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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.
To be honest, I don't even understand what question is being asked.
What does he/she mean by "glory"?
And a "new shiny" what? "around every corner"?
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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Just like the proud, self-made carpenter, who used to do everything himself by hand, has to install pre-fab kitchen's in a day these days (and never mind how it's done, just make sure that it's installed in a single day), yes, the 'glory' has gone out of IT for *most* (if not *all*) people in IT these days. It might still be a *fun* job, because you get to 'play' with computers all day, but most of the glory has been lost to 'professionalism'.
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....
The Glory of working in IT peaked with the release of the movie "Office Space."
Ken
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
I work as a net/server admin and we are kinda like the red-headed step child of the company. No one notices us when everything is working, but as soon as something goes down... Anyone else feel this way? And sorry if i offend any red-heads out there who also may or may not be a step child.
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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
I've been hard-working member of an IT staff for a while now, and I do sometime feel as though all the glory has been sucked out of a "glory hole" of some sort.
We really should have a staff meeting about it. Firm action is clearly needed.
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.
Give us some context regarding this "glory" that you perceive as having "gone out of IT". While I know that, prior to the dot-com bubble burst, everyone and his brother was going into IT, it's not as if (those silly Intel commercials notwithstanding) people were looking on IT folks with awe, or that most women were fighting to be with us or anything like that.
Or, given your mention of "new shiny[s]" - perhaps what you're missing are the days when a sysadmin had unquestioned control of his domain, ran it as he pleased and didn't have to answer to any higher-ups? Those days are long gone, and are not coming back (and, frankly, let me be the first to say "good riddance").
#DeleteChrome
was that working in IT sucks. The lead character found happiness by quitting the field entirely. The other characters stayed in the field because "it's a job." Office Space brought sympathy to the career field. Not glory.
The cult classic that actually glorified being a geek was "Hackers."
Work Safe Porn
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
Before 2001, firms would roll their own internal systems so there was plenty of software development around. They didn't trust the "solution" providers, like SAP, yet because they firmly believed that those firms charged too much and they didn't want to do business like the solutions providers told them to operate. And back then, a development team was basically, a few designers/coders, an architect, a business analyst, a DBA or two, and the network guys who were off on their own. So, we had about 8+ folks working on a project - not including the network guys. Also, there was plenty of work because of the impending doom of 1/1/2000, when planes were going to fall out of the air, dogs and cats sleeping together, and Western Civilization going back to the stone age. Life was good, Making six figures as a contractor wasn't unheard of and even the norm.
Then came the recession of 2001 - 2002, maybe even into 2003.
Companies found out that it was cheaper in the long run to buy software off the shelf. They realized that SAP, IBM, Oracle, Perot, Siebels, EDS, etc... maybe was better and cheaper than rolling their own from scratch. So, out with the development teams, and in with the programmer/DBA & programmer/network admin - this is for most business environments. There wasn't a need for so many programmers anymore and if they did need a programmer, well, you could offshore for a hell of a lot less. Sure, there is still a demand for programmers, but no where near as many that were needed as back in the 90s. The market has shrank dramatically. Many companies no longer have their in house development staff. They outsourced it off to specialists or even off-shored it. (There is still a demand for blacksmiths, but instead of a demand for a couple per town, there is maybe a demand for a couple per state - if that. The same goes for buggy whip makers. And even then, many of those do it as a hobby and have day jobs because there isn't enough business to make a living.)
So, basically, IT has become another white collar corporate cog type of job.
This is just my take.
Have to stop correcting because Slashdot's entry script is falking out on me...
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
H1B workers are a minor factor at best. By most counts, there are somewhere between 5 and 6 million U.S. high-tech jobs. The H1B visa quota ranges from 65,000 to 195,000 or so, or about 3% of that at most.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Have the self-righteous pricks who made such a mess of IT at the turn of the decade stopped thinking that their unchecked and non-methodical actions are "glorious"?
Those arcane tweaks are still there because the guy left 8 years ago and NOBODY REMEMBERS HOW TO FIX IT.
"Whatever you do, just don't touch that code. It's been working that way since before I got here. We tried to change it once and it took us 6 days to get the wolverine back in the cage."
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
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.
NUMBER ONE: If anything, the pace of "new shinies" has INCREASED over the past decade. When I started out in the dot-com era, there was primarily C/C++ or Java if you were doing backend work... and Java, Perl, or ASP's if you were doing web development. The basic concept of building a web app with an MVC design was a "new shiny". There was no Github or even Sourceforge yet. Today there's a new framework or language or awesome end-user app to play with every time you turn around.
When the anonymous blogger in the original post remembers I.T. as "the place to be", he no doubt means that in financial or marketing terms. That is, we all thought we were going to be stock-option millionaires... and with the exception of some Googlers, that delusion of the industry has been dead for almost a decade now. I.T. is not the insane gold rush that it was 10-20 years ago, but relatively speaking it's still the best paycheck you're likely to get while still being free to fuck off on Slashdot half the day.
NUMBER TWO: There is NOT a "more pervasive technical culture" today. Having an Facebook account does not make you a web-developer, and having an iPhone doesn't make you a sysadmin. There is common perception among middle-aged and elderly people, that the younger generations are brighter or "more technical" because they carry lots of electronic gadgets and spend lots of time on social networking sites. The opposite is probably true... if anything they make people dumber. Regardless, while the number of consumer toys has grown exponentially... I would submit that percentage of society with any real technical interest or aptitude has remained constant.
When was there ever any glory?
Getting screamed at by some fake-and-bake guy because his laptop doesn't work all the while bitching and yelling that "I make the fucking money here cube monkey! Fix my shit!" or lecturing us on "If you people actually made some fucking money they might send you on a golf weekend once in a while. Wait do you computer geeks even know how to golf?" Gee thank you "will not be named marketing company once located in Plymouth MN" for that experience... No wonder you went under and have 3 of your executives in jail now...
How about the executive that needs you to scrub his PDA to make sure the wife can't figure out he's banging Stephanie in payroll all the while chatting how worthless the black hole of IT is. "Do you people do anything besides spend our money?" Gee thanks I loved spending 3 weeks with Faire Issac getting your data feeds set up so you can actually get mailer out to all your potential customers before first quarter. And you assholes still had the balls, after I worked 3 days straight sleeping in a server room, to gloat on how "if you could get your job done right you could have come golfing with us." We've been shit on as an industry from day one. What Glory? And does everyone in a suit fucking golf?
Then there was 3 years with Lady Macbeth out in Burnsville who was so brutal and wicked I can't evne put into print what he issues were... all the while complaining that a staff of 8 could only field 3200 calls a day... Simple math:
60 minutes in an hour. 8 hours = 480 total minutes
480 * 8 = 3840 total minutes.
3840 /3200 = 1.2 minutes a call...
NOT FAST ENOUGH! WTF? ARE YOU BRAIN DEAD WOMAN?! Asking someone their name takes at least 20 seconds... Whatever... not that I am bitter... people complain they can't get help but then you bitch that you aren't "helping them fast enough" ... ARRRrggg... Oh well not my problem, she was more then capable of driving a 40 million a year company into a 4 million a year company before the competition bought them out and threw her 6 figure fat ass out the door...
And after all that still having to put in the 60 hour a week grind in a server room, coding everything, administering everything, and being told by your boss that "You need to foot the bill for all these certifications, why should we pay you to help you keep your job?" MCSE, CCNA, CCIE, CNA, etc... I remember in 2000 I had to shell out $12,000 in a year of my money to "keep my job."
The sickest thing is, in all those years, because of the nature of our work, we IT people see all of the company. No insulation. The corruption at the top all the way to the bottom. If Jeff is surfing pr0n in the warehouse or Mr. Big is surfing kiddie p0rn in his masion, IT sees it all and suffer it all too. From the top AND the bottom. It makes you not like people in general. I have 0 faith in any human walking Earth now as a result.
I remember at one employer just running a simple
DIR /S *.MPG /S *.AVI
DIR
against the personal drives due to disk space running out.
The sheer volume of pr0n was staggering. The executives were furious. They wanted blood. I was in the conference room when they demanded to know who the top offenders were. They were going to make examples of them. I was fired on the spot when I named the top 5 offender... all sitting in the room.
Glory my ass. Never was any, never will be any.
Blissfully retired and anyone dumb enough to go into that field, good luck. If you want to see the worst in humanity, IT\MIS is the field to be in. I'd rather work with prison inmates then go back to that, I take honest evil over hypocritical evil any day... Glory? How about IT Shell Shock Syndrome...
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
I don't know whether there was ever glory in working in the computer field--but there used to be joy, and it's a lot harder to come by these days, at least in my experience.
I understand what you're saying, but I've always had sympathy for IT people in a technical company. I'm glad that you appreciate them, but I think you underestimate their contribution and knowledge. Yes, your PhDs are probably smarter than your IT folks but that doesn't mean they know how to keep computers and networks running smoothly.
You are always in the background of any project. It's assumed you can do whatever it is they want you to do, even if it has never been done before. They will want it 6 weeks earlier than you can deliver it and 50% cheaper than you can buy it for. You are supposed to be invisible. No one thinks about how much work you have to put in to something in order to keep it up and running in a production environment. If the service fails at 3 am on a Sunday, every minute of your time will be tracked until the service is restored and you will be told how efficient you aren't and what you should try to do better next time. When the kudos are given at the next company meeting and everyone talks about all of the great things they have accomplished this year, your name is never mentioned unless you count the "Oh, and thanks to IT who.. does what they do!" mention from the CEO.
You're the plumber. You're the TV Repair man. You're the phone guy. They only know your name when something has gone wrong and they think you can fix it. They only think you can fix it because they are fairly sure you, or someone like you, broke it to begin with.
Welcome to I.T.
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.
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.
These days, people's health seems to be considered more important than anything, so glory = saving lives?
glory job = Surgeon? paramedic?
Interestingly enough, not all businesses have a network, in fact the vast majority of businesses still don't have a network. Many are just 1 to 20 person companies, I agree, but they form the bulk of the working population. They don't have networks because either the business doesn't justify it (which is often hard to believe) or they can't afford to get someone in to do it for them. Ma & Pa are not calling in IBM. They need John & Jane. They need the personal touch. These little companies often have to buy inappropriate package software. It's in these areas that the Glory quietly continues. Building computers & building software for the little folk. Because the little folk are in fact doing the interesting stuff, and them doing interesting stuff means we as the IT players are helping that interesting stuff get done better. Which is glorious!
Yes, any infrastructure service, be it power or roads or IT, is intentionally uninteresting. "Interesting" means noticeable or memorable, and it's pretty much only the problems that people notice and remember.
Indeed. There never was glory in IT, in any case, only the illusion of it back in the 90s when everybody was talking about the internet taking off and suddenly being the guy "who knows about computers" made you awe-worthy.
Now everybody sees IT services like they see the plumbing. They expect it to work and they should. You don't see people stopping a plumber to congratulate him because the sinks drain nicely (and if you think comparing you to a plumber is derogatory, you have a too high opinion of yourself and deserve your toilet to back up while you are still sitting on it).
No sig
The glory of IT is not in IT, but in software engineering. IT is the dark, smelly, hairy underbelly of computing technology. Software engineering is the light, bright, wonderful topside, basking in sunshine and wonder.
IT personnel are responsible for keeping crappy, obsolete, virus-laden servers working without enough money to get anything better. Any money spent on IT is considered an expense. "Good" IT consists of finding the cheapest off-the-shelf software to sorta do the job.
Software engineers are given the challenge of a problem to solve, and the money and time to do it in. Good software engineering consists of designing the most elegant technical architecture to solve the problem.
IT personnel are regularly yelled at as if they were barely more valuable than a "click next to install package" monkey because that's often what they are. Even when personally far more capable, the job only requires you to "click next" when installing somebody else's software, perform backups, and set passwords. IT personnel are relegated to the back store room and not allowed to see anybody, except accidentally on the bus on the way to the local Carl's Jr.
Software engineers regularly meet with executives in fancy boardrooms with glass tables. They are there to design quality solutions that will be used by thousands or millions. They are treated with accord, respect, and often, mild deference. Lunch is often provided by hired caterers at design meetings.
No matter how "senior" you are in IT, you are easily replaceable by anybody with the requisite MCSE certificate.
There are never enough qualified software engineers - they are pretty much always in high demand and paid to match. When software engineers work in a field, they quickly acquire domain expertise that's almost impossible to replace.
People who confuse IT and Software Engineering often wind up working in the wrong field. Put in the time to become a software engineer, and you won't ever regret it. Cram through your MCSE or CCNA, and become one of the faceless droids. (Yay! I know what an MSI file is! I can calculate a subnet!)
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.