No matter how much Comcast says things like "Jimmy here started in customer service twenty years ago and now he is a product analyst, yay Jimmy!" to illustrate all the "career opportunities", it is very unlikely starting in a customer support role will yield any sort of meaningful transition to a less crappy role with a raise that is noticeable in the pocket book. The groups above support look at support groups as i-d-i-o-ts - otherwise they wouldn't be in support, right? Right. That's why you can work the garbage jobs here, get tuition reimbursement and earn a degree, be qualified for a much better position, apply to all sorts of jobs where your new degree is a qualification (not to mention any domain knowledge you have from working there for a few years), and never get an interview.
For an individual like myself that was very interested in exiting awful customer service/phone support jobs and entering the technology world it seemed like a dream to go to an "engineer" position; it didn't take long to realize that the word "engineer" was used in an EXTREMELY liberal way to describe the Enterprise Technical Support (ETS) "Engineer" role. It is really just glorified Tier 1 customer support. However, as mentioned, one could approach it with an actual engineer mindset and make the best of what tech we could actually touch. (Side-note: the more a coworker says "I AM THE ENGINEER" when talking to customers or Tier 1 agents the less likely it is that the individual approaches the job as an engineer and instead is just some p-r-i-c-k that knows next to nothing).
I will never forget being strung along making it seem like I had a shot at a promotion or even moving to my goal of doing more software-development-oriented work in the department only to overhear a manager interviewing someone... for the job they dangled in front of me for several months. I suppose it could be considered a "pro" though because that slap in the face and feeling of stupidity inspired action and resolve to never be played like that again (at least professionally... we are all but fools when caught in the throes of romance, are we not? That's a different story, where do I give reviews on that?).
The transition from supporting Fiber, VoIP, etcetera, into Managed Services took the job from "not great, not awful, kind of technical if you want to be technical but you can never get that deep in the tech" to "oh my god, I can't believe my job is to call Taco Bell and convince some t-u-r-d of a teenaged manager that I am not conducting a social engineering attack by calling and saying I am with Comcast and we manage your IT and your modem is offline" or "oh my god I can't believe I am on hold with Verizon to ask what is wrong with this Chikfila's DSL Internet". For those of you left behind... godspeed.
This was a department that was very big on the ol' brown-nosing thing; show up, say "yes", make your numbers look good at all costs... you will zip right to the top! I hear that's just the world in general though.
