Saturday, July 18, 2009 10:39 AM/EST
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Not everyone will admit it, but there are aspects to a career in technology that irk the average worker day in and day out.
There is a spectrum of annoyances, but here is a list put together by the folks at Tech Republic that they have dubbed 10 Dirty Little Secrets of IT.
They are:
- The pay in IT is good compared to many other professions, but since they pay you well, they often think they own you
- It will be your fault when users make silly errors
- You will go from goat to hero and back again multiple times within any given day
- Certifications won't always help you become a better technologist, but they can help you land a better job or a pay raise
- Your nontechnical co-workers will use you as personal tech support for their home PCs
- Vendors and consultants will take all the credit when things work well and will blame you when things go wrong
- You'll spend far more time babysitting old technologies than implementing new ones
- Veteran IT professionals are often the biggest roadblock to implementing new technologies
- Some IT professionals deploy technologies that do more to consolidate their own power than to help the business
- IT pros frequently use jargon to confuse nontechnical business managers and hide the fact that they screwed up
I would add a few to this list:
- Power struggles between technology and business managers can make projects take a lot longer than they should; competition for control is a detriment to results
- Sales people will ask you for technical advice for closing business deals, but will not listen to the risks and dependencies outlined--many sales people will tell a client anything to make their number
- No one in technology has the same exact experience, and so there are those who think they know everything, those who are self-righteous and those who will behave childishly to prove a point; essentially, the notion of teamwork can be undermined between tech workers themselves
- People exaggerate and lie about their job experience with technology on their resumes
- Testing in live production environments is usually cut short and technology products are often launched poorly, have more bugs than they should and potentially disappoint users.
What is missing from this list? |
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Comments (5)
A tech person is always considered overhead and expendable by upper management, just like the office temps.
And
IT Projects always have arbitrary deadlines that have nothing to do with the amount of time or resources the project will actually take.
And
Train on your own time and at your own expense, and by the way, if you don’t do it, you’re going to lose your job.
Posted by Nick | July 21, 2009 1:50 PM
You may find yourself responsible for implementing or maintaining technologies for which you have no specific training.
Posted by davek | July 21, 2009 8:27 PM
I got a good laugh out of #10 as I see it in use on almost a daily basis. Would you believe that my landscape designer tried to use this one on me when I requested some info from her recently? Oh yeah, like I don't know that diversion tactic ;).
Posted by JW | July 21, 2009 10:05 PM
I object to point number 8:
"Veteran IT professionals are often the biggest roadblock to implementing new technologies."
This strikes me as age discrimination and immaturity. Young technologists often want to use the latest technology just because it's new and they want to have it on their resumes. When a person with long experience asks questions about the benefits vs. disadvantages, the costs, and indirect costs (e.g., training, recruitment, errors), those who are eager for the next big thing may think that this person is afraid of the future. All the older technologists that I know still get excited about new technologies, but they understand the bigger picture.
Posted by Ron | July 22, 2009 10:15 PM
You've overlooked the most important point: You can never look good. You can only look bad.
Posted by Heartless Cad | July 23, 2009 12:38 PM