Most stessful IT Job Position

coldbug

Which one is it?

1. Web Developer 2. Database Administrator 3. Desktop Support
4. Help Desk 5. Network administrator 6. Application Developer
7. Data Center Ops Specialist 8. Software Engineer 9. Network Architect
10. Network Engineer 11. Security Network Architect 12. Systems Administrator
13. Software Engineer 14. Systems Designer 15. Telecommunications Specialist
16. Java Developer

I have no doubt that everyone of you on this site has a title and currently acting as one...or in a very near distant future. This is the best IT site for all kinds of info and most of them are accurate to record.

Thanks for your inputs and comments.

Buggy

Repo Man

I'll throw in a vote for advanced A/V support. When things fail and you have a room of 100+ people (including CEO's) staring at you to fix it NOW.

coldbug

Repo Man wrote: »

I'll throw in a vote for advanced A/V support. When things fail and you have a room of 100+ people (including CEO's) staring at you to fix it NOW.

when CEOs are involved= you're in deep stress

alias454

I would vote for the one you don't like
Also I don't think it's on the list but Email Administrator might be up there too.

I think Help Desk was my most stressful position. No one ever calls the helpdesk to say thanks.

Press ANY Key

The most stressful IT position has to be the one where you are doing the work of two or three people with no help in sight. You are expected to be in multiple places at once. Your manager keeps cracking the whip and expecting you to get things done on time. No excuses

To answer your question, it could be any of the positions you mentioned.

E Double U

The most stressful position is the one being filled by someone that is easily stressed. All of those jobs are a piece of cake when you can remain as cool as a cucumber.

knownhero

Desktop support stressed me out after a few years of doing it. You always got the same idiot day in day out with the same problem. Argh even thinking about the past stresses me out.

scaredoftests

Stressful are the ones where co-workers and supervisor don't work as a team.

Kreken

I would say it's not what you do but where you work. Some mistakes/downtime could cost billions, others - lives.

Queue

There is a certain amount of stress while being on call and massive thunderstorms, or other weather is happening outside and it is time for bed. You just lay waiting for sites to go down...

That falls under a few job titles or more you listed: Network Administrator, Network Engineer, Telecom analyst, Network Architect. As long as they share the on call rotation.

ITSec14

Each job has its moments. Desktop support might be a continuous minor level of stress, but security could be fairly lax until a data breach occurs.

This is why mastering these skills is so important. I find the people who are most stressed are the one's who don't quite know what they are doing most of the time.

coldbug

knownhero wrote: »

Desktop support stressed me out after a few years of doing it. You always got the same idiot day in day out with the same problem. Argh even thinking about the past stresses me out.

Lol..i'm currently doing Desktop Support. Yes it is so stressful especially when you call the vendors and placed on hold or the call is being passed around, when Apps freeze on you and you have to reboot the system (user asks why is it freezing I replied "It's cold today!"), when user blame it on you.

shochan

I would say in-field network engineer, bouncing around from network to network...most networks should have similar infrastructure, but this is not always the case. It's like a Visio doc needs to be created or reviewed at the start before digging in & making changes.

I have worked on a busy helpdesk for 3yrs and yes, that was some hell right there! (NT4/2000 days)

IMO.

TechGromit

I would say it all really depends on what fails that day. From a day to day prospective, anything having to do with the network is pretty stress free. When the network goes down, management wants updates every 15 minutes is it fixed yet? The Email server take a **** that day? You can be sure that the server admin is getting more than his share of stress. I've had a department manager breathing down my neck because her laptop wouldn't boot up, had important files she wanted on it and it was encrypted so I couldn't use normal recovery, and I wasn't even help desk. Help Desk policy was the files should be up on the network drives, it's a format / re-install policy. I had to develop the tools I needed to unencrypt it before I could begin to recover the files. The important thing is you shouldn't be stressed every day, if you are, it's time to look for another job.

hurricane1091

Everything has it's stresses. Being a desktop guy having to go into a conference room full of execs is terrible. Being a network guy and having everything stop working is for sure stressful. Same if the phones go down, same if the e-mail goes down, etc. If anything, I'd say developers have it the best. Mostly project work, no after hours work, etc.

DatabaseHead

Staying true to the intent of the message.

Managing larges volumes of data. Without a high aptitude and solid experience you will find yourself in a world of hurt.

UnixGuy

E Double U wrote: »

The most stressful position is the one being filled by someone that is easily stressed. All of those jobs are a piece of cake when you can remain as cool as a cucumber.

+1 that's 80% of the equation...but doesn't work when you have a smart fellow who wants you to work every weekend (been there)

coldbug

TechGromit wrote: »

I've had a department manager breathing down my neck because her laptop wouldn't boot up, had important files she wanted on it and it was encrypted so I couldn't use normal recovery, and I wasn't even help desk. Help Desk policy was the files should be up on the network drives, it's a format / re-install policy. I had to develop the tools I needed to unencrypt it before I could begin to recover the files. The important thing is you shouldn't be stressed every day, if you are, it's time to look for another job.

You were stressed for real..how did you develop the tools for uncryption?

TechGromit

coldbug wrote: »

You were stressed for real..how did you develop the tools for uncryption?

The encryption the Tools existed for the previous version of the software, it was called safeboot I believe. The tools I had didn't
support the never version of this laptop, I forget the exact reason think it had to do with the boot drivers used in bios. The recovery disk wouldn't boot up. I had to create a new boot disk that supported the newer HD drivers before I could utilize the recovery software. I got it to work, took me a couple hours to puzzle through it. Normally, It be just a matter of use recover CD, get recovery key from server, recover files or unencypt.

sillymcnasty

My most stressful job position is under the desk on my knees. In the less fun sounding way.

gorebrush

Help desk can be quite stressful, you are open to tickets from all levels of the business, from fellow co-workers right up to CEO. Sys Admin can be quite stressful, but depends on how well you run the environment.

I used to work as a Network Engineer on shift, used to deal with multi-site P1 outages with ease, some of the clients involved were sensitive and that potentially raised the stress level, but not for me. I was good at my job and I really enjoyed it, so I never saw it as stressful in the slightest.

scaredoftests

sillymcnasty wrote: »

My most stressful job position is under the desk on my knees. In the less fun sounding way.

try being 9 months pregnant and doing that. Sometimes I feared I wouldn't be able to get back up. LOL

DatabaseHead

Help desk sucks for sure. Getting bombarded by phone calls sometimes from a grumpy "customer". (Even though you worked in the same company, I always hated that). Knowing they make 2 - 3x's as much as you..........

No thanks

Good starting point and that is it!

Cert Poor

Press ANY Key wrote: »

The most stressful IT position has to be the one where you are doing the work of two or three people with no help in sight. You are expected to be in multiple places at once. Your manager keeps cracking the whip and expecting you to get things done on time. No excuses

To answer your question, it could be any of the positions you mentioned.

^ This. It's not necessarily the position but the workload.

I worked at a start-up IT department that started with about 9 employees (IT Director, Service Desk Manager, 1 network engineer, 2 Service Desk, 1 DBA, 1 Telecom, 1 system admin, 1 e-mail admin) and eventually grew some more, but the user base was about 1600 people with 4 Mergers and Acquisitions in about 1.5 year time period. People burned out within months and quit. I volunteered to take on 2-3 people's workloads and ended up working 80+ hours a week and doing entire migrations single-handedly. Sometimes working non-stop Thursday through Monday except for bathroom and shower breaks (no sleep), falling asleep at the wheel while driving on the highway. The CIO saying an entire Merger & Acquisition "is on you", and you're still doing the work of about 3 people (literally) and the company isn't making any effort to replace those positions.

The most stressful job is the one that hospitalizes you.

Never again. Innocence lost. Battle scars gained.

To the noobs in IT: It's good to work hard and show initiative and drive and put in some effort and long hours. It's good to show great value to your company. It will really, massively help your reputation. But there's a point where if you cross the threshold, you start breaking down, and your mind and body tell you to stop, even if your willpower doesn't want to. There's a point where skipping sleep, skipping meals, skipping exercise, and skipping all personal life starts to backfire.

Even if you're such a workaholic and don't say no to new projects and responsibilities and known as a "rock star," never be afraid to walk -- no RUN -- away from a job that is life-threatening to your health because of the abusive workload. 4 years and 2 jobs later after quitting that position, and I still haven't regained my health.

triplea

helpdesk/systems admin.

your boss and supervisor doesn't enforce a ticketing system so constant stream of questions to your desk
your supervisor knows theres too much work but is scared to say to the boss so no extra staff
your supervisor cannot help with problems cause hes stressed and has too much work on himself
your supervisor has no idea the work amount coming in, or ever looking at the people who do use the ticketing system correctly
your HR department are complete f*ckwits who give you less than a days notice for new starters
your 'senior network engineer' believes hes above answering a phone and its most likely hes out of his depth but embelished his CV
you miss lunch often just to keep your head above water
you've not had any appraisals in years

don't get me wrong I love the type of work and the staff are great but cant wait for my kids to grow up a few more years then I out of that job!

greg9891

Repo Man wrote: »

I'll throw in a vote for advanced A/V support. When things fail and you have a room of 100+ people (including CEO's) staring at you to fix it NOW.

Where I work we had this wonderful A/V guys and the company decided that his role was no longer needed and decided that all of his responsibilities would be thrown onto it department. We of course fought this because:

1) He never taught us anything in regards to the daily work that he did.
2) where is the money or extra compensation for us having to add all of these daily task and such on to our daily work load. He didn't work for free, he had to be paid so why are we being asked to do it for free.

majorpayne

Desktop/Helpdesk

Its a job you got to start with but its hard to deal with the random bs issues daily.

blargoe

The most stressful job is the one that you hate going in to every day, irrespective of the actual duties, people you work with, and workload.

keenon

blargoe wrote: »

The most stressful job is the one that you hate going in to every day, irrespective of the actual duties, people you work with, and workload.

well said and spot on

networker050184

It depends more on the people and culture than any specific position. A good management team can take the heat off their employees.

jamesleecoleman

None that I've had so far is stressful. Just a lot of pressure and lessons to be learned.

Way I look at it, if I'm not gonna die or possibly get seriously injured then it's not stressful. Someone tailgating me on my motorcycle is stressful.