Assigned to the Help Desk?

Here’s a great little glass half-empty/half-full article about being assigned to the help desk. The quote presents the two opposite viewpoints. I figure both cannot be simultaneously correct. It must be that some companies know how to run a help desk. Others don’t. Your viewpoint is likely to be influenced by which environment you find yourself condemned to.

Your help desk career: Dead end or launching pad?

In particular, help desk technicians who work in “stovepiped” IT organizations — that is, companies where systems analysts, network managers and other IT professionals are segregated from one another — can go 10 to 15 years without being promoted into IT infrastructure, business analyst, systems administrator or other types of roles, he says.

A new breed of IT pros begs to differ, maintaining that a job on an IT help desk can open doors to other IT career opportunities. Help desk technicians, these proponents say, gain valuable experience working with end users throughout the enterprise and learning what makes the business tick.