IT help desk and computer programmer?

Career Advice
1

Let me preface that I’m new to the forum looking for some advice.

Let me start from the beginning. I got my start as a developer by attending a coding bootcamp for three months and have continued with the freecodecamp curriculum. I was the first person in my cohort to land a job at a mid-sized company that needed a new developer to create in-house web app’s. The projects I worked on over the past three years have taught me a lot about best practices, security and somewhat leveling up my programming skills.

However, there’s a catch. Once I started at the company I was expected to not only to work as a programmer, but to man the call help desk as IT support for our other in-house software. The problem is programming is a hard enough task as it is, to throw in the distractions of taking phone calls all the time hasn’t at times allowed for much “deep work” and has been a real motivation sapper.

The programming projects I work on I love doing for the company, but I find taking these calls has been a inhibitor on my skills.

Any idea’s? Looking for some feedback.

1 Like
2

It’s not usual if you were hired to be a programmer. Check your employment agreement, there’s probably wording in there that says you’ll do “other work as needed”. This would be something to check with your manager. Let them know you’re not accomplishing as much because of the interruptions and that this wasn’t an expected part of your role.
As a question for you, though, what do you consider “mid-sized company”? When I think mid-sized, I think “100-200 people”, which should be big enough to have a dedicated phone support group. Depends a lot on the company though.

2 Likes