We may laugh, but starting in technical support gives you an idea of how your users are using your product, if your documentation is accurate and helpful, what the pain points for people not in the department you are destined for are, and gives you an idea of how the product works.
It also quickly weeds out the people who can't effectively communicate before they get to the programming team.
We've been rotating the sysadmins through customer service. Not taking calls (our CS calls tend to be long and detailed, and a n00b isn't going to help), but being there for the CS people. It's been marvellously instructive. It also cheers the CS people that someone cares. Now we need to get the devs doing the same.
