The IT Career
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Why? It can't possibly be that bad.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore RooseveltAuthor of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning -
After some real digging, I came to realize I just want my sons to know God. Worrying about whether they will choose good careers is too stressful. Sure I care and I absolutely help them develop in the areas they have interest and talent. But I believe that trust in God and his will is what will bring them happiness and success, not worrying about what career they pick.
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I agree that you should do what you enjoy. The way to wealth is not normally through a job anyway. If wealth is your goal you need to get your money working for you ASAP instead of working for your money.
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Like many people, I got into this field "accidentally" when my primary career aspiration wasn't working for me. When I started in IT back in the mid-80s you were considered a "guru" if you knew how to support Wordperfect,DBaseIII,Lotus 1-2-3 and Novell Netware and pretty much anybody could get a well paid job.
Now fast forward almost 20 years, you need to know every major server operating system known to man, cisco networking, storage, database administration, scripting/programming in at least half a dozen languages, virtualization, messaging, groupware, etc.. just to get an interview for a sysadmin job.
Although I love IT (it has paid the bills and put a nice roof over my family's head), though I am tired of trying to continuously keep up to date with the latest and greatest, the hours are terrible, you get little or no respect, etc.
In the end what I recommend for my kids is; Do what you love.. but make sure you learn a skill that pays the bills at the same time. Like previous posters have indicated, IT is a great skill and is not as demanding as others.
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I really *used* to enjoy my IT Career as a programmer and DBA. Heck, when I moved into management, it still was pretty satisfying.
But, that was before Sabanes-Oxley and the knee-jerk documentation requirements that the powers-that-be deemed necessary to meet 'compliance'.
So, now my job consists of documenting things, and managing people documenting things. We ship all of the coding tasks overseas.
I'd tell my kids - if you like to code, find a nice, small agile shop and have fun. But, in bigger places of business, I wouldn't recommend IT, unless my kid wanted to be a project manager.
Fred
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Let's see...
The computer systems run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so the IT management types expect YOU to work 24 x 7 if only that means sleeping with the cell phone under your pillow. There is nothing more fun than being called at 3:00am by someone who complains that some computer job that you know nothing about just failed with some odd never seen error message.
Holidays mean that the rest of the company employees get to be home with their families. Holidays to you means being at work doing system upgrades and patches.
You are generally well paid, as long as you don't try to figure out how much you get paid per hour.
Because you are well paid, the management types would very much like to hire someone who would work for less, so they are always thinking about outsourcing your job and you always wonder when that will happen.
Technology is constantly advancing so you need to keep up but of course the management types do not want to waste company monies for training or education because either you might leave some day or they might just hire someone that already knows the newer technology. So, you spend your own money and use your own time to try to keep up.
There is very little need to try to explain to sons, daughters, nieces or nephews that working in IT is a good thing or a bad thing. They already know the answer.
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First off, it's not always a good idea to try to make your career the same field as your passion. It introduces a real chance of catastrophic burn out, and kills the necessary distinction between work time and personal time. A musician with a (possibly boring) day job can escape by doing gigs, whereas trying to make a living at music can be a draining process.
There are lots of more physical jobs that can be mentally challenging, such as electrician or heavy equipment maintenance.
Another thought is the concept of a temporary career, just for the experience. A young person might learn a lot about the country (and themselves) by putting in a couple of years long haul trucking.
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-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
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I agree with your general statement that you should be doing what you love to do. In real life, though, I would alter it a bit. I'd say you should be doing what you don't hate to do, as long as it at least provides enough income to make ends meet. If you could get rich at another job but you'd be miserable, in my opinion that's not worth it. You spend more time at your job than is spent doing any other thing in your life (during the years that you're working at least) so you better make it something you like.
Is IT a good career? Depends on your tastes. I like my IT job. But I'm a nerd. I also liked throwing hay and alfalfa bales during the summer when I was in high school/college. It was very dirty, but at the same time, rewarding to see what you've accomplished at the end of the day. Plus, a shower has never been so appreciated than when I was caked in sweat, dust, and hay. I liked that job too. Physical labor isn't always a drawback, depends on your perspective.
Here's my point. Since we all have different tastes, the only thing that can define whether a job is good, or whether you'd recommend it, is whether or not you like it. That doesn't mean someone else will or won't like it. So the only advice you can give is that someone should try to get a job doing what they love.
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While I was in college, I believed that anyone could work in IT. All it would take is study, experimentation, and hard work. And after all, the school I was attending was training hundreds of people a semester. It wasn’t long after I entered the work force that I began to question this philosophy. In the 23 years I’ve worked in IT, I’ve encountered many individuals who simply don’t the aptitude for a career in IT; any more than I have the aptitude to be an artist or singer. For those individuals, no, IT is not a good career. For the rest of us, it can be. It’s dynamic, challenging, and pays relatively well (At least I’m satisfied with my salary). The determining factor is your employer. I’ve worked for good companies and I’ve worked for bad companies. I’ve worked for good managers and I’ve worked for poor managers. I’ve worked for the worst manager in the history of management. In fact, I won’t even dignify him with the title “manager”. He’s a BOSS. The bottom line is, “Are you being paid fairly for the work your do?” and “Are you being treated with the dignity and respect you deserve?”. If you can maintain your career in a situation where the answer to both of these questions is “Yes.”, then yes, IT is a good career. If the answer is “No”, then do something else…something you love.
Take care,
Bert
"Speculations? I know nothing about speculations. I'm resting on certainties. I know that my Redeemer lives, and because He lives, I shall live also." - Michael Faraday
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I would have to agree that IT has been a great field for me, as I get bored very quickly, and IT has kept me learning new things constantly. I wouldn't say it is condusive to having a "life" sometimes, as the hours can be grueling. Especially when you have to work at eradicating a virus from your organization, or rollout 10,000 dekstop images. But, overall I have found IT a very rewarding career.
You won't get rich working in IT from someone else, and to really make the money working for someone else, you need to travel, which can make things difficult for a married person. If you start your own business, you might make a lot of money, but you're going to spend a LOT of time working to build a client base, and putting in long hours because you're the only one responsible to see the client is ultimately take care of.
I always tell people to play to their strengths. If you enjoy IT and you are good at it, do it. If you don't enjoy IT, find something you like, regardless of what it is. You'll have more fun with your job, and have a much more rewarding career if you find what you like and stick with it.
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I agree with Jwainz. My first priority is my relationship with God and making sure my children have that relationship. As they follow God’s Word as presented in the Bible, God will direct them in the right career option. The Bible states that “What profith a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Answer: absolutely nothing.
My other priorities are my family, church, and job. If my job cannot be balanced with higher priorities, that job is not a good fit.
I would counsel anyone considering IT to find positions that will create a balance between work and higher priorities. I am very neutral about the IT field. To me, focusing on things that will be of an eternal value is where I would rather focus my energy.
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I think your view can be determined a lot by your work environment. I came from a place that did not value IT. The managers and such saw programmers as something that was easily replaced and shouldn't be trusted. Heck my old employer would not grant internet access to IT folks except for a couple of approved sites (google was not approved, SQL Server Central was). They made internal certifications impossible to reach because classes to get certified were never offered and were not being planned to be offered. They were relucant to offer any training or send you for training rather telling you to buy a book (sometimes on your own dime). The pay was also behind the times but it was because many people had stock options that were worth money and managers knew people were reluctant to walk away from this. Anyhow all these things made for a bad work environment and overall the morale of IT suffered. Now, I know this was not true of the entire organization as other departments were run in a postivie manner and internal behavior scores showed this. Anyhow, I moved on to a smaller company where they value their people on an individual level. They realize that people come to work for more than a paycheck. The funny part is I raised my compensation significantly as a package and found a better place to work. So I think your scenery definitely impacts your perception of IT as a career. So my advice "like (not necessarily love) what you do" and "make sure you get more than a paycheck from work". This more can be any measure of things - just make sure it is important to you.
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Wanna bet? I once worked in THE IT shop from HELL!!!!
Take care,
Bert
"Speculations? I know nothing about speculations. I'm resting on certainties. I know that my Redeemer lives, and because He lives, I shall live also." - Michael Faraday
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Where did you sit? I was in the back corner across from the build server...
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore RooseveltAuthor of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning -
They kept me in the basement and treated me like a mushroom...if you know what I mean
Take care,
Bert
"Speculations? I know nothing about speculations. I'm resting on certainties. I know that my Redeemer lives, and because He lives, I shall live also." - Michael Faraday
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