What is a service engineer? Explains the annual income, future potential, and the reason why it is said to stop

1. What is a service engineer?

What does a service engineer do?

This time,

I will explain each in detail.

1.1 Definition of service engineer

A service engineer is also the “goalkeeper” of an IT system . The main role is to maintain and operate the system, and basically it is involved in maintenance, monitoring, and operation after the system is released . In some cases, we participate in the design stage to estimate the required functions by calculating back from maintenance and operation, and in some cases, we participate in testing.

This position aims to keep the system running stably and continuously, and is in charge of a wide range of maintenance-related tasks, from management, monitoring, maintenance, and operation to responding to customer inquiries, troubleshooting, and improving services .

1.2 Job description of service engineer

There are four main jobs for service engineers.

Basically, my main job is to help customers use the service smoothly .

1.2.1 Service maintenance / operation / monitoring

The first is system maintenance, operation, and monitoring. I am in charge of designing the maintenance / operation work environment and work method for stable operation of the service, creating shifts, managing the team, and directing. It also includes suggestions for improvements to improve maintainability and robustness .

For service engineers of companies that handle embedded development, in addition to the above, installation support (installation, etc.), periodic inspections, operation / quality tests , etc. are also included. In addition to the introduction of IT systems, the installation and setting of hardware devices such as personal computers and routers, and wiring such as LANs will be within the scope of business depending on the company.

1.2.2 Responding to customer inquiries

Business includes answering phone calls and emails from customers, responding to questions, and responding to complaints.

1.2.3 Troubleshooting

If a customer inquiry is caused by a system problem, investigating the cause and responding to it is also part of our business. In the case of a web application, we test whether the customer’s error can be reproduced in our environment, and if it can be reproduced, check the code of the relevant part or check if there is any mistake in the code. Even if there is no problem in the relevant part, if an error occurs, investigate whether there is a cause in another part. In the case of a device error in embedded development, we will go out, start up, perform maintenance, etc. to deal with it. Therefore, you will need a quick response to your customer needs.

1.2.4 Service improvement

Troubleshooting and customer inquiries are also included in the business, and it is also required to work on service improvement based on improvement proposals made in-house.

1.3 Service engineers are divided into “administrators” and “operators”

Service engineers are mainly divided into “administrators” and “operators”. I will explain each in detail.

1.3.1 Administrator

The administrator (manager) manages the overall maintenance and operation of the system . The scope of work is wide, including planning such as “designing how to proceed with work and creating shifts” for maintenance and operation, managing whether maintenance and operation are being carried out smoothly, responding to problems and issues, and considering improvements. It covers a wide range of activities such as implementation.

1.3.2 Operator

Unlike managers, operators are often divided according to the area / role they are in charge of. For example, “Inquiry window” and “Support staff” .

“Help desk” and “technical support” are also included in the operator’s domain, and in each case, the ultimate goal is ” to keep the system running stably and continuously and to make customers use it comfortably. ” To support for. ” Therefore, it is said to be the “goalkeeper” or unsung hero of IT systems.

2. Skills and appropriateness required for service engineers

The following three skills and suitability are required for service engineers.

I will explain each in detail.

2.1 Programming skills

Service engineers do not code their own products to develop their own products, but technical skills are often required during the Q & A and troubleshooting stages . When a bug is reported, it is necessary to take proactive action such as trying to reproduce the bug in your own environment.

For embedded development, knowledge of hardware as well as software is required. Service monitoring requires knowledge of infrastructure, and it is desirable to have knowledge of test automation .

2.2 Management skills

Since troubleshooting is included in the scope of work, unexpected troubles often occur in the field. For example, when dealing with hardware, even though I set it up perfectly with a router etc., it does not communicate for some reason, and even when installing software, there are things such as “For some reason I can not install only a certain computer”. In order to prevent troubles as much as possible, it is important to have management skills that prevent the site from being punctured , such as repeating tests from all directions, allowing a margin in the delivery schedule, and establishing a monitoring system after delivery . ..

2.3 Communication skills

When troubleshooting, customers are not always technically savvy. Therefore, when receiving a report by phone or email, it is necessary for the engineer to hear enough information to reproduce the error carefully and accurately. Therefore, it is desirable to improve your communication skills.

3. Is the service engineer tight? Reasons for being called “stop”

Some service engineers say it’s “tight” or “stop”. What is the reason?

In particular

And so on. I will explain each in detail.

3.1 For customers, service is “natural to move”

For customers, the service is “naturally working” and it is very frustrating when an error occurs. Even if the error is resolved at an early stage, it can sometimes be the subject of complaints such as “Thanks to the work not progressing”.

Not only those customers, but of course they can be thanked and sought after, but for people with weak mental health, it can be mentally painful to be hit directly by the frustration of the customer.

3.2 It is necessary to take charge of solving problems at once when trouble occurs

It is necessary to take responsibility for solving problems when troubles occur, and the responsibility is heavy in a system where the range of influence when an error occurs is particularly large. If you do not solve the problem immediately, you will always feel pressure because the customer may not be able to use the system during that time and it will hinder your business. The weight of such responsibility and the heavy pressure are also the reasons why it is said to stop.

3.3 Working hours tend to be irregular

It is a job that is directly in charge of problem solving when a problem occurs, and in urgent troubleshooting, it may be forced to operate early in the morning or late at night. Therefore, working hours tend to be irregular, which may lead to health and mental health problems.

4. What is the reward of a service engineer?

There is always a cause for a system or application bug. Whenever you run code and get an error, you’ll get an error message telling you where and what kind of error occurred. The bug fix of reading the error message, fixing the relevant part, and executing it is a puzzle-like fun .

In the case of an error that occurs during the operation stage rather than the development stage, it may be unpredictable, such as a combination of very limited conditions or an error that occurs only under specific conditions. For example, “Bugs cannot be reproduced in the company’s environment, but they occur in the customer’s environment. What is the difference between the company’s environment and the customer’s environment?” So, you can enjoy the depth of thinking by making various hypotheses such as “Isn’t the code that would be judged as an error when compiled in a static language?” It’s physically and mentally tough while you’re troubleshooting, but it’s a job that has its own appeal.

4.1 Future of service engineers

It is a general career to start a career path from an operator, take charge of management as a manager, and then take a position as a team leader or a manager of a department . In addition, as a service engineer, if you are a human resource who has abundant knowledge of both infrastructure and hardware / software, and who has abundant communication with customers and has high customer satisfaction, you can also be an IT consultant .

There are not many human resources who have knowledge of software, hardware, and infrastructure, communication skills, and management skills, so if you become a person with advanced skills, you will be able to become a unique person. Depending on the skills you have, you can change your career to various occupations, so the future of service engineers is high .

5. Estimated salary of service engineer

The salaries of service engineers are as follows.

Source: Annual salary, hourly wage, salary information of service engineer’s work | Job box

The starting salary of regular service engineer employees is around 210,000 , which tends to be higher than the average annual salary in Japan.

The highest salary distribution for regular employees is at the level of 4.66-5.3 million yen . The overall salary range is relatively wide at 337 to 8.53 million yen, so you can see that there is a big difference depending on the place of work, experience, and required skills .

6. To become a service engineer

Service engineers are one of the types of jobs that are said to be the entrance to a career path, and even inexperienced people can take on challenges . From the initial stage, you will be blessed with the opportunity to improve your advanced technical skills and communication skills, and the refined skills will be useful as general-purpose skills to play an active role as an engineer. Therefore, it will be useful no matter what career you try in the future.

Also, in addition to knowledge of server side and infrastructure , it is good to be able to install hardware equipment and LAN wiring depending on the business scope of the company . Learning experience of one or more languages ​​such as Ruby and Java on the server side + LinuC qualification is desirable for Linux.

7. Summary

This time, I explained the definition of service engineer, work content, annual income and future potential, and the reason why it is said to quit.
Service engineers, who are named engineers, have few opportunities to use programming, and communication is important.
Communication skills are indispensable to play an active role as an engineer. Therefore, it can be said that it is a suitable occupation to start a career in the IT industry from inexperienced. We hope that you read this article to deepen your understanding of service engineers.