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Has the Glory Gone Out of Working In IT?
An anonymous reader writes to wonder if the glory has gone out of IT. One blogger remembered his first impression upon entering a profession in IT that made it seem like the place to be, with a new shiny around every corner. What experiences have others had? Has a more pervasive technical culture forced our IT gurus into obsolescence?
Glory in IT? If that was the case I'd get more women I think. I think any glory you thought there use to be is simply delusions on your part. People don't work in IT for the glory. People rarely do anything for glory.
The day we traded the guru individualist programmer doing arcane tweaks inspired by the architecture of the machine, for the team in India writing on spec using no memory or speed optimization whatsoever.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Since when was IT prestigious? It once used to be the hot new industry where people made lots of money, but it was never 'sexy'. Lucrative, not glorious. And now it's not even that, so much.
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
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R&D and MIT media lab aside ( I wouldn't call that sort of thing IT even though there is some overlap)
When I hear IT I think of my corporate support staff.
As far as I am concerned there has never been any glory in that thankless job.
I mean how glorious can a job be where the only recognition you'll get is when you screw something up?
When you are good at your job in IT nobody notices you since the goal of most IT shops is to be transparent to the user....
Maybe if you were a UNIVAC technician, that was pretty cool. But in my lifetime I can't recall IT ever being a "glorious" occupation. Sure, there are jobs in the broader tech industry that might have that mythologized element. In the 70s and 80s, you've got Woz in a garage as sort of the canonical example. But IT still wasn't glorious in that era. The IT people weren't Woz; they were mainly at places like IBM, servicing thousands of mainframes and minicomputers. There was not an aura of glory around that job, even if it paid well and may have been interesting.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
When I was new, everything seemed new and shiny.
Now that I'm old, everything seems old and dull.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
I started programming and repairing computers in the 70s. There was a certain coolness to knowing things that other people didn't know, almost as if you possessed magical powers. Modems? BBSs? Networking? A printer? You can recover a file off my floppy disk? YOU ARE A GOD, SIR, and you just saved my ass.
No longer. Everybody knows this stuff, or at least they pretend to know it, enough to be dangerous. Or else it's been supplanted. E.g. nobody cares that I wired my house for gigabit Ethernet; they just want to know how to jump on my WiFi access point. 802.11b/g/n/w/t/f is really not important. Need to recover a file? Oh yeah, Norton came with my computer.
It's like the photography industry, which barely resembles the industry of 20 years ago because everyone has a fancy digital camera now and can take better pics than they could back then. Or you can hop on iStockPhoto.com or sxc.hu and get cheap/free stock photos that used to be really expensive. Or the graphic design industry: now every "hack with a Mac" (or a PC) can "do" graphic design, no special skills required.
The trick is to be so good at problem solving (or camera angles/lighting/composing, or graphic style) that people still recognize you as a wizard. I mean in the I.T. repair sense, not the 6d+3 sense. This requires creativity, and not everybody has that. If you don't, but you need that feeling of recognition, then you need to either play a lot more WoW or find a new field/niche.
Liberal? Conservative? Compare perspectives at Left-Right
Now that users can do almost anything (simple) on a computer or even their phone, they now expect that anything they can imagine (vaguely, inarticulately, even impossibly) should be easy to do.
Unless you're at one of the rare shops that's well funded and not directly dealing with users, you will likely be in a no-win position.
Deliver a flawless system and you go unnoticed. Instead, you get asked "can it do this ?"
Or worse and most likely, you step into a position with an existing product that you have to continue development of. It will be behind schedule, over budget, and a complete architectural disaster. What's more, it won't match what the users need because nobody bothered to dig deeply to find out what the users really needed (as opposed to what they initially said they wanted - there's a huge difference).
Am I bitter, yes. I'd rather be a lawyer. At least then I'd still be getting rich doing crap work.
.sigs are for post^Hers.
It was fun until...
In times of universal deceit, telling the truth gets you modded -1 Troll
I'm not sure about the glory but the fun of working in IT is getting pretty rare. There are too darned many pointy hair bosses who think they've got high-powered technical chops because they read (and partially understood) a few articles in an in-flight magazine who then get back into the office and turn things upside down for no apparent reason.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
This is somewhat true, though it seems to me that much of the "problem" with IT these days stems from the continued inability for non-technical colleagues and management to understand exactly what the purpose of IT is.
It used to be that IT was much less micromanaged. "They do that computer stuff, and it seems to work most of the time, and when it isn't working we lose money, so it's good they keep it working." Now-a-days with folks being so metric-obsessed, it's harder to "just do your job". You gotta make sure to keep up with all your tickets, make extra tickets for everything from someone stopping by your desk, to peeing, so that the metric-OCDs can account for everything you do.
There's still some places where tech people can be tech people, but with a lot of companies going through the (seemingly) perpetual cycle of: "Our IT doesn't work, get us a dedicated IT staff" to "Man, those IT folks look overworked, they must be hard workers!" to (after the systems have been fixed and streamlined) "Those IT people never seem to be doing anything, let's lay them off and save some money" and back to "our IT doesn't work..." it can be hard to find a position where you *can* be a technology person without having to watch your back all the time.
Though (to continue the rant), I will agree that, in general, technology is in a bit of a boring slump, where "advances" are often simply marketing re-definitions of existing technology that's been "suped up". It's not like the late-80's through the 90's where interesting things were happening all around and there was always something neat coming out. These days tech is about evolution not revolution.
Also keep in mind, though, that the longer you're in IT, the more things will seem "old hat" to you. I think this is what the OP (and I) seem to be experiencing these days.
We make two to four times as much money as the average American. That's enough to ensure that IT remains a respected and desirable career.
The brief bubble period where we made millions in fake stock options was an anomaly. It was not "normal." Our careers were never really glorious, but they will remain prestigious, like those of scientists, engineers, and other skilled, well-paid professionals.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
The glory is making something that people *want* to use, or it really honestly makes their life better, and they know it. I've done mostly back-end stuff throughout my career but I have seen email comments from users who have praised the system for making such-and-such job easier, or figuring out this big thing, or saving a lot of time, etc., and I can feel good that I had a hand in that, or I implemented that, etc.
My kids like playing with the apps on the iPhone, especially music making and drawing pictures. I can't say how many times I've been handed the phone with a picture and my daughter beaming and going "I made that!!", with obvious joy on her face. That made me happy, and I'd think the author of the program would be happy to know how much joy s/he brought.
That's glory right there. If you can make someone happy with what you do, honestly and truly, then it makes the TPS reports, status meetings, weekends and late night worth it.
I've been involved with and working in IT for over almost 30 years (since my first Vic-20). This raises a lot of points on companies and the shiny - the answer is not as black-and-white. The answer is: it depends. My experience has shown there are three typical views of IT and how 'shiny' it is to the company. To find out, ask the question - Does your company treat IT in how much value they add to their organization?
:)
1. They view IT as a cost-centre. Run, don't walk away from companies that view their IT centres as something to be outsourced.
2. They view IT as a necessary evil and spend only as much as necessary to keep their employees from throwing their monitors out the window. These kinds of companies understand IT is a necessary, but they don't like spending money on it. They tend to upgrade software that are SEVERAL versions behind, and your typical office PC is 4-7 years old. No shiny here - IT is dull and so is working here in that role.
3. They view IT as a way to save money. Innovative and highly adaptable companies that change with their operating environment usually view IT as a way to improve on efficiencies, and use it to reduce costs and improve services internally and externally. These are good companies that view IT as shiny and always something to invest in. These companies also tend to be around a long time, or they always seem to make money even when times are bad. It takes money to invest in IT - badly managed companies don't have money to spend on it. These companies, from an IT and a learning perspective, are preferred. More often than nought, they also tend to dabble in Open Source - never a bad thing.
So, when doing an interview at a company, ask the following questions:
1. How old 'typically' are the computers in your office?
2. What version of Microsoft and Office are you using?
3. Does your organization view IT as a cost center or as value-added infrastructure?
Measure these against points 1-3 for their shiny score.
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. - Peter F. Drucker
I've been in IT for 10 years now and so far I've contemplated suicide twice. I've watched my lunch break go from 1 hour to eat while you work. Taking a break now is stopping what you are doing here and go over there to explain to our accountant's cousin why she can't use Magic Jack with AOL. Keeping up with the latest and greatest technologies is a joke to everyone that's around you. Even though it's your job to understand this equipment and if we need to upgrade. All the other IT people you've met have an ego the size of VY Canis Majoris. Their life is so much better than yours even though when you hang out with them they can't afford anywhere you want to eat. Also usually their talent is watered down and forget having a conversation about anything other than computers. Finding a new job is a joke. Most online "job sites" are just phishing for resumes that have your social security number and other personal information. Any legitimate jobs have a line forming at the door of applicants. Those jobs are usually a start up that will be around until the owners' loan money runs out. If you ask if there is any room for advancement they feed you a line like "You're already on the top in that position." Meaning you are stuck where you are at until they go belly up. Any ideas your boss or whoever is over you comes up with is usually stupid. Cost cutting and other business BS has left you to complete projects that aren't going to work by impossible deadlines. You only come to work because their internet is a little faster than what you got at home. Working most of the time has cause you to lose touch with friends and some family. You find yourself like a zombie getting up everyday to go to work. You can't wait until the weekend but it takes more than 2 days to recuperate. You read this article on Slashdot and find an avenue to vent. Only to have that temporary escape rudely broken by the question "Hey dude, can you see why my PC be glitchen up?"
These days, I feel like a cabinet maker working in home depot. I have a bunch of skills that are not being utilized because the majority of the work happening (at least where I work anyways) has shifted from creating custom solutions to installing, maintaining, and supporting 3rd party applications. My job satisfaction is eroding. While I used to take pride in creating stable, elegant solutions to complicated problems, I now spend most of my time fighting with messy integrations.
The IT industry is shrinking and this is by it's very nature. Sure the dot com bust plays a part but that's only a small part now. The very idea behind computers is to make things work faster and more efficiently. People think this is only on the user end but that's not true, it's also working the same way for those of us that build, repair and maintain computers and networks. The fact is that it's taking less and less techs to do more and more work. It was slim pickings eight years ago when I got my job in IT and I had to beat out nearly 100 other applicants for it. That was when the economy was in great shape.
We'd like to blame it on the economy and say that IT will bounce back when the economy does but the fact is that it won't. One network administrator can now do the work that, ten years ago, would have taken five people to do. It's the same with PC techs, since it's no longer cost effective to actually fix anything any more. Parts are so cheap that they're simply thrown out and replaced or warranty returned to the manufacturer where they're thrown out and replaced. A company of two thousand employees that spans three states, such as the one I was recently laid off from, no longer needs fifteen PC techs to keep up with all those users. Instead, most work is done over the phone now by about six guys. If it can't be fixed via remote desktop or netop, they simply ship a ghosted machine to the user that any drunk monkey can plug in, which is then configured remotely if any configuration is required at all. Put the old one in the box the new one came in and ship it back. Installing a new printer? Insert tab A into slot B and call the help desk to do the software install. Fifteen minutes on the phone and it's ready to go. When the economy does finally recover, these companies MIGHT hire one or two more people, MAYBE, but don't bet your future on it.
Glory? The only thing that I think could possibly be construed as glory is this idea that non tech people have that since everything is computerized now that there will always be high demand for IT people. The fact is that a CS degree, A+ certification and nearly a decade of experience is fast becoming a worthless skill set. Myself and most other unemployed professional geeks will be going back to school, retraining in some other field all together.
The other side of that coin, one that applies to IT people still employed, is that you're only as good as your last mistake. When you're doing your job well, no one knows that you're doing any thing at all. They don't even know you exist until something breaks down and then suddenly you're completely incompetent regardless of how quickly the issue was resolved or even if it wasn't your fault. It might have been the phone company's fault but those stuffy executives in their $3000 suits that can barely operate their blackberries, all they know is that it's a computer problem and you're the computer guy. Get on your knees and pucker up.
I wouldn't recommend the IT industry to any one. You'll get that BA in computer science and whatever certifications they tell you will help and then you'll go to work in some call center doing PC support for $12 an hour, and that's being optimistic since most of that work is outsourced to India where they're paid $5 an hour to do the same thing and happy to get it.
Actually I'd like to be treated like the plumber. Nobody thinks the plumber broke their pipes (well, not unless he installed them in the first place), but they do know that he's the one who can fix them. And they know that if they try and be a cheapskate and not pay him his full rate, or if they stand there haranguing him about how bad a job he's doing, he'll pack up his toolkit and wave good-bye, leaving them standing there ankle-deep in... stuff they'd rather not think about, and their only option will be to call another plumber who'll have just as little tolerance for their games as the first one. Because the plumber knows that, no matter how important you think you are, there's always somebody else with a stopped-up sink who won't be such a pain.
That and both the customer and the plumber know that if the customer takes the plumber into court and complains about how the plumber didn't tell him he shouldn't dump tons of cut hair and congealed grease and crud down the drain and the plumber should've done something to keep that from causing a clog, the judge will fall out of his chair lauging, then dismiss the case with prejudice. And probably order the customer to pay the plumber's legal bills too, just to teach them not to file frivolous complaints.
Without going into an endless dissertation of how technology developments 1.) happen, 2.) have their sweet spot (golden years) then 3.) become pedestrian in nature, yes. The IT party's been long over. If you've got a solid rep, been in the business for a while and stay ahead of the curves (which implies you still enjoy the challenges to some degree) you'll likely be able to see a current IT career out to your "retirement". If you're just starting or under the age of thirty run quickly another way. I mean Road Runner clouds! There's nothing more to be had here. The carcass has been picked dry. On the consumer side it's all become applianced (like toasters... it breaks? Cheaper to get a new one.) On the enterprise side it's dominated by thankless bullshit monkey work that embraces mediocrity or less (ya' hearin' this Google?). The only great gigs left are jobs that allow one to bring true leadership to a position. And those are very rare (and at mid-career now, the only one's I'm interested in.) As an eleven year veteran consultant with a solid success trail behind me I still love this stuff but say "no" to gigs more than I say "yes" to anymore.
I still believe the IT industry should have unionized somewhere around 1995-ish. But that's a whole other magilla thread no longer worth discussing.
At the moment, if you want to work for a company or clients, your best bet is to learn one of the two big "ecosystems": Java or .NET. Most of the jobs you'll see posted are in one or the other. And, most of the people working those jobs don't know any C/C++ any more.
If you just want to learn to program for the sake of learning how to do it, or for your own startup company/project, I'd go with one of the more "modern" languages like Python or Ruby. If you're looking to learn to speed your sysadmin tasks up, Perl or a shell scripting language (including the newish Windows Powershell) might fit the bill better.
The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things