Can haz any of you been in IT and got burned out?

[yellowstang]

I hate IT sometimes. If I found another job, it would have to be one where there was no on call, ever.

[futant]

I've done IT for about 12 years.
Burnt out .... sometimes more than others. A few times I almost bailed out of the industry all together, very agreevated I could not get a job which paid what I wanted and challenged me. That can be a long road to responsibility/pay.
I focus mainly now on the WHY i do IT - MONEY.
if it weren't for decent pay , there is no way i'd be here.

Recently I've gotten to work at places where you can really flex your muscles so to speak. so that has been a relief from where I started , big companies, and middle career type of places. 90% of places you are pidgeon holed in what you do. Not necessarily bad, but bad for career growth (i.e. more damn money)
I'm all for places you can advance , get paid for great results and learn more and more.

So I've been a CCNA 3 times now, CCNP once, MSCE NT once, Acme, Broadsoft, lots of other BS like windows, linux , misc managing roles and datacenters.

If I had to say what the absolute WORST thing about IT is it's mismanagement. I love to see places like sony playstation absolutely crash and systems/voip, or otherwise getting hacked, data stolen, outages, etc.
BECAUSE, as it is everyone with the MONEY (ie managements) seem to think IT is disposible garbage men there to clean up the mess. They need to be considering what the real world dictates IT should be - architects , and maintenance to fulfill the tech responsibility of all your mission critical apps/pcs/whatever. They don't take it seriously, look at the facts.
I've been laid off a bunch of times for stupid reasons, mostly poor management. They also rarely determine the proper number and type of IT ppl you really need. They also allow incompetent ppl to remain or even ask them to be trained when it's impossible. Likewise frequently the quality of service to customers systems or the customers themselves is rarely on the target of what it should be , frequently WAY OFF.... and they don't care and ignore all comments regarding it.

Look everywhere has it's problems, I'm not denying that. IT though has very specific problems that haven't seemed to change much. I think it will, but companies need to realize that their IT team can make or break them. NOT think of them as run of the mill scapegoats for any problems they encounter. Until they throw the money at it that IT deserves I see this as an ongoing problem.

Right now all I want to do is decide how I want to get to 6 figures, beit CCIE route and switch , or staying my current path of VOIP deployment engineering services for a small privately owned company.

All of you new to IT:
get certs, get really good. KEEP your eyes open for better jobs, and move up the ranks of tech engineers until you can get the pay you want. The sky is the limit here, you can do it if you study hard and work hard. Do not think you will do it at one place of employment though, if you can you are very lucky IMO.
when you prove yourself and build a RESUME which illustrates it, you will get the bucks and some amount of job security in that you are hard to be despensed with.
BE AWARE of places that will abuse you, there ARE MANY. it might be worth suffering through some for a short while if you need the experience on your resume.

Feel free to lie at interviews about your experience if they can't get you in the nit gritty details. It's worth it if you KNOW YOUR SHIT.
Because believe you me, I interview the shit out of someone who says they are qualified and a real coin will be paid, so do many companies like Cisco, Microsoft. They will ask you every single question they need to be sure of the gaps of your knowledge and your real experience. They will get 4 ppl in there to grill you at the same time, and they will accept nothing less than what they NEED for the position. More places should do that.

Last but not LEAST - Be good at what you do, and DO NOT BECOME complacent.
IT is not like other careers. What you know today if fucking useless 5 -10 years from now. Be happy , that's what keeps the pay rate high!

[ozzeran]

Feel free to lie at interviews? Really??

[yellowstang]

Feel free to lie at interviews? Really??

Sure, why not. Appearantly in IT, once a dumbass gets hired, they never seem to be let go.

[mikeb]

Have any of you considered the vendor/consulting side of IT? To me that's where the fun is at, since you're never in a place long enough to get stuck in politics.

Also, you can work for a company and your opinion is lightly weighted. Same company as a consultant and your word is gold.

Lots of different experiences and such as well. Very little on call, but some long and odd hours....but that is just IT in general.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

Here's my thoughts on that as someone that has been a consultant for many, many years. I have worked both as an independent consultant and have worked for a company that pimped me out as a consultant and the two scenarios were very similar. I didn't have as much control when i worked for someone else though and the bad sides were the same.

The good sides are as you described. No politics (you should always steer clear of any political drama or gossip as a contractor - you wanna be switzerland), and you get to experience many new and varied job situations and technologies. Many costs can be written off on taxes depending on how you are structured. You are like a plumber - they give you a job and you focus only on that job. You get a lot of freedom with your hours, you can usually set your own hours.

Now for the bad side. You stand a good chance at taking the blame when a project goes south, regardless of what you did or didn't do. You are always looking for your next contract. You are always just days away from being unemployed. You are your own marketing department. Vacations and sick time are unpaid. You may have to work out of town for long periods of time (I worked in OKC for 3.5 years, and i've now been in san diego for 2.5 years). Your health insurance cost is astronomical. There is no unemployment for you, and no pension plan either. And like the buggy whip makers you may find that your skills become irrelevant; no one is paying for your training - you have to pay for that yourself. And every new contract is essentially like starting a new job, with all new stuff that you have to pick up quickly and new people you have to get to know. And you may get stuck working on some 30 year old shitty mainframe code. You have to keep up with the taxes you owe, who you owe them to, and when you have to pay them.

This kind of job is best suited for someone that does not have a lot of life commitments (house/wife/kids), and who is looking for and thrives on constant challenges and stress. You gotta have the right attitude (be willing to jump into anything no matter how complicated or shitty). You do NOT have to know everything, but you must be able to figure stuff out quickly and be able to think on your feet. It helps if you can read people and figure out how to work with them. It also helps if you have a pleasant and agreeable personality; that can take you a long, long way.

The rewards can be pretty good if you are successful.

[Silverback]

Feel free to lie at interviews? Really??

i wouldn't lie in an interview, i give more credit in an interview to people who actually tell me, "i don't know but i bet I could find the answer if given a little time"

[ozzeran]

Exactly.

[Silverback]

Exactly.

one guy we hired made a very good impression, he kept notes of the questions we asked and what he answered during the phone interview.

We asked him to come to a face to face, and he looked up the answers and brought them in with him. I thought it showed his seriousness to follow through, and it's one of the many reasons I voted to hire him.

[futant]

Feel free to lie at interviews? Really??

Yes.
there is a big problem with incumbant techs.
Many companies pay little attention to whether their tech employees are worth a shit, and thus the few that are good end up having to do everything.
reread my bit about IT being terribly mismanaged MOST places. In fact I would 95% of the places you will work in IT are very poorly managed in one aspect or all aspects of your job. This isn't just a bitch fest I'm trying to make, these problems effect doing your job every single day. Especially if youre the guy actually 'in the fire' doing the work.

If you really know your shit, and are good at tech - one of the biggest problems I faced was finding a place that would let me do the tech work that i was capable of doing.

So if you're new to IT, and youre really good, but lack an experienced resume. I highly suggest you lie some to keep getting harder and harder positions.
It increases your chances of building a valuable resume vs. sitting around at shit jobs because 'youve never done that before' so therefore 'I can't hire you'.

Besides most any place worth working with interview you so hard, you won't be fooling anyone by lieing. Trust me!
Might get you in the door.

One time I hired a new grad with zero IT experience all because he knew what a CRC was. He wasn't lieing but the point is he had an eye for detail. As with all levels of tech, you expect a certain amount of knowledge. So if you can say you've done something at a past job that you already know how to do, go for it....

[futant]

i wouldn't lie in an interview, i give more credit in an interview to people who actually tell me, "i don't know but i bet I could find the answer if given a little time"

Doesn't that imply the person is stupid enough to be caught lieing?
Who the hell would be that stupid ?

oh course your comment is valid, no one should make up shit they can't back up (God I hate the internet and how you have to clarify everything for ppl). I just personally don't give a shit about ppl who say they can find the answer. Anybody will say that. Doesn't mean they can or they will find the answer.
Atleast if your lieing about it , I can ask a follow up question that you need to know the answer to.

[GeorgeG.]

......Atleast if your lieing about it , I can ask a follow up question that you need to know the answer to.

This is why I don't lie in an interview.

[White_lightning]

Nerds!!!!!!

[ceyko]

Some people in this thread sound seriously jaded. Encouraging lies during an interview? WTF?! I'll hire someone who does not know it all, I will NOT hire or recommend for hire someone who lied.

Mikeb- I hear what you're saying but you're lumping independent consulting with working for someone. They are not the same by a long shot. As an independent contractor, just getting PAID alone can suck.

[futant]

jaded, ha.
just trying to help a new guy out.

maybe I just had the skills before I could get the right level jobs. others experiences may differ. I am a dedicated and quick self learner.

[GeorgeG.]

Well..unfortunately I was given my walking papers yesterday. It may be a blessing in disguise but for now, it sucks. Oddly enough, even though things will get very tight if I don't find something soon, it felt like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. In hindsight, it was better for both parties involved.

I have about a months worth of pay so hopefully I can be ready for the CCNA exam and become more knowledgeable with VMWare...we'll see.

I'll be hitting the usual job boards in full force now and will be updating my status with a few recruiters I've been talking to. So if any of you have any leads...I'd appreciate a little nudge.