This hits home to us all. Has everyone (anyone) noticed the new trend how the companies are hiring people to take care of their phone systems?

Just about every hiring ad I have seen (yes business has been slow for me) is for a network or technical support person who maintains the networks and maybe supports computers as the main job. Usually somewhere in the middle of the job duties description it reads something like "Support Nortel Meridian (or Avaya, etc) system- MACS and repairs".

Where are these people supposed to get this knowledge that we've spent years going to classes we paid for? Sure, if somebody documents the procedures - LD20> prt>2616> etc and all the steps, the average person can do things like add a phone. But when they need to do something like change trunk groups, add an area code, or anything beyond what is written down- forget it!

Things looked bad a few years back when GUI software was being made for users, so they supposedly wouldn't need a tech, but now it's even worse.

While this may be a sign of our bad economy, I believe this attitude is here here to stay. I would like to do something proactive to fight this- make people aware? But- would it make any difference?

Sorry for being long-winded (again) but this aggravates me.

I look at it in a different prospective. What the knowledgeable Telecom folks should do is be that person, figure out the IT stuff and your heads up on the IT people. Then do your stuff for multiple companies at a cheaper rate that the ones they hire that just work for them.
You need to move with the flow and not let it frustrate ya (don't let it rent any space in your head).

Not really a cheaper rate, you can get a good hourly rate and still cost them less cause you only work when they need you.

I concentrate on working the smaller offices, they can't afford full time IT people, and there are a lot more of them out there.
mark

That's what I meant, cheaper for them.

I learned data networking to keep up with voice/conversion. got my CCNA to learn VOIP effectively.
But, my gripe is that that the job classification me and thousands of other techs have done for years-Telephone Technician- looks like its being totally phased out.

Its kinda like everything else. Back in the day you had a milkman that deliverd milk to your door(or so I heard) Now he is no longer needed and adapted to society and migrated on to something else. Same thing with computers- how many jobs have been eliminated that a computer now does. So they layoff folks that are no longer needed and hire another to babysit those computers. It all comes full circle, but you must adapt or fail.

I don't think that this is anything new.
The Boston Globe ran a story about a year (maybe more, I can't find the link to it) ago listing the top 10 dead end professions. Telephone system tech was like #2 on he list. The Vast majority of people are under the missconception that if you know IT phone systems are a piece of cake.
I had another thread on here talking about how the market is flooded with all these IT guys in my area doing phone systems out of their trunks at cut throat prices.
In the short run it hurts, but one thing I am beginning to see is a lot f repair calls asking me to fix stuff these guys did.
I tripple my rate for these kinds of calls.

You have to be creative in how you market your services. Call on these adds and suggest that they should outsource the work.

Corwyn

You can catch more flies with honey than vineger. Make friends with the IT people in the businesses in your area. I show the IT people how to do all the little things that the companies hate to pay a service call for.
Like changing a name on a telephone or making a new mailbox. We all incourage companies to use their It people when we go in for two minutes and change a name and charge $65. I know you can't do it for less but why do it at all. Show the IT guy how to do it, let him be the hero on that stuff and get him to send you the big jobs. You will have a person on the inside pulling for you. This has worked well in our area.

no shortage of phone technicians in NYC & NJ....

I like the way you think Corwyn. Creative thinking to increase monies instead of losing money is the ticket.
..now, if only I can design my own DTMF to DSL box, I can compete with all the other Voice over Broadband companies....

I can appreciate your frustrations...but I agree with the general consensus that we telephone techs need to adapt. The convergence between traditional voice and the IT world hasn't happened overnight...you gotta get out there and start getting yourself into the next gen technologies. I don't "befriend" It people myself, only because they have stuck it to me too many times in the past. You need to bring yourself to peer status with them to have any chance to survive. It sucks, but we have the advantage if we play our resources correctly.

sh config all

we will need to adapt. More money is made via Data networks than telephone lines. You will see a migration towards an umbiguous network. It won't happen overnight, and not in the next 5 years either, but one day will. So be prepared to change. In the meantime, there is still plenty of good old telephone business outthere. Just start intergrating stuff slowly. One thing I am providing for my customers is a combination voice/data T-1. I am also handling some basic networking stuff for my smaller clients. If I was a better IT guy, I could land some of those jobs that advertise for a person to handle both, but I am working on it.