Being an IT professional

“Want a social life? Well sorry, you are a computer geek. You guys are not allowed to see the sun."

“. . . Your boss probably has no idea what you do and probably thinks of you as a necessary evil. The rewards is minimal. "

“Looking back, I think being an accountant or laywer would have been a better career path. After all, if you have been doing that for 20 years, you get a bit of respect. If you have been in IT for 20 years, you are seen as over the hill and out of date and ready to be replaced by a 16 year-old know-it-all.�

I, for one, highly appreciate our firm's IT personnel in general and my own personal IT professional for various other reasons (like, he makes me laugh).

woof.

Ah, yes, the life of an IT professional...

Being 'in IT' covers a multitude of sins. What do you mean?

My ten odd years of working life have been spent as a software engineer writing C code for real time embedded applications and I find the work stimulating mentally, rewarding (both personally and financially), socially it's great because I can't talk about work to my parents, fiancee or anyone (for the flip side of this imagine being a doctor and having every prat at every party say 'oh, you're a doctor! I've got corns on my feet could you have a look?'. Not much fun either, same for a lawyer or accountant - everyone has a dull story for you), generally my colleagues are witty and intelligent and I have no plans to change career.

The frustrations are legion however - being a software engineer in a company that makes its money selling hardware means we're never on the critical path and always underfunded and an after thought to the planning. The ever increasing pressure to do things faster means less care to detail and quality. The injustice (in the UK) is a solicitor or doctor is allowed to act as a reputable person for signing passport applications for example but an engineer with similar education and standing in a professional organisation is not. Every day the news carries articles about tossers in the city trading stocks in companies but never a word about the processes that create the material wealth behind the scenes. Government has 'scientific advisors' to whom they rarely listen but no engineering ones anywhere, most ministers are probably unaware of the difference. Engineering is still viewed as dirty mines and mills as in the 18th century.

Edit: And Dilbert definitely counts as one of the joys of the job.

I guess that the comment I was trying to make with Dilbert is that it seems to be always the IT guys (like myself) who have to figure out the problems ands solve them, while upper-level management just sits back and reaps the rewards.

At least that is what it feels like here where I work.

It is a vicious circle. The "upper management" at an R&D organisation are guys who have slaved as techies and done their time so why not sit back and reap benefits.Its not right but fair when seen from their perspective.

Senior management will always reap the rewards and you will always do the work, to a certain extent. Big companies give the nice offices to their accountants, managers, lawyers, and even fucking marketing yet pack their engineers in like battery chickens. When a customer complains engineers are supposed to sacrifice their free time for the company but when pay review time comes along the accountant, from his nice quiet, cool, sensitively decorated, uncrowded office will suddenly discover that the company is doing badly this quarter and 'we' need to exercise 'restraint', then fuck off home at 5pm. You can tell when your company is going to be up for sale because the poor bastards in the IT support office will all get fired and the budget for new computers will vanish as this artificially pushes the value of the company up by making it appear more 'profitable'. Of course nobody notices that the engineers can't work effectively because the network is shagged and they're working on stone age computers.

As companies grow the management seems to inevitably become more distant from those who do the work, and become less interested in sucess for the company and more interested in forwarding their careers at the expense of those around them. These fuckers will always exist and there's precious little you can do about it.

I've been out-manoevered a few times by little shits here playing politics and just leave them to it, concentrating on the mental challenge of taking the piss out of my boss without him noticing. Now when this crap gets me down I look out of the window, realise it's sunny and go ride my bike down the Isar. Life's too short.

I could not have put that better myself!!!

What really gives me the shits is that, to some extent, we IT guys are like babysitters or parents: "Don't do that. No, don't that. I said, don't do that. NO, DON'T DO THAT!!"

And when the IT managers (who almost always have MBA's and were always extremely mediocre developers and architects) do it and it screws up, they kick and scream and yell like children.

I find the job all in all pretty rewarding...

It is mentally challenging, which for me is a big priority...

I don't really care for the company politics, I take every opportunity I can to learn something new or improve my skills...

Where I work we are treated pretty well

and...

when I'm done there soaking up the knowledge and experience I will open my own business again...

Can't say I've got much to complain about...

Partied my way through University, didn't complete it and since then I've been getting paid to learn, not paying to learn!

I didn't mean to imply that all IT jobs suck, some do suck less than others.

Also, the larger the company, the larger the amount of beaurocratic and political bullshit.

I would love to work for a startup again...

Are "software engineers" actually considered real engineers?

*runs and hides*

That certainly used to be the case but I'm not sure that it is now.

I've countersigned several passport applications, and have had both mine signed by people who listed their occupation as "Engineer" or "IT Professional".

Yeah apparently they are as important and qualified as lawyers and doctors according to posters above.

Well, the only thing that I have to say to that is that: having been trained in aerospace engineering but working in IT does sometimes give me a unique perspective on things...

Some IT folks can countersign a UK passport, some can't, being an "IT Professional" (whatever that means, it clearly doesn't mean me ha ha) per se doesn't give you the authority to sign.
An "Engineer (with professional Qualifications)" can, but you can be an "IT Professional" without formal qualifications - as some posters on here can prove.

It's not that being able to sign someone's passport is what gets me out of bed in the morning, but it's nice to know that we long suffering (software) engineers are climbing up in social status...

Edit: And of course a big 'thank you' for pointing that out, too.

You're welcome (apparently I work attend in IT and can sign passport applications - it ain't all that).

One thing I somehow believed when I used to be motivated to work with paperweights, sorry omputers, is that you worked hard and somehow gained a reward later in life. Wehn I go to "later in life" I found that the carrot vanished so to speak. There was nothing wrong witth the computers it was the politics and the idiots I had to work with and the dreams of great project which fell to dust.

Go listen to High Hopes by Pink Floyd. The perspectives you'll gain when older are in there:


(Hope this is allowed copyright wise mods)

Apparently the ere many office rats are starting to dump their office seats and get into outdoor jobs like I want to, in horticulture.

No, software engineers get paid better

an IT job is exactly the same as any other job, you only do it to get the beer vouchers at the end of the month. Admittedly some times you can get more beer vouchers than others

Well, we're better paid than the 'engineer' that comes to fix the washing machine at least...

I've been at it for 8 years and have enough. Looking to get away from coding. I have lost the passion for it and have no motivation, probably a lot to do with the people I work with, current example is I have a project deadline for mid-sept but no project spec and I'm sitting here with nothing to do and the project manager is too busy with other things. And yet I'll be expected to slave long hours in here coming up to Sept just to get the project done!
At least it pays alright and I've gotten some great benefits and junkets from it plus it's very easy to move jobs and countries but I want a job that's a bit more challenging and rewarding and that has nothing to do with coding!

Job swap anyone

I agree. They are always helpful, polite, good-natured and very very patient! They always solve my computer problems. What's not to like?!

I've been in IT for almost 20 years, I still enjoy it but I'm pretty sure the breaks I took to work in bars, gardens, driving and what have you kept me sane, or what I like to think of as sane.

I've been at it 32 years since graduating (when I studied main memory was REAL core) & paper tape had 5 or 7 holes...

First 11.5 years was actually as a computer scientist supporting High-Energy physics research (FORTRAN programming)

Next 11.5 years was with a German software house (continually bought/sold) "C" programming but after a year drifted into Unix sysadmin specialising in a certain global computer manufacturer.

Last 9 years working for that manufacturer. Apart from a bit of shell-scripting I dont program any more. But its interesting & varied... Doesnt make me rich though...

I will if you fancy landscape gardening and building walls out of big lumps of rock



It was brilliant 25C sunshine on Tuesday when I took these photos but I didn’t realise that the lens on my phone was dusty





It pissed it down with rain today so we took the day off

Why would they not be? It's what you do in your field, and not what's written on your diploma - not all doctors save lives, some stretch the skin on their patients (either by cutting surplus or stuffing silicone inside). Overall, point taken, there aren't many more noble professions.

And as for lawyers..

(Yes, I'm done preaching, thanks for asking.)

"Being in IT is like being in Landscape Gardening!
You have to make something beautiful out of a load of ill fitting chunks." _{Captain Ridiculous!}

When do you start printing the t-shirts?

Except in IT you only get your knees wet when your triple latte mocho choca bongo wongo sized decaf lite gets knocked over during some hardcore debuging.