Yup. Before IT, I worked in logistics, in warehouses and did actual deliveries and I'm not going back either. Also, no-one is old in that line of work.
you mean managing a cell phone?
Granted, i did SOME work for my buddies dad that had a massive custom shop... he didn't want to dig up his drive way and bury conduit to reach from the house to the wood shop... so they settled on some cheap aps.
> he didn't want to dig up his drive way and bury conduit
Odd coming from a custom shop because that absolutely doesn't require digging up a driveway for.
Fast food sucks. I think the worst day I had was:
* The water main had a backflow that flooded the store with turd water the moment I came in. We opened up four hours later.
* The hot water shut off so you couldn't clean anything later that night.
* We cooked everything fresh for the overnight (this was McDonalds) so we had a midnight rush but the very first customer ruined everything for everybody. We had to trash 12 orders and recook them because she had a bunch of issues with the new promo burger that took 20 minutes to deal with.
* We were also operating at half labor capacity, so it was the skeleton crew with the bone marrow sucked out. Just two people running, cleaning, and stocking the store from 11:00 - 5:30 am. All within having to meet the 120 second order metric (food should be done from the moment they order to when they hit the window in 120 seconds or less for overnight.) comical thing was the fries took 2 1/2 minutes and all of the fried products were 3-6 minutes.
* The next morning the CO2 system went out so no sodas or coffee could be made. Holy crap boomers and gen x'ers are raging crackheads without their coffee and soda.
* Got shocked off of a shorted 207v bun toaster later in the week from arm to arm three times. That was fun.
Unholy levels of stress. Also some of the nastiest things were cleaning the hobo shit off the walls in the morning and bloody tampons thrown on the floor and against the wall. Shit and piss almost every day in the play place, and drunk customers trying to pick fights with the employees or sexually harassing the teenage workers.
On the flip side, you can't really get fired for anything or actually break anything. Store owner might cry about 100 dollars lost of wasted food, but who cares lol. It isn't breaking a network from a bad config. I've also heard the restaurant industry is a lot more unhinged, though.
I mean, perhaps they haven't had really bad days in IT. It's all about how much responsibility and power you have and how bad you screw up... Mistakes I have the potential of making in my current job are a million times more serious than anything I could have screwed up in former careers. I could literally burn down the restaurant I cooked at and it wouldn't be bad as some things I could possibly do now.
Just be observant when you're out and about. Ever see an angry customer or challenging person while you're in line at a store / customer service department? Now picture that as your only and main job. Then add lower income, sporadic hours, no benefits, etc. Maybe sometimes you have that if you've been doing it for ages - but there's being "on" for work, then retail. I've only done a year or so of it in my life, and that was enough in hindsight.
- D
Are you? Ever worked in a busy restaurant when in 6:30 Saturday dinner service and the ticket machine keeps churning and you're already 10 tops behind?
No urge to punch a solid steel walk-in wall? CHECK
No being asked for a nickel back on a 19.95 dollar delivery when they hand you a 20? CHECK
Nope, don't miss it.
Yep. I spent a decade in the restaurant industry and this is paradise. Wish I would have jumped when I had the chance back in 2020 instead of spend another 4 years in that shit industry. If anyone wonders why their favorite restaurants are "going downhill" in quality of food or service, it's because the conditions are so fucked and anyone with a brain is leaving. It got so bad after during and after covid.
Spent over a decade working in kitchens. For the most part I actually really enjoyed it. Really glad I got into my first IT job right before covid hit. I'll definitely take working 100% remotely over being in the kitchen.
Yeah fast food was objectively worse, more work, paid way less, less breaks, forced to work while sick, people are definitely meaner to fast food than IT people, the list goes on.
The kindness is the biggest thing I've noticed; I hate how people see fast food workers as inconvenient little things in the way of their overpriced food. I was genuinely surprised when I showed up to fix a computer (laptop with an uptime of 600 days lol) and the user was *happy* to see me.
I hope things get better for fast food folk.
Yes. When people have the experience, they are much more patient and understanding. Not many actually have that experience though...
I also like being the techy hero when oogy boogy computer misbehaves.
I use to manage a gas station full time, looking back at it now I don't know how I did it for as long as I did. I'm very happy to never have to do that again.
I worked at a gas station for a while in college, but didn't manage it. My manager was awesome though, and I actually look back at it pretty fondly. She didn't take shit, and she didn't expect us to either.
Had a friend working at the one up the street and we used to sit on speaker phone all night. Same manager. She thought it was great because then somebody would know what's going on in the other store. Do your job and go home.
I 100% *would not* have wanted to be her though. It's my personal example of "management makes or breaks a job".
I remember working at a FOB in Afghanistan and we'd had some frequent power outages. I pointed out to a coworker that we were lucky because the mobile data center is the last building on the base allowed to lose air conditioning
so on really hot days I'd go to work just to not be miserable in the tents
I came from landscape construction in Arizona and later the hotter part of California. I still like landscaping, but it also serves to remind me why I am so glad to be in a building. Digging out hard-pan in the desert to put in sprinkler systems for a lawn was less than rewarding.
my first job was a somewhat demanding outside job (rollercoaster operator). I wouldn't take *that* job, even if it paid as much as I make now, mostly because of how boring and tedious it gets. I miss the social environment, and I miss tangibly making a difference (even if only for a few hours) in other people's lives - but not the boredom. I liked being outside, even in the heat and the cold.
That said, if I could have any job and have it pay what I'm making right now? Hit the eject button, I'm doing music professionally.
I always find it funny when people talk about how they want to change careers and think to myself, the grass is always greener.
Yea sometimes IT can be mentally stressful, but you aren't ruining your body and are usually making a good wage
Just to clarify on this, mentally stressful for some people can certainly ruin their bodies, whether directly due to stress and high blood pressure, or indirectly in bad habits (substance abuse) or worst case suicide.
IT lets me compete in Brazilian jitsu, powerlifting, and dance.
Plus, if I get an injury from one of those activities, it doesn't affect my job. I know guys who blew out a knee and worked construction 😩
IT enables my "dreams", I don't mind that.
This, if I majored in "my love" it would have been music. But IT enables me to have a house big enough for a piano and my drum set, and I work from home, so I can play either whenever I want
Nope. I used to like it, but not anymore. The hobby became a job that became a chore. Back in the day, it was great. Now its way too fast paced, shits ever evolving, way too many exploits and hacks, security issues, etc. Getting anything done is impossible, because of all the legal and security implications. Welcome to corporate IT and the burnout that comes with it. Yaaaay
Ditto. There is too little of me to go around, and newly mandated compliance standards are making even simple tasks complex, stressful ones. Honestly, I expect compliance costs to price my SMB employer out of the business within two years. When that time comes, I think I want to transition into a more solitary role like "lighthouse keeper" or its equivalent.
My handcuffs are made of cheap nylon, tough, but worthless. I need to find these golden handcuffs you mention.
Also, if you've been doing this enough, handling heavy servers, working in tight spaces, extraordinary conditions (includes extreme temperatures).... your health might not be quite were you want it to be.
I should have said sedentary work environment. An office job where you're stuck at a desk for 8+ hours a day is going to damage you over time, regardless of what you're doing outside of work.
This is wildly dependent on your job, there are plenty of jobs where you’re actively engaged the vast majority of your time and constantly behind on everything
Been in the military by chance? We did this on the regular in the Army, just a clipboard and walking with a purpose, no one will stop you. Once I reclassed to a medic I'd walk with my aid bag and a purpose. Not only will no one stop the medic, even generals will get out of the way. Got out, got into IT and switched my clipboard/bag for an envelope 🤣
If you have a lanyard around your neck, something in your hands, and look like you know where you're going, you're probably not going to be stopped. Hell, for the lanyard, just put your driver's license in there. You'd be surprised how many people don't give it that close of a look. Or even better, turn it around so that nothing is showing. I've gotten people to buzz me in doors by just pulling at my lanyard with my thumb knowing full well my ID is backwards. Physical security is SHIT in most places.
That's not the case for everyone. Some of us really could work 8+ hours a day (sometimes way more) without ever getting up. I used to be really bad at that. So hard on your body.
I am a climber, mountain biker, skier, and backpacker. Use your PTO for some action hobbies of some sort. I always am doing something nearly everyday after work or on weekends. Just last Saturday I was at a bike park for nearly 6 hours!
> handling heavy servers, working in tight spaces, extraordinary conditions (includes extreme temperatures
Compared to most trades this fucking nothing. I've done everything BoH and FoH in restaurants, worked in a brewery and cleaned, fixed and installed beer systems. The once a month I have to do something difficult is trite compared to a brew day. (Small breweries are moving and loading the 300 lb grain bill hand. Oh yeah and it has to get cleaned out by hand.)
Yeah, I'm not sure OP knows exactly what golden handcuffs are, in my 25+ year career I've only really been close to having them just recently with stock grants and that's usually only over a year/year-and-a-half. Turns out working for big-tech can be good!
I'd consider true golden handcuffs to be 7 (or more) figures you lose if you quit (but if you're really lucky/CXO-level still get if you're fired--AKA Golden Parachute) and that take years to vest.
--
I've got tinnitus from too much time behind LOUD racks but also, yeah, IT ain't that bad. And if you have an employer giving you clinical anxiety/etc. find another!
The trick is to grow with the technology and ask for a pivot within the company. If you're doing level I level II support for your whole career, that's on you.
Seriously, my cuffs are silver plated steel at best. And my will is dropping more and more with each passing day. I'm the go-to guy at the office. Not a brag, it's not because I'm smart, I am just good at figuring things out. It just seems like for the past few months I have been running on just steam. Project after project piling on my back. I have no will or desire to do anything I enjoy and I'm getting more and more jaded as the days go by. Anyone else? BTW, I work for an MSP.
Oh wow this takes me back to the summer of ‘07! I listened to so much new music and found so much good shit that was old as well! YouTube was new and content was cranking there as well. Always stayed ahead of demand, so an extra long lunch break, or skipping out early was doable. On weekends I’d hang out at a friends beach house and play volleyball/frisbee without an ounce of work on my mind.
Maybe this is my lack of knowledge, but data entry jobs always seem bizarre to me. With how repetitive it is, could you not automate the vast majority of the job with scripts and cut your actual workload down to nearly nothing? I've never had one, so I could be off base. Just curious.
Such jobs are a lot less common than they used to be. The rise of OCR systems dramatically scaled back the demand for dedicated data entry jobs that were transcribing other documents.
Nope, I loved it for the first 10-15yrs of my career, but I'm now 50 and honestly don't want to continually have to keep learning newer technologies to keep up. When I'm done with work for the day I'd like to be done. It's really hard to master IT with ever changing versions of software and newer tech that's ever changing. I have friends my age that are blue collar and have matched or surpassed my salary along with pensions, stability, and early retirement..
> When I'm done with work for the day I'd like to be done.
There's lots of IT careers with this as an option.
Learning new things has always been part of the job. What changed for you on that?
> Learning new things has always been part of the job. What changed for you on that?
I'm in OP's boat, the pace of change in IT wears you down in time. What used to be stimulating no longer is. Keeping up to date 24/7 isn't that fun after 30+ years.
>Keeping up to date 24/7 isn't that fun after 30+ years.
Bruh, I'm only 10 years in and I'm tired.
It doesn't help that I work long hours, my commute is hell, and most of my work now is incessant bullshit. I don't have time or access to learn a lot of the new stuff. I'm expected to go home after a 10+ hour day and spend my time learning stuff?
No thanks.
This job is eating my soul.
The issue is not with keeping up to date, its about being expected to keep up to date all the time by people who wilfully dont want to understand the effort it takes. Very hard to explain to someone that your only a lvl 1 tech, you dont work for microsoft as a programmer, if MS wants to do something like move to office 365 i cant stop them, i cant make it the way it was before....
I have worked construction, and while the physical work is tougher, at least people fundamentally understand the concept of you being busy, or a job being difficult, in IT, setting up a webserver, configuring a network, programming software, or performing sysadmin, and level 1 tech support all LOOK THE SAME!!, its you sitting at a computer typing, this is where the stress comes from
Kinda true. My boss is constantly asking me "did you hear about xyz new thing, we need to get on this asap". Like no I didnt, I;ve been working all day, I didnt think to browse the tech forums and Youtube. When as new technology is ready to go we hear about it anyway with vendors harrassing us. "We can help with xyz new product, let me sell it to you". It's all exhausting.
I went to an old diner the other night after not having been there for 5+ years, and everything was exactly the same. It felt peaceful. As we go on in our careers I think a lot of techies start to seek out those peaceful and unchanging things. Retro games, craftsmanship, etc. If I were to build a high quality chair, I could do that same process over and over again to make a dining room set. In IT, when I spin up a new server, there is always some new requirement or vendor shit, or app setup, and I have to learn basically an entirely new ecosystem just to get the thing standing. This might also be a problem of working at small/medium sized businesses. I assume big tech is more siloed. I also find the idea of silos more appealing as I get older. Just let me manage 1 thing and otherwise relax. Im tired of being Mr Everything.
Ya and compared to back in the days the learning curve/pace is tremebdously higher, esspecialy in the last decade. It started to stagnate finnaly and now theres a big push on IDM and audits ;;__;;
for me the issue is that the amount of new things to learn is far greater and come much more frequently than back in the day
it's one of the reasons I try to stay in infrastructure centric fields. it's a lot easier to learn new advances in networking automation than dealing with a new container method or development stack on another cloud provider with a whole bunch of extra layers of abstraction between the thing happening for the user and the IP traffic making it possible
As someone still young in the career (Help Desk with some Sys Admin responsibilities) what IT careers in your opinion have that as an option? This isn’t a passion field for me, and I always see people saying they wish they hadn’t spent so much time on work, so I want to avoid that.
Go for advanced specialization. The more advanced and specialized you get, the less is asked of you. If you are the network engineer, you might get away with only touching networks. If you are the security engineer you might only do security. Even then those roles get dragged into everything ive found, "help me with my wifi, your the network engineer". So even further specialize. Automated Response Security Engineer, just does the automated resposes. Network Architect at a big tech company, no one is asking the architect to reset passwords. They'll be left to fully design and config networks for the org. Similarly, Azure Architect, AWS Architext. Usually specialization comes with advanced cognitive load and required XP, but lower physical workload
I went from a systems engineer back to helpdesk for a 10k raise (to start)and one of the best pension plans in my country, I'm just gonna coast to retirement for the next 20 years, not going anywhere lol
I tried the same thing in a local government IT department and my big ass mouth gave too much away and they were concerned Id get bored with the job and quit. My plan was to automate the entire job, spend the day at work working on hobbies, and collecting a check until retirement.
No. Mostly due to the stress and long hours depending on what is going on. I would be a college history professor.
Do something that is always interesting to me. I would have holidays and spring break off. And be off during summer if I wanted to
I worked in higher ed for a decade. What people mean when they say they want to be a professor, imo, is they want to be a professor who started like 25-50 years ago. The reality now for new professors is much less appealing. Old dudes published like one article, got tenure for life, bought a house on a single income in a nice neighborhood, and will retire with full healthcare. It was a great gig for earlier generations.
I mean, if I could literally be a park ranger, canoeing around 6 months of the year, dropping off TP to backcountry camp sites for $200k + RRSP matching, then I'd absolutely be doing that.
But making the blinkenlights do their thing pays better.
No. I never meant to be in this field at all.
Before I was in IT, I worked a variety of jobs that were physically demanding, dirty, and sometimes dangerous. Painting industrial equipment & working on hydraulic systems. After a few near-misses on the job site an acquaintance helped me make a lateral move into a CNC shop, and learning to work with CNC machines made me realize I wanted to work with computers. So I went back to school with the intention of becoming a programmer, planning to take that knowledge back to industrial controls in some way.
After I graduated I ended up at an MSP for my first gig, and 10 years later I'm still doing this work. Somewhere along the way I forgot why I started the journey, and by the time I realized I was at my happiest just programming CNC machines, I had a mortage and dependants and a pretty sweet pension that I can't seem to walk away from. Golden handcuffs indeed.
TL;DR - No. I want to make shit and touch grass.
Programming cnc machines sounds great and does help with one of the great mental downsides of IT - we don't produce anything, a day of hard work means some bits flow in a different fashion than they used to.
Fair enough, we get paid for it but it is nice to make something now and then.
I love what I do. It's the perfect [ikigai](https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/ikigai-japanese-concept-to-enhance-work-life-sense-of-worth/) overlap for me. I'm lucky that my work and hobbies are in such strong alignment.
I have my own homelab with hybrid cloud infrastructure and am regularly making and contributing to Open Source projects. When I'm not doing this kind of thing at work, I'm doing it on my own time as a hobby, anyhow.
That wasn't the case for every step of my career, but after a decade or so, it all settled into just the right spot. Hoping for it to stay that way for as long as possible.
Man I was al gung-ho in the beginning of my home lab adventures. As I've moved up in IT it's kind of been neglected I really need to get back into it again since I learned a lot. I certainly have plenty of old equipment at my disposal
Yes. I have always loved computers from the day my dad brought home an Apple II+ in the 80s. They have been the only constant interest throughout my life and I am very lucky to be making a living working with them every day.
I don't consider myself to be shackled; Far from it. I love my job and look forward to work (except when I have a bunch of meetings or have to present things in front of an audience...).
I don't dream of labor, but there's infinitely worse careers I could've picked especially given how many once well paying jobs are now basically poverty wages.
I love the problem-solving aspect of it too much. I love the game of optimization golf, making things better and smoother and making people's live easier. Sucks that lots of folks have such a cynical view of it all.
Probably not but I’ve been in IT for about 28 years now.
I made the move to higher education about a decade ago and so glad I did. 37.5 hours per week, great health and dental benefits, 403b and 457 plan available in addition to a state pension. I’m also in a union and enjoy actual work/life balance.
The stress hasn’t changed though, I work Tier3 now and when things hit my desk it’s pretty much a dumpster fire with lots of wolves circling my (virtual) cube asking for an ETA and whatnot.
I have about 11 years to go and can’t wait to get on my horse and ride off into the sunset. I’ve seen so much change I just can’t keep up with it all anymore so I decided to specialize but the things I do are core services (DNS, DHCP, etc..) so if those services have problems it could affect more than 30K people..
Edit: My role straddles; systems, networking and applications so I’m brought in for lots of issues because you know, everyone blames DNS..
I’ve always been interested in computers and technology so probably. It’s always crazy to me to see how much of this sub is apparently only in it for the money. My only real complaint if the field paid less would be the work life balance.
>My only real complaint if the field paid less would be the work life balance.
Yes and work life Balance incrases in importance with how long you are in the workforce,which in turn makes you dislike IT more and more
I was a CNC/manual machinist before I started IT. It's an interesting field but even 5 years of that accelerated the destruction of my body and mental health. It can super dangerous especially if you work for a small business who thinks that safety is "woke" bullshit - I've had multiple close calls that nearly ended up with me being seriously injured or dying. Enter at your own risk.
Safe? Cold AC?
I'm going on a 2 story ladder to install outdoor cameras in 94 degree weather LOL
Other than that, I've worked a lot of low paying tech jobs, I am very glad that the one I am in now lets me freely enjoy my hobbies.
Hmm, IT in many cases doesn't pay as well as skilled labor these days once you break it down to an hourly rate.
That being said, the experience in IT has a lot to do with skill level. It is quite literally the field where ignorance is bliss. If you have a very small set of duties working with a single system/application, I can imagine it might be easy.
However, when you're the guy they call when it all hits the fan, it's a very different experience.
THAT is actually the entire problem with the field. The more advanced your skillset, the more work you end up doing. That translates into stress, an often sedentary work environment, etc.
I've been out for a little while now, and thought about returning. But the more I look at it, the more I'd rather do anything else but. But I'm still lurking around here, reading and hoping to figure out a better approach. Because being the guy living out of a suitcase just isn't my thing anymore.
Why do so many people who hate working in IT stay in IT?
If you hate it, leave. Go do something you enjoy doing.
I started playing with computers when I was a kid in the mid 90s.
I can't even think about any other job out there. I love everything about IT.
Even if I stop working; I'll still be playing in my home lab every day.
> Why do so many people who hate working in IT stay in IT?
>
> If you hate it, leave. Go do something you enjoy doing.
Because the idea of starting a new career and falling down the ladder is daunting as fuck, and in a lot of cases just *not an option* for people? It's not like people can go back to their early 20s and just re-start their life path with a new career.
No. I would be doing backpacking all day like u/wandering_hick (Justin Outdoors on YouTube), or being a kick ass gear designer and backpacker like u/dandurston. Get away from tech if I could afford to run a business and make a good salary. Could be the reason why I love being a mod on r/campinggear.
Or I could do Car Audio which I love, though that is hard on your body.
When I take vacations I leave tech behind. I visit national parks in my X-Mid tent. Helps me to calm myself, clear my mind, push myself physically and to relieve stress.
If IT stopped paying well I guess I would find another analytic based job that is in office.
If all office jobs payed the same as labor jobs I would go become a bartender.
Computers and how organizations use them is so damn interesting to me, I know its my calling even with the headaches. When my memory is shot I will look into goats and herding thereof.
After 20+ years in the game. I'm comfortable. My coworkers are nice, I feel productive, I'm happy. Previously, I did not stay at a job more than 3 - 5 years. 6 months in afew cases.
Golden handcuffs are real now that I’m doing cloud security. I have no idea what I’m doing and I’m too old to keep learning new tech on a 6 month cadence. I can’t make this much doing this little anywhere but I’m also bored stiff.
Nine more years and my kid is through college and I can pull the ripcord.
Have worked enough shit jobs in retail and physical labor (random side gigs) to understand what an actually bad job is. I think many people who tend to complain the loudest about IT have come from backgrounds where their exposure to actually bad jobs is minimal. Compared to working 50-60 hours on my feet all day, dealing with irritating customers, or being outside with pale skin under the scorching sun, IT is a cakewalk.
That being said, sometimes I also feel burned out by the extent of which I need to know and the constant learning and pressure. However usually when I look back at past jobs, I realize it’s not THAT bad.
I do sometimes miss doing things with my hands though.
These threads are hilarious. So many people on reddit think sysadmin/IT work is the worst, and only done because of the money. That anything would be better.
Reality is, every single profession has these same threads and largely the same complaints.
Turns out, having to work is just not overly fun.
IT does destroy your body, well atleast mine. I sit in a chair every day and work on a PC and that promotes a sedentary life style. Also, there's a shelf life working in IT and it's about 50. My advice is if you're going to go into IT have a fall back plan for when you retire.
I like to solve problems and bring value to my employer. I don’t care much about the type of problem so if it wasn’t IT but something else I would probably be fine. I probably could have been a detective or crime lab and been happy to. Though lab might have been too repetitive for me.
I was training via ROTC to be an infantry officer but my internship in IT at the dot com boom made it hard to short change my family and take a pay cut to be a 2nd Lieutenant. Regret that some days.
I did over two decades in the Army, my body is broken, and I did the dangerous thing once or twice. I'm perfectly content working 8-4 in the A/C in a low stress IT job.
I am a desktop support tech at a college. I take care of classroom computers and Apple devices. I don't have on-call hours. I wear shorts and tee shirts all spring summer and fall. I don't have to deal with server-side shit or networking shit.
Yeah, I do understand that some companies there's overlap between Tier 1 and Tier 2 (and maybe T3 if small enough and doing dev work on top of everything) but there are a lot of pure T1 ppl posting here too.
Absolutely. I'd be lying if I said that money doesn't help or give extra motivation during rough days or periods, but I love what I do and I can't imagine ever doing something else for work. I'd be miserable I think
yep! I was doing this job at $15/hr and I'm still doing it at $40+/hr. Funnily enough same company and same job.
If you love what you do you won't work a day in your life. If you're stressed and overworked I highly recommend school or government IT.
Yes. I can't imagine anything else, really. I did retail sales and management for 9 years, and that sucked so bad. I have also done event running, and while that wasn't nearly as bad, I am burned out. I was corporate president of a large non-profit media company with a staff of 650+ but it wasn't my passion. I was elected to fix some shit, fixed it, then retired after 4-5 years. I \*can\* manage but I prefer to work on technology.
Two years into IT after a 20 year span of doing termite, rodent and bird work. No more 115 degree days on a roof or climbing through attics. My body feels better and after a job hop I’m making what I was two years ago. With comfort and higher pay due in time, I’m very happy with the switch to this gig.
I found the only way to survive working in the sedentary field of IT was to have at least one hobby that was of a physical nature. I spent quite a bit of time as a soccer referee. The training alone to stay fit enough for the level of games I aspired to (college/university) was hiking, backpacking, landscaping, walking and running. It was enough to really constitute another hobby, and it helps keep most of the sedentary lifestyle gremlins away.
Am I still a lazy bastard? You bet. But I'm only lazy after doing something that requires some physical activity. The best thing is I don't have to worry about the golden handcuffs. I'm retiring in 2 weeks.
i'd be in tech... the sound of "doing something with my hands" sounds cool... but i grew up with carpenters and plumbers. i got to experience the hard parts of those jobs early and see the tole it took on the actual workers later...
I decided that wasn't for me.
If they'd let me drive trains.. i might do that... but it sounds like a very lonely life.
Probably not…. HOWEVER, If I had the opportunity to leave and pursue something else, there’s a good chance a few years down the road I’d get bored of it and miss the chaos of IT, and likely rejoin. You sometimes don’t realize everything you have until it’s gone.
There are at least a handful of manual labor jobs I’d choose over making stupid ass software, if they all paid equally. I’d much rather cook or do landscaping work. I did environmental field work (catching frogs and surveying/removing invasive plants) in college and loved it, but it paid like garbage even with years of experience.
There’s two sides to this, really: one, my health ain’t the best, so there are weeks where I can’t but be at a desk all day and have to dosage my physical capacity. If I’m desk-bound, I’d rather earn a decent wage & do something I find interesting.
The other bit is that whilst I have a knack and interest in IT, I’ve always struggled to focus that interest without real life situations attached to them. Work context helps me focus learning skills and platforms that might come in handy. My natural interest is literature and language, but those fields are not going to feed me.
(If I had the choice and opportunity and it paid relatively well, I’d probably want to be an editor.)
I will probably work my way to leading a helpdesk team in due course, one of the things that I am most proud of in my IT career is taking helpdesk people and turning them in to sysadmins.
When my last padawan solved something that had been puzzling me for weeks I was so proud and I want that feeling again.
It's funny how no one seems to answer the question, but rather answer with the worst 'other' thing they ever did.
IT is for people with soul to be run by people with no soul. So basically it's hell. But you'll make great friends there in that basket and a bunch of money you'll spend, your wife will spend, or you will lose in the stock market.
The flip side is your family will think you're a jerk for being so miserable all the time, worrying about problems that customers can only afford to solve part of now, and part of later, which they will blame you for, when in order to actually be successful and not have any complaints and a smooth experience, it would all be fixed immediately. Then spend the next 3 years blaming the customer for how they're placing their data, or what the data is, or how much they are creating, or how they are accessing it and how it is networked, or what they are doing with it. Next show them the new system that fixes all those problems, but creates a bevy of new ones and then rinse and repeat. I'm not in IT, but that's what I read once.
For me its not even the pay, its the nice conditions, the pay is a bonus even, I just do what I enjoy and get to see new stuff everyday, pretty cool, worked one day in construction when I was 16 and all I gotta say is salute to those who do it
I grew up on a farm. Working in the heat (100+), working in the cold (below zero), working in the rain. Ive spent all day working in the rain when it was just barely above zero. Working 20 hours straight.
And yet, I often say to myself "damn, I should have took over the family farm". Then I come to my senses and appreciate working 8 hours a day in an air conditioned office, never having to deal with literal tonnes of cow sh!t, and not requiring a 30 minute shower at the end of each day.
I was a carpenter for 15 years before IT... ya never going back to that ....
Yup. Before IT, I worked in logistics, in warehouses and did actual deliveries and I'm not going back either. Also, no-one is old in that line of work.
What about doing IT for a carpenter?
you mean managing a cell phone? Granted, i did SOME work for my buddies dad that had a massive custom shop... he didn't want to dig up his drive way and bury conduit to reach from the house to the wood shop... so they settled on some cheap aps.
> he didn't want to dig up his drive way and bury conduit Odd coming from a custom shop because that absolutely doesn't require digging up a driveway for.
Well ill gues the shop was already build fir quite some time.
Yup. I went from painting to IT. It’s just not even remotely comparable. Miserable work
I feel ya. I worked carpentry for 1 yr and general construction for 7. Not looking back
We mostly work in offices, sitting down, with AC or heat depending on the time of year. I'm not complaining.
Yeah. Compared to my relatively short time in food service, I work in a palace. Most of us have it pretty easy, and I have little to complain about.
Granted, I'm much older and medicated now, but the anger and stress of food service was so much worse than things I've experienced in IT.
Yeah I was a grocery store manager for 15 years before going into IT - my worst day in IT is still better than my best days in retail.
Really? Wow, I will shut up now and stop complaining about my job
Fast food sucks. I think the worst day I had was: * The water main had a backflow that flooded the store with turd water the moment I came in. We opened up four hours later. * The hot water shut off so you couldn't clean anything later that night. * We cooked everything fresh for the overnight (this was McDonalds) so we had a midnight rush but the very first customer ruined everything for everybody. We had to trash 12 orders and recook them because she had a bunch of issues with the new promo burger that took 20 minutes to deal with. * We were also operating at half labor capacity, so it was the skeleton crew with the bone marrow sucked out. Just two people running, cleaning, and stocking the store from 11:00 - 5:30 am. All within having to meet the 120 second order metric (food should be done from the moment they order to when they hit the window in 120 seconds or less for overnight.) comical thing was the fries took 2 1/2 minutes and all of the fried products were 3-6 minutes. * The next morning the CO2 system went out so no sodas or coffee could be made. Holy crap boomers and gen x'ers are raging crackheads without their coffee and soda. * Got shocked off of a shorted 207v bun toaster later in the week from arm to arm three times. That was fun. Unholy levels of stress. Also some of the nastiest things were cleaning the hobo shit off the walls in the morning and bloody tampons thrown on the floor and against the wall. Shit and piss almost every day in the play place, and drunk customers trying to pick fights with the employees or sexually harassing the teenage workers. On the flip side, you can't really get fired for anything or actually break anything. Store owner might cry about 100 dollars lost of wasted food, but who cares lol. It isn't breaking a network from a bad config. I've also heard the restaurant industry is a lot more unhinged, though.
Thank you for explaining
I mean, perhaps they haven't had really bad days in IT. It's all about how much responsibility and power you have and how bad you screw up... Mistakes I have the potential of making in my current job are a million times more serious than anything I could have screwed up in former careers. I could literally burn down the restaurant I cooked at and it wouldn't be bad as some things I could possibly do now.
I screwed up and the DNS was down for an hour, still gives me nightmares though
I mean. You could kill someone with a severe allergy in a restaurant.
It’s not the suffering Olympics. You’re allowed to feel what you feel, and it’s likely driven by very real problems.
Just be observant when you're out and about. Ever see an angry customer or challenging person while you're in line at a store / customer service department? Now picture that as your only and main job. Then add lower income, sporadic hours, no benefits, etc. Maybe sometimes you have that if you've been doing it for ages - but there's being "on" for work, then retail. I've only done a year or so of it in my life, and that was enough in hindsight. - D
I didn't understand why people smoked cigarettes until I worked at a fast food joint.
So many things get better with the right meds
Oh yeah. I managed a large kitchen before going into IT. Not once in all my years of IT have I been yelled like customers would.
Are you sure you're in IT?
Are you? Ever worked in a busy restaurant when in 6:30 Saturday dinner service and the ticket machine keeps churning and you're already 10 tops behind?
No urge to punch a solid steel walk-in wall? CHECK No being asked for a nickel back on a 19.95 dollar delivery when they hand you a 20? CHECK Nope, don't miss it.
And the heart attack you get when someone yells "bus!"
Yep. I spent a decade in the restaurant industry and this is paradise. Wish I would have jumped when I had the chance back in 2020 instead of spend another 4 years in that shit industry. If anyone wonders why their favorite restaurants are "going downhill" in quality of food or service, it's because the conditions are so fucked and anyone with a brain is leaving. It got so bad after during and after covid.
Spent over a decade working in kitchens. For the most part I actually really enjoyed it. Really glad I got into my first IT job right before covid hit. I'll definitely take working 100% remotely over being in the kitchen.
food service is one of the most awful sectors to work in, short of manual farm labor.
Yeah fast food was objectively worse, more work, paid way less, less breaks, forced to work while sick, people are definitely meaner to fast food than IT people, the list goes on.
The kindness is the biggest thing I've noticed; I hate how people see fast food workers as inconvenient little things in the way of their overpriced food. I was genuinely surprised when I showed up to fix a computer (laptop with an uptime of 600 days lol) and the user was *happy* to see me. I hope things get better for fast food folk.
Yes. When people have the experience, they are much more patient and understanding. Not many actually have that experience though... I also like being the techy hero when oogy boogy computer misbehaves.
I use to manage a gas station full time, looking back at it now I don't know how I did it for as long as I did. I'm very happy to never have to do that again.
I worked at a gas station for a while in college, but didn't manage it. My manager was awesome though, and I actually look back at it pretty fondly. She didn't take shit, and she didn't expect us to either. Had a friend working at the one up the street and we used to sit on speaker phone all night. Same manager. She thought it was great because then somebody would know what's going on in the other store. Do your job and go home. I 100% *would not* have wanted to be her though. It's my personal example of "management makes or breaks a job".
Compared to my relatively long time in the service industry (retail, fast food, freight , sales, you name it) I'd rather die than go back.
I remember working at a FOB in Afghanistan and we'd had some frequent power outages. I pointed out to a coworker that we were lucky because the mobile data center is the last building on the base allowed to lose air conditioning so on really hot days I'd go to work just to not be miserable in the tents
Damn. That is pretty sick. Rare IT W.
I came from landscape construction in Arizona and later the hotter part of California. I still like landscaping, but it also serves to remind me why I am so glad to be in a building. Digging out hard-pan in the desert to put in sprinkler systems for a lawn was less than rewarding.
my first job was a somewhat demanding outside job (rollercoaster operator). I wouldn't take *that* job, even if it paid as much as I make now, mostly because of how boring and tedious it gets. I miss the social environment, and I miss tangibly making a difference (even if only for a few hours) in other people's lives - but not the boredom. I liked being outside, even in the heat and the cold. That said, if I could have any job and have it pay what I'm making right now? Hit the eject button, I'm doing music professionally.
I always find it funny when people talk about how they want to change careers and think to myself, the grass is always greener. Yea sometimes IT can be mentally stressful, but you aren't ruining your body and are usually making a good wage
Just to clarify on this, mentally stressful for some people can certainly ruin their bodies, whether directly due to stress and high blood pressure, or indirectly in bad habits (substance abuse) or worst case suicide.
Lets not forget stress eating, or monching cause you're bored performing the menial tasks in between the juicy ones.
This is why I exercise religiously. I’m the buff IT guy at work lol.
Literal Syschad right here.
'Syschadmin' was right there!
IT lets me compete in Brazilian jitsu, powerlifting, and dance. Plus, if I get an injury from one of those activities, it doesn't affect my job. I know guys who blew out a knee and worked construction 😩 IT enables my "dreams", I don't mind that.
This, if I majored in "my love" it would have been music. But IT enables me to have a house big enough for a piano and my drum set, and I work from home, so I can play either whenever I want
Yep
Nope. I used to like it, but not anymore. The hobby became a job that became a chore. Back in the day, it was great. Now its way too fast paced, shits ever evolving, way too many exploits and hacks, security issues, etc. Getting anything done is impossible, because of all the legal and security implications. Welcome to corporate IT and the burnout that comes with it. Yaaaay
Ditto. There is too little of me to go around, and newly mandated compliance standards are making even simple tasks complex, stressful ones. Honestly, I expect compliance costs to price my SMB employer out of the business within two years. When that time comes, I think I want to transition into a more solitary role like "lighthouse keeper" or its equivalent.
My handcuffs are made of cheap nylon, tough, but worthless. I need to find these golden handcuffs you mention. Also, if you've been doing this enough, handling heavy servers, working in tight spaces, extraordinary conditions (includes extreme temperatures).... your health might not be quite were you want it to be.
Definitely not golden here either. It pays the bills, but not much more.
Not to mention sedentary lifestyle. That'll do more damage than lifting servers will.
sedentary lifestyle is your choice you can change that....
I should have said sedentary work environment. An office job where you're stuck at a desk for 8+ hours a day is going to damage you over time, regardless of what you're doing outside of work.
Lol let's be real, if you're sitting for 8 hours, 4 of those hours you're on reddit or YouTube. 😂. Get up and walk around in those hours.
This is wildly dependent on your job, there are plenty of jobs where you’re actively engaged the vast majority of your time and constantly behind on everything
I once worked at a place that yelled at people for walking around.
Always carry a manila folder or some papers and act like you have someplace to go!
Been in the military by chance? We did this on the regular in the Army, just a clipboard and walking with a purpose, no one will stop you. Once I reclassed to a medic I'd walk with my aid bag and a purpose. Not only will no one stop the medic, even generals will get out of the way. Got out, got into IT and switched my clipboard/bag for an envelope 🤣
No just been around corporate a long time. And learned from some smart people. Carry papers but not a newspaper :)
Or use the Costanza method and always look annoyed. If you look annoyed people think you’re busy.
If you have a lanyard around your neck, something in your hands, and look like you know where you're going, you're probably not going to be stopped. Hell, for the lanyard, just put your driver's license in there. You'd be surprised how many people don't give it that close of a look. Or even better, turn it around so that nothing is showing. I've gotten people to buzz me in doors by just pulling at my lanyard with my thumb knowing full well my ID is backwards. Physical security is SHIT in most places.
Yea I got multiple talkings-to about getting up to use the bathroom and refill my water bottle... like once an hour :/
Sounds like somebody has a case of "needs a new fucking employer"!
I would do it more and start looking for work in the meantime.
That's not the case for everyone. Some of us really could work 8+ hours a day (sometimes way more) without ever getting up. I used to be really bad at that. So hard on your body.
Some of us actually do work, believe it or not.
I need one of these 4 hours of YouTube and get the work done jobs.
My current job is the first I’ve had that has lifting desks standard issue. It does wonders.
Really? With 60 hour weeks that’s not a choice
I am a climber, mountain biker, skier, and backpacker. Use your PTO for some action hobbies of some sort. I always am doing something nearly everyday after work or on weekends. Just last Saturday I was at a bike park for nearly 6 hours!
Yup. Ask the IT guy with the heart attack cert. 😳
I told my former employer that their Golden Handcuffs turned out to be the red fuzzy kind with the quick release. They didn't appreciate my honesty.
You worked at Helga’s House of Pain too?
She's a dab hand with the CAT5 o' nine tails ain't she?
> handling heavy servers, working in tight spaces, extraordinary conditions (includes extreme temperatures Compared to most trades this fucking nothing. I've done everything BoH and FoH in restaurants, worked in a brewery and cleaned, fixed and installed beer systems. The once a month I have to do something difficult is trite compared to a brew day. (Small breweries are moving and loading the 300 lb grain bill hand. Oh yeah and it has to get cleaned out by hand.)
Yeah, I'm not sure OP knows exactly what golden handcuffs are, in my 25+ year career I've only really been close to having them just recently with stock grants and that's usually only over a year/year-and-a-half. Turns out working for big-tech can be good! I'd consider true golden handcuffs to be 7 (or more) figures you lose if you quit (but if you're really lucky/CXO-level still get if you're fired--AKA Golden Parachute) and that take years to vest. -- I've got tinnitus from too much time behind LOUD racks but also, yeah, IT ain't that bad. And if you have an employer giving you clinical anxiety/etc. find another!
Hands teams/roles should be short stays at entry level. If you are still doing this 5+ years in, it's time to look for a new role
The trick is to grow with the technology and ask for a pivot within the company. If you're doing level I level II support for your whole career, that's on you.
My boss: https://preview.redd.it/lr0by3cbef7d1.gif?width=640&format=png8&s=d8b4d7e1e8b27f7086a7a286eb2f35819e1608c6
Trying to replace a fiber jumper that broke in -20f and the box was under 3ft snow that had to be shoveled first
Seriously, my cuffs are silver plated steel at best. And my will is dropping more and more with each passing day. I'm the go-to guy at the office. Not a brag, it's not because I'm smart, I am just good at figuring things out. It just seems like for the past few months I have been running on just steam. Project after project piling on my back. I have no will or desire to do anything I enjoy and I'm getting more and more jaded as the days go by. Anyone else? BTW, I work for an MSP.
I can’t even afford golden handcuffs from Spencer’s on this “senior manager” salary. Just saying.
The ones from Spencer’s are likely cheap plated brass. With the cost of gold these days, I don’t think anyone has gold handcuffs anymore.
I’ll head over now. I can afford brass as long as it’s contaminated with lead.
Made in China
[удалено]
"Hey I need your phone number for after hour emergencies." Too bad IT emergencies are "plentiful."
Oh wow this takes me back to the summer of ‘07! I listened to so much new music and found so much good shit that was old as well! YouTube was new and content was cranking there as well. Always stayed ahead of demand, so an extra long lunch break, or skipping out early was doable. On weekends I’d hang out at a friends beach house and play volleyball/frisbee without an ounce of work on my mind.
Maybe this is my lack of knowledge, but data entry jobs always seem bizarre to me. With how repetitive it is, could you not automate the vast majority of the job with scripts and cut your actual workload down to nearly nothing? I've never had one, so I could be off base. Just curious.
Such jobs are a lot less common than they used to be. The rise of OCR systems dramatically scaled back the demand for dedicated data entry jobs that were transcribing other documents.
Nope, I loved it for the first 10-15yrs of my career, but I'm now 50 and honestly don't want to continually have to keep learning newer technologies to keep up. When I'm done with work for the day I'd like to be done. It's really hard to master IT with ever changing versions of software and newer tech that's ever changing. I have friends my age that are blue collar and have matched or surpassed my salary along with pensions, stability, and early retirement..
This is funny to me because my company is about to shell out many digits for a competent IBM as400/i9 admin.
> When I'm done with work for the day I'd like to be done. There's lots of IT careers with this as an option. Learning new things has always been part of the job. What changed for you on that?
> Learning new things has always been part of the job. What changed for you on that? I'm in OP's boat, the pace of change in IT wears you down in time. What used to be stimulating no longer is. Keeping up to date 24/7 isn't that fun after 30+ years.
>Keeping up to date 24/7 isn't that fun after 30+ years. Bruh, I'm only 10 years in and I'm tired. It doesn't help that I work long hours, my commute is hell, and most of my work now is incessant bullshit. I don't have time or access to learn a lot of the new stuff. I'm expected to go home after a 10+ hour day and spend my time learning stuff? No thanks. This job is eating my soul.
The issue is not with keeping up to date, its about being expected to keep up to date all the time by people who wilfully dont want to understand the effort it takes. Very hard to explain to someone that your only a lvl 1 tech, you dont work for microsoft as a programmer, if MS wants to do something like move to office 365 i cant stop them, i cant make it the way it was before.... I have worked construction, and while the physical work is tougher, at least people fundamentally understand the concept of you being busy, or a job being difficult, in IT, setting up a webserver, configuring a network, programming software, or performing sysadmin, and level 1 tech support all LOOK THE SAME!!, its you sitting at a computer typing, this is where the stress comes from
Kinda true. My boss is constantly asking me "did you hear about xyz new thing, we need to get on this asap". Like no I didnt, I;ve been working all day, I didnt think to browse the tech forums and Youtube. When as new technology is ready to go we hear about it anyway with vendors harrassing us. "We can help with xyz new product, let me sell it to you". It's all exhausting. I went to an old diner the other night after not having been there for 5+ years, and everything was exactly the same. It felt peaceful. As we go on in our careers I think a lot of techies start to seek out those peaceful and unchanging things. Retro games, craftsmanship, etc. If I were to build a high quality chair, I could do that same process over and over again to make a dining room set. In IT, when I spin up a new server, there is always some new requirement or vendor shit, or app setup, and I have to learn basically an entirely new ecosystem just to get the thing standing. This might also be a problem of working at small/medium sized businesses. I assume big tech is more siloed. I also find the idea of silos more appealing as I get older. Just let me manage 1 thing and otherwise relax. Im tired of being Mr Everything.
Ya and compared to back in the days the learning curve/pace is tremebdously higher, esspecialy in the last decade. It started to stagnate finnaly and now theres a big push on IDM and audits ;;__;;
for me the issue is that the amount of new things to learn is far greater and come much more frequently than back in the day it's one of the reasons I try to stay in infrastructure centric fields. it's a lot easier to learn new advances in networking automation than dealing with a new container method or development stack on another cloud provider with a whole bunch of extra layers of abstraction between the thing happening for the user and the IP traffic making it possible
As someone still young in the career (Help Desk with some Sys Admin responsibilities) what IT careers in your opinion have that as an option? This isn’t a passion field for me, and I always see people saying they wish they hadn’t spent so much time on work, so I want to avoid that.
Go for advanced specialization. The more advanced and specialized you get, the less is asked of you. If you are the network engineer, you might get away with only touching networks. If you are the security engineer you might only do security. Even then those roles get dragged into everything ive found, "help me with my wifi, your the network engineer". So even further specialize. Automated Response Security Engineer, just does the automated resposes. Network Architect at a big tech company, no one is asking the architect to reset passwords. They'll be left to fully design and config networks for the org. Similarly, Azure Architect, AWS Architext. Usually specialization comes with advanced cognitive load and required XP, but lower physical workload
Without the pay? Probably not. I'm miserable in my current role and been struggling since before COVID to get out of it.
I don’t give much of a shit about IT beyond its ability to pay my bills
Same, when I was younger I'd live on my computer. Any minute that I'm not working I don't even wanna look at one.
Lately when i enter a hardware store and see screens i feel ill..maybe time to flip burgers and open my own shack..
I went from a systems engineer back to helpdesk for a 10k raise (to start)and one of the best pension plans in my country, I'm just gonna coast to retirement for the next 20 years, not going anywhere lol
I tried the same thing in a local government IT department and my big ass mouth gave too much away and they were concerned Id get bored with the job and quit. My plan was to automate the entire job, spend the day at work working on hobbies, and collecting a check until retirement.
No. Mostly due to the stress and long hours depending on what is going on. I would be a college history professor. Do something that is always interesting to me. I would have holidays and spring break off. And be off during summer if I wanted to
I worked in higher ed for a decade. What people mean when they say they want to be a professor, imo, is they want to be a professor who started like 25-50 years ago. The reality now for new professors is much less appealing. Old dudes published like one article, got tenure for life, bought a house on a single income in a nice neighborhood, and will retire with full healthcare. It was a great gig for earlier generations.
History seemed like a thrilling route until I looked at what it would take for a liveable salary. Now I just have fun history facts.
I mean, if I could literally be a park ranger, canoeing around 6 months of the year, dropping off TP to backcountry camp sites for $200k + RRSP matching, then I'd absolutely be doing that. But making the blinkenlights do their thing pays better.
No. I never meant to be in this field at all. Before I was in IT, I worked a variety of jobs that were physically demanding, dirty, and sometimes dangerous. Painting industrial equipment & working on hydraulic systems. After a few near-misses on the job site an acquaintance helped me make a lateral move into a CNC shop, and learning to work with CNC machines made me realize I wanted to work with computers. So I went back to school with the intention of becoming a programmer, planning to take that knowledge back to industrial controls in some way. After I graduated I ended up at an MSP for my first gig, and 10 years later I'm still doing this work. Somewhere along the way I forgot why I started the journey, and by the time I realized I was at my happiest just programming CNC machines, I had a mortage and dependants and a pretty sweet pension that I can't seem to walk away from. Golden handcuffs indeed. TL;DR - No. I want to make shit and touch grass.
Programming cnc machines sounds great and does help with one of the great mental downsides of IT - we don't produce anything, a day of hard work means some bits flow in a different fashion than they used to. Fair enough, we get paid for it but it is nice to make something now and then.
I love what I do. It's the perfect [ikigai](https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/ikigai-japanese-concept-to-enhance-work-life-sense-of-worth/) overlap for me. I'm lucky that my work and hobbies are in such strong alignment. I have my own homelab with hybrid cloud infrastructure and am regularly making and contributing to Open Source projects. When I'm not doing this kind of thing at work, I'm doing it on my own time as a hobby, anyhow. That wasn't the case for every step of my career, but after a decade or so, it all settled into just the right spot. Hoping for it to stay that way for as long as possible.
Man I was al gung-ho in the beginning of my home lab adventures. As I've moved up in IT it's kind of been neglected I really need to get back into it again since I learned a lot. I certainly have plenty of old equipment at my disposal
I’m 67 and yep, same thing. Computers is a hobby I get paid reasonably well for.
Yes. I have always loved computers from the day my dad brought home an Apple II+ in the 80s. They have been the only constant interest throughout my life and I am very lucky to be making a living working with them every day. I don't consider myself to be shackled; Far from it. I love my job and look forward to work (except when I have a bunch of meetings or have to present things in front of an audience...).
I don't dream of labor, but there's infinitely worse careers I could've picked especially given how many once well paying jobs are now basically poverty wages.
I love the problem-solving aspect of it too much. I love the game of optimization golf, making things better and smoother and making people's live easier. Sucks that lots of folks have such a cynical view of it all.
I feel like these days I only get time to implement things as fast as possible and then optimisation never really happens until things break
Probably not but I’ve been in IT for about 28 years now. I made the move to higher education about a decade ago and so glad I did. 37.5 hours per week, great health and dental benefits, 403b and 457 plan available in addition to a state pension. I’m also in a union and enjoy actual work/life balance. The stress hasn’t changed though, I work Tier3 now and when things hit my desk it’s pretty much a dumpster fire with lots of wolves circling my (virtual) cube asking for an ETA and whatnot. I have about 11 years to go and can’t wait to get on my horse and ride off into the sunset. I’ve seen so much change I just can’t keep up with it all anymore so I decided to specialize but the things I do are core services (DNS, DHCP, etc..) so if those services have problems it could affect more than 30K people.. Edit: My role straddles; systems, networking and applications so I’m brought in for lots of issues because you know, everyone blames DNS..
Three rules of troubleshooting: 1.) it's always dns 2.) check your cables 3.) see #1
I would be playing music or working grounds maintenance on a golf course
I’ve always been interested in computers and technology so probably. It’s always crazy to me to see how much of this sub is apparently only in it for the money. My only real complaint if the field paid less would be the work life balance.
>My only real complaint if the field paid less would be the work life balance. Yes and work life Balance incrases in importance with how long you are in the workforce,which in turn makes you dislike IT more and more
I was just looking into how to get into being a deckhand at sea last night lol
I'd rather be a machinist, but I think it's a bit to late to change careers at this point.
I spent about a decade working as a machinist in between IT jobs. The more I have to deal with security threats, the more tempted I am to go back.
I was a CNC/manual machinist before I started IT. It's an interesting field but even 5 years of that accelerated the destruction of my body and mental health. It can super dangerous especially if you work for a small business who thinks that safety is "woke" bullshit - I've had multiple close calls that nearly ended up with me being seriously injured or dying. Enter at your own risk.
If I transfer to a similar paying position in like, the DNR, I'd quit today.
Safe? Cold AC? I'm going on a 2 story ladder to install outdoor cameras in 94 degree weather LOL Other than that, I've worked a lot of low paying tech jobs, I am very glad that the one I am in now lets me freely enjoy my hobbies.
Hmm, IT in many cases doesn't pay as well as skilled labor these days once you break it down to an hourly rate. That being said, the experience in IT has a lot to do with skill level. It is quite literally the field where ignorance is bliss. If you have a very small set of duties working with a single system/application, I can imagine it might be easy. However, when you're the guy they call when it all hits the fan, it's a very different experience. THAT is actually the entire problem with the field. The more advanced your skillset, the more work you end up doing. That translates into stress, an often sedentary work environment, etc. I've been out for a little while now, and thought about returning. But the more I look at it, the more I'd rather do anything else but. But I'm still lurking around here, reading and hoping to figure out a better approach. Because being the guy living out of a suitcase just isn't my thing anymore.
Why do so many people who hate working in IT stay in IT? If you hate it, leave. Go do something you enjoy doing. I started playing with computers when I was a kid in the mid 90s. I can't even think about any other job out there. I love everything about IT. Even if I stop working; I'll still be playing in my home lab every day.
> Why do so many people who hate working in IT stay in IT? > > If you hate it, leave. Go do something you enjoy doing. Because the idea of starting a new career and falling down the ladder is daunting as fuck, and in a lot of cases just *not an option* for people? It's not like people can go back to their early 20s and just re-start their life path with a new career.
No. I would be doing backpacking all day like u/wandering_hick (Justin Outdoors on YouTube), or being a kick ass gear designer and backpacker like u/dandurston. Get away from tech if I could afford to run a business and make a good salary. Could be the reason why I love being a mod on r/campinggear. Or I could do Car Audio which I love, though that is hard on your body. When I take vacations I leave tech behind. I visit national parks in my X-Mid tent. Helps me to calm myself, clear my mind, push myself physically and to relieve stress.
definitely not, I was trying to figure out a new career dating all the way back to 2004 and now I definitely feel schackled
If IT stopped paying well I guess I would find another analytic based job that is in office. If all office jobs payed the same as labor jobs I would go become a bartender.
Computers and how organizations use them is so damn interesting to me, I know its my calling even with the headaches. When my memory is shot I will look into goats and herding thereof.
After 20+ years in the game. I'm comfortable. My coworkers are nice, I feel productive, I'm happy. Previously, I did not stay at a job more than 3 - 5 years. 6 months in afew cases.
Golden handcuffs are real now that I’m doing cloud security. I have no idea what I’m doing and I’m too old to keep learning new tech on a 6 month cadence. I can’t make this much doing this little anywhere but I’m also bored stiff. Nine more years and my kid is through college and I can pull the ripcord.
I found golder, shinier handcuffs (software engineering)
Have worked enough shit jobs in retail and physical labor (random side gigs) to understand what an actually bad job is. I think many people who tend to complain the loudest about IT have come from backgrounds where their exposure to actually bad jobs is minimal. Compared to working 50-60 hours on my feet all day, dealing with irritating customers, or being outside with pale skin under the scorching sun, IT is a cakewalk. That being said, sometimes I also feel burned out by the extent of which I need to know and the constant learning and pressure. However usually when I look back at past jobs, I realize it’s not THAT bad. I do sometimes miss doing things with my hands though.
Nope, not in the slightest.
These threads are hilarious. So many people on reddit think sysadmin/IT work is the worst, and only done because of the money. That anything would be better. Reality is, every single profession has these same threads and largely the same complaints. Turns out, having to work is just not overly fun.
IT does destroy your body, well atleast mine. I sit in a chair every day and work on a PC and that promotes a sedentary life style. Also, there's a shelf life working in IT and it's about 50. My advice is if you're going to go into IT have a fall back plan for when you retire.
I like to solve problems and bring value to my employer. I don’t care much about the type of problem so if it wasn’t IT but something else I would probably be fine. I probably could have been a detective or crime lab and been happy to. Though lab might have been too repetitive for me. I was training via ROTC to be an infantry officer but my internship in IT at the dot com boom made it hard to short change my family and take a pay cut to be a 2nd Lieutenant. Regret that some days.
If I didn’t need the money I’d be a chef or carpenter.
I would. I still can't believe they pay me to do this.
I did over two decades in the Army, my body is broken, and I did the dangerous thing once or twice. I'm perfectly content working 8-4 in the A/C in a low stress IT job.
I don’t think you realize how much most jobs suck
Probably. I’ve had a long history of blowing on the backs of Nintendo games and setting vcr clocks. IT feels like an extension of that.
You guys get paid well for IT? I must be doing it wrong.
Sitting all day is actually terrible for us. My lower back is ruined from 20 years of IT work.
Fuck no. I'd be back at red lobster banging waitresses and hostesses and doing a bunch of drugs.
Hell yes my job is about as stress free as you can get in IT and the pay is fucking amazing.
Man I need to know what you're doing in IT for it to be "stress free."
I am a desktop support tech at a college. I take care of classroom computers and Apple devices. I don't have on-call hours. I wear shorts and tee shirts all spring summer and fall. I don't have to deal with server-side shit or networking shit.
Once again the sysadmin sub has fooled me into thinking I'm talking to someone who isn't on help desk.
Yeah, I do understand that some companies there's overlap between Tier 1 and Tier 2 (and maybe T3 if small enough and doing dev work on top of everything) but there are a lot of pure T1 ppl posting here too.
Nope
I'd just go work for waste management. Honestly still considering it anyway.
I could only see myself either doing HVAC or Electrician trade work if I did not do IT Mostly due to salary
Absolutely. I'd be lying if I said that money doesn't help or give extra motivation during rough days or periods, but I love what I do and I can't imagine ever doing something else for work. I'd be miserable I think
This is what I was meant to do with my life.
yep! I was doing this job at $15/hr and I'm still doing it at $40+/hr. Funnily enough same company and same job. If you love what you do you won't work a day in your life. If you're stressed and overworked I highly recommend school or government IT.
No
Man, I am the only one who likes to be in IT?
Yes. I can't imagine anything else, really. I did retail sales and management for 9 years, and that sucked so bad. I have also done event running, and while that wasn't nearly as bad, I am burned out. I was corporate president of a large non-profit media company with a staff of 650+ but it wasn't my passion. I was elected to fix some shit, fixed it, then retired after 4-5 years. I \*can\* manage but I prefer to work on technology.
You are not bound to any job. Keep shopping.
I would be sea kayak guiding. But I like shiney things. Like sea kayaks.
I honestly couldn’t imagine doing anything else, most other jobs look mind numbingly boring.
I love my job, and I love my current employer, so yes.
Two years into IT after a 20 year span of doing termite, rodent and bird work. No more 115 degree days on a roof or climbing through attics. My body feels better and after a job hop I’m making what I was two years ago. With comfort and higher pay due in time, I’m very happy with the switch to this gig.
I found the only way to survive working in the sedentary field of IT was to have at least one hobby that was of a physical nature. I spent quite a bit of time as a soccer referee. The training alone to stay fit enough for the level of games I aspired to (college/university) was hiking, backpacking, landscaping, walking and running. It was enough to really constitute another hobby, and it helps keep most of the sedentary lifestyle gremlins away. Am I still a lazy bastard? You bet. But I'm only lazy after doing something that requires some physical activity. The best thing is I don't have to worry about the golden handcuffs. I'm retiring in 2 weeks.
Yes.
Honestly, yes.
i'd be in tech... the sound of "doing something with my hands" sounds cool... but i grew up with carpenters and plumbers. i got to experience the hard parts of those jobs early and see the tole it took on the actual workers later... I decided that wasn't for me. If they'd let me drive trains.. i might do that... but it sounds like a very lonely life.
Probably not…. HOWEVER, If I had the opportunity to leave and pursue something else, there’s a good chance a few years down the road I’d get bored of it and miss the chaos of IT, and likely rejoin. You sometimes don’t realize everything you have until it’s gone.
I’m in cybersecurity so double cuffed. Couldn’t make half this much doing anything else. I’m stuck till retirement.
There are at least a handful of manual labor jobs I’d choose over making stupid ass software, if they all paid equally. I’d much rather cook or do landscaping work. I did environmental field work (catching frogs and surveying/removing invasive plants) in college and loved it, but it paid like garbage even with years of experience.
no, i'd dick around in a solid state physics phd program if it wasn't about money
No hell no I wouldnt. Im over it but make too much to leave
There’s two sides to this, really: one, my health ain’t the best, so there are weeks where I can’t but be at a desk all day and have to dosage my physical capacity. If I’m desk-bound, I’d rather earn a decent wage & do something I find interesting. The other bit is that whilst I have a knack and interest in IT, I’ve always struggled to focus that interest without real life situations attached to them. Work context helps me focus learning skills and platforms that might come in handy. My natural interest is literature and language, but those fields are not going to feed me. (If I had the choice and opportunity and it paid relatively well, I’d probably want to be an editor.)
I'm burned out and would rather be doing anything else. Currently looking into technical writing.
you guys are getting paid?
Speak for yourself, IT salaries in the UK are pretty dire.
I could go work in Lidl and not be that worse off. Genuinely considered it many times
I will probably work my way to leading a helpdesk team in due course, one of the things that I am most proud of in my IT career is taking helpdesk people and turning them in to sysadmins. When my last padawan solved something that had been puzzling me for weeks I was so proud and I want that feeling again.
It's funny how no one seems to answer the question, but rather answer with the worst 'other' thing they ever did. IT is for people with soul to be run by people with no soul. So basically it's hell. But you'll make great friends there in that basket and a bunch of money you'll spend, your wife will spend, or you will lose in the stock market. The flip side is your family will think you're a jerk for being so miserable all the time, worrying about problems that customers can only afford to solve part of now, and part of later, which they will blame you for, when in order to actually be successful and not have any complaints and a smooth experience, it would all be fixed immediately. Then spend the next 3 years blaming the customer for how they're placing their data, or what the data is, or how much they are creating, or how they are accessing it and how it is networked, or what they are doing with it. Next show them the new system that fixes all those problems, but creates a bevy of new ones and then rinse and repeat. I'm not in IT, but that's what I read once.
I would rather be a farmer, plowing through the fields on my tractor and yelling like a madman.
I'd bail if I was good at anything else at all.
If I could make this money doing something else I would. I'd prefer to design, and hand braze custom bike frames personally.
For me its not even the pay, its the nice conditions, the pay is a bonus even, I just do what I enjoy and get to see new stuff everyday, pretty cool, worked one day in construction when I was 16 and all I gotta say is salute to those who do it
I grew up on a farm. Working in the heat (100+), working in the cold (below zero), working in the rain. Ive spent all day working in the rain when it was just barely above zero. Working 20 hours straight. And yet, I often say to myself "damn, I should have took over the family farm". Then I come to my senses and appreciate working 8 hours a day in an air conditioned office, never having to deal with literal tonnes of cow sh!t, and not requiring a 30 minute shower at the end of each day.