Tech's 10 Worst Entry-Level Jobs

Nicholas Carlson writes "These employers (Amazon, Google, Yahoo, etc), and the others hiring for tech's 10 worst entry-level jobs will look good on a resume someday, but for now the only good these jobs promise the world is the pleasant feeling you and I can share knowing we're not the ones stuck in them." The story is really obnoxiously laid out, requiring many many clicks to read very little actual content. Perhaps Valleywag could afford to hire another of tech's worst jobs: the web designer.

Ghetto

[norkakn]

'Sysadmin work is the new "tech ghetto," we hear.'

That makes me hope that their admins go BOFH on them.

Re:The article sucks?

[14erCleaner]

#11 on the worst job list: screening stories for Slashdot.

Re:Don't make me laugh.

[trybywrench]

Second, all the data was child abuse, spousal abuse, etc. Imagine working with that data for weeks on end, wallowing in that hell, and you really had to dig in the data because there were tons of inconsistencies

I once had to write an application for an oncologist group (cancer doctors) that helped them manage treatments. It was basically a cook book for various drug cocktails for treating cancer. The dataset was sooo depressing.

Once my boss and I had to go see the doctors to get some questions answered. My boss had talked to one of the doctors on the phone beforehand and he was pretty irate. My boss said, in a thick chinese accent, in an elevator full of oncology patients "why he so pissed off? maybe all his patients die" i shit you not. I have never been so mortified in all my life. That was about 8 years ago and i still remember it like it was yesterday.

Re:Is this any better? :)

[Chris Burke]

Pfft, what a worthless list! It doesn't even have the two true worst IT jobs: Crack Whore Web Admin, and Assistant Crack Whore Web Admin.

Re:Don't make me laugh.

[moderatorrater]

I got this paper cut once while playing frisbee in the park with my programming group, so I was sweating and it really stung bad. Of course, I couldn't let my coworkers down, so I kept playing and it just kept stinging. Not quite as bad as yours, but still, it was really bad.

Worst Jobs

[kellyb9]

Executive admin to Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore

Wow, is it just me... or did Pete Cashmore just get owned.

Re:Chiming in

[bartosek]

Using a 14400 baud modem, my job was uploading large Microsoft Access DB files to non-networked

So, now, were they networked or weren't they? Because a modem connection still is a network connection. A slow one, over POTS, but still a network connection.

It's really a shame there's no -1 Pedantic mod option

Re:Is this any better? :)

[Captain Splendid]

Assistant Crack Whore Web Admin

Hey! Leave my Mom out of this!

Re:Don't make me laugh.

[SatanicPuppy]

I gave myself permanent hearing damage cranking up my music loud enough that I could no longer hear the screaming and crying going on in the room behind me.

Re:Not even close

[AdmiralAl]

Ah, to have been so lucky, all the machines were ontop of the desks. Honestly though, at least once a month I had a knock on my office door (office..right..it was actually the server room) from a student who was either willing to exchange money or "favors" if I would change their grades. I never followed through, morals got the better of me (damn you morals!!)...besides...at that time the grades were still in paper "grade books". Of course I never told them that, or else I'd ruin ot for the next guy.

Re:Chiming in

[Mascot]

A real pedantic would have commented on the misuse of the term "baud".

Re:Chiming in

[ColdWetDog]

yet you still WILL NOT proceed with escalating a call until you've been through them ONE MORE TIME to make sure we've done it right.

That's because you really haven't called tech support.

You're really dead and in Hell.

"Now, sir, let's just check one more time, is the power switch on the back of the computer in the "ON" position?"
GOTO 10

Re:Chiming in

[Anonymous Coward]

A real pedant would take you to task on the use of "pedantic" as a noun.

Re:Chiming in

[uniquename72]

You mean a real *pedant*.

Re:Chiming in

[Duradin]

You forgot: Is the power working in your city? In the building? In the room the computer is in.

I wish I was kidding when I say that I had calls about about computers not working at all and the fact that there was no power in the room, building, or city (had all three cases) apparently didn't cross their minds at all.

"Is the power light lit on the monitor?"
"No"
"Is the monitor's switch turned on?"
"Hold on, I'll have to get a flashlight, the power's out in the building."
*eye twitch*

missed one

[Al Al Cool J]

The person who has to do user studies on a urinal-based video game.

That's the worst they can come up with??

[cayenne8]

"I'd have to say that's not the worst entry-level job in tech by a long shot..."

I have to agree. I only skimmed the jobs, but none of them looked that bad...especially for a college grad coming out of school with no experience. I looked at 2 at random, and range was from $45K - $75K. That is fantastic....I know we have to take into account inflation, but, WOW....I started at about $20K or so....but, started quickly working my way up.

I was expecting to hear that complaints on these would be working 32/7 hours....with no AC, etc. The google dba one, the largest complaint I could see was....it was a bad cubeland...and he got mistakenly put in the wrong group....OMG!! That is a complaint on a first job for $75K/yr??

Geez, in my day, I had to wake up at 10 o'clock, half an hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison....go down the the mill and pay mill owner for permission to work...and well, you get the idea.

YOu try to tell that to the kids of today.....and they won't believe you..

:-)

Re:Chiming in

[Sponge Bath]

insist that their diagnosis must be correct...

Don't waste my time with scripts boy!
I *know* the electrons have leaked out of my computer,
and if you would just send me a fresh jar I could refill it myself.

Re:My worst job

[joeman3429]

yeah, that uh, sounds terrible

Re:Chiming in

[Anonymous Coward]

How hard would it be to agree to a quick and easy ten point scale rating?

So like ID1T through ID10T?

Motherboards

[madcat2c]

I started my IT carrier setting jumpers on motherboards, in an un-air conditioned warehouse in New Orleans...in the summer. A laser printer would print an order, we would pull the board from stock, set the jumpers for clock and voltage, and pass it down. A chip puller would install ram and a cpu, and a tester would test post the board. Once you "advanced" from that area, you would work assembling the pc's with the now assembled board, then an "expediter" would dupe a windows 95 pre-install to the hard drive and finish the windows setup. Shipping would pack up the pc and load it into a big UPS trailer. I did that for 3 years, and at lunch would sit in my car and study for microsoft exams, because I knew I did not want to do that forever. I made it to inside repair (repairing what got mailed back to us). The company got bought out, I got laid off (newly married and a 6 month old child) because I made the most of all the techs ($10 an hour in 1999). Got on with a local break fix IT company and made it all the way to partner. Got my BS in CIS in 2005, and I am working on my MBA right now (at night) at a top 50 (for Business) University in New Orleans. It all worked out, but THAT was a bad IT job. A little foresight can turn a bad job into a stepping stone.

yikes!

[cashman73]

I think I would rather gouge my eyeballs out with a spoon and feed them to a pack of wild dogs rather than being a product support specialist for Windows Vista,...

Re:Chiming in

[mgblst]

Yeah, my life was so much easier once I made those scripts to change the printer paper, and answer calls. Now I am working on a script to read slashdot, and I can just stay at home.