Soul Searching...is IT as a career worth it?!!?
First thing, I want to thanks all those who post quality posts and do the admin for this site. It is truly a great resource, only wish I would have found it sooner.
This post is going to be a bit dense, I'm trying to make sense of it all...
I've been in the working professionally now for over 10 years. I got my big break into IT during the buildup for Y2K. I had just graduated from undergrad and really didn't have a clue. I started rolling out new desktops/pcs, and also doing some end user training, the future seemed bright and there seem to be no limits. I though within a short period of time I would be a sys admin or a network admin. I knew I wanted to stay away from call center/help desk type of work. I did telemarketing in undergrad and did not like the work. Plus, it also seemed like a black hole. Not alot of people make it out of those positions. Also started to go back to school for my masters in MIS and also started to take some tech courses on the side at the community college.
Then the crash came, tech jobs got hard to come by...I was told that I should take a business analysis position to build up to a tech position, or get laid off. I was young and naive, so I did it. That was the start down a long, deep, dark road. On top of that, I worked with a bunch of uneducated folks, who were really arrogant. Looking back, they acted like this to compensate for their lack of tech and softskills. Unfortunately I started to act like them, which wasn't very good, because it was the only model I had at the time.
To make a long story short, I burnt thru three types of business analysis jobs looking to get into some sort of tech position. It didn't work and I was either fired or quit before I was fired. I worked with end users who could barely turn on their pcs and who wanted the impossible in trying to fix broken systems or insane user requirements. Or doing just alot of data cleanup in my case, hours and hours of having some sort of DBA pipe data into an MS Excel spreadsheet and I would spend my nights and weekends cleaning data. Alot of times I was told this was an easier fix, then trying to have the developer fix the database. This type of work is something a temp job would be way better suited for. I also worked for alot of managers who didn't have either a clue on how the business ran or how the technology could be used to its advantage.
Add this on top of going to grad school at night for an MIS degree. Looking back, colleges are just big businesses that act like an education institution. These college admin folks promised high paying jobs upon completing your degree. I was suckered again. Once I got into the system, I realized that most of my teachers have never worked in industry. I also started to look for job leads into a tech position and would simply get passed from one person to the next, in a never ending cycle.
I graduated in late 2005 and put out over 200 resumes and only had one hit. It was for another business analysis type job, however the company was well respected in that it is supposed to be a great place to work for its employees. I though, lets give this one more shot...
This is where I had my career breakdown. I quit my business analysis job because I was cleaning data 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, and not making much money. So I started to apply for IT help desk jobs. I dreaded doing this because I don't like doing call center work. I lucked out and I got a job doing pc deployment for a company that was finally upgrading its desktop computers from W2K to WinXP in late 2006. I though I could maybe swing from pc deployment job to another pc deployment job, however this didn't happen. I was forced to take a temp help desk job, or otherwise I would have been living out of my car. This is the type of job where you have to talk on the phone for 8 to 10 hours straight. I also started to read some sales books, so I could gain better people skills, which has really helped.
Then I moved to a FT help desk position, another position where I talk 8 to 12 hours straight on the phone. I also started to work on some certs (A+, Network+ and Linux+), which pretty much snuffed out what little there was of my social life. The certs have helped in troubleshooting, building knowledge, and gaining respect among my peers and co-workers.
However, I'm taking a little time off from the cert campaign. After finishing my Linux+, I felt exhausted. Right now, I'm just looking around, thinking. It looks like if I truly want to get to the next level I'll probably have to get an advance cert. Matter of fact, probably will have to get a few more of them. For any of us that have sat down and done the work for one of these, we know these take time and money.
I'm also looking at some of the other IT career boards seeing that alot of people want out of IT. They are putting in too much of their time to keep up at the office or with their skillset and also see their friends jobs offshored to India and China. Or making less pay then the person who was in the position previously.
Where am I going with this?
I have put a lot of time into education and have alot of bad advice thrown my way by unqualified people and not sure if I want to continue on this path. I have my doubts. It has also been pretty frustrating. I'm not a negative person, however with experiences like this, its hard to be positive. I'm closer to 40 then to 21, and yet I'm still living like a college student in his early 20s, due to the lack of career advancement.
Long story short, not sure if I want to continue on this career path...however I have come this far...I have reached a fork in the road and need to make a decision.
Thanks for reading.
