If you are preparing for a career in IT or are new to the industry, many of the "secrets" listed below may surprise you, because we don't usually talk about them out loud. If you are an IT veteran, you've probably encountered most of these issues and have a few of your own to add — and please, by all means, take a moment to add them to the discussion.
Most of these secrets are aimed at network administrators, IT managers and desktop support professionals. This list is not aimed at developers and programmers — they have their own set of dirty little secrets — but some of these will apply to them as well.
1. The pay in IT is good compared to many other professions, but since they pay you well, they often think they own you
Although the pay for IT professionals is not as great as it was before the dot-com flameout and the IT backlash in 2001-2002, IT workers still make very good money compared to many other professions.
And there is every reason to believe that IT pros will continue to be in demand in the coming decades, as technology continues to play a growing role in business and society.
However, because IT professionals can be so expensive, some companies treat IT pros like they own them. If you have to answer a tech call at 9pm because someone is working late, you hear: "That's just part of the job." If you need to work six hours on a Saturday to deploy a software update to avoid downtime during business hours, you get: "There's no time off in lieu for that since you're on salary. That's why we pay you the big money!"
2. It will be your fault when users make silly errors
Some users will angrily snap at you when they are frustrated. They will yell: "What's wrong with this thing?" or "This computer is not working!" or "What did you do to the computers?" In fact, the problem is that they accidentally deleted the Internet Explorer icon from the desktop, or unplugged the mouse from the back of the computer with their foot, or spilled their coffee on the keyboard.
3. You will go from villain to hero and back again multiple times within any given day
When you miraculously fix something that had been keeping multiple employees from being able to work for the past 10 minutes — and they don't realise how simple the fix really was — you will become the hero of the moment and everyone's favourite employee.
They will conveniently forget about your hero anointment a few hours later when they have trouble printing because of a network slowdown — you will become be enemy number one. But if you show users a handy little Microsoft Outlook trick before the end of the day, you'll swiftly return to hero status.
4. Certifications won't always help you become a better technologist, but they can help you land a better job or a pay raise
Headhunters and human resources departments love IT certifications. They make it easy to match up job candidates with job openings. They also make it easy for HR to screen candidates. You'll hear a lot of veteran IT pros whine about techies who were hired based on certifications but who don't have the experience to do the job effectively.
They are often right. That has happened in plenty of places. But the fact is that certifications open up your career options. They show that you are organised and ambitious and have a desire to educate yourself and expand your skills.
If you are an experienced IT pro and have certifications to match your experience, you will find yourself to be extremely marketable. Tech certifications are simply a way to prove your baseline knowledge and to market yourself as a professional. However, they don't tend to be of them reliable indicators of how good you will be at the job.
5. Your non-technical co-workers will use you as personal tech support for their home PCs
Your co-workers (in addition to your friends, family, and neighbours) will view you as their personal tech support department for their home PCs and home networks.
They will email you, call you, and/or stop by your office to talk about how to deal with the virus that took over their home PC, or the wireless router that stopped working...
Talkback
A lot of it I have found to be true in my embryonic career, although, coming from a small business there is little to none of the IT power playing.
When you have been in the business for about 15 years you start to notice that so called "new technologies" are in fact no different to some of the old stuff that you cut your teeth on. eg Virtualisation - we were doing that in the 1970's. The basic contructs used in most computer languages were all in Algol68 but no one seems to remember. As for sales pitches I can't remember how many times Video on Demand has been relaunched and failed to take off (the latest version is on mobile phones). The IT industry was summed up to me once when I was once in a presentation about a new version of Oracle; someone asked the question "what platform does it run on" a member of the audience shouted out "an overhead projector".
Point 5. I have found certifications and qualifications practically useless.
It's true that they might get your CV read when stupid employers advertise graduates only or MCSE essential, but you'll meet hundreds more people who don't have those bits of paper and are really good.
Get qualifications if you want and if you're interested but don't imagine that they'll be any use.
Point 8. Veteran techies may not want to change something that works, but my experience is that older IT professionals not just techies are hungry for new technologies and the chance to find out more about them and implement them. As they're veterans they do endless hours outside work reading and learning about them.
Point 9. Totally wrong. IT people don't do this, it wouldn't be professional, but business managers do. I've frequently been asked to implement a hi-tech solution, complex application system, or expensive solution when a cheaper, easier, lo-tech solution would solve the problem better.
Business managers believe salespeople's hype, or they think that something more complex or more expensive must be better.
Often they're just trying to compete with other departments, eg, "our IT budget is bigger than yours".
Point 10. This is true about everyone in every occupation not just IT people. When we fear retribution, blame, or having to pay to repair something that we used in the wrong way, we try to cover up.
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When I joined the IT industry in the 70's it was the highest paid career (especially in sales). Over the years it has become commoditised such that the guys who used to run TV repair shops now run local computer stores and you can buy Pcs in supermarkets. Systems are easier to set up and run now so lower level people can do it. It's a good career still but not the best. If you go in for it work for a company that does IT as it's primary function otherwise you will be a service add on that is seen as a cost and one that can be outsourced or squeezed. If I was starting afresh I would be looking at biotech.
jason hiner was spot on 10 out of 10 for his story jason have you thought of a career writing?
Back in my more junior days as desktop support I foun that Some end users like to blame the hardware for 'Their work Vanishing' or 'the machine hung' and 'I lost all my work' ... had quite a few of them... normally on a friday afternoon or when deadlines are approaching!
Supporting IT under non-tec managment is the biggest challenge one can face, where you look like a fool to let your non-IT / non-Tech boss or manager know that problem in downloading emails is because of external factors like for example BT's mail server is down, as soon as you tell them they just double click on IE shortcut on the desktop, open their fav. website usually msn.co.uk or their comp. website , look and give you a dirty smile saying look my internet is working fine there is no connection problem!!
Company thinks IT Support stands for INTEGRETED Technology Support, all CCTV faults, Burgler alarms,Hardware,Software,Database,Security any problem ... yes, its IT Support problem! One man show is expected for all these roles.
Hi All - Just going over each point:
1) Yes it is true that with experience the pay of IT people tends to be good compared to other proffessions. I remember when I joined an organisation 12 years ago the pay structure of IT staff was seperate from the grading of the rest of the non-technical people in the organisation due to the specialised nature of the work and the fact that it may upset non-IT staff so it was kind of hidden away. However, in recent years since outsourcing became fashionable pay in IT has slowed down but I guess thats just demand and supply and the industry you work in.
2, 3) Always the case - non-technical people never seem to distinguish between the network service people and developers and expect anyone related to technical areas can solve anything, like users coming to me when the network is slow or having printing problems, when I am just a developer and have no control of that area. Then there is the case of the users not liking how a system does things even though it was agreed with the users at the time of development - you always get one !!! I think its safe to say - that non-technical management stuff will love you when you complete a project because it makes them look good and hate you when you tell them that that cannot be done in the timescales they have come up with. So your reputation will be like a yo-yo from hero to villain and back again. Somtimes the best approach to being treated like rubbish is to say something back in a non-confrontational manner - I have found that this works and people take less advantage of you even though they pay you well. As IT people we should always let it be known that ours is a thinking proffession which requires an ordered approach and affects many peoples day to day operations - and we can't jump up and down at the whim of some users.
4) I like the idea of certifications - looks good on the CV but they are of absolutely no value when doing your work, and are therefore no indication that the people who have them are any good at their job. I also find that the certification course materials teach the concepts but never the issues that you will face - and the issues are what you spend most of your time dealing with in IT.
5) In 13 years I have had one request from a work colleague to look at his problem laptop. However, I have had many requests from friends an family to look at their technical issues and most of the time I help them. I don't believe that this issue of helping friends and family is different from other proffessions, I mean if a doctor was in a shop and someone had a heart-attack, then I strongly believe that they would try and help out regardless of the fact that they were off duty. Its not something we should moan about in IT, usually fixing problems allows us to learn new things ( I do anyway).
6) Very true when working with external consultants and vendors - if your on a joint project you have to make sure that you know your stuff and do your stuff right in the timescales - otherwise they will always be looking to blame you for any failure. On the other side of the coin - if you work well with them and the project is a success, they the consultant and vendor may try and recruit you at sometime in the future !!!
7) Babysitting old technologies is a necessity because the business is probably using them in the main, but at some stage businesses are always compelled to upgrade to the newer things so I don't think its such a big issue unless of course the old-tech is something that very few organisations use in which case your future job prospects will be affected, therefore look to move on if there is no change.
8) Never thought I would come accross someone who prevents new technologies being used - but there are few I have met. Its all to do with human nature - I don't think they are lazy or not being stretched enough but its more to do with what one feels comfortable with using, and also the stability it provides the business who are the pay-masters. The way I see it from my 13 years of experience is that if something works and meets the needs of the business now and the next 3 years then leave it as is unless there is such a technology shift in the market place that the people who can use the tech are becoming short in supply.
9) Sadly - this is true, there are managers out there who want such control of IT to keep them in their jobs that they stifle innovation, and new technologies from being used. This is the worse case scenario for any organisation - usually it starts off by cutting off the tech staff from communicating with the business users for fear of being found out. Organisations should identify such managers and get rid of them ASAP.
10) Personally - I have never done this, and I am brave enough to say that 'Its my fault' - once when a project was being delayed I was at a staff conference and on the same table at lunch time my director who was responsible for corporate Services was talking about the project and saying that such and such a project manager told him the delays were caused by issues with the database - to which I said 'Yeah - thats me and its my fault I did....' - he just looked at me and laughed at my point blank honesty. There are groups of IT people who use the technical IT jargon to confuse users - and sometimes I get the feeling it makes them feel powerfull and good, but to me they really need to get a life !!! - as for the user - they just want to know when its going to work and not the boring technical details of the fault.