Comment Couple of Points (Score 1) 273
1. The "red tape" ticketing systems, forms, tech support mailboxes etc allow IT to effectively triage problems and prioritize workflow. If everyone from your helpdesk is on the phone or away from their desk Joe user doesn't care that you are the wan guy and are in the middle of troubleshooting a down circuit he wants you to fix his e-mail signature now! Every IT department needs techs who enjoy jumping from issue to issue but if all of your IT people are doing that and can't spend more than 5 minutes at a time focusing on a project nothing big is every going to be accomplished
2. Funny that the author seems to think that IT is a dead end career path, he must not have been very motivated, maybe he failed his MCP exam? As much as certs get a bad rap at least you know that if you put in the effort to get one you'll know what you are worth. Making $200+/hr consulting as a CCNP does not sound too bad to me.
3. I agree that a lot of IT/sysadmin types are like cats or better yet divas. Why don't sales or marketing types act this way? Simple, it is because they are easily replacable/trainable. I used to work in sales and true, the best salespeople are brilliant but you don't need to a lot of smarts or training to be an average salesperson, you do need some analytical ability and have fairly extensive training to be an average sysadmin.
It is also a generational thing, most sysadmins are in their 20s and 30s, there aren't a lot of 40 and 50 year olds in the industry who are up on the latest IT technology. In general the younger generation places a higher value on their free time; they are not willing to work 60 hours a week and will revolt if they are asked to. Conversley in accounting, sales, even engineering the young bucks have to suck it up because the baby boomers at the company will work a 60 hour week without complaint.
2. Funny that the author seems to think that IT is a dead end career path, he must not have been very motivated, maybe he failed his MCP exam? As much as certs get a bad rap at least you know that if you put in the effort to get one you'll know what you are worth. Making $200+/hr consulting as a CCNP does not sound too bad to me.
3. I agree that a lot of IT/sysadmin types are like cats or better yet divas. Why don't sales or marketing types act this way? Simple, it is because they are easily replacable/trainable. I used to work in sales and true, the best salespeople are brilliant but you don't need to a lot of smarts or training to be an average salesperson, you do need some analytical ability and have fairly extensive training to be an average sysadmin.
It is also a generational thing, most sysadmins are in their 20s and 30s, there aren't a lot of 40 and 50 year olds in the industry who are up on the latest IT technology. In general the younger generation places a higher value on their free time; they are not willing to work 60 hours a week and will revolt if they are asked to. Conversley in accounting, sales, even engineering the young bucks have to suck it up because the baby boomers at the company will work a 60 hour week without complaint.
