If you have gone as far up the help desk department ladder in your
organization as you can possibly go (without becoming the owner of
the company or enterprise, that is), what is the next possible step
in your career? Earning more money? Perhaps. Or maybe you would want
to consider a new stage in your career teaching help desk staff the
ropes of working in the help desk department?

Why would anyone want to resort to teaching help desk staff as a new
career option? There are many reasons – again, some people do it
because they are able to earn more from this task. But still others
agree to teach new help desk personnel because they feel a need to
pass on to the next generation what they have themselves learned from
all their years of working in the help desk department.

What can be learned from old-timers like you, in a field like
Information Technology where knowledge from just a few years ago
easily becomes obsolete and unusable due to the adoption of newer and
more high-tech systems? To start off, you can teach help desk agents
how to handle angry frustrated callers with professionalism, finesse,
and poise. That kind of skill never goes out of style. You can also
show the next generation what old systems have in common with the
newer and more advanced systems. Yes, every system that has come
along has some basis somehow on the knowledge that was developed in
the past. So even though you may not be as knowledgeable about some
of these new systems, it is still possible for you to propose
solutions that seem to have worked in the past to similar systems.

Can teaching help desk staff ever become passé? Not very likely. As
long as there is an influx of new people into the IT world, there
will always be a need for people patient enough to train them.