I'm kicking the idea of going back to school (I already have a BA) and was wondering what IT is like. I have a few questions:

IT is not programming right?
Is it working in a tech-support call centre?
How much $$ do you typically make (if you don't mind telling me that is)?
How's the job market?
Do I really need another 4 year degree or could I get by with a 2 or 3 year diploma thing?

I would also love to know, it's one of the possibilities post-HS.

I'm not an IT guy, but I've worked in a business environment where a full time IT guy was employed. It was Pharmaceutical startup with about 40 employees, the whole company only took up half a floor of an average sized office building.

He would occasionally float around the office floor giving quick help to people who have only average computer skills. Spent most of his time managing the network, ensuring everybody had appropriate access to different files/folders on the company's server. Managed all the computer equipment of the business, made sure everybody was set up correctly. The above items plus all kinds of random computer/tech odds and ends were enough to easily occupy the man for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

He basically just knew a ****ton about computers and was very useful. I have no idea if this is an accurate representation of the IT world or not. I'm not sure what his education was, but he definitely had at least a 4 year degree in Computer Science.

I don't pretend to speak from an IT perspective but years ago I worked as an IT intern for several months. As an intern it was alot of the lower level support work - setting up new PC's, troubleshooting problems with existing hardware/software installations. They did let me attend a few of the Vendor sales shows but I had no part in the exciting stuff like planning future network implementation. For me the job was like any support position, people would constantly stop you in the halls with a tech question. Honestly, I loved it.

I think what Dash_rendar is describing its probably true because it was a smaller company.

'IT' support, as in maintaining IT systems and running networks, may ask for a degree, but by and large it's a matter of learning specific tools (which degrees generally don't teach you).

But IT is a massive field, you're going to need to be more specific if you want helpful answers. For example, you're not going to get a job designing CPUs if you don't have some kind of Computer Science degree.

I think IT is rather a blanket term that most people use to mean that something's computer-related. I'm just a semester away from having a BBA in Management Information Systems. I've been looking at various job listings, and there's just so much out there. And many employers are looking for employees with specific vendor-related credentials.

If you do decide to go for another degree, I would recommend keeping projects done in your IT-related classes, or at least trying to keep what you can. You'll be much better off if you can show employers examples of your work rather than just talk about what you can do.

Information Technology (IT) has become a generic term that encompasses a wide variety of technical jobs. For instance, I had a job where I diagnosed & repaired laptop computers. That was considered "IT". Before that I had a job where I diagnosed & repaired desktop/laptop computers, set up/maintained our office as well as our mobile networks (when traveling), setup/maintained our event servers (when traveling) & our web servers (when in the office) & I even did a little web design/programming to create an internal website for employees. That was considered "IT". I have an Associates Degree (Applied Science) in "Information Technology" or "IT Programming".

It could encompass both of the areas that you listed (programming & call center/help desk) & much more. The job above where I did a wider of variety of work only paid me about $11/hour, I had to work 60+ hours/week & I had to travel (drive or fly) to other states EVERY weekend. The job where I did much less paid about $17/hour when I was fired for being sick. I also know guys with no degree that are making $75k-$100k in the same field. My cousin is a computer programmer & he makes about $115k/year after being in the field for about 10 years. You obviously have to take in to consideration which area you're living in because where I live the cost of living is relatively low (Louisville, KY). As with any field, it depends more on what/who you know than what type of fancy degree that you have, but a degree definitely doesn't hurt.

I work at our IT Call Center on campus. (I'm actually working right now, hah!) But honestly, the job is really fun and pretty easy if you're tech savy. I didn't read the whole thread, just the OP, but there are a lot of opportunities for advancing here at this place. I don't plan on spending any additional time here after I graduate, but if this was something I'd actually want to do I'm sure it would be a good opportunity.

One thing the job has done for me though, is lower my faith in humanity. Seriously, some of the people who call here are absolute morons. Most of them being college students who don't have a clue about anything, but still.

I almost choose a career in the IT field and thank god I didn't

I think it's a lot more valuable to study something else and apply that to IT. If we were in the early 90s, then knowledge of programming, web development, networking, or general tech support would be very valuable and you'd be very employable. But we're not. It's 2009 and programmers are a dime a dozen, there's no shortage of web designers, and demand for tech support decreases every year. See this report for more details. In the UK, tech support generally pays around £27,000 a year.

A much more valuable strategy is to have some other skill, and then a proficiency in IT will greatly increase the value in that skill. Proficiency in IT alone really isn't worth very much. Some of this may be academic, such as knowledge of economics, mathematics, chemistry, physics, engineering - all of which require degrees. A tech savvy physicist is worth a lot, in a huge variety of industries. I often ask my friends to write me some pretty simple code for all sorts of data analysis and stuff. If I weren't in academia, I'd probably have to pay them for that.

Some of it might be vocational, such as art, design, management, business studies, and some of it is simply people skills. Someone that is good at organising people, with a knowledge of IT, is incredibly valuable (a chief technical officer earns about £100,000 a year).

In general, I'd say IT skills complement other skills to a high degree, though IT skills alone are only going to decrease in value.

IT is, as many people have posted, a generic term. It is used most frequently by managers who don't understand their own industry to refer to anybody with computer skills surpassing the modern toddler.

Most of the time an IT worker is what the internet calls a "computer janitor:" technical support, maintenance, simple programming / scripting, system administration. Some jobs that would be better left to an electrician, but nothing that would get a CS or EE published.

Most people who get a BSc in Computer Science got a 2.5 and never really figured out how to write software, so you'd be working with those people too.

I guess it comes down to what the boss thinks. You have an incredibly useful guy with a 2 year diploma and a lot of practical, hands-on experience; or you have a guy with 33 credits of math who can probably remember some of it if you really press him. Who's the boss going to promote? I don't think it's going to be the guy with a 2 year diploma.

I agree with Mort-Hog. Pretty much anyone can do basic technical support.

If you REALLY want to do IT, don't bother going back to school if you want to make money at it. You are much better off getting certifications from Microsoft and other companies indicating that you are an 'Expert' in their software (such as Dynamics GP or SAP). Then do freelance consulting and charge $200/hr.

Tracer: Which degree do you already have? Would continuing your education in your current field benefit you?

If I remember right, Tracer got his degree in music. And if that's the case, there's not a whole lot to be done directly with that degree.

except sexin' up the ladies at jazz clubs

off topic, but as usual, tracer I wanna hear your guitar-ing

He could teach music but I'm making the assumption that his questions are monetarily-based. If I were Tracer, I would take Mort-Hog's advice & use a little creativity to combine his knowledge of 2 different fields. It's simply a matter of determining which other field that he wants to get in to (business, technology, etc.).

Haha, no. I've got a BA in playing guitar from a really good school, but that counts for even less than a normal degree would. The only purpose to getting a masters in music is if you want to teach at the college/university level.

I'm just trying to think of ways to make more money...I currently teach private lessons, which I actually really like, but I haven't been able to get quite enough students.



I'm going to be getting on myspace in the next month or two. I do a mean thrash-metal version of the theme song from Hawaii Five-O.

Also keep in mind that "IT" has about a billion 'educated' or 'qualified' people vying for it, and with the same dozen different TLAs in the resume' all look about the same to anyone. In those cases, it's very handy to actually know people instead of just having a degree.

Most [sensible] places at least care far more about what you actually know and can do, as opposed to which pieces of paper you've got. That and everyone does things enough differently that you can learn a lot of the specific process and procedure as you go.

For example, one of my friends got a penetration testing job at a security company that "required" a CISSP and 8 years of experience, but even though she didn't have the cert she knew someone who worked there and they could vouch that she wasn't a moron.

Similarly I've been working with IBM provisioning and administrating storage area network and network attached storage for the last two and a half years without even an associates, because I interviewed with a guy I know and he knew that even though I didn't have any background specifically in the field I still had extensive applicable knowledge experience.

Even if you don't take the classes or tests, I'd recommend picking up some of the Cisco or Microsoft or + books to browse through and have for reference. There's a lot to be said in IT for knowing where to find the answer. I can't count the number of times I've had RHEL/AIX certified sysadmins call in with a problem they don't know how to do, and five minutes with google finds the commands that could have solved their issue days ago if they'd bothered to figure it out on their own. A cert doesn't mean anything unless you have brains and initiative behind it.

As to pay, it varies tremendously depending on what you're doing for whom. Even the same job at different places can be extremely different. Even within the same job, depending on the economy and profit margins IBM at least has fluctuated a couple times. I started out at 24$/h for the first year and a half, then last winter quarter they cut the entire department's rate by 16% to help them cover for settling this huge lawsuit about unpaid overtime or something, then in June finally I got a raise and promotion and am doing rather more involved work for 36$/h. Now if I went to SUN or EMC or into business for myself, I've known folks who pull 70-100, but requires a lot more to get in the door as well.

So really your mileage will vary depending on where you want to go.

Also see if you can find the season 3 episode of The IT Crowd where Jen is interviewing for a position and needs to answer the question "What does IT mean?" It is a depressingly accurate portrayal of managerial insight into our field.

P.s. See if you can't find a "paid internship" position somewhere, it won't pay you well, but should be well above minimum wage and gives you a chance to learn something on the job. The paid part is important, as a lot of internships want you to work for them just for experience, or sometimes even for some course credits.

That's one area where I figure going back to school would be helpful. Thanks for that post, Dor.

That's one thing about this area that sucks. I would love to get an internship, but there's so few out there and so many people going for these few.

Do they have a website? That sounds pretty sweet!