Being last works

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Summary

I’ve worked in IT long enough to understand first, second, and third line support. The last line, the geeks, get shit done. I’ve realised that with my clients, I’m that last line of defence. Being that last person is freeing because people come to you when everything else fails, and you just fix it.

Raw

Being in IT for such a long time, I’ve worked in a lot of IT departments, companies and so on. And how they usually work, if someone contacts the support department or they need an issue resolved, you effectively, you usually get like first line support, second line support, third line support, right? And there’s offshoot of that, but that’s how it usually works.

The people who you call, for instance, if you called your guest company, telephone, They’re usually the first line, the front line support. Then you get a second line support who are, know a little bit more, but they’ve just been there a bit longer, so they’re kind of a little savvy as to how to read that manual. They don’t generally know how these things are built.

Then you get the third line support, the engineers, the writers, the developers, the people who actually built what you’re using. Once you get them, everything gets fixed literally within a snap. And they’re so geeky, they’re not the best people to speak with because they’re geeks. I know we’re all geeks sometimes in a way, but they are deep in the code, deep in the building of that thing.

So being the last is sometimes great. Speaking to the last person is sometimes great. Being the last person is sometimes great because you get that shit done. The thing that you need doing gets done. Now what I’ve realised is when I speak with my clients it seems like I’m the last line of defence. I am that third, um, that third tier effectively. And I, I think everyone needs to get to that stage. You need to be at that stage where people can come to you knowing that that problem they have will be fixed by you.

Because they’ve been to front line, they’ve, they’ve watched the videos, they’ve read the tweets, they’ve probably done a course. Then they go to the second line where these people who make the course actually try to speak to them and try to get convinced them into using a specific piece of software. Gets nowhere. And then they’re just looking for that geek, that third line, that last person to help them make it work.

And being that last person is so freeing in many ways. On the business side, you don’t have to do a lot of outreach because everyone kind of knows that you’re the guy to go to for that thing, and you’re the person to go to for that thing. And personally, for you, it’s actually great because you don’t have to worry so much as to how you portray yourself as to who you are and what you do.

So be that last person. Be that last line of defence. And for me it’s working out great. I love the fact that people understand what I do and they just contact you and say I’ve done everything, don’t fucking work, just do it for me, help me out here, just get it done. And being that last line of defence is fantastic.

So go forward and try to do that. It’s not easy. But if you know what you’re doing, it’s relatively easy. You can do it. It’s great to be there.

Let me know where you are in your journey. Are you first line? You’re learning. You’re getting the better. Or are you that person that people come to because that’s who you are and that’s what you do. That’s what your brand says. Let me know.