Many people who are currently in the IT community, at one time or other, worked in the role of the help desk. At that time, most help desks were managed internally to the company, and the help desk members were able to interact with their technical peers on a daily basis.

However, over the last decade, almost all large companies and many smaller companies have contracted their help desk support services to third party vendors. This outsourcing has resulted in almost all help desk positions being physically located far away from the IT community that they support.

Because of the physical distances involved, and the lack of daily interactions with technical peers, it is now unlikely that even the most enterprising of help desk personnel would be able to exert enough influence upon a hiring manager to leverage their help desk position into a spot in the IT department.

However, this does not mean that working for a help desk is a dead end job. Working for a help desk provides a tremendous benefit in learning how to diagnose issues, research solutions, and talk end users through their difficulty. As a stepping stone, the help desk is an excellent way to get your foot in the IT door, but not necessarily for the company you are supporting.

Learn more about this author, Alan Fernald.
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