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YAITT: Any good websites discussing careers in IT?

S

Syringer

Lifer
I'm graduating in a little more than a year and I'm starting to worry about jobs..and after going over many possible career choices, I still feel computers are the one thing in life that I am good at, and can see myself doing on a daily basis.

The only job experience I have in regards to computers is a tech support position I took over the summer for a website company..and right now I'm trying to apply as a part time on-call technician.

Basically what I want to know is, what is the future of IT jobs like? What is life as an IT person like? What sorts of advancements are available? What should one worry about in terms of certificates?
 
I guess someone has to take a stab at this...

Certs: not always required, especially if you have the job experience. In today's world where everyone has a degree related to computers, it doesn't hurt to have them. But it also doesn't mean you're automatically better than the guy/gal next to you without one. But hold the phone...

State of IT: it all had to do with the Internet boom. Once upon a time if you knew how to use a web browser, you could work in IT. After the proverbial bubble burst, companies became much more selective... yet you have an extraordinary amount of candidates still going through MIS/CIS and CS programs. It was everyone's ticket. Now your friends tell you it's tough out there - well of course it is... nobody needs 15 developers to work on 2 small projects any longer. Who can afford that ?

My opinion: unless you're at the top of class and have a passion to stick with it, seek alternatives now. Unfortunately for you, there are probably 100 kids in your area alone who know what you know. If you still want in, specialize.

*the above thoughts were composed with no consideration to help desk positions as it is not really a career*
 
A bajillion (ok no really but close) schools focus on turning out a massive amount of people into the IT field. As the person said above me unless you are very gifted in your particular field or if IT is a your dream job I would give it alot of thought. It is going to be very hard to get your foot in the door in an entry level job. Also the Employers know the market is in their favor and some are low-balling applicants. Combine this with outsourcing trends and some very gifted unemployeed experienced IT people right now and the picture is not that grand at the moment. If I was young and in school I would go to medical school, do a PharmD program, or Business. While the IT field will always be there, it isn't quite what it used to be.
 
To be honest, you're better off sticking to on-site tech support or server administration rather than going into programming. All of that work is being shipped overseas, so there is little or no future in entry level programming or phone-based tech support in the US.

Certificates are nice to have, but are no substitute for on the job experience. I'd rather get a new hire with 1 year of sys admin experience than someone with half a dozen MSCE's, mostly because I know that the person with experience knows how the products REALLY work as opposed knowing how Microsoft explained how they're SUPPOSED to work.

As for the life of an IT guy... it's not all that fun. You'll be constantly be putting up with developers who are breaking their systems or forgetting their passwords, and clueless managers who will be slashing your software and equipment budgets while adding additional busy work in order to meet some stupid new documentation or security guideline. Get used to getting paged at odd hours because some insomniac programmer or project manager in India who can't access their supposedly "mission critical" application, or by your project manager because he/she forgot how to do a simple cut and paste in Word. Again.

If you're lucky, though, you'll eventually become one of those project managers yourself if you stick with it. For the amount of aggrivation that you need to go through to get there, though, I'd recommend staying in school and getting your MBA so you can start out at the management level instead.
 
I found that right now if you really want to get into IT the road is leading more and more towards web classes and things like webCT and blackboard and other typles of learning management systems. The thing is you have to have professionals to back development of the classes, which luckly i have found a company which is and now publishers are ready to throw money at us to create crapy little flash games that utilize the knowledge of all these smart people. Publishers are going crazy over it right now cause its what universities want as well as K-12 starting to because of all these standardize tests they want to make repetitive programs for.
True IT guys are no longer needed since its the programmers who now have pretty much a wide array of certs/experience and can deal with most anything anyways theres no reason to have a true "IT" guy anymore necessarily. i think its Its better to have knowledge in a specialized field of development (gaming, educational, business, etc) and get into a company that will use you that way.
 
As stated before: having skills that really stand out is what will put you ahead, whether they are technicaly or personal or both. Help Desk and technician jobs, at least in my area, hire ANYONE. At my last job we opened a position for IT Manger and got like 350 resumes the FIRST DAY. Certifications are nice, but you can be sure that if you go into an interview you'll have technically questions asked and if you cant smoothly manuever your way through that question - you'll probably be put in the "no" pile. This is where general knowledge and braod knowledge comes in. It is also where your personality plays a point - someone that is very uptight and worried about getthig the question wrong because they dont know the answer will fumble and faulter. Being confident with your awnser and using a certian amount of "common sense" reasoning can really go a long way.
 
The key is governement or defense contractors. They're keeping a lot of IT related stuff over here becuase of national security issues.

we have a huge IT department. And as far as other technology and computer related positions go -- we're on a hiring rampage... tons of job positions are listed right now. We can't spend money fast enough. 🙂 (which is why i just got my boss to approve a new dell 20" lcd for me 😀)
 
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