Working in the IT field

Post Reply New Topic

Well, I thought I'd share this. Since 2015, I've been taking IT classes, and am close to my degree as of right now (am one year away from getting it).

Why did it take me until my late 20s to decide? When you're someone like me who likes so many things, narrowing down a career choice is made all the more difficult. Better late than never, they say.

Hopefully, now that I am seeking a job in the field upon completion of my degree, I am not sure whether I want to pursue a job in retail, despite the fact that it could help with my resume. Working those kinds jobs are not all glamorous, and may not be worth it (no offense to those who have worked in that field, mind you).

So, that's where I stand as far as my career choice goes. I'm hopeful that the Los Angeles area has plenty of such jobs for me as I have dreamed of since 2010. Wish me all luck! (Do offer some words of encouragement, please. But NO degrading comments, though.)

it's not unless you're going into the service industry, even then it would be simpler to just drag your face along the concrete. it's less painful overall than working retail.

^ I see.

I suppose you could say we're in similar situations, difference is you are most likely more intelligent and well educated and i'm not so much. But the similarity being close to a major city that raises expectations for an employer, and you being in California in particular puts you next to Silicon valley, a magnet for STEM course graduates; not saying that you are aiming to work at Google or anything.

Even though i've experienced IT since 2003 (first computer), i'm in my late 20's also but ever since I dropped out of university i worked retail for a few months but really don't see myself in the industry and still see IT as my career even though I cannot understand the advanced stuff. Careers are probably reserved for people who have spent years in unrelated lines of work like retail, manual labour, casual work, part-time.

I'm just saying living next to a big city just raises expectations, competition and you have to do much more to impress employers in order to sell yourself; and for me that really isn't working out.

I concur with the notion of dragging my face along the concrete as being easier than retail. If you enjoy working in retail, then by all means... go for it. There's nothing worse than having to go to a job that you hate just to keep food on the table and a roof over your head.

That being said, I've worked in IT in one fashion or another since the 1990's. Got started when I was really young. The binary nature of IT (right or not right... 1 or 0...) tends to attract those of the Aspie persuasion. You're more likely to be among people of your own kind. Also, think about retirement and benefits. While many retailers do offer significant employee benefits, IT companies I think probably do a better job. If you have any medical issues that require support (i.e. Aspergers, Autism), you're more likely to have the health insurance that can help you with that than in retail.

Hope that helps.

I too am studying IT at college. There, our teachers have spoken about jobs but it seems like they are just gearing us up for jobs at a Help Desk. Receiving phone calls from people who are having problems with their computers and telling them how to fix it.

I couldn't think of anything worse to do. Phone calls for one thing. Irate customers for another.

I will do my best at getting another sort of job involving computers.

I grew up around computers, video games and technology and I've always liked to understand how systems work.
After getting a language degree I vowed to not work in IT helpdesk and only held out for a year before taking a job doing just that.

At the start it was difficult since most cases weren't troubleshooting just the technical issue but rather trying to understand the user's state of mind. I slowly learned to identify if the user would be able to get through fixing the issue with my help or if I should just dispatch it to a higher level support team. Unfortunately many cases weren't technical issues at all (people trying to look busy by calling the helpdesk, or intentionally breaking things to prove a point about something or other and many other non-helpdesk problems.) Those types of calls always gave me the most trouble since I don't have a high tolerance for being used in social manipulation.

Eventually I worked long enough in the trenches to be given a team to manage. I don't have the killer instinct of a 'great' manager and I tried to focus on carrots rather than sticks for my staff. My managers saw me as too lax and I saw them as selfish and short-sighted mediocrities. When our department was bought by an external company (I could keep my position for less money, worse benefits and more work!) I left and didn't look back.

From there I worked at a small software vendor using my language skills and that got me into my current job as a one man IT department. I manage a small server room filled with boxes along with 50 PCs and cellphones. My only real job is to outperform the outsourced IT support company that preceded me. Most of what I do seems like magic to the staff here and I get to investigate and implement solutions as I see fit.

Autism has been a long-term boon for me as I learned how to study patterns and iterate until I was able to get a job that I can support my life doing. I still get upset when people bombard me with questions or surprise me in the middle of working on different projects but the staff here has been very understanding. Finding the right work environment and being able to show that you can be depended on makes a big difference.