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Story: IT work is 'boring', say UK students

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Kill the Administrators

I quite agree with the previous commentator. However, I would go further. There used to be two levels in the technical department; technicians and engineers. Technicians would be the ones adding users, changing printer cartridges etc. The engineers would be the ones debugging intractable problems and breaking new ground; but not these days.

The sequence seems to have gone

IT Management: These geeky engineer types are weird and expensive. We need to work out a way of getting rid of them.

BigSoftCorp: How about if we build their expertise into the admin applications and teach the technicians how to use them. We'll break the whole thing down into preset jobs and do a course for each. You can then send your technicians on these courses, or hire in someone with the right certificate and save loads!

IT Management: Ooooh [quiver] go on then.

[fast forward 10 or 15years]

IT Management: We're trying to recruit people who have already got a certificate for the exact versions of this mammoth laundry list of products, but there's nobody out there .. and when we do find someone, they just seem to be worthless badge collectors, no actual flair. There must be a skills shortage!

Formative IT *Engineers*: I want to actually understand the systems from quantum physics all the way up to the underlying systems engineering principles and be able to design and migrate stuff to improve it. I don't want to be taught how to "click here" with no clue as to what's going on under the hood. IT'S BORING !!

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So now we have wailing that people are avoiding the IT trade, that employers can't find people to run their click here palaces and that systems don't really do what's needed and they don't why.

Dumb down the systems, and you get dumb systems. Dumb down the systems administration and you need sysadmins that are willing to play dumb.

Option B

Pick up the systems out of the heritage that predates this whole mind numbing strand. Unix and related systems are not based on this flawed approach. They assume that there is someone with the knowledge at the helm, with lesser permissions doled out to those folks looking after the day to day.

P-p-p-pick up a penguin !!

[Cue outrage from assembled win-tards] >;-)

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