Exiting the IT Environment 4

[arthurliz]

Here is the premise...
All of us have done extremely well in IT world, but....
We never seem to have had the respect, possilby the power,and even the cash that comes from being the person in charge...and I don't mean in charge of IT.

Our question is this, can you exit the IT world into something else, for example finance and because you are extremly familiar with IT you become a top dog?

Here is a real life example. We know a pair of programmers who used to kill themselves writing software for securites traders. The programmers watched the traders make lots of money and toss a bone to the programmers. As we have heard it from the ex programmers, yes the bone was good and perhaps better than normal but hell if the traders made millions with the software, the programmers got thousands.
So the two guys completely quit IT pooled every nickel they had and then set up a own real live securites brokerage firm. Now they write software for themselves and make the bread based on successful trading strategies.

Anybody else quit IT and go dwon the road to fortune and perhaps eventually fame?

 

[lionelhill]

Makes you realise just how inovative and daring Lyons were when they introduced electronic computing into their payroll system (yup, when electronic meant valves).

 

[Sympology]

Here's my suggestions for jobs that we are qualified.

Police Office - Everyone moans and abuses them, until it's you that need's them.

Social Worker - Stupid hours, high stress and no thanks

Councilor - You have to listen to everyones else's problems, but no one cares about yours.

Cleaner - used to clearing up other people s***

Others,but unsure if they qualify as jobs.
Human Doormat, punchbag and scapegoat.

Rant over.....
Stu..








Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004

 

[BocaBurger]

Gee, working in tech support seems to indicate perfect qualifications for all the above :-(





BocaBurger
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The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!

 

[onoski]

So Khz, how is things with you and the evil co-worker now? Just curious as there'd always be someone like this in any work place due to their own shortcomings.

 

[kHz]

She quit. But things are not any better because she was only half the problem. The manager still exists. Hopefully the economy is improving enough that it will only persist 1-3 more months!

 

[kHz]

And get this. I would like to hear your opinions.

A couple of days ago the manager (said loosely) calls me into his office and tells me that she quit because of me. My reply was, "she was mad and was going to quit after I started and I was only here a couple of months. So she must have been mad for that entire time and that couldn't have been due to me."

He said, "well she had a problem with another guy that was here before you too."

I told him that she was my coworker that she wasn't my boss. And I told him that I didn't appreciate the way he treated his other employees, that she seemed to be the only one who mattered to him and that he was concerned about. He said "she ran roughshod over me many times too. I couldn't control her. Sometimes she would do things and say things that were wrong but it was over before I could do anything about it."

Since there are approx 60 Solaris servers plus over 40 RS/6000 servers and there isn't any division of servers and workload, I told him it would be a good idea to divide up who has which servers so there wouldn't be any duplication of work. He said he was working on it, but if he goes that route then the on-call rotation wouldn't matter anymore because whomever will always be on-call. I asked him why? Other places I have worked had a pager rotation and even though other servers were not mine, we were not repsonsible for the apps only the server OS and hardware. If there was a problem that somebody didn't know or couldn't figure out, they would call another team member. Apparently this isn't going to work for him. If I get servers 1-20 then he will distribute a phone list and if there is a problem with these servers, then I will get a call, not the on-call admin.

This is absurd. This entire fiasco has been too much. When I was at the doctor a week ago, my blood pressure has risen. Given it is still in the normal range, but it was a significant increase. I credit it to this place.

Thanks for listening.

 

[MasterRacker]

kHz, Don't let it kill you - it's just a job. Unfortunately we all have to have one.



[purple]Jeff
It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day

 

[AppStaff]

BocaBurger did you work at USR between 1990 and 1995? I worked there during that time.

 

[langleymass]

No job is worth sacrificing your mental health. I stayed with a terrible company much too long back in 2000 and 2001.

 

[BocaBurger]

I worked for USR, but not at the HQ. I was a remote access (worked out of my apt.) SE with my territory being S. Florida. I was in the "Tean Access" group. I worked until the day after 3COM bought USR and let go 1500 people, including me.

BTW, USR has just signed a contract with the Gov't's of India and China, to provide a modem for Internet access to every home in both countries. With the cash from this sale USR will be purchasing IBM and Oracle.









Please check the date of this post.





BocaBurger
<===========================||////////////////|0
The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!

 

[AppStaff]

haha! got quite a chuckle from that response boca.
I left about a year or so before the merger. I have an instinct for that type of thing I guess... like a rat deserting a sinking ship I assume. I was in the engineering services group so we probably had no contact.

 

[beanbrain]

I don't "have" to have a job. But I do like to eat.

 

[trc]

I am a web developer and there is some debate as to the quality of my work. ? The thing that blows mw away is that there are kids coming out of high school that are trained on the same software that I use and will work for half of what I do. The competition is tough in the IT industry these days especially in the web development area.

It is strange, in my experience there are people that are good at their job in IT and there are others that are not good at their IT job. Common sense would suggest that the weak would get weeded out. This is not the case. I have seen the good marginalized and the bad favored and promoted. I guess in part it depends on how you play the game.

I think the promise of fame and fortune for being in IT disappeared with the fizzle of the .com fervor. The hope of achieving fame and fortune has as well faded since and now jobs in IT are merely that, jobs.

The problem now is that there seems to be the lingering expectation of the IT industry and IT people that miracles can be done and done in unrealistic terms. To bring these terms back down to something that is realistic is at times risky and others a battle. For the most part though I think it is working itself out and will just be a matter of time until it all levels out.

In short I think the IT industry is maturing. Now the trick is the same as in every other industry, to find a way to make your fame and fortune. How to do that is easy? Easy, just find a great idea, find the right people to make it happen, find the money to get those people and keep them for the needed time and then hold your tongue just right because it really does not matter what product you have or how good it does what it is designed to do, sometimes people just will not buy it.

I am personally tired of working my ass off for less money then I want and thought that I could find in the IT industry. I have a plan for my future and part of that plan includes software. Thank god I can build it.


************
My purpose in life is to show others what not to do.
<!--Caution, dates on calendar are closer then they appear.-->

 

[BocaBurger]

There are always those who will work for less. In S. Florida, a few years ago when Novell was a mover & shaker, a CNE would get $75.00 to $125.00 per hour (US average), but you could hire as many CNEs for $35.00 to $45.00 here. My job was cleaning up the messes they left their customers in.



BocaBurger
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The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!

 

[beanbrain]

I'm not sure I can relate to "all" this talk of IT people burning out after three or so years. I personally, have been in this field or over twenty years.

I can't say that management expectations are any better or worse than they have ever been. These expectations (good or bad) just go with the IT territory. Most often they are the result of naive thinking in regards to computing technology.

Unrealistic expectations generally fall into the category of customers wanting something that was not in the original proposal / project plan. If the expectation is reasonable I can generally find a way to work the new spec. into the project. If not I tell the customer that this is an item for "Phase II."

PhaseII often never comes about. Part of the problem, I think, is that the requestor has no idea what computers and efficiently written software is capable of. They will often decide that the application needs something that is already being handled, just in a way different than the manager supposes it should be handled.

What annoys me most this last two years is that due to the dot com bubble burst and 9/11/2001 the job market pretty much dried up. In order to stay employed I had to change jobs and take an automatic 30K per year pay cut.

I'm pretty sure this is temporary, but I also worry about about overseas outsourcing.

I too have dreams of starting a business that can eventually be sold to some mega-conglomerate who will pay "too much" for my humble work. But these days I don't just limit those dreams to software. I have a lot of ideas, primarily in finding alternate uses for existing technology. What I need is a financial baker. Any takers?

With all of the above though, this is STILL the best country in which to start a business and live the dream.

 

[alexhu]

With all of the above though, this is STILL the best country in which to start a business and live the dream

And which country would that be then ?

Alex

 

[BocaBurger]

China, from what my in-laws tell me. Housing prices in Beijing & Shanghai are higher than in South Florida.



BocaBurger
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The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!

 

[beanbrain]

AlexHu:

The United States of America of course.

 

[reliancetech]

Well but if you guys look at positive part of it that IT has at least given us job. It may not make you too rich, but when you look at other contries .. like south east asia ... IT gave employement and that is important. What is happening in middle east is terrerisum is only becouse no jobs no food.

And about getting rich well i thought worlds riches person is bill gates and he earn with the help of IT.

 

[BocaBurger]

No, he got rich with the help of lawyers.

Today's first support e-mail: My developers would like to upgrade to the latest 7.5.1 version of your software to take advantage of all the new features. Can we continue to use the 3 year old discontinued Runtime environment?



BocaBurger
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The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!