subject: 10 Things You Should Know Before Working In It [print this page] Considering a job in IT? We've covered some of the reasons that perhaps you shouldn't and what could be done about them. But there are plenty of good reasons to consider a career in IT. For example: good pay, better than average job prospects and the chance to work with cutting edge technology. However, there are a few things you should know before you get into the industry. ZDNet's Jason Hiner has compiled a list of 10 dirty little secrets you should know about working in IT.Please note that Hiner's advice is for people like network administrators, IT managers, and desktop support professionals - not programmers and developers.
The pay in IT is good compared to many other professions, but since they pay you well, they often think they own youIt will be your fault when users make silly errorsYou will go from goat to hero and back again multiple times within any given dayCertifications won't always help you become a better technologist, but they can help you land a better job or a pay raiseYour nontechnical co-workers will use you as personal tech support for their home PCsVendors and consultants will take all the credit when things work well and will blame you when things go wrongYou'll spend far more time babysitting old technologies than implementing new onesVeteran IT professionals are often the biggest roadblock to implementing new technologiesSome IT professionals deploy technologies that do more to consolidate their own power than to help the businessIT pros frequently use jargon to confuse nontechnical business managers and hide the fact that they screwed upThese about right, and you can read more about each "secret" in the original article. There are two things I'd add:
Even though you'll hear a lot about how there are "so many" IT jobs, you and your colleagues will often have trouble finding jobs. Why? Because most of those positions will demand very specific skill sets that are hard to acquire without direct experienceEven though the pay looks good, many IT jobs are temporary contracts with no benefitsDell inspiron 1520 battery. And you may go months at a time without wor