don't have the right support behind you and a management team that knows when someone is actually overqualified versus being slightly underpaid / good value (overqualified is a terrible value long term because they will quit fast and the churn costs you valuable time / resources).

There are very few people IMO that match the balance of empathy, technical skill level, and tolerance for terrible things. Despite great reviews and high customer satisfaction, I consider myself terrible at it.

I think seeing all the different stages of software development help you as a developer. Nothing like supporting a legacy platform that was written with good intentions, and best practice at the time - and understand whats worked and hasnt worked.

You can also get closer to the users - which is interesting to see how software and changes affect them

Let's be honest, yes you will hurt yourself. Most engineers will look down on you, and once the market tightens up you won't pass the resume-smell-test. It's not fair, but it's the truth.

If you're serious about being a developer, then get a developer job, don't do customer support.

Is "customer success" related to sales?

I had a gig like that many years ago that had a commission component that paid very well.

Depending on the company, but in general customer success is post sale. It can involve things like up sell and cross sell, but this usually isn't relevant to support engineers.

I turned down a candidate with only support role experience. Wasn't because of the role itself.

He didn't know how to code.