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No I don't wanna do that
I got into an interesting conversation with somebody over the weekend. He was also an IT person, and had been a contractor for many years. I wonder how many other people are out there who feel the same way he does?
He was trained in a different field, which he liked to do a lot. However, as it always happens, the IT industry just sucked him up. Years later he is between contracts looking for more work. I asked him what he wanted to do, and he said something like, "you know, I might not want to continue working in the IT field"
I feel the same way. As a former freelance writer, and inventor, and all-around goof-off, I happen to be good at computers. It's not something I chose or wanted to do, but there you go. Maybe I watched too much Mr. Spock when I was a kid. Maybe I'm slightly autistic (there is nothing natrual about staring at a computer screen for ten hours a day)
I always tell people, "I didn't choose computers, computers chose me" which never fails to get an odd look.
I remember when I was contracting for one of the Big 5 in Washington DC. As a manager, I was supposed to give performance reviews (which was a very unusual responsibility to give a contractor). My friend, another manager (FTE), told me to sit while he demonstrated how it was done.
Melissa was a intelligent, quick, and apt employee. My friend went down her list of goals for the past period, and then they talked some about what she should be thinking about for the coming period. Being no fool, I kept my mouth shut. Suddenly my friend was called away, however, and it was just me and Melissa sitting there.
The silence was deafening.
"So Melissa," I started, "Is this what you would like to do for the coming quarter?" -- Figuring this would be an easy question for her to answer since she had just discussed her goals with the other manger.
"No, not at all," she said, "I really want to do something in training. I want to work with other people directly. I'm not so sure IT is for me."
Why was she doing it? For the money, of course. We talked a little bit, and then when my friend came back, she went on with him talking about her IT goals as if nothing had ever happened.
I could tell another four or five stories just like this one. As for me, have made my peace to a degree by moving into the part of the business where the people are more important than the technology. I also find meaning in writing on this blog, being interested in things like philosophy, aviation, and politics. I can't help but think, however, that there are a lot of other people that IT has just sucked up -- people who have degrees in things like engineering, chemistry, geology. If you've been around IT at all, I'm sure you've met these people.
Of course, having all these people makes IT a better field -- we have input from all the other disciplines. Where else could you work with some of the top folks in _every_ field? On a personal note, however, as managers we need to double and triple check that we are really looking out for our people, and not just asking ourselves how they can help us the best. I don't wanna do that has to be an acceptable answer, even if we don't want to hear it (and even if it doesn't make a difference.) If we really listen to ourselves and others, maybe we can find ways that everybody can get a little bit of what they need. In my opinion, that makes for a more productive workplace and a more competitive team.
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Interesting. I was a Biblical Literature major myself. I got into computing quite by accident. So I know what you mean about "IT found me".
Wow. That's quite a jump from the bible to programming! From reading your blog, it sounds like you should hold the world record for programming the game Rat Race! It might make for a nice book title -- "How I conquered the Rat Race"
I had a similar experience, in that one of the first programs I wrote was a game for us teenagers to play (my Junior year in High School the school bought ONE Commodore Pet computer) I named it "Kill Roland", mainly because there was a guy named Roland who kept erasing people's names on the computer sign-up sheet and we all were pretty angry with him. Video game violence even back then!
I wonder how many of us "captive" IT workers came from hard sciences, and how many from softer sciences? My friend, if I remember correctly, told me he had a degree in psychology with a minor in philosophy. I also wonder if a lot of people had their first programming experience trying to make some kind of game?
I think most people are in it for the money, or theu unpredictable chance, and in jobs they would have never dreamed of as a child. I have several computer geek friends. I was surprised to that none of them knew how to export and re import bookmarks. (?)
Programming definitely chose me. I did Chemical Engineering at uni. Did pretty well, got a scholarship with ICI and they wanted me to go write PID controller code. Didn't like that, so I switched majors to environmental engineering. Did a project in that and was all set, when the telemarketing company I was working for part time for beer money offered me a job as there new IT manager for 3x the starting salary of an engineer.
I gave up and accepted my fate, but often wonder what might have been...
I am an IT Manager at a small Wildlife Consulting company. I have a BS in Wildlife Management and a MS in Rangeland Ecology. I made extensive use of VBA & GIS in my research. My only formal IT training were a FORTRAN class and a C class in undergraduate. I have always loved using computers and knew how to do basic maintance, repairs & upgrades. So I ended up being the backup IT person in addition to my real job wherever I worked. After 3.5 yrs of repetitive techinal writing of wildlife management plans. I volunteered for the new IT/GIS/DBA manager position at my company. Now I can add interal application developer to that list as well. I still get to occasionally do field work. I'm pretty happy with the change I've made so far. I get a new, different, and sometimes very frustrating challange everyday.
Reading some of these comments, it might be that having a degree and/or training in a very different field than IT is a great advantage. I can't help thinking that IT is moving towards a more biological representation of problems (genetic programming, cellular automata, neural nets, etc) and no team is effective unless there is a good foundation in pyschology and social relationships. In fact, looking at it that way, a CS degree might actually be a hinderance!
As a hands-on consulting project manager, I used to train newly formed college grads as a member of a traveling consulting team. I had a lot of really sharp folks I tried to help. I remember I used to have to tell them to chill out some! These guys were eager to put in 70-hour weeks, and I wanted quality, not quantity. The other thing I remember was that the biggest thing was soft skills -- negotiation, sales, empathy, etc. You can get through a lot of IT formal education without ever learning how to really listen to somebody tell you about the problems they are having. Seems to me like something is wrong about that.
I'm admittedly unusual. When I was 5 years old I wanted to program computers. The idea of a personal computer would never even occur to someone.
At one point when I was working as a consultant to Microsoft I had a conversation with the other code jockey's and they asked, "if you were rich what would you do with your time." They all described something other than computers or business. I said at the time that I would be doing exactly what I was doing, programming computers, creating software that helped people, inventing stuff.
That remained true for a long time. After 20 years of commercial software development and information system development I got tired of it. I started an online TV show.
The show has been seen by over 2 million viewers and the web site is in the Top 1% according to Alexa.
Oddly enough I find myself programming again. This time I'm building the tools I want to make my other tasks easier. So in a way I am doing all the things I love and I'm doing the programming even though I'm not getting paid in money.