This is an outstanding piece. I’m a 22 year veteran of software, most of that has been doing some form of end-user support either as a sys admin or, for a fairly long time now, a tech support engineer. I have only one quibble with what you write above and it is this; tech support is still a technical position. It doesn’t get the respect that it should but it is a technical position and an intellectually demanding one at that. No, you’re not as knee deep in the midst of the code as a developer but it still stretches your technical skills.

Other than that, I think what you said is spot on. I am privileged to be mentoring three young women in my department on my immediate team. Not only will I point them at this article (and put it in our Slack room at work) but I will try to be a little more mindful of *not* doing too much of the ‘keep a stiff upper lip and just keep on keepin’ on’. I was raised that this was how it was done and it has become a habit too ingrained to imagine changing now. But I’d like the young women I work with to be able to bring more of themselves to their work lives without having to wrap their inner selves in batttleship plating.