I've been in IT for almost 16 years, since right after high school.
At first, it was all new and exciting. The BBS scene was in full swing, Unix was Unix and it ran on big systems, and the World Wide Web loomed on the horizon.
Then, it was cutting edge and exciting. Working with SGIs and SPARCs was great. Building clusters was starting to be the big thing and I designed and built my share. These were the consulting days, when IT people were starting to make big bucks. Job satisfaction was high.
At some point, the job became work. The work was steady, paid well, and was occassionally fun. These were the post-Y2K days. There was a lot going on, Y2K had turned out to be a non-issue, and IT moved steadily ahead.
Finally, work has become work. It has become tedious and uninteresting. Ownership no longer wants to spend money on the systems. The IT staff is almost non-existant. Long hours with no recognition, substandard pay, and trying to manage the unrealistic expectations of management and users have all taken their toll.
On the other hand, I have a job. There is food on the table and my children have clothes to wear. We even get to take in a show occasionally. I think this is what's called a rut...
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I've been in IT for almost 16 years, since right after high school.
At first, it was all new and exciting. The BBS scene was in full swing, Unix was Unix and it ran on big systems, and the World Wide Web loomed on the horizon.
Then, it was cutting edge and exciting. Working with SGIs and SPARCs was great. Building clusters was starting to be the big thing and I designed and built my share. These were the consulting days, when IT people were starting to make big bucks. Job satisfaction was high.
At some point, the job became work. The work was steady, paid well, and was occassionally fun. These were the post-Y2K days. There was a lot going on, Y2K had turned out to be a non-issue, and IT moved steadily ahead.
Finally, work has become work. It has become tedious and uninteresting. Ownership no longer wants to spend money on the systems. The IT staff is almost non-existant. Long hours with no recognition, substandard pay, and trying to manage the unrealistic expectations of management and users have all taken their toll.
On the other hand, I have a job. There is food on the table and my children have clothes to wear. We even get to take in a show occasionally. I think this is what's called a rut...
Absolutely! Good Sc-Fi is hard to find these days.