Senior POs that chose an out of rate special duty shore assignment; does that help or hurt your career?

My only shore duty while I was enlisted was an out of rate job. I did a recruiting your and I am pretty sure that it played a role in my selection for LDO. No matter what you do or where you go, work hard and take care of your people.

In my opinion you have to get the right mentor at every command you are in. The Chiefs selection board, again in my opinion, is a who knows who selection process because as we have all seen that not the best of the best are always picked up.
That being said, even though I never made Chief I feel it was because I was more of a loaner, I got both my ESWS and EAWS, got the right awards, got the right evals, worked hard, took on a lot of collateral duties, conducted training and mentoring for my junior sailors, I put them up for awards, and more. I spent 18 out of 24 years onboard ships, my choice, I loved being at sea, I felt more valuable and like I was making a difference.
I have a lot of respect for the Chiefs community so don't take what I said the wrong way but getting in with the right CPO's is going to work out better for you or anyone who wants to make Chief.

As "out-of-rate" as my two shore tours have been, it hasn't hurt in any way, but it hasn't guaranteed Chief, despite the whole "the board looks for 'out-of-rate' tours" bunk. Your BEST bet? Read the precepts and do what is on them, PME, JPME, etc., do your job to the best of your abilities, get every PQS / JQR done that you are eligible to do, and train your Sailors - ALWAYS train your Sailors, and have quantifiable achievements on your evals. All an out-of-rate tour does, in my opinion, is make you a more well-rounded Sailor that has the potential to bring more to the table.