Remember that specific feeling of dread on a Monday morning?
You open your laptop, take a sip of lukewarm coffee, and log into the ticketing system. The number next to your queue is already in triple digits.
I know that feeling. I lived it for nearly four years.
I was good at my job in tech support. I could diagnose a server issue in under five minutes and calm down an irate customer while simultaneously Slack-ing a meme to my teammates. But I felt stuck. I was on a hamster wheel of reactive fixing, and I desperately wanted to be on the side that was building.
More specifically, I wanted to lead.
The jump from an individual contributor role—especially in support or QA—to a Technical Lead position feels massive. It’s not just a promotion; it’s a complete rewiring of how you approach your workday.
If you’re staring at that ticket queue right now wondering how to bridge that gap, here is the honest truth about my journey and the lessons I learned the hard way.
The Hardest Shift: Stop Being Reactive
When you work in support, your entire day is dictated by other people's emergencies. You are professional firefighters. The bell rings, you slide down the pole, you put out the fire. Repeat.
The biggest hurdle I faced was breaking this cycle.
A Tech Lead doesn’t just put out fires; they figure out why the building keeps catching fire in the first place.
I had to train myself to stop jumping at every notification. This was agonizing. I felt like I was ignoring my job. But I realized that to provide value at a higher level, I needed deep work time to understand the system architecture, not just individual bugs.
The Lesson: Start carving out time for proactive thinking, even if it’s just 30 minutes a week. Don't ask "How do I fix this ticket?" Ask "Why does this type of ticket happen ten times a week?"
The "Soft Skills" Are the Hardest Part
I used to think being a Tech Lead just meant you were the best coder in the room. The person everyone went to when the database seized up.
I was completely wrong.
Sure, you need technical chops. You need to know your stack inside and out. But being a lead is 40% technology and 60% psychology.
Suddenly, my job wasn't just solving a Python error. It was explaining technical debt to a Product Manager who just wanted a shiny new feature delivered yesterday. It was mediating a disagreement between two developers about API design.
My background in support actually became my superpower here. Support teaches you extreme empathy and how to de-escalate tense situations. I used those same skills to manage upwards and navigate team dynamics.
The Lesson: If you want to lead, start practicing translation. Can you explain a complex backend issue to your non-technical manager in three sentences without making their eyes glaze over? That’s the job.
Embracing the Imposter Syndrome
When I finally got the "interim" lead title, I panicked.
I was convinced that at the next stand-up meeting, someone would ask me a question I couldn't answer, and they’d realize I was just three support agents in a trench coat.
Imposter syndrome goes into overdrive when you step up. You feel like you need to know everything.
Here’s the secret I learned from a mentor: A good lead doesn't have all the answers. A good lead knows how to guide the team to find the answer together.
Your role shifts from "the one who knows" to "the one who facilitates." Admitting "I don't know, let's spike on that and figure it out" is actually a sign of confidence, not weakness.
Practical Steps to take Right Now
You don't need permission to start acting like a lead. In fact, waiting for permission is probably what's holding you back.
If you want that title, start doing the job today at your current pay grade. It sucks, but it’s the fastest way to prove you’re ready.
Here is what worked for me:
Own a Problem Area: Identify a recurring issue that everyone complains about but no one fixes (e.g., the flaky onboarding documentation). Own it completely. Propose a solution, execute it, and document the results.
Shadow Decisions: Ask your current lead or engineering manager if you can sit in on architectural review meetings just to listen. Absorb how they weigh trade-offs.
Be the Mentor You Wish You Had: Find the newest person on the team and offer to help them get settled. Leadership starts with lifting others up.
The Takeaway
Moving from support to leadership is a marathon. There will be days you want to go back to the comfort of just closing tickets because it’s easier than dealing with people's problems or architectural ambiguity.
Keep pushing. The perspective you gained in the trenches of support makes you a wider-thinking, more empathetic leader in the long run.
Start thinking bigger than the queue. You got this.
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