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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?
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....
I accidentally the whole new shiny.
I can never remember a time when shit hits the fan and I'm able to keep down time to a minimum and getting glory, just gripes about down time. IT never has glory because nobody cares about IT until something goes wrong then it's the IT guys fault, and every second of down time is because of their incompetence.
Knowledge = Power
P= W/t
t=Money
Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
Was coming here to say pretty much the same thing. If we wanted glory, we'd have become firefighters or something. We like fixing problems, for the most part.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
It was fun until...
In times of universal deceit, telling the truth gets you modded -1 Troll
Seriously -- I work in IT because it is stable work, it's something I can stand doing, and I make enough scratch to get all my bills paid and live fairly comfortably. I was never aware of there being anything even resembling 'glory' associated with IT.
To the haters: You can't win. If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine
No Way! When i pulled that bad drive from the 3140c, and replaced it with the replacement that had arrived this morning, the clouds overhead parted as the Valkyries sang and I rose to my rightful place, occupying the throne of Odin. As the gods before me gasped and awed at my most masterful replacement and saving of the data, 72 virgins were laid before me and I now rule in GLORY!!!!
All points of time and space are connected.
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."
Hell, I'm only here for the money!!
That's the ONLY reason I'm at any job whatsoever, it is nothing more than a means to an end...the end being my being able to live the lifestyle I wish. The job does nothing more than enable to me to do as I please.
If I won the lottery tomorrow, I'd not even bother coming back here to pack anything up.
Work for glory? I can't even fathom the concept...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
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.
If you'd find something you like doing, you could end up having fun at your job...
I tried that but "my" idea of "Condom Test Driver" and the Trojan corporation's version of "Condom Test Driver" didn't synch...now I repair computers
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
Oh don't get me wrong, it isn't like this is a drudge or anything, I like tinkering around with computers and such, I do it some in my free time, but, if I were independently wealthy, no, I'd NEVER work again. I'd do what interests me, it would surely involve some computer geek activities,but, honestly, I found out a year or so ago when I had 7 months off between contracts. My day generally involved, getting up, walking the dog...hitting the gym for a couple hours, then getting on my motorcycle, and riding around New Orleans all day, exploring and finding fun things to do. At the end of the day, I'd meet somewhere with friends getting off work for a few beers, wash, rinse repeat.
I would have no problem doing that for the rest of my life, while, of course, taking vacations off to travel somewhere caribbean to a beach on occasion.
No, I learned there, that I could easily occupy myself with travelling, having fun in NOLA, doing things with friends and chasing women the rest of my days, and NEVER miss a day of work again if I were to get such an opportunity.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........