10. The pay in IT is good compared to many other professions, but since they pay you well, they often think they own you
Although the pay for IT professionals is not as great as it was before the dot-com flameout and the IT backlash in 2001–2002, IT workers still make very good money compared to many other professions (at least the ones that require only an associate’s or bachelor’s degree). And there is every reason to believe that IT pros will continue to be in demand in the coming decades, as technology continues to play a growing role in business and society.
However, because IT professionals can be so expensive, some companies treat IT pros like they own them. If you have to answer a tech call at 9:00 PM because someone is working late, you hear, “That’s just part of the job.” If you need to work six hours on a Saturday to deploy a software update to avoid downtime during business hours, you get, “There’s no comp time for that since you’re on salary. That’s why we pay you the big bucks!”
9. It will be your fault when users make silly errors
Some users will angrily snap at you when they are frustrated. They will yell, “What’s wrong with this thing!” or “This computer is NOT working!” or (my personal favorite), “What did you do to the computers?” In fact, the problem is that they accidentally deleted the Internet Explorer icon from the desktop, or unplugged the mouse from the back of the computer with their foot, or spilled their coffee on the keyboard.
8. You’ll go from goat to hero and back again multiple times within any given day
When you miraculously fix something that had been keeping multiple employees from being able to work for the past 10 minutes—and they don’t realize how simple the fix really was—you will become the hero of the moment and everyone’s favorite employee. But they’ll conveniently forget about your hero anointment a few hours later when they have trouble printing because of a network slowdown. You’ll be enemy No. 1 at that moment. Then, if you show users a handy little Microsoft Outlook trick before the end of the day, you’ll quickly return to hero status. Read the rest of this entry »
