Service Manager at an MSP. Started as a Level 1 tech 10-years ago, all I had done up to that point was workstation-side support on the side, never as a job or career. Was turning wrench as a GM mechanic up until early 2013, decided it was time to make a change. I always loved computers, overclocking, custom builds, tweaking things, break-fixing, etc., but had the mindset I needed a harder job to make it or whatever...that was stupid. But I gained some other skills outside of IT because of it, which surely has had its benefits TBH.
Earned my Associate's Degree in Network Administration, graduated 4.0 high honors in 2015. Started as a level 1 tech at the same time I started college, Help Desk and Bench work. By the time I graduated I was promoted to a field engineer and was on-site most days. By 2017 I was promoted to team lead, and had to learn how to transition from working my ass off all day every day to managing and coordinating a team of FE's and E's to do that while balancing my workload. That took some time but was a really eye opening and rewarding challenge that I learned to enjoy.
Because the MSP was pretty small when I started, and was growing, I ended up involved in the interviewing/hiring process early-on, around 2016 for hiring and 2017 for Level-10 meetings (for anyone that follows EOS). In 2020 I was promoted to Service Director (Service Manager), and been rolling that position ever since. This has provided an entirely new set of challenges in management and really ripped me away from IT tech work for about 99% of my time. I still work longer days, usually the first at the office and last to leave. But I've always been that way. I enjoy what I do overall, and helping build careers has become my new work addiction. I started with being fulfilled by being the hero, making people's days, saving the day, seeing and hearing people breathe a sigh of relief knowing their tech or data was okay.
Now, I get to help mentor, train, coach, guide a management team, engineers, techs, etc. to do the same thing. It has been one helluva ride and it all started with me working my ass off, gritting my teeth, and pushing forward, even when I felt I wasn't paid enough, even when I watched people pass me by (that may or may not have "earned it"), even when I watched poor decisions by management and ownership affect the company, etc. I made a decision when changing career paths, that was to be transparent and honest with my management, and not let them push me around. I'd allowed too much BS to happen while I was wrenching that led me to really be an unhappy human being overall...never again. Best decision I ever made, and it affected how I operate, manage, and how those around me do as well.
It has been cool to be a part of this company that was seen 10-years ago as the low-end IT place to work to cut your teeth, then go to the other place in town to build a career and get paid better. Now we're 4X bigger than when I started, we have 3 locations, we went from regional to national, and have some clients in other countries. We've expanded our service offerings, we have more clients and endpoints than ever. Its been a wild ride in some ways TBH. Is it perfect? No. There were A LOT of challenges along the way, but I told myself when I applied, I'm making this a career and I'm giving this job my all to make it happen. I earn at least 4X what I did when I started too, which is nothing to complain about that's for damn sure!
@Cvrk in your OP (I have not read every page of this), you mention you're a network tech. Are you motivated to be more? If so, what are you doing about it? (don't feel you have to answer to me, but you should be asking those of yourself and be brutally honest with yourself).
If you want to get up to higher-level project and senior engineer positions, I'll tell ya while certs don't hurt, a home lab helps more than anything I've seen. Its one of those things I implore and we've even gone as fare as created a tech lab so our level-1 techs can grow even if they don't have the means to build their own home lab yet. But just having a home lab itself isn't useful of course, its what you do with it, what you focus on, how much you invest in it and yourself with it. A career in IT takes a lot of time off the clock for most folks, myself included. I ended up building one to play with domains, DNS, WSUS, DHCP, routing, vlans, etc. Now it hosts all that, some Minecraft servers for my boys, Plex for my family, hosted storage access, replication and redundancy for failover, environmental monitors, etc. It isn't fancy, but its function, and I've learned sooooo much. Since I don't do as much tech work now, this is how I keep myself sharp and up to speed.
Feel free to DM me, I love helping people on their career paths in IT...and I surely don't have all the answers, there's so much shit I don't know, and there's a lot you might be able to teach me TBH. But, I get the feeling of being stuck, going nowhere, feeling worthless. That can be a career issue, job issue, mindset issue, or all of them at once. But you're a smart guy and talented enough to do well in IT, don't ever discount that. No hard feelings if you don't want to discuss this either.
, which is barely working, that gives me more time to play games (and other trivial family matters 
)
, funny how playing PC games help me in my job too