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Sanity check: 10 dirty little secrets you should know about working in IT

No, you are definitely NOT wrong to ask for your price!

You are no longer employed by said company. Your ties are severed, and unless you "Owe your soul to the company store", you should have no expectation of loyalty to said company.

Think of yourself as your own company, you have to maximize your profits just like they do....

I'd Charge them dubble if it was me...

How can this be blackmailing them when there was no documentation from the beginning? They felt your knowledge was useless, so now they can see the true market value. Kudos.

They didn't hesitate to do it to you...It's time to do it back. Way to go... BomberMedic...

I worked as a salaried employee for two years at a very small company. I was the only IT employee, and the first IT professional that they had ever hired. Previous individuals in my position had all been hobbyists who had essentially volunteered to do the work. The place was a mess when I came in. During my tenure, I dramatically improved performance, stability, etc. simply by systematically working my way through all of the systems and infrastructure and fixing everything. My reward was an offer of a 1% raise. They were not paying me very much to begin with, so I gave them one chance to improve the offer. They said no and I promptly left. They hired a 20 year old who had just finished an AS and had no experience. Shortly thereafter, they called me asking me to come in and help him. I quoted a consulting fee that was about 5X more, on an hourly basis, than what they had been paying me. They hesitated for about two weeks, then called and asked how soon I could come in. I continued to work for them on a contractual basis for an additional two years until their new guy finally started to understand the job well enough to go it alone.

It is a simple reality that most senior business management either does not take the time, or lacks the capacity, to understand technical work. In this case, had they chose to make a reasonable offer that would have placed my salary close to what was the going market rate in the area, they would have saved themselves a lot of time, trouble and money.

It is not blackmail to expect to be paid what you are worth, and, if you are good at the job, it is always in the employer's interest to do so.

.

That you're "helping" businesses is good.

That you're moving them towards "outsourcing" -- BAD, VERY,VERY, BAD!!!

I can't say it loud enough or too many times. It's NOT just the outsourcing that's killing us, but that's a HUGE piece of the puzzle. If oil was a computer program, we'd have dumped it YEARS ago... as it is, computers are here to stay and we NEED to make sure our CHILDREN and GRANDCHILDREN are working in the very jobs you (sheesh!!!) are taking from them!

I am sick and tired of being told that "we" aren't being hurt by outsourcing... WE ARE!

I can name one huge example of outsourcing that SERIOUSLY backfired and it's called GATEWAY computers!

They had a good thing going in South Dakota... They opened up a building plant in Hampton, Virginia (I was a resident, but not an employee.... yet...that's coming). THOSE Gateway computers that were built in Hampton, Virginia were *hit!!! They were badly built, Gateway cut costs not only in the hardware, but didn't train their people properly in the plant (!!!!!)

NEXT! (this is totally idiotic!!!) They opened up "Gateway Country Stores" around the country. They didn't do their homework! They hired WALMART managers (oh brother!!!) to manage the stores (at least the two idiots I worked "for" were hired from Wally World) and didn't TRAIN THEM. Didn't TELL them that computers don't punch a timeclock. Gateway made them think that they could do it "by the numbers" and every single Gateway Country Store closed less than seven years from the time of opening! ALL GONE!!! I was paid all of $15.00 an hour to be the "lead tech" and then told by the Wally World brain trusts that I had to have a turn-around of AT LEAST 10 computers (repairs) in a day. That WITH customers asking questions at the counter, on the phone AND the salespeople on the floor!!! They didn't want techs, they wanted slaves. They wanted the impossible and found out too late that they indeed DID ask for too much -- not only from the techs, but also from the public who would NOT put up with bad hardware, faulty software, and just down-right bad service! The managers are now back to their Wally World jobs and the good employees who trusted Gateway have lost it all...

And it didn't end there... The "Good" computer that was a Gateway is now AN ACER!!!

So when someone says they are helping people to OUTSOURCE, you BET I get PISSED!!!

Where am I working today??? (worked for Gateway in 1999 and 2000) Making $22 an hour as a contractor. It hurt me to take the Gateway position more than helped me. I found that people don't want to hear that I worked for a company that large that seems to have sold out... so guess what dropped OFF my resume?

My goodness people! WAKE UP... SHARE THE LOVE and the TECHNO-KNOWLEDGE -- it's time to pass the knowledge down instead of thinking that if you share your job is history!

Zen.n says he works for small businesses to increase their efficiency and outsource there IT needs and you rant on about Gateway, definitely not a small business, even then.

Outsourcing is not necessarily a bad thing, particularly if it is done correctly. Besides, if compnies didn't look for expertise outside their employees ("outsource"), you couldn't be a consultant, now, could you?

You are absolutely right, Atheria. It's time to take the bad boys down. And those that don't wake up in time goes down with them...

I had a similiar experience in which I interviewed with Gateway and saw how they operated. They had the support people READING from a Manual to help customers on the phone. I answered ALL thier questions and even stated that I built my own computers after first 6 months of college and teh only wanted to pay $7.00 hr. I had far more knowledge than the 3rd level techs and they only wanted to pay that kind of $$$. I declined and while there I also saw how they operated the " assembly Line" which was a joke and saw a conveyor belt drop a couple of large boxes with parts and they picked them up and continued using them as if nothing was wrong. (Gesh) I am gald I did not go to work there and a short time later they shut-down along with all there " country stores" in the area. Acer computers are not worth the time of even expressing on paper.

I had the joy of working for Stream "supporting" Gateway products. What a laugh. Their idea of "support" was to get the customer off the phone as quickly as possible. Start them on a task and have them call back. Kept their call volume high and I imagine it looked good to the number crunchers. The answer to pretty much everything was "FFR" (FDisk, Format, Reload Operating System/Apps from the disks.)

There is nothing wrong with outsourcing, if it is done right. I've seen nightmares and I've experienced outsourcing success stories. The only IT staff that are adversely affected by IT outsourcing are the Devry 6 month IT grads. or low skilled IT. Outsourcing does not replace highly skilled (and often specialized) IT people. For instance, you cannot easily outsource a specialized SAP, Oracle, or Business Objects expert *BUT* it is not difficult to outsource any general knowledge help desk person and save a lot of money.

Going out on a limb assuming your skill level... (i.e. no offense intended) but while you were getting comfortable with your job, people in South Asia were hard at work, upgrading one IT skill after another. I suspect that there are a lot more South Asian IT people with more education than the average North American IT person and they charge less than 1/2 our rate.

I didn't see anything in that entire Gateway rant about outsourcing. Maybe Gateway did outsource (you didn't say), but that doesn't seem to have any relationship to the string of bad management decisions you listed.

That is nicely written and I agree. That is why I do not do IT for corporations. I would rather work for government, however they have contracted those positions out to these companies who are much like corporate. It is scary to work in IT nowadays.

I have worked on most every brand of retail computer doing repairs and such. Gateway is by far thee worst computer I have ever worked on. right up there with Packard Bell. almost every person I knew that had one had problems. the problems you are speaking of are not outsourcing problems, they are mis-management and poor quality control problems.

Wonderful said bro,

Pretty Damn True...it's up to us on how we deal to this kind
of situation...Have you ever heard that "Sharing is
Loving"...that's why HACKERS/CRACKERS always thrive and
survive in Real World...just think of it.

My entire job focuses around making IT efficient at every company I'm at. I do highly paid contract work, usually at 6 or 12 months at a time. I work for small businesses and work towards migrating them to better systems and outsourcing.

I do this, they love me because I save them a bundle, and they have no problems telling other companies how much I saved them in IT costs. Hence, other companies will pay me quite a pretty penny because I am only there for 6-12 months.

In otherwords, it's not necessarily a bad thing to make things so efficient that you write yourself out of a job.

by zen.nishizawa@... | 09/04/

To be honest if the outsourcing has been done correctly, there's no problems, as in the previous post no company will rip out the SAP CRM solution etc. just because they've taken you over, these systems still need supporting. I've experience of outsourcing a company and being outsourced. I can't say a bad word about it. I found the only people against it where the ones that where comfortable and didn't want change or who'd got to lazy.

Outsourcing and employing subsidised foreigners is being used by shortsighted american employers merely to reduce short term costs. From what they are posting it's rarely being managed correctly as well.

Even in the lovely UK, you can work your ass off, be very good, stick your nose right up the bosses ass and still cost three times as much as some chap from the punjab with a big smile on his face.

You are coming across as some sort of salute the logo twit.

Re number 17) There is such a thing as "coding yourself out of a job". If you make things to efficient, management might decide they don't need you any longer.

This is where you need to display your value and show how you can code other people out of their job :>

Re number 17) There is such a thing as "coding yourself
out of a job". If you make things to efficient, management
might decide they don't need you any longer.

This is where you need to display your value and show
how you can code other people out of their job :>

>Do you mean IT Pros is likely compared to a Contractor?
?? There is somehow sense here...

Ruthless!

But I'll start tomorrow...

If you do well at one project, there will be an opportunity to work on the next project. Position yourself appropriately. Don't live in the moment, plan what you are going to be doing in the next 6 months at that company, or at another. I already know what i am going to be working on 6 months and a year from now for the company I am at, and after that I will be training my replacement so that I can move somewhere else.

Take control of your career, don't just float along blissfully ignorant of where you are going, or you will be subject to the currents and eddies of life and completely out of control of your future.

Everything you post is negative, but it's not the situations that are negative, only your viewpoint. A negative attitude pushes you down, it leads to a downward spiral and you get exactly what you are expecting.

You were expecting perhaps all sweetness and light?

The point of 17 is to NOT sit on your laurels. A coworker of mine saw the writing on the wall, saw how the company treated people after fires were put out and jumped ship 1 month before the project drop-dead date.

The whole point of a cautionary article is just that, to caution people of the pitfalls of the industry.

#17 is a truism.

If you expect people to retain you or hire you because of how good you were on your LAST project, you are setting yourself up for major disappointments.

When the midwife snips the umbilical cord.

Pretending that stuff like this doesn't happen, is exactly that, a delusion.

We all have stories that go something like this:

Geek meets company. Geek is hired by company. Company has tech crisis. Geek saves the day and millions for the company. Lean times come. Geek is seen as a 'cost center item'. Geek is laid off.

We are only valuable to a company while they are in crisis.

AH-HA! I KNEW these things were more difficult than they should be for a reason....ThXs , Locrian_Lyric.

Doesn't everybody code like this?

Sub Main()
math_adder()

End Sub
Sub math_adder()

Dim xareartyasdreranhs As String
Dim poiuareantreqauard As String
Dim bnjgheioaryiqt_asd As Int16


xareartyasdreranhs = "1"
poiuareantreqauard = "1"

bnjgheioaryiqt_asd = Convert.ToInt16(xareartyasdreranhs) _
+ Convert.ToInt16(poiuareantreqauard)

MsgBox(bnjgheioaryiqt_asd)


End Sub

I recognise that code!

My advice is just re-write the same code in C#, and it will be clear as anything.

Can I charge $100 for that advice?

In my 15 years of IT from big ISPs as an admin to a consultant for a small financial firm I have hardly ever been considered a cost center. Sounds more like your personal experiences are reflecting your perception of reality. You may want to look at becoming a better communicator, or more influential speaker.

Maybe just time for a new job

Good Luck!

Having bounced around Fortune 500 companies, I can say that the "viewed as a cost center" is accurate; more so the larger the company.

Good coders are a rare thing and would be highly regarded. The ammount of time and money saved in testing alone would pay for it's self.

Every time I see a job though, it's for experienced developer with three thousand skills and goes for 24k, which wouldn't rent me half a dog kennel.

Perhaps there's some connection....

I didn't know that.This should be the most dirtiest one.

I am not just putting on rose colored glasses. But at out Catholic mens conference a few years ago, we had John Miller speak.
His book is called QBQ, question behind the question. In any situation, you turn the question around and ask yourself, what can I do? Is it possible that I too am part of the problem? What can I do to improve the situation? One thing that I think that is not only missing from IT, but society in general is personal accountability. I know, the first thing that comes to mind is that YES, I wish my co-worker or boss would read that QBQ book! But it does not work that way, IT IS ALL ABOUT YOU.

- Because your department is always understaffed, the IT person is expected to know everything. At a smaller company, this means that you have to be able to break down, to the protocol level, SMTP problems while at the same time implementing an Intranet (content and all, it appears that people don't understand that having the tool doesn't mean they can use it) and fixing that Apple notebook that the CEO insisted on buying.

- Other IT people have big egos and threaten you. There's always that person who knows more than you about something, and is more than willing to throw you under the bus to make the point to upper management.

- Some key phrases: "All of the responsibility, none of the authority..." "I told you so..." "You're in IT, we rely on you to tell us what to do..." "That's not in the budget, let's find another way to make it happen."

- Most companies expect volumes of documentation...and expect the IT person to be able to write a book with illustrations. And they expect it while you're learning a new technology, and have that deadline that is 2 weeks too short.

- You get to fix the paper jams in the fax machine.

- It is perfectly acceptable to call you on your vacation...every day. There's nothing like a constant reminder that you don't get to have decompression time.

- Once you reach a certain level of competence, your only choice to advance is to leave. Few companies are willing to move you beyond a tactical position if you didn't start in a strategic or management position in the first place.

- After a few years, burnout.

mmuskratt, you must work at the same Fortune 500 company I do... Except, all REAL decisions are made for us in NJ, then we get to deal with their VISIONS in the REAL WORLD. I think I resemble the last comment: BurnOut..

While reading this I had to check to make sure that you weren't one of my co-workers.

In most companies -- not all, it's you against them. A few years ago CDW had some great commercials that demonstrated this. YouTube on CDW and you will find them.

Prior to the largest software company purchasing a terrific company that I worked for and disrupting the lives of over 500+ dedicated employees world-wide, we had to go through the down-sizing phase to prepare for surrendering to Microsoft. When management drew straws on who would be axed next, guess who had the chore of escorting that unlucky ex-employee? You guessed it...the IT Director. When the IT Director was on vacation and didn't know to warn the IT Staff of the next round of lay-offs, guess who got the escort duties? Yep, the next in line with IT got to escort the ex-employees out of the building. It was as if management didn't have the guts/courage to do the deed.

So yes, if you work in the IT Realm, expect to live your life like the mushroom. Kept in the dark, inadequate working conditions and fed well nurtured BS.

Personal lessons learned? Don't let yourself get complacent and interview your boss before accepting the job. If the IT Director, CIO, etc, is not about education, embracing new technologies, etc., then save yourself a lot of grief and let the next sucker in line take the job. If you get stuck in a routine of digging out of a trench, you personally fall behind in your field and others will beat you to the next great job.

This post is IT reality. I couldn't agree more. I was called while on vacation in Florida in the middle of a show in Universal Studios. I was also called the day after I had major surgery! Burnout is inevitable, but unfortunately, the only other job to go to is in the same field... Sigh...

Couldn't return to the old job after burnout leave and won't be able to find a new job for a few months due to the christmas/winter job market.

I took vacation on the 4th of July on a weekend; just to make sure I finally got a day off. At 3:00 in the morning, the police were at my door to escort me to work (sirens and all) due to another emergency. So much for time off.

When you save the day, "it's your job". If something goes wrong because you're bypassed or overridden, it's because you are incompetent.

As for the individual who "never was considered a cost-center"; maybe he/she was never highly enough paid? When you are among the top 5% salaried individuals in a company, you are ALWAYS considered a cost center item. And if there's a budget crunch (the CEO cannot take his family on their 3d vacation to Europe that year), guess who gets the axe? Not the new receptionist who earns $6.00 / hour.....

- The younger new guy with the big ego trying to throw me under the bus.

- "All of the responsibility, none of the authority..."

- Expected to know everything about the company implementations of Winblows and Mac as well as Linux and networking.

- I'm stuck servicing Outhouse/Sexchange problems cause by corporate

- No chance for promotion to management (the new guy seems to be trying to get it for himself)

- Documentation that only gets criticism, not thanks - it may not be perfect, but it's lots more than was there before (i.e. nothing). No one wants to review, update or revise the docs that are there, either - just complain.

- Apparently the improvements I've made to most things over the past 4 years don't count for anything. The new guy is the wizard who will "fix" everything.

- I get to fix the paper jams in the copier/printer, change all the toner, and am expected to go around and load paper too.

- After 4 years, burnout.

And expect to pay for the retool/education on new technology yourself. Business wants you to focus on 'entitlement' not training yourself to survive.

I think having 6 months in the bank is a good idea and good advice in any industry, not just IT. But I haven't experienced much unemployment time. For the last 10 years it has been my choice to have a gap of a week or two between the end of one job and the beginning of another.

But I have heard a lot of other techs have different experiences. I think there may be a large regional factor to what you have observed.

three weeks before an IT worker in our area couldn't get a job shoveling sh*t in a stable.

but regional collapses happen. I could have moves 1000 miles away and had no problem...

In retrospect, considering my EX, I should have....

I had lots of friends in NYC who were out of work for ages after 9/11. I just happened to get lucky. When the consultancy I was working for croaked in October, I made one phone call to my favorite gig, and they just happened to have a job for me.

Yes, 9/11 was really rough on New York, not just because of the friends lost or because our skyline got rearranged, but because of the damage it did to our economy. Most people not from New York don't really know about that part. To them, 9/11 was an event on TV that could be invoked to scare people into voting for their political candidates of choice, even if the chances of any terrorism actually hitting them (e.g. terror alert level signs posted in Waycross, Georgia?? Hello??) are smaller than the chances of getting hit by lightning twice on the same day.