# Cons of working in the Tech Sector//Details on these jobs



## ixwolvesix (Apr 29, 2016)

I am currently in school and I am not too sure in what specific job I will end, I went on my school's website and saw a list of jobs that people tend to do once they graduate from my program. 
- data analyst
- game developer
- information architecture
- network security 
- ux/ui developer 

I just want to know what are the bad things about this industry and what should I be aware of.


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## themaraudingtimelord (Jul 7, 2014)

I'm studying CS in uni at the moment and this is what I've heard from my friends already in the field:


A higher concentration of people who are emotionally unintelligent or socially inept
An expectation to learn whatever new technology your employer throws at you
An increased likelihood of getting imposter syndrome since you will be a minority in the field (ie: female)

However, those things pale in comparison to the massive perks of working in the field, especially if you live in the US.


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## ixwolvesix (Apr 29, 2016)

themaraudingtimelord said:


> I'm studying CS in uni at the moment and this is what I've heard from my friends already in the field:
> 
> 
> A higher concentration of people who are emotionally unintelligent or socially inept
> ...


ah imposter syndrome or worse "you are only doing it for guys"


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## Grandmaster Yoda (Jan 18, 2014)

Wolfie said that males will be given credit for what you do.

I'm in school, in IT you will not be complimented. "Thanks, the email server has been running perfectly all day."
You will be subjected to solving problems, other people's problems. They won't thank you, they will just complain to you.
People are terrible.


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## jbking (Jun 4, 2010)

ixwolvesix said:


> I am currently in school and I am not too sure in what specific job I will end, I went on my school's website and saw a list of jobs that people tend to do once they graduate from my program.
> - data analyst
> - game developer
> - information architecture
> ...


Be aware that new titles will likely be created over time and with various booms. 20 years ago, who saw the blooming of the web? 10 years ago, who saw the growth of mobile and social media? What will be the next areas to grow well? Similarly, what kind of crackdowns could come, what kind of breakthroughs in the field could happen?

I'd also be tempted to consider how some of those titles are rather broad as "UI Developer" could build mobile applications, web-based systems or service-oriented architecture. Where will Big Data lead us in a few years? Where does social media marketing lead in a few years? What will be new ways to get ads to consumers to inform buying decisions? How will media in general evolve? These are some points to ponder along with how fast can Elon Musk's new stuff get adopted that may also change the world.


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## WhereverIMayRoam (Jan 16, 2011)

Cons:

- Dealing with external clients of executive level who blame the technology from your side and saying they're right just because they're the president or CEO when they know jack about the nuts and bolts of what makes IT systems work only to prove to them through ping, tracert, speed test and MRTG site screenshots that nothing is wrong on your end. Still, they insist that they are right because the customer/president is always right

- Dealing with your own company's top level executives who want a Vicidial multi-server cluster installed and working in an instant when in reality it takes hours or even a few days to do so

- Getting frustrated after completing said Vicidial multi-server cluster because you were so rushed and yet they didn't begin using it after a few weeks

- Having the first ever company manager's meeting and saying that a dedicated internet line is needed because voice data needs a stable connection and an equal download and upload speed but being vetoed into getting a crappy aDSL line because the company is just starting and the dedicated line is too costly at the moment. All the doomsday scenarios of all the problems that will arise due to the crappy aDSL line suddenly flood your mind and in a few weeks everything comes to pass and you tell them "I told you so."

- Finally the dedicated internet line installation begins but then a whole lot of new other problems arise like repeatedly asking the ISP account manager if they are going to install the temporary copper/ethernet connection up to your IT room and not just the building's electrical room then come installation day the techs say that they only cover installing copper/ethernet connection up to the electrical room so they require you to install a houseline and immediately leave without doing much which delays the installation for a few days

- After a few days of requesting the installation be resumed you ask the account manager and the techs if the current aDSL line can work for the copper/ethernet connection only for them to come in and install the modem and be unable to complete the configuration because the RTO is too high since the aDSL line is a straight copper line and not a twisted pair CAT5e cable which delays the installation another few days

- It takes more days to get the installation resumed because no one can be hired to install the CAT5e houseline from the IT room going to the building's electrical room since it would require someone to crawl a very small space inside the building ceiling and the building administration office said that they don't cover that kind of work order only to go under the table to have their electrician and maintenance guys finally install it during a holiday when the bosses in the building administration office are not around

- Finally there is a sign of relief when the dedicated line is completely installed and works perfectly for a few days only for it to begin having problems and when you try to access the MRTG site it won't work using the username and password that the installation techs provided then you find out from the account manager that the record of your company is not yet complete in their system since it is still tagged as 'open work order' because for it to be closed the installation of the fiber optic line needs to be completed and entered as 'work order closed' in their system

- After providing multiple screenshots and troubleshooting information the connection issue is still not resolved due to an internal router in the ISP's network having a lot of packet loss but it has taken hours and hours of emails and calls to have the issue fixed but still no cigar

- A blessing/curse comes right walking in the office in the form of four IT undergraduates asking for on-the-job training so all of a sudden you have five IT staff including your recently hired younger brother that you assigned as the Vicidial administrator. You already have so much on your plate and then these people come and join the 'fun'. They do help out on some of the minor stuff though so that's a plus

- You're doing overtime but not getting paid for it since you're part of management, you've only eaten once in the past twenty hours that you've been in the office, you've slept so little in your comfy office chair, you wanna take a shower and most of all you miss your SO and haven't been able to communicate with her all day/night


Sometimes I just wanna go back to being an engineer... but then that's comes with a completely different list of cons too hahaha


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## HGy (Jul 3, 2016)

ixwolvesix said:


> I am currently in school and I am not too sure in what specific job I will end, I went on my school's website and saw a list of jobs that people tend to do once they graduate from my program.
> - data analyst
> - game developer
> - information architecture
> ...


You will love it. Good luck to you.


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## AriesLilith (Jan 6, 2013)

themaraudingtimelord said:


> I'm studying CS in uni at the moment and this is what I've heard from my friends already in the field:
> 
> 
> A higher concentration of people who are emotionally unintelligent or socially inept
> ...


I look around my team of fellow developers (programmers), UX designers, frontend programmers, analysts, testers, managers... and hey, they all seem pretty normal to me. Married, in relationships, some with kids, average hobbies like photography, gastronomy and cooking, traveling, sports, gym, pubs, concerts, friends and so on.

As for whatever employers theows at you... Well, take the wheels and choose what you want to work at instead! Take many interviees from different companies and ask what tech stacks they work on. Tell them what stacks you are particularly interested in and don't be so afraid to say no! Many graduates would simply get the first job offer, but investing on what you really want to is actually smarter. If you want to work with Ruby on Rails for web applications for example, then try to find out what companies are using this and hiring graduates! After your first job it will get easier and easier to stay on track. I work with what I want as a programmer with a few years experience, and in the long term my focused experience is more advantageous since employers often prefers specialists over fragmented experience in too many different stacks.

As for impostor syndrome... I'm and Asian female in Europe so I'm pretty minority. I also went through this syndrome but I just need to remind myself that I've always been acknowledged and able to deal with my tasks so how bad can I be? I do have weaknesses yes, and that is normal for everyone and eventually I work it out and improve.

Also, tech guys are pretty simple. Show them you can work with your tasks and with your team and they'll acknowledge you whatever gender or color you are. I never had issues and my male dominated teams always acknowledged me and asks my help as I ask theirs. Really, tech guys are that practical. Anyone with discriminative mindset is their own problem not yours.


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## AriesLilith (Jan 6, 2013)

As for cons in tech...

*- stress - *you might be cosntantly challenged to face new problems that require more learning and creativity to solve. There might be deadlines, yet you might not know if you can solve them or solve them in time. This is not a mechanic task where you get to repeat without much thinking, so it can be stressful if you don't like daily challenges or if a project is stressful.

*- constant learning and updating - *tech evolves everyday, today's hit tech might not be tomorrow's trend. Prepare to pay attention to new trends and learn new things. Even with the old things there is already so much to learn! Will you be able to learn and dedicate time outside work?

*- not always appreciated - *non-techies might say that "it's just a button" and don't fully appreciate your work or understand why you need so much time to develop something. But this depends on the team of each project so with some luck you might have a better team. Also, some might expect you to be that passionate geek ready to work even for free plus extra hours. Learn to say no if you end up in such places as there are good places!

*- elitism in the field -* it sucks. You might hear that "a real programmer is/should know/can" and all the expectations and all. Some employers are also crazy elitists snobs and readily puts you down if you are not that perfect nerd knowing all your algorithms (you know, those algorithms you can learn in CS but almost never needed to know how to implement from scratch in the real life) or binary conversion out of the mind. And if you are not that programmer who knew programming since 5 years old? Shame on you! Well, at least this is not something that we face many times which is good, but sometimes this elitism can exist and it kinda sucks.


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## Caveman Dreams (Nov 3, 2015)

Go DevOps. Its the future.


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## Miss Bingley (Jun 28, 2013)

My roommate is a CS prodigy, and apparently it's very competitive, considering there is so much interest in it. I've personally found it to be very pseudo-intellectual, pretentious. I don't really vibe with the whole Silicon Valley, wear jeans to work and scooter around type of thing.


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## Caveman Dreams (Nov 3, 2015)

Training (or lack of)

From personal experience employers are quite unlikely to dish out for training or send employee's away on courses, at the rate required to keep up with technology. So some sort of regime is required to stay upto date.

I'm lucky I get CBT Nuggets free access, 5 exams provided a year and Azure Credits.

But this is the 3rd IT Firm I have worked at since leaving the army and it is the only one with this sort of system in place that I have worked at.

I still have to put in the hours in my own time though to get upto speed, or I will not progress and I will become out of date. Of course the Quiet Night Shifts are awesome for virtualising servers and getting to know the technology. And a couple of Cisco Routers and Switches will not break the back.


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## Caveman Dreams (Nov 3, 2015)

Miss Bingley said:


> My roommate is a CS prodigy, and apparently it's very competitive, considering there is so much interest in it. I've personally found it to be very pseudo-intellectual, pretentious. I don't really vibe with the whole Silicon Valley, wear jeans to work and scooter around type of thing.


I actually prefer casual dress code.

Don't see the point in getting all suited and booted unless customer facing and most customer facing roles are over a phone or Teleconferencing tbh).

Plus a lot of IT work can be done remotely so no need to even come into the office unless for a meeting or something. Just VPN in and work from home, the beach, where ever.

IT originated from the basements and garages, so it should stay that way.


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## AvaISTJ (Nov 24, 2016)

Game developers might have a little more fun on the job, but job security is horrendous in that field. It seems like I read about layoffs every month. So, you'd have to weigh the possibility of moving around and having financial security with being creative.

Your work environment for different jobs could vary. I work at a female owned company in the city with the most women in tech in the country, so that's a bonus for me. There are also some telecommuting jobs and jobs like network security where you may not be working in a tech company, but be the techie on site.


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## nonnaci (Sep 25, 2011)

I'll speak from software developer pov.

Coderot: I swear that software breaks at faster rates with each passing year.

Specialization: Pressure to learn a few API's and get good at them (sexy new things pay better) knowing well that in a few years time, the platform will probably be defunct.

Impact: Unless you're working at a startup or have found a position on an important team at a large company or have gone solo, your code may never see the light of day.


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