Tell me about your experiences??

[Cosmos1]

This fall I'm going to attend college and work towards getting my A.S. in Information Technology and I have questions for the veterans in the field

1. Would you choose this career again?

2. What is your satisfaction level in this career?

3. What would you have done DIFFERENTLY? (Would you have not attended college immediately, would you have attended a different school, enrolled in a different major, different specific course choices, different lifestyle... ect)

4.From your prospective, what are emerging trends in the IT field that I should understand? (Newest technology, applications, new job skill demands, how the job is today vs. when you started.. ect.)

I would love to hear from different people about their experiences.

 

[iPwn]

This fall I'm going to attend college and work towards getting my A.S. in Information Technology and I have questions for the veterans in the field

I would say "good luck," but luck is a combination of preparation and opportunity ~ Someone more famous than I

Best of luck

1. Would you choose this career again?

Yup.

2. What is your satisfaction level in this career?

It doesn't matter. Every job you will ever work has both positive and negative aspects of it. Sure, the average may be higher from one company to the next, but there is no perfect job/career/etc. I've worked everything from construction and military to business management and information technology having started in fast food. The culture and the people at each job will make all the difference.

3. What would you have done DIFFERENTLY? (Would you have not attended college immediately, would you have attended a different school, enrolled in a different major, different specific course choices, different lifestyle... ect)

1. Do not attend online courses.
2. Pay more attention.
3. Ask more questions.
4. Take it as a learning opportunity and not a requirement.

Be hungry for knowledge as that's what will set you apart from other job candidates, not your degree.

4.From your prospective, what are emerging trends in the IT field that I should understand?

Security and Big Data.

That's my specialty; I'm sure others have much more to add to this than I.

 

[root]

1. Would you choose this career again?

yes, unquestionably, I still really like working with IT. (I've done a few different jobs though, maybe I'd hate it if I were still doing the same job I started at.

2. What is your satisfaction level in this career?

on a good day, it's quite high, give me a bad day, and it's quite low. I'd say unlike lots of other careers, with IT, sometimes everything goes great, everything is just working right, other times, and this is no matter if you're working in desktop support, server support network infrastructure, writing software etc you get a problem that just won't go away. - the satisfaction comes back ones you beat that issue though.

3. What would you have done DIFFERENTLY? (Would you have not attended college immediately, would you have attended a different school, enrolled in a different major, different specific course choices, different lifestyle... ect)

a lot of people directly senior to me right now do not have a degree. (and I do) so in some ways I understand the question to be, should I have saved my time/money and be three years further ahead in my career?

Short answer, no,
Whilst those guys are ahead of me, I've worked in jobs that they have/could not simply because a degree was a requirement. and that's more and more common today.

In a world where student loans got ridiculously cheap, everyone and their cat has papers now. you need them.

so, yes, given my time again I'd still go to university, I've had jobs working inside universities that require a degree, and if I were starting today it's almost critical to have a degree just to get to interview.

4.From your prospective, what are emerging trends in the IT field that I should understand? (Newest technology, applications, new job skill demands, how the job is today vs. when you started.. ect.)

When I started is practically irrelevant.

Depends what sectors you mean. certainly for a server engineers point of view we're talking cloud, platform as a service, public/private hybrid etc.

whatever you do you need a rounded IT education.

you might think I only want to do windows server support.
Great, now deploy 50 in Azure, you'll want to write a power shell script for that.

now do the same on AWS, you'll need to know python.


Want to write software? - you're still going to need to know about how the OS works.

It's helpful to have an idea of what these things are, so if someone says platform as a service, or software as a service, or big data, cloud, software defined networking or whatever latest buzz word there is, (depending on what you want to do) you might want to know it.

 

[crazyman143]

you get a problem that just won't go away. - the satisfaction comes back ones you beat that issue though.

Being stuck in desktop support most of the time right now, I feel like the users are my biggest problem, and no, they simply won't go away.

 

[Trotter]

I did my AA online. I don't regret it overall but I do wish the coursework would have been more IT focused.

I do wish I had picked up some certifications along the way, though.

 

[root]

Being stuck in desktop support most of the time right now, I feel like the users are my biggest problem, and no, they simply won't go away.

Sure, some users are idiots, and sometimes you can't find a stick big enough to beat them with...


On the other hand, when I did DTS roles I found that explaining a problem through with the end user mostly meant that they did not do whatever they did to break it again.
sure some aren't interested in listening and do the same thing over and over. but they should be the minority!