Is IT the worst career like these people said?

eppixx7

Hi,

I'm a college student. I'm studying CIS. I recently read a post on city date named "INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY please read, seeking advice!". Many senior IT specialists pointed out the worst things about IT such as:

24/7/365 on call support

Do Updates after business hours and weekends

Get call in the middle of the nights because something breaks down

Not enough time for family.

Jobs outsourced to Asia

Here are a few posts from city data

"I am a network engineer at one of the "big 3" telecom companies and have been here for 30 years, so I would like to think I know what I am talking about. I install/maintain networks for a lot of fortune 500 companies, Hospitals and Universities and here is what I have found. The IT guys are for the most part all stressed and overworked, and they feel the employer owns them. I am no different. I am on call 24/7/365 and it is more common to get called in the middle of the night than not. I work 6-7 days a week and am lucky to only work 50-60 hours a week. I get six weeks vacation and usually get to take a week or two and sell the rest back because I can't take it (they won't let me) because of workload. When I do get vacation I have to be "available" for calls. I work alone all day every day except when the Pres, VP of IT or some other bigwig is breathing down my neck cause his crap doesn't work (usually something his people did) and he wants to know when it will be fixed. They do own me, and I have been divorced twice because of this job because I am never home and when I am I am stressed, pissed and cranky. BUT...if you get in the right job you will make a pisspot full of money! So...lots of money, no life and high stress.....you decide. Of course your next question is, if it's so bad, why do you stay? THE MONEY of course!"

"engineering, medicine, law, accounting have professional certifications and doctorates that are well respected and protected by law, IT does not. big difference, that is why there is the whole H1B thing. The barriers to entry are simply way way too low. Also those other fields are NOT like that, no other field changes as fast as IT, period. Most of the stuff I worked on when I was in school is completely irrelevant to what is out now. The operating systems are different, the software is different, the programming languages are different or obsolete, and there are new ones popping up every day that is the "new hot thing". Some people welcome this though, others don't. Plus if you go job to job, they will be on different proprietary software, different databases, different software languages and different operating systems often as well. So, what happens? You end up getting pigeon holed into a very small area, even if you are proficient or could just "pick something else up" with ease. I think what you said also, compared to a lot of your peers, you don't make a lot of money Hrrm... yah think? Well, the people who ARE making decent money in IT ARE on call 24x7 tied to their blackberries and working pretty crappy stressful jobs. IT is generally ALWAYS viewed as a cost center. That is why they do not feel bad about outsourcing all the jobs. Young people would be much better served by going into a diff field, why do you think the # of CS majors have drastically dropped in the past 7-8 years? I also advise as the poster above to go on dice.com, it is the largest tech job board in the United States, ... I think you'll get a feel of how things are "

AverageJoe

Well, I've been in IT a long time and I'd say that there's truth in what's being said, but it's not the full picture.

I mean, the most obvious question I'd ask someone who talks about how bad it is to work in IT would be "Well, then why are you doing it?  Why not find another job?"  

But you can find the negatives in any job... police officer, fire fighter, mechanic, airline pilot, teacher, soldier, mayor, doctor, construction worker, astronaut, broker, etc.  Every job has downsides.  Some of those downsides are life-and-death situations!  Some are only annoyances.  Most fall somewhere in between.

And just like being a lawyer at one firm can be very different from being a lawyer at a different firm, IT varies between organizations.  Some are worse than others.  Some are better than others.

If you love technology and working with computers and networks, IT may be a good fit for you.  But it's not all roses.  But no job is all roses.

When my adult kids talk about how hard their jobs are I remind them that that's why we call it "work."  If it was all fun and games we'd call it "play."  Not that I think a job should make you miserable.  You should try to find a job that you enjoy, but you should also be realistic and realize there are things about any job you won't like.    

Danielm7

Yep, some jobs suck, in every industry and field. But, there are lots of good companies too. Your first job might not be the best, but if you're like that poster who is 30 years in, working 6-7 days a week and 60 hours a week while on call 24/7/365, you're doing something very wrong. You'll typically hear the most complaining from people at the support layer, which is unfortunately where most people start and they'll talk the most about it. But how many people do you think are coming to forums to say their job is fine, they work normal hours and are paid fairly? Far more people tell others about their bad experiences than the good. 

DatabaseHead

A lot of truth to that but it's only one person's viewpoint.  With that said I think it used to be better than it is now.  Lines are blurring a lot more than they used to.  It keeps you off the streets making money and you do have the opportunity to make low-level executive salaries if you work hard and play the game right. 

My suggestion is to invest in something you are interested in and make money.  

logisticalstyles

I'm currently considering leaving IT because of all the reasons stated in the original post. I never have any real free time. There can be an email or phone call at any moment that requires your immediate attention. My wife has already made it clear that I'm always too busy and even when I'm at home I'm not really home because of the constant on-call status. My salary is pretty good and the opportunity to make extra money with overtime is nice but I never get to use all of my vacation time. If I am honest with myself I would say it's not necessarily IT that is stressing me out but rather the end users I support. I'm currently working at a law firm and the experience is totally different than my IT experience at a software company.  The technical level of the people you support makes a huge difference in your experience in IT. At the software company I actually got to learn new things at this law firm I spend a lot of time resetting passwords, changing toner, fixing Outlook, and other mundane tasks. When I graduated technical college I was a Microsoft Networking Specialist, now I'm a Help Desk Analyst. I feel like my career has gone backwards even though my salary has increased. My advice is to spend as little time in the Help Desk position and when you do advance from it move to another company. 

sephiroth66

There are some good points already made above. I tend to take AverageJoe's point of view that work wouldn't be called work if it was exceptionally fun all of the time.

For me IT has provided several things that I don't think I could get in any other field, or at least not all of them in one job. 

Job security - tech is only becoming more dominant as time goes on. If you are worried about someone from overseas taking your job then make sure your education is up to par. Many companies are still very reluctant about hiring overseas, and some refuse to depending on their industry.
Non-physical - for the most part most IT jobs are not physically demanding. There is a trade-off here with mental high stress, but you don't have to worry about blowing out your knees and back at 40.
Pay - one of the best benefits of an IT job. This can vary, but typically tons of room for salary advancement that does not cap out as fast as most professions. 
Flexibility - hundreds if not thousands of different positions. Just a small amount of training and you can completely change your specialty. Don't like your current position, 20 more are waiting for you around the corner. Grab a different certification and change up what you do in just a few months. Options for working from home are a bonus as well.
Low Risk - someone above mentioned fire fighters and police officers. There are some IT positions that are risky, but typically we are not front line soldiers and we get the guarantee we will come home to our family's every night.

I also started in IT with no experience or education. I was able to work myself up the ladder by working hard and learning on the job. There are some benefits to the barrier of entry being so low. You just have to work hard and be mindful of your career path as you go. 

One of the downsides I've seen firsthand -if you do not live in an area that has a robust local economy, then you may want to consider moving. Some jobs offer fully remote positions, but if you want to keep your options open you will need to be in an area that has the capacity for IT centric jobs. This can make or break your career depending on what your goals are. A small town may have 3 IT positions it posts a year that do not pay very well. Large cities post hundreds every day with competitive pay and benefits. This is not just an IT thing, but unfortunately IT jobs are sought after more than most so the competition will be greater with fewer job opportunities. 

bigdogz

ok..... I have been in IT for decades and moved to Info Sec and there is some truth to those statements. IT has never been a 9 to 5 job unless you outsource off hours projects to 3rd parties. The 3rd party has more knowledge when it comes to the upgrade process.

There are some benefits since virtualization has entered the arena. This removes a small part of the physical work.

Beyond that being in IT you have to understand a few things. There are IT systems that are critical infrastructure and have to be running 24x7.

The more you get paid, the more responsibility you have as an IT professional. Help desk people are 9 to 5 people and are on the bottom of the totem pole. Things break after 5 pm, get used to it.

There can also be something to be said for process and who covers for an employee when they take a vacation. If you want to make yourself to be always needed, you just may get what you wanted.

You also have to love what you do for a living, otherwise you will be updating your resume and on your way to another job or vocation.

chrisone

It is a demanding field. Your constant learning and training is a tax on anyone. Then there is the stress levels of things going wrong or outages happening and the pressures you get when money is being lost. 

Lots of industries have their pressures. 

Things get worse when you only have 1 stream of income, do not invest, zero exit strategy, are not planning or prepared for worse case scenarios, having no next 5 moves for your life. The true meaning of getting caught up in the rat race, which applies to any career/industry. 

DatabaseHead

@chrisone Your last statement is spot on.  Over the last 3 years I've essentially turned into a minimalist (within reason) wife took a high paying (100+ USD per hour) contracts and I have carried benefits.  We have dumped into Crypto, Stocks and other investments and currently are positioned so well one of us ( not both of us ) as a team could take off work for 15 years.  Obviously, our goal is both and we are still relatively young, I in my 40s she in her 30s.  

Point being after investing and getting huge margins back, peeling back profits and rebuying back in over and over and over again we have amassed quite a bit of weather relative to our pre 2018 status.  

Even the cars we bought we could sell at a profit we landed such a good deal on.  

I guess my point is don't focus on IT, focus on positioning yourself and your overall total net worth.  Things will take care of themselves.  

yoba222

I remember browsing the Dice forums years ago and frequently seeing those kinds of "abandon IT" posts. I completely ignored those warnings and went into IT anyways. Glad I did.

FluffyBunny

logisticalstyles said:

I never have any real free time. There can be an email or phone call at any moment that requires your immediate attention. My wife has already made it clear that I'm always too busy and even when I'm at home I'm not really home because of the constant on-call status. 

Sounds like you really need to make some new and solid agreements with your employer. 

Interestingly I myself wanted to get out of IT around 2007 and actively worked on re-training. Things changed and I made sure to take my career into my own hands. I now decide what I'll do, or not... I've been a lot happier since.

DatabaseHead

@FluffyBunny What was your story again?  IT Support / System Admin turned Business Analyst (miserable) cert'd and skilled up and jump into security?   I remember because I did the BA thing for a while and currently I am a BI / Data Architect by role it still has a lot of that BA feel, which isn't a good thing lol.  With that said it's manageable, no longer story boarding or drafting out SOP's lol.  

FluffyBunny

DatabaseHead said:

@FluffyBunny What was your story again?  IT Support / System Admin turned Business Analyst (miserable) cert'd and skilled up and jump into security?   I remember because I did the BA thing for a while and currently I am a BI / Data Architect by role it still has a lot of that BA feel, which isn't a good thing lol.  With that said it's manageable, no longer story boarding or drafting out SOP's lol.  

Nah, you must be thinking of someone else... 

I was Unix admin for 8+ years, for a bigger contracting firm who were strict about career paths and didn't have too interesting gigs for me. I was really, really bored. Left IT to become maths teacher, we got a kid so I went back. Ever since I've worked with/for friends of mine who give me all the freedom I want to plan my own career

logisticalstyles

FluffyBunny said:

logisticalstyles said:

I never have any real free time. There can be an email or phone call at any moment that requires your immediate attention. My wife has already made it clear that I'm always too busy and even when I'm at home I'm not really home because of the constant on-call status. 

Sounds like you really need to make some new and solid agreements with your employer. 

Interestingly I myself wanted to get out of IT around 2007 and actively worked on re-training. Things changed and I made sure to take my career into my own hands. I now decide what I'll do, or not... I've been a lot happier since.

Yeah, I think the problem is my users. They are mostly older lawyers and their long time secretaries. They refuse to learn anything new especially when it comes to computers. They think every member of IT should be able to do anything that involves a computer. As a result, I am not able to do the work that my Director is asking me to do because I am too busy doing other people's jobs. I'm supposed to be getting a promotion to Systems Engineer but it will be a meaningless title  because I will still be expected to host zoom meetings, create PowerPoints, and clean up people's mailboxes. Lawyers arevery tough to deal with and they love to debate you on any topic.  This is why I'm so burnt out lately.

FluffyBunny

logisticalstyles said:

Yeah, I think the problem is my users. They are mostly older lawyers and their long time secretaries. They refuse to learn anything new especially when it comes to computers.

First up: respects to you and I wish you the best of luck!

I think the problem is your boss, insofar that he lets your users get away with this. 

You are only beholden to your manager, nobody else. Have a good, hard, long talk with your manager to indicate that your current working situation isn't sustainable.

Unless your contract states that you are on-call 24x365, you turn off your phone outside indicated hours. And if it does state that, it's illegal in many geographic locations: continuous on-call for prolonged periods of time is recognized as very unhealthy and not a sustainable solution. 

Your management needs to be convinced that you need to be able to tell your users "no". "no, that is not my responsibility". And again, if your responsibilities are not documented and are basically "everything", then that needs to be discussed. 

Or indeed... time to really look for something new, fast.

thomas_

A lot of it depends on where you work.  Right now I pretty much work 40 hours a week.  I may work a few extra hours, but I’ll leave early the next day to make up for it.  I have never experienced the 24/7/365 on call rotation.  

The most I have experienced is on call for a week at a time every few weeks.  In some positions I’ve had more after hours call than others, but I think I can’t count on one hand how many times I had to actually go in and address an issue that couldn’t wait until the next business day.

I have worked 50 - 55 hour weeks, but I was being paid overtime for it.  I was switched to exempt status with a promotion at which point I cut back my hours and started taking comp time if I worked longer than an 8 hour day.

The first quote it kind of seems like guy might have a pretty good benefits/retirement package that few people will have access to starting out today which probably makes him less willing than most people to jump ship from a toxic environment.

If you find yourself in a truly toxic environment where your work/life balance isn’t being respected, then you find another job.  With IT it’s pretty easy to switch jobs every two years and even beneficial salary wise.  If you get a job that’s heavy on call, then you can start looking for another job or wait it out, learn as much as you can, and use the experience gained from that job to find a better job.

When you’re dealing with critical infrastructure on call comes with the territory.  However, as long as the company is appropriately staffed and the infrastructure isn’t in shambles on call shouldn’t be too bad.