Anyone else sick of IT Career?

run_Forrest_run

Hi Folks,
Perhaps I am a little bitter after being in the IT industry for 6 years but is anyone else just sick of the way the IT industry is?? I love programming but I am becoming more and more fed up with the overall IT business! Any programmer will tell you they love programming but hate the peripheral issues like meetings, last minute change requests etc..maybe I just got out of the wrong side of the bed today (or for the past year!)...does anyone else share these feelings?? Maybe time for a career change but not qualified to do anything else!

rsynnott

You could become a contractor...

run_Forrest_run

agreed but I don't want to venture too far from where I currently am..anyway contractors are often hired to be the fall guy for an ailing project....my first IT job was with a consulting firm...they would sell your soul for a few bob!

ah, sure I suppose most jobs have their knockers...that's why they are jobs..no one likes em! Now to win the next euro millions....hmmm.

Evil Phil

run_Forrest_run wrote:

agreed but I don't want to venture too far from where I currently am..anyway contractors are often hired to be the fall guy for an ailing project....my first IT job was with a consulting firm...they would sell your soul for a few bob!

ah, sure I suppose most jobs have their knockers...that's why they are jobs..no one likes em! Now to win the next euro millions....hmmm.

I disagree, in my experience contractors or a convient way of getting extra hands on board without the commitments or expense of fulltime staff. Sometimes contractors may be brought in for an ailing project in a consultancy role but this is to save the project rather than have a fall guy.

By the by, yes I do get fed up sometimes, usually in a 2 or 3 weeks window over go-live but it goes away again

cornbb

IT sucks. I finished my degree a year ago and no sign of a job. If i did get an IT job, i suspect I wouldn't want to hang onto it. Going back to college in sept to do something completely different

run_Forrest_run

at least I am not the only one gettin fed up! yeah,nothing wosrse than week before release and feckin user support/reqs come at ya with a last minute change request....I suppose they are not to blame...it's project management for letting it go ahead who should be shot...in my experience anyway!!

run_Forrest_run

cornbb wrote:

IT sucks. I finished my degree a year ago and no sign of a job. If i did get an IT job, i suspect I wouldn't want to hang onto it. Going back to college in sept to do something completely different

well fair dues to ya for copping it so quick! It took me about 4.5 years to realise it sucks! But at least I can say I never entered the IT industry for the money..I have a great interest in computers anyway....just the business/management side of things that gets me so mad!!

GoneShootin

Welp Ive just secured a nice full time position as a Web/Soft Dev type person in Midleton. Its been a year since my Degree, and I couldnt get a smell of an interview back then. So, I went back and went at my Masters. Feb 05 I got a part time IT Admin/Web Dev job, so I could still do the fulltime masters and work partime. Now that the masters is finished (more or less) I went looking for a full time position. It took about 3 months of hard cold calling and chasing people up, but I a new job, and 3 interviews this week alone.

Emailing recruitment angencies via recruitireland/irishjobs wont really help. I use those sites to get a list of end employers and then call them directly.

There are plenty of graduate positions in the country, mostly in Dublin. I could have had a job last year no problem, but I would not move to Dublin permenanty. EVER

IT is great. You get free broadban at work to download Invader Zim!

Merrion

IT is a good avenue for those that want to be "entrepreneurs". It probably won't make you a millionaire (there just aren't any really big markets unfulfilled) but if you find a niche you can probably make a living at it. Best of all you don't have to carry feckless middle management around with you ;-)

run_Forrest_run

You said it Merrion! Feckless middle management!

Took a look at your gallery...some great pics...nice one. Do you use a Digital SLR?

Hobbes

There are two skill sets to work on.

1) Technical.

2) Personal.

A lot of developers have no problems with #1 and its why they get into the business. #2 however tends to give a lot of grief. If you spend time training on this it can help a lot with the other crap that you have to put up with.

run_Forrest_run

Hobbes wrote:

There are two skill sets to work on.

1) Technical.

2) Personal.

A lot of developers have no problems with #1 and its why they get into the business. #2 however tends to give a lot of grief. If you spend time training on this it can help a lot with the other crap that you have to put up with.

totally agree. I know plenty of developers who are great at 1 but awful at 2 and hence end up writing millions of lines of code but are never really promoted or consulted on design/usability issues. It's just that no matter how much personal ability one has it seems very difficult to handle constant chopping and changing of requirements/demands from management (without changing the deadlines of course!).

wes

Jeebus, threads like this are disheartening to someone like myself who has just graduated. Damn you all !!!

run_Forrest_run

Sorry Wes! Don't fret...you may love IT all! Maybe I am just tired of it...you may write some killer app and will be forever famous for it and they will throw loads of money at you just for coming into work every so often...who knows!

wes

By no mean did i go into IT expecting to be rich, lol. I just want to make a decent living of it. If I wanted to be rich I would be better off being an entrepreneur, more risk but all the rewards.

roamer

I think its important to remember that there are alot of other jobs in IT than just programming...

Systems Admin
Network Engineers etc.

run_Forrest_run

absolutely...I'd say programming only makes up about 10% of IT. loads of stuff in customer requirements, architecture, tech writing, test, platform, deployment, support etc etc..and not to forget management!

wes

roamer wrote:

I think its important to remember that there are alot of other jobs in IT than just programming...

Systems Admin
Network Engineers etc.

Good point, there is quite a variety out there.

Einstein

I too am in IT and have learnt to absolute detest it!!
7 years and counting, I'm not a programmer though, I'm more of a support person...likes of network Admin, network support etc.
I'm glad to say though that the only wa out is to do something about it. I'm opening a newsagents and also building a recording studio! I'll be outta this place by Xmas!!

So my advice is to find something you really love and go for it! I can always to back to IT if the other stuff doesn't work out!

wes

Don't know about the rest of you, but i do like IT quite a bit. I was probably one of the few people in my class who liked what they were doing. So all I want out of an career in IT is to make a decent living out of it. I don't expect to be making Bill Gates (or even Steve Jobs) money.

incisor71

Divers wrote:

So my advice is to find something you really love and go for it! I can always to back to IT if the other stuff doesn't work out!

After 5 years in, a few years out of, and the previous six months back in IT - specifically, telecoms software development - I know for absolute certain that this is not the career for me. Same goes for my experience of PC administration/support . My dearth of people/management skills (unfortunately nobody on here so far has cited ways of improving those skills) also keeps me trapped on the same rung of the ladder. It's starting to get shiny from the number of times the soles of my shoes have scraped against it.

The thing is, I don't think I can bear to give up the modest paycheque that saves me from having to return (yet again) to relative poverty, not to mention dependency on poxy Irish public transport!!

So I just shut my mouth and do my best to feel grateful for having a job. But don't get me wrong, I'm not telling anyone else to shut their mouths.

is_that_so

Was out one night with IT class and this question came up - what would your ideal job be?

Not one of them - 15 people working in IT and on an IT course would. This included the class nerd.
IT pays the bills. Some bits of it are very interesting but in the main a lot of IT people don't do anything that gives job satisfaction.

I am now self-employed and still doing IT but on my terms. :rolleyes:

My suggestion to anyone who hates it is to figure out exactly what you want to do and ditch the IT. It may pay well in some cases but that's not always what life is about.

lukin

GoneShootin wrote:

Welp Ive just secured a nice full time position as a Web/Soft Dev type person in Midleton. Its been a year since my Degree, and I couldnt get a smell of an interview back then. So, I went back and went at my Masters. Feb 05 I got a part time IT Admin/Web Dev job, so I could still do the fulltime masters and work partime. Now that the masters is finished (more or less) I went looking for a full time position. It took about 3 months of hard cold calling and chasing people up, but I a new job, and 3 interviews this week alone.

Emailing recruitment angencies via recruitireland/irishjobs wont really help. I use those sites to get a list of end employers and then call them directly.

There are plenty of graduate positions in the country, mostly in Dublin. I could have had a job last year no problem, but I would not move to Dublin permenanty. EVER

IT is great. You get free broadban at work to download Invader Zim!

Jeez that sounds like a handy number alright. Do you mind me asking where you work? If you don't want everyone to know you can pm me.

RicardoSmith

Have to admit I'm a bit jaded of IT. I have good days when I'm fired up, and other days where I want to pack it in and do something that doesn't involve a computer. You never stop needing to learn something, and to be honest it gets a bit much after a few years. It helps if you are working on a project that you are fired up on. But contracting is a bit soul destroying. You don't really care about the product. You are professional yes, but thats all. Its hard to walk away from a project you've spend a long time with. Once you've done that a few times you become detached from the work.

I actually like all the people and management side of things. I think after a certain point its the only way to progress your career in IT. I enjoyed contracting as a business analyst, but am back more on the development side of things, and no longer contracting. I kinda like to try something completely different now. IT for me is a safety net. I used to be big into it, but not anymore. I think IT is a lot harder with less returns than it used to be. The money still ok though, once you have some experience.

Gegerty

I think the future looks bright in the IT industry. At the moment there are still management types lingering around who only got into IT to make money in the boom. These types seem to be disappearing, there's not so much money invested in IT companies these days so whats the point? What we're seeing is like a natural forest fire, it sucks but in the long run its actually good for the forest. Once the IT industry starts regenerating and all the pseudo techies and fat cat money makers are gone we'll have control of our own industry again. Things are looking good on the technology side too and personally I think the future lies in portable devices which IMO is going to be an interesting industry to be in.....assuming I last!

bonkey

I couldn't help but smile as I read this thread. Most of the people who are fed up are fed up not with IT, but with the mismanagement of it.

Me...I just moved into middle management. Why did I do that? Because it was offered to me, and I'm fed up of the mismanagement too. So I'm gonna try and do it right....or at least better.

TBH, I don't think any job is exempt from moronic management. The Peter Principle virtually guarantees that you will have to work for incompetent idiots at some point, no matter what industry you're in. The trick is to learn how to deal with them

Reading some of the "best of breed" writing out there (Rapid Software Development, The Mythical Man Month, Peopleware, etc.) is, I have found, a great way to start dealing with these issues. Rather than just being p1ssed off at them, it gives solid grounds to fight for change...and often how to go about same.

Up until recently, I hated dealing with customers. They were nothing but a pain who got in the way of development. Now, they're central to development, because the entire purpose of said development is to keep the customer satisfied. Hopefully making a profit and not losing/killing any developers along the way....these are additional objectives which one would like to meet, but face it guys...unless you work for an actual shrink-wrapped product-development house....you work in a service industry. Your job is to supply a service to those who want it. If you have a problem dealing with the people that your job exists to serve....then I'd suggest you either neet a LART or a new profession.

jc

GoneShootin

lukin wrote:

Jeez that sounds like a handy number alright. Do you mind me asking where you work? If you don't want everyone to know you can pm me.

Well I currently work at Kinetics Process Consulting Ltd. And they will be looking for someone to fill my shoes now that I am leaving for pastures greener. If your in the Cork area PM me and I can forward your details. Dont be expecting big bucks, it was something to keep me going.

Heading to Epic Solutions in Midleton. WoooHoo!

lukin

GoneShootin wrote:

Well I currently work at Kinetics Process Consulting Ltd. And they will be looking for someone to fill my shoes now that I am leaving for pastures greener. If your in the Cork area PM me and I can forward your details. Dont be expecting big bucks, it was something to keep me going.

Heading to Epic Solutions in Midleton. WoooHoo!

Heh-heh, I definiteley don't expect big bucks without any experience on my CV. I only asked 'cause I'll be looking for 6 months work experience next Feb./March so I'm collecting as many companies' names as I can for then. Thanks for the info, I might apply to them, never know my luck.

secret_squirrel

Must admin Im rather jaded with IT at the mo. Spend far too much time with mindless bureacracy just trying to get the simplest things done. Incredibly frustrating when other sections of your own department are the biggest bar to getting things done.

Constant threat of being outsourced, Senior and middle management incompetance - they seem to think anyone can manage IT - when it takes specialised skills imo. Deliberatly persuing mediocre strategies, making us under perform to strengthen the case for outsourcing. Have same amount work and same bullshít procedures as when we had 50% more people.

No-one is interested in supporting the business - just following outdated procedures that are no longer relevant.

Love delivering for my customers - shame I spend most of my time beating my head against a brick wall. Also have to listen about how other it sections have let them down.

Stuck in lower management watching techical skills and marketabilty decline. Only plus sign is Im earning pots of cash - but not enjoying it. Dont have the cynism and doublestandards needed for Senior Management. Have no tolerance for their Bullshít.

New head of IT is talking about outsourcing Application Development whilst keeping commodity services like desktop/and sys admin work. Stuff that IBM etc could do in their sleep.

Spent 3 weeks ago actually doing some technical work. 12 hour days to get something done for my users - actually heaven!

Dimitri

Well this isn't very hopefull! I'm repeating my first year exams for comp sci in cork, is it really that bad? what area's are the best for avoiding the (many) problems encountered above?

Evil Phil

Nah its not that bad really and I don't know what else I'd do. Like I said before its really only go live (I'm a developer) when the stress gets to me. The rest of the time its quite good. If you do your work and stay busy instead of browsing the web all day then the stress levels stay low.

You don't end up working for the bonkey fellah though

run_Forrest_run

secret_squirrel wrote:

Must admin Im rather jaded with IT at the mo. Spend far too much time with mindless bureacracy just trying to get the simplest things done. Incredibly frustrating when other sections of your own department are the biggest bar to getting things done.

Constant threat of being outsourced, Senior and middle management incompetance - they seem to think anyone can manage IT - when it takes specialised skills imo. Deliberatly persuing mediocre strategies, making us under perform to strengthen the case for outsourcing. Have same amount work and same bullshít procedures as when we had 50% more people.

No-one is interested in supporting the business - just following outdated procedures that are no longer relevant.

Love delivering for my customers - shame I spend most of my time beating my head against a brick wall. Also have to listen about how other it sections have let them down.

Stuck in lower management watching techical skills and marketabilty decline. Only plus sign is Im earning pots of cash - but not enjoying it. Dont have the cynism and doublestandards needed for Senior Management. Have no tolerance for their Bullshít.

New head of IT is talking about outsourcing Application Development whilst keeping commodity services like desktop/and sys admin work. Stuff that IBM etc could do in their sleep.

Spent 3 weeks ago actually doing some technical work. 12 hour days to get something done for my users - actually heaven!

HERE HERE! I second that! Let's have another meeting to discuss something useless just to make sure we get our voices heard! What's worse is mid-management and test who don't fully understand the business/software involved and hold meeting after meeting as a means to try and understand what is going on! Oh yeah, I've worked with a few of them!

Friday...it aint too bad but wait until Monday!!

run_Forrest_run

incisor71 wrote:

After 5 years in, a few years out of, and the previous six months back in IT - specifically, telecoms software development - I know for absolute certain that this is not the career for me. Same goes for my experience of PC administration/support . My dearth of people/management skills (unfortunately nobody on here so far has cited ways of improving those skills) also keeps me trapped on the same rung of the ladder. It's starting to get shiny from the number of times the soles of my shoes have scraped against it.

The thing is, I don't think I can bear to give up the modest paycheque that saves me from having to return (yet again) to relative poverty, not to mention dependency on poxy Irish public transport!!

So I just shut my mouth and do my best to feel grateful for having a job. But don't get me wrong, I'm not telling anyone else to shut their mouths.

you sound like a carbon copy (oh no...Object.clone()) of me! Yep, IT is wrecking my head also and I was in telecoms dev for 3 years and ditched that...now doing dev for totally different type of business but it's still the same old crap...mis-management and people looking to hang others for bad decisions etc..I can think of things I would love to do but it's not practical at this moment in time (when is it ever I hear you ask!). I would love to give a shot at photography..oh well.

bonkey

run_Forrest_run wrote:

mis-management and people looking to hang others for bad decisions

I don't think this is particular to IT. It seems more a product of company size.

jc

Evil Phil

Maybe more appropriate to the other thread but I think a very important skill for any job, particularly development, is to be able to leave the job and go home. I'm a demon for not doing this and it only makes things worse. Its something I have to put my mind to and force myself to relax when I get home some evenings/middle of the night.

run_Forrest_run

bonkey wrote:

I don't think this is particular to IT. It seems more a product of company size.

jc

Perhaps this is true overall but I have worked in large IT companies and small and there is always a snake hiding in the long grass. Maybe these people need to be ruthless because it will be the only way they can progress.

As someone said earlier, if we work for others this is always a risk.

secret_squirrel

run_Forrest_run wrote:

and test

You have a test department? You're spoilt!

dimitri wrote:

Well this isn't very hopefull! I'm repeating my first year exams for comp sci in cork, is it really that bad? what area's are the best for avoiding the (many) problems encountered above?

Technically you have strike a fine balance between in demand skills and niche skills. Be careful of picking up too many commodity skills (eg Java). Make yourself indespensible to the business. Anybody can pick up another programming language - its your understanding of business processes which make you worth your weight in gold to the company. eg every comp sci graduate knows java - how many know how a supply chain works?

Work on your communication skills - a developer who can explain IT to non-IT person is a rare beasty indeed.

Keep an eye on the job market - try to angle your skills towards those in demand. Oracle always seems in demand. BI is another good one. Incompetent Managers alway like to be surrounded by reports.

Seriously consider funding some of your own training if your company wont spring for it.

fatherdougalmag

Tell you what though. There's nothing worse than working with a team of eejits who have no interest in what they're doing. The result is multiple cycles of rework-build-test because they only fix what's reported as a defect and take no pride in what they're producing. They don't use the product themselves and won't fix the little niggly things that they know will be reported by QA at some point in the future.

That's where I'm sitting right now. Saving a project because other's just don't have the interest and would sooner hope to be made redundant. Maybe it's just project hangover since it's been dragging on so long. At the same time dealing with customer requests and bug reports. All in an area from middle-ware down to hardware level. Problem in this territory is that it gets quite specialised and the jobs are few and far between. Like a skill trap. Having a mortgage and kids doesn't make things easier. You get trapped in a job in a career that you gradually grow to like less. I still love computers and helping people out and responding to customers but if you're working with people who just see it as a job and get away with as little as they can, it p's you off.

The only way out that I can see is to move to somewhere like Oz. Sell up here. Buy a house with no mortgage, a nice car and maybe a boat with a few quid left over. And, ultimately, change career. Hell, if plumbers, hairdressers and refrigeration technicians are in demand out there, I'm sure I'll land in something interesting.

Mind you, with the recent vacuum of IT students there's bound to be a sudden need for people in the next couple of years. Especially if all us board'ers shag off to do mountain washing in New Zealand or something different.

Llama shaving. Or bikini patrol.

secret_squirrel

fatherdougalmag wrote:

Like a skill trap. Having a mortgage and kids doesn't make things easier. You get trapped in a job in a career that you gradually grow to like less. I still love computers and helping people out and responding to customers but if you're working with people who just see it as a job and get away with as little as they can, it p's you off.

Nail on the head there - I hear you brother. Id think we work at the same company apart from the fact we dont have a QA dept!!

If they ever see how many Jobserve Australia mails are in my Inbox they'll start sweating.....

rsynnott

Yes, IT is indeed highly unsuited to those who see it as just a job. It isn't by any means the only profession to be so, but the .com boom attracted lots of disinterested money seekers. You can easily identify them; they're the clueless ones.

cormy

Me: 5 years and counting in IT (consultancy which in my case is a bit of everything - from project management to sys-admin to training/teaching). At the start I was all full of enthusiasm, putting in the (extra) hours, taking work home, feeling bad when - even if it wasn't anything to do with me - the job wasn't ticking along as it should etc. etc.

This eventually led to me getting p1ssed off just like the OP (and several others) described. I've recently come round to liking the industry so let me share what I hope would be practical steps the OP could take to improve the situation (i.e. this is what I did):

1) Become a contractor - you feel way more motivated 'cause you feel that the work you do is directly linked to the (bigger) bucks you are getting (especially when you know a day out sick means lost money) AND you see the experience you get as making you more marketable over time.

2) Detach from work - this is a mental step: Don't take work home; try to keep to regular working hours (if you're doing a good job and working hard yet it doesn't fit inside the normal working day then that's your manager's problem to sort out - not yours - i.e. s/he needs more hands or a new approach); don't get emotional about problems - problems *happen* they are normal and to be expected from time to time - your job is to help solve them and figure out ways of avoiding them next time;

3) Rise above whatever you don't like about work: This is kinda like #2 but applies to all aspects of life - incompetent management/policies? = you need to detach and change what you can and then accept that there's idiots in jobs they shouldn't have but all you can do is a good job in your position. Someone acting the maggot on the motorway? = laugh at them and tell yourself you're happy you're not like them etc. etc. you get the picture. The world will make sure you get rewarded in the long run.

Dizzyblabla

humm.. I did my degree and ended up in techincal support, not that I wanted to program anyway, I prefer the support, maybe administration or something, but I know that I plan on doing a massage course and getting out of IT totally in the future!

The Corinthian

RicardoSmith wrote:

I actually like all the people and management side of things. I think after a certain point its the only way to progress your career in IT.

I would agree broadly, but not entirely, with this sentiment. As with any job, you must evolve or die. Even as a developer you should keep current with emerging technologies and the same is true on a broader level in your career path. You have to realize that in ten years time you’re going to be in a different place in your life to now; at twenty-five being a code monkey may be a lot of fun, but at thirty-five it’s not going to pay a terribly big mortgage and the hours may not be compatible with your young family. By forty-five you’ll be that sad bastard who’s line manager is younger than your kid and are only still there because you’re essentially institutionalised.

In short, if a shark stops swimming, it drowns.

Where I would disagree is that a simple upward move to management is not necessarily the only one to take. Moving into a parallel career stream is another option too, especially if it has good long-term prospects. There you’ll find that you IT experience will actually benefit you immensely - BA’s or salespeople who actually understand the technology are highly marketable individuals.

wes wrote:

If I wanted to be rich I would be better off being an entrepreneur, more risk but all the rewards.

Most entrepreneurs would make a lot more money if they just got normal jobs.

In entrepreneurship the danger is often not that you will go bust, but that you won’t. By that I mean you will find yourself keeping a business afloat for years by sacrificing your own income. Sometimes that pays off, but most of the time it just means you’re going to be living hand to mouth until you see sense.

incisor71 wrote:

My dearth of people/management skills (unfortunately nobody on here so far has cited ways of improving those skills) also keeps me trapped on the same rung of the ladder. It's starting to get shiny from the number of times the soles of my shoes have scraped against it.

Then do something about it; post on the Personal Issues board on it, Google for courses or books that may help or take up a hobby that will teach you to interact with people such as debating or public speaking.

TBH, the reason you’ve not risen in the corporate ladder has less to do with people or management skills and more to do with the fact that you appear to be looking for others to solve your problems for you (you’re complaining that “nobody on here so far has cited ways of improving those skills” after all). Ability to act upon your own initiative is as important as people or management skills, if not more so.

bonkey wrote:

TBH, I don't think any job is exempt from moronic management. The Peter Principle virtually guarantees that you will have to work for incompetent idiots at some point, no matter what industry you're in.

It probably should be mentioned that as a compliment to the Peter Principle there is the so-called Dilbert Principle, whereby if an employee is too competent at what they do they’ll never get promoted as they are too valuable where they are.

run_Forrest_run wrote:

What's worse is mid-management and test who don't fully understand the business/software involved and hold meeting after meeting as a means to try and understand what is going on!

That’s a little unfair. Of course you do get incompetent middle management, but you’re only looking at what happens from a single point of view. Often, as a middle manager, the incompetent decisions you enact are not your own, but have been passed down to you. You’re just putting a brave face on them. What a lot of rank and file employees who complain about middle management seem to forget is that it’s often it’s the very director or senior manager who will put a credit card behind the bar for everyone on a Friday evening is the same person who told your line manager three days earlier you couldn’t have a raise this year or that next week will tell your line manager to tell you that you’ve been laid off.

Dizzyblabla wrote:

humm.. I did my degree and ended up in techincal support, not that I wanted to program anyway, I prefer the support, maybe administration or something, but I know that I plan on doing a massage course and getting out of IT totally in the future!

It’s interesting you mention a massage course as it reminds me of a chap who did an IT course I did a good few years ago. On the first day of the course he exclaimed that we would all be rolling in money within a year. Last time I spoke to him he’d left IT to do a massage course (as he reckoned the money would be good in it, as it happens).

So I would have to point out that there are far too many people in IT to begin with who should never have gotten into it. The late nineties in particular saw an influx of people applying for IT related courses because they thought it would be an easy road to making lots of money - you actually saw the same thing in the eighties with the financial services as people suddenly wanted to become yuppies. Many muddled their way through these courses cutting and pasting other people’s code, only to find that even when they did get those jobs they didn’t really like them too much and / or they weren’t up to them.

rsynnott

The Corinthian wrote:

So I would have to point out that there are far too many people in IT to begin with who should never have gotten into it. The late nineties in particular saw an influx of people applying for IT related courses because they thought it would be an easy road to making lots of money - you actually saw the same thing in the eighties with the financial services as people suddenly wanted to become yuppies. Many muddled their way through these courses cutting and pasting other people’s code, only to find that even when they did get those jobs they didn’t really like them too much and / or they weren’t up to them.

A frightening number of these people haven't been eliminated, and are still doing things that they are completely incapable of doing correctly. There are great examples on http://www.thedailywtf.com

Zaph0d

run_Forrest_run wrote:

Hi Folks,
Perhaps I am a little bitter after being in the IT industry for 6 years but is anyone else just sick of the way the IT industry is?? I love programming but I am becoming more and more fed up with the overall IT business! Any programmer will tell you they love programming but hate the peripheral issues like meetings, last minute change requests etc..maybe I just got out of the wrong side of the bed today (or for the past year!)...does anyone else share these feelings?? Maybe time for a career change but not qualified to do anything else!

I believe that this dissatisfaction stems from incompetence in soft business skills. You have a growing sense of your powerlessness to control your environment. And you're right. At some point in your past you may have decided to concentrate on what you're good at- technical skills. You reason that to improve your technical competence is your best strategy.

But if you're tired of being a cog in a badly designed machine, you need to discover how to change that machine.

Rather than honing your technical skills further, here are some skills that you might consider
Systems Analysis
How to write persuasive business cases
How to run meetings
How to negotiate
How to sell

I found these skills relatively easy to pick up compared to technical skills and yet they had a much higher return in terms of pay and job satisfaction.

These skills have more general application than technical skills so they can be of use in other areas of your life or other careers you might move to.

You can either do courses or read books or search the internet. Whatever works for you.

Civilian_Target

This story always makes me a bit jealous - this guy took the leap...
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/3/19/133129/548

secret_squirrel

Zaph0d wrote:

I believe that this dissatisfaction stems from incompetence in soft business skills. .....<snip>...........Systems Analysis
How to write persuasive business cases
How to run meetings
How to negotiate
How to sell

Thats a rather simplistic way of looking at it tbh - yes soft skills definately help but they only mask and help you manipulate the underlying problems - which are generally ignorance towards IT at the Company and senior management level. The only way to actually make a change is to start climbing the slippery pole binning your technical skills (and job satisfaction) for the mickey mouse skills of management.

Oh and incompetence is too harsh a word tbh.

Dont get me wrong I have a massive amount of respect for good senior managment - unfortunately most companies seem to promote by attrition or mediocrity, meaning the higher you go the less there are.

Which gets me onto my other bugbear - I dont believe non-IT management have any idea how to use IT most effectively. (Which is why outsourcing is so popular.) You very rarely get a non-HR manager at the senior HR level - the same should be true of IT.

Zaph0d

secret_squirrel wrote:

Thats a rather simplistic way of looking at it tbh - yes soft skills definately help but they only mask and help you manipulate the underlying problems - which are generally ignorance towards IT at the Company and senior management level. The only way to actually make a change is to start climbing the slippery pole binning your technical skills (and job satisfaction) for the mickey mouse skills of management.

Many technical staff see soft skills such as written and verbal communication as either

• Too easy to bother with
• Unethical forms of trickery
• Incompatible with technical skills

In fact all of these beliefs are myths and disproven in my experience. I believe they are often used subconsciously by techies as a way to avoid facing up to their own weaknesses.

Oh and incompetence is too harsh a word tbh.

How would you describe the communication skills of a programmer who can't write a clear description in English of the feature set of a piece of software he has written? I've seen many programmers who either point blank refuse or procrastinate eternally or produce unreadable tripe when forced to write a document - let alone make a verbal presentation. How can you get anywhere when you can't even explain to your client the benefits of your labour?

So long as your analysis of the problem is "it's because everyone I work for is so stupid", you will certainly feel unhappy and powerless. Your feelings will be clear to those you resent who are unlikely to take kindly to your arrogance. They will disrespect or pity you in return for the gaping holes in your people skills.

Any analysis of an environmental social problem that concludes that the causes are all external and impossible to influence is cowardly and self-defeating. Even as a leaf in an organisational tree or a team leader you can greatly extend your power by improving your soft skills.

Is Dilbert your hero? Remember that Dilbert is often defeated by his dustman or his dog or even his cretinous boss. His tie curls up as a metaphor for his inability to control his environment. Scott Adams presents a choice between life as a frustrated powerless nerd and that of an evil incompetent manipulator. This plot appeals greatly to frustrated techies who can fool themselves that they have chosen the path of technical purity against the dark arts of management trickery.

iggyman

why dont yous all start your own business in it...that should sort all your problems out..or spend your time building an animal program...thats everyone needs...

the_syco

Meh. Tried to get into programming to make the big bucks. Never really got into it. Got into IT Support. External support is a no-no, but internal support ain't too bad. My dream job: IT maintenance. Fixing computers, etc. Currently on work experience, and my boss is pretty much where I'd like to be. Spends every day fixing stuff.

I'm a geek. You'll see middle-management weenies doing their job. Thats the difference between all the weenies and the geeks. For the weenies, this is a job. To make lots of money. For the geeks, its about how much we enjoy it. How much we live for it. Its no longer a weekend hobby, its how we earn our income.

Oh, and the difference between middle-management, and higher-management, is that a PC will take a week or two to be set up for the middle management people, but has to be done within 2 days for the higher-management. Thats the difference. For the higher-management people you must more or less drop what your doing, and fix their PC, and then continue on. Whilst also doing any small jobs. And dropping off stuff to middle-management. And fixing the users PC's.

iggyman

well if ya like computer maintenence so much why dont ya open your own small computer maintenence business...