I can say for sure that I don’t find IT any fun anymore. I used to be able to go to work get really interesting problems and solve them with great ease and find joy in the work I did. Not any more. Its boring and monotonous. I prefer to consult. Go in, have a list of problems, Take care of them and leave. Hired Gun! Problem Solver! Solution Seeker(tm)!

Maybe its because we try to do only things that we find interesting and not what is needed to do. Its infectious for people to only do what they want to do and not what needs to be done. I admit to this myself. Granted if you can find work that you find enjoyable, challenging and financially sound then DO IT! Don’t pass go, go straight to the damn thing and enjoy it.

As I am finding it, I must tweak my life to be interesting. I have to make my job interesting and some what challenging. The users and problems won’t do that anymore. I need to work on projects that I find interesting and possibly beneficial to the company. No boondoggles. As I do this my company sees the benefit in keeping me and not outsource the job. They can see I am thinking and keeping current, so they don’t feel they need to keep me entertained or “babysat” me by giving me more work or projects that are not needed. As I continue to grow my skills and experiences the more valuable I become. Granted not all companies think this way. The all mighty dollar and bottom line is pretty much what most companies are about. In the many years I’ve been a tech I’ve seen the opposite of what I stated. Too many tech’s will get bored and then do nothing except take up company time and resources. Keep requesting raises to stay and keep that one vital project up and running. Start working on side jobs or do side jobs while at the primary work. Working only when needed. Having a bad attitude. Not caring about the other employees and not doing everything they can to make things better and run smoother. Not good. This is what Upper management thinks of  when they think of IT. Overhead! Cost too much! Can hire some company in Bangladesh to do the same thing remotely.

I’ve dealt with companies out of the country that have a contract with someone here. I play the onsite man. Doing the leg work and getting paid maybe 10% of the job if that. There are companies actively seeking to outsource IT jobs that are not even in the country or local to the company or location of the job that is needed.

Granted there are companies like mine was and did the same thing but I was in the area at least.

Great post anyhow. Got me thinking.

Is IT Dilbertized?

This is an interesting and yet painful phenomena. There are lesser and lesser IT undergrads and people are expecting IT to just flow like water and electricity. I have said it long ago, Virtualization will speed up the commoditization of IT. Most IT firms are already changing their tag lines and mantras. Soon IT will be managed by some poor bloke in Elbonia.
I don’t think we can stop the commoditization but what we surely can do is to bring back the innovation.
I was speaking (yesterday) to a young dutch student from our University (born in Holland with Chinese origin). His folks sent him to China to learn Chinese, the culture and values. This kid had done IT and is not at all excited about how IT is treated in Holland. He was eager to go back to China to continue his studies as he “didn’t like the drag here”. This is playing massively in developed countries. IT has been pushed out and given to the cheapest bloke to manage.

IT isn’t fun anymore, and while a lack of fun at work may not seem worth stopping the presses over, the long-term effects of depriving a field of appealing work may very likely look like this: Students are turning away from computer science at an alarming rate. There’s a huge talent shortage across the entire field, and, in confidence, enterprise IT workers say they’d probably choose a different career path if they could go back and start over again.

Lots of my mates have stepped out of IT. And these guys were Java Architects, Consultants. Why? They were sick and tired of all those mergers and acquisitions.
Anyways read this interesting article at eWeek.

Source: TarryBlogging – Virtualization For Everyone: Is IT Dilbertized?