It Will Be What You Make Of It
Any job, in any career path, comes with intrinsic risks to the forward momentum of your career path. Some people take “entry level” jobs in any industry, or facet of an industry, and sit there forever. This is rarely because they’re ambitious, use their opportunities to learn and expand their skillset, and then try to move “up”.
I quote “up” because not everyone agrees that moving out of “entry level” is “up”, and that’s okay too.
This ComputerWorld op-ed presents, sort of, both sides of the possible death trap.
As a consultant who frequently advises clients on hiring and vets candidates, there is a singular person who I love to see: The person in a forgivably-undervalued position, who is a sponge for learning, and takes it upon themselves to keep learning and playing and building their technology portfolio and skills, who wants to step up and take a swing at the next level. No whining that “my previous employments haven’t given me the opportunity to do X” or “at my last job we were all Z, so I never had a chance to play with Y”. I want to hear “My job isn’t challenging, I’ve been doing X and Y nights and weekends and really would like a shot applying what I’ve grown from a hobby”. THAT’S the difference between someone who gets “dead ended” and someone who doesn’t, regardless of their industry.
My closest colleague in my present position has a degree in History, and was hired with hobbyist-grade Linux experience and a couple graduate-level courses in programming and systems behind him (and an MSIT, but that didn’t win any points 
). A few years later he’s had a series of promotions and now runs server operations for 50ish Linux systems. He’s one of the few people on Earth I can trust to take on a challenge and see it through. Why? Because he doesn’t sit around and try to keep status quo. He’s unhappy with inefficiency and wants to make things better, himself included.
I, personally, have laughably little formal training of any kind in any technology. I learn – incessantly – what I need to do my job and what everyone else needs to do theirs (other technologists, economists, politicians, sociologists, psychologists, theologists, biologists, etc. etc. etc.). There are some things that don’t interest me at all (accounting, for example) and as such know absolutely nothing useful about those things- but those are never arenas I will ever want to work in, so it’ll be okay. 
I don’t care about the letters you can put after your name, or where you come from: I care about you looking me in the eye and saying “I want to do something better, I’ve demonstrated that I believe I can do it, and I’m willing to step up and swing: Hit or Strike.”
Your career path will be what you make of it, if you’re willing to do what it takes to get there.
