Absolutely. I did a few stints in support (both before and after my harrowing multi-year retail and foodservice adventure), and I can definitely sympathize. Tha

Absolutely. I did a few stints in support (both before and after my harrowing multi-year retail and foodservice adventure), and I can definitely sympathize. Thankfully the most recent support job had enough downtime for me to build tools for us that got me the "on resume" experience to move over to development, but all of those jobs left me with a sensation that there's a really valuable body of knowledge to be gained working at the bottom rung. I especially like your point about raising empathy -- I think that's a really important effect of having to try out being the person at the bottom of the totem pole.