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I’ve uncovered a few things that might make a career in IT challenging. What do you think? If you have other downsides to IT, let us know in the comments!

  • Automation
  • New technology
  • Stuck at the same level
  • Compromising to gain approval
  • Job security
0 voters

#IAmIntel

11 Spice ups
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What are the downsides to a career in IT?

People who believe because they’ve been in this field for a long time, they know better, when they really don’t, or similarly, people who don’t adapt with the times and use ‘this is how I’ve always done it’ replies instead of accepting things change and finding out new methods.

Technology evolves, people don’t seem to, at least not at the same rate.

19 Spice ups
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You are always on the clock. Luckily where I work, we have a lot of redundancy, generator, work from home (emergencies only) and so on. However; I cannot go to a family picnic without someone asking me to look at their laptop, phone, or even to just discuss some new threat or technology they heard in a tiktok video. And when I am at home, text messages and phone calls are often frequent when someone has a generic question that the average computer user should have the answer to.

18 Spice ups
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Exactly this. I used to go on cruises, that was really the only way I was not on the clock because you’re basically unreachable. Except I got called on a cruise ship one time to help fix something.

The main problem is at least for me, your brain never leaves work mode. Especially if you are bored. It’s late you’re bored, oh I’ll just do this thing for work I’ve been trying to get done forever but keep getting interrupted. That’s really a personal problem more than a work problem of not setting that boundary as I should but IT tends to lend itself to forming that problem I think.

I’ve been almost completely remote for ~15 years.

“Must be nice to be remote”

When you can work anytime anywhere, you can work all the time everywhere, and sadly you will.

18 Spice ups
5

You missed it.

Overtime…just lots and lots of overtime, your family better be ready for that nonsense. And hopefully you land with a company that compensates properly for it.

7 Spice ups
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Overtime as in time, not overtime as in pay. We aren’t hourly over here :slight_smile:

10 Spice ups
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While those who do this likely wouldn’t want to return to an office 5 days a week, perhaps this is one way it would cut the always working - then the business finds out the hard way, more work for free was actually better for them, when people are office based there is a more distinct ‘end of day’

I’m hybrid, but still fall in to this situation - partly because it benefits me and partly because it’s a quick fix, that turns out not to be, but the business wins.

I feel the pain.

5 Spice ups
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The biggest downside is that nothing ever reaches a steady state; it is a Sisyphean treadmill. Work is NEVER finished.

11 Spice ups
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I totally agree with the other sentiments posted. I believe that I can always find pros and cons to any task/career and to keep a good mindset, I have to be cautious how much I focus on the cons and ignore the pros.

As far as a downside however, here are my two cents worth for things that I did not realize before getting into IT:

  • Some days IT reminds me of a car mechanic. Things are not working correctly, so you are only fixing issues, and the end user is generally not happy that things are not working as they would like them to be.
  • While I believe that IT is “cool” in it’s own geeky way, there are times when it is far from glamorous. Especially after running network cables in some dirty attic and I end up looking like Pig Pen from Peanuts.
4 Spice ups
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It really depends on what you want and which Organization you work for ?

5 Spice ups
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After almost 40 years in IT I have seen lots of changes, mostly for the better. The biggest downside is the hours you work. OK it’s getting better than it used to be. I used to work 50 - 60 hours a week without fail. Nowadays, its down to roughly 40, but you are never really off the clock. As soon as people know you work in IT, they will be asking you questions, wanting help or support for their home pc / laptop. It’s up to you if you want to offer that support or advise. I used to, but not anymore, its not worth the hassle, the person who is asking would have searched the internet for the answer and come up with loads of solutions and will watch over you like a hawk saying why aren’t you doing this or that. Not worth the bother anymore.
I have enjoyed my time in IT, it’s kept a roof over my family, I have made some great friends along the way and it always keeps you on your toes.

9 Spice ups
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Several downsides are related to a single actual issue, at least here in the US: IT is not allowed to unionize or collectively bargain. A fairly huge injustice to an entire singled out sector of the workforce. This not only impacts wages/hours/career advancement, but also professional standards.

2 Spice ups
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Biggest downside I’ve experienced so far is there’s a lot of work done outside of business hours. The past 2 years I’ve worked more outside the standard working hours due to the amount of tech debt I saw at that job. Lots of jobs are fine with single points of failure because of budget restraints.

3 Spice ups
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The biggest challenge is also the greatest advantage for me.

In I.T., constant change means you must continuously learn and adapt. There’s no point where you can say, “I’ve mastered this, now I can relax for the next 30 years.”

It’s a continuous cycle:

  • Learn something new.
  • Implement it.
  • Almost immediately, it becomes outdated, and you start over.

Not everyone thrives in this environment.

7 Spice ups
15

I was going to come and joke about the desire to buy Ted Kaczynski’s cabin after a career in IT, but there are a lot of good and thoughtful answers. I would agree that the biggest annoyances for me have been either the 24/7 on call or nights and weekend work or the constant change. I may not get the cabin in the woods, but I’m still never going to work on a PC when I retire.

3 Spice ups
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Thank you everyone, for the replies!

It’s easy to see that compensation and advancement are pain points. From those of us that benefit from your hard work - you deserve a raise and a big thank you for all you do!

#IAmIntel

4 Spice ups
17

I think users and the overall company culture are factors that make an IT career challenging. That may be the case in any career, but IT seems to have interactions with every department, and each department has its own characteristics and needs (and personalities) that IT must adapt to. Ironically, I’m finding that the department which is technology and non-human centric needs to be the most adept at managing the human factor in order to be successful.

4 Spice ups
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The only downside I can think of is trying to convince the customer they should spend money on better / new equipment. Businesses and even end users never want to spend money even when it is crucial and they will find every reason in the book not to. The frustrating part is they will pay me $500 to try and find a work around to keep the old stuff running but would pay less for the implementations I recommend

3 Spice ups
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The never ending cycle of assumptions.

There has been this “Assume its your responsibility” bug that has settled into the workplace. I find that recently there has been a move away from proper management of job roles and responsibilities and it is the persons responsibility to figure out what, why and when.

2 Spice ups
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I’ve been remote since mid-2018 (pre-COVID) as a contractor. The first remote “thing” my wife and I did was start wintering in Florida instead of staying in Ohio. :sun_with_face:

Unfortunately the big institutions are pushing RTO (curse you both Jamie Dimon and Elon Musk). Direct employees where I work started 2 days in office last spring, which got bumped to 3 days in the fall… It’ll be 4 days in office starting April Fools Day :roll_eyes:

Fortunately I’m not an employee, so it isn’t mandatory for me (great, because I’m in Florida now). I’m also 66 years old, so you can imagine my response to RTO.

2 Spice ups