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

absolutly !!!
after my project release, those ppl are even trying to fit me in support roles, though i have played major role in dev of last project !!!

5.) Vendors and consultants will take all the credit when things work well and will blame you when things go wrong

Some supervisors do that too

Under #9:

"Someone stole my icons!" (look in the recycle bin)

"Someone erased all of my documents!" (this one caused by them messing with color schemes and selecting "White on White")

That happened to us years ago. It wasn't the operating system. It was an application for displaying chromatographs. I spent 2 hours mumbling and cursing before I found the problem.

I was working in a computer shop near a hospital's psych ward. I had a customer ask me about a computer and complained that the owner of the shop he used to do business with stole his video card. I built a computer for him and loaded with software he needed for his supposed business and sent him on his way. He decided to immediately format the drive and then brought it back and claimed I had stolen the video card! He THEN revealed that he was schizophrenic and had to get his appointed trustee to pay for repairs etc. I did the right thing, contacted his guardian and I said I would refund him his money and take the computer back. Which meant I had to strip down the computer and give him back some of the parts he had supplied.

Then some months later I had a call from another shop asking about if I had had someone come in claiming to have had their video card stolen etc. At least I did the right thing and told the caller the truth.

Several weeks later a woman came into the shop and wanted me to have a look at her computer. She claimed it was the video card. It booted ok and there was writing on the screen and had a directory called Kazaa. I told her it was not the video card that was stopping Windows booting. She insisted despite all the evidence that the video card didn't work, and that I fix the video card.
I wonder why I told her she was being unreasonable and I was unable to fix her computer because it wasn't the video card. I then just went on with my work and left her standing in the shop.

I left the company but I found out a client changed her last name because of me.

Everytime she called nobody wanted to answer the phone. Everytime she called she was red hot PO'ED. Since I was the new guy they deceided to give me the phone next time she callls.

Not even picking up the phone looking at her caller ID I could see why she acted like she did as if she was holding whip as she spoke to the helpdesk. YOU WILL DO IT MY WAY THE FIRST TIME & EVERYTIME!

I am new here so I do not deserve this as I do not have history with her so no need for her to be 100% ballistic with me.

So I pick up the phone and do not even welcome her but told her off.

But with a last name like that! no wonder in life she was never treated serious or given proper treatment.
Sometimes it is not the helpdesks fault at all but how one is treated in life.

You wonder what kind of last name would turn such a woman into a devil on the phone?

Her last name that she changed was "COMEDY"

I felt sorry for her but even I was abused and I left before she could rip a hole in me.

When a position is open, they interview to find the best and choose you. Once hired, you become one of the idiots that works there and a consultant must be hired, because they know what really goes on!

The job of any consultant (if they are any good) is to get the next contract, not do the work they have been hired for.

The first thing they can do is determine if the job is feasible in the time-frame and budget available.

If it is they work on getting hired for the next project.

If the job is not feasible they find other work elsewhere in the last 1/3 of the project, or if they are truly stuck with a dog they poach staff from anywhere and cut the project goals until it's achievable.

Remember - A project is successful if it is delivered on time and on budget, regardless of whether it fulfills the goals of the project or not.

Note: it's almost unheard of for a IT project to be feasible in the time frame available...

P.S. This is direct from a friend of mine who is an IT consultant... A VERY good IT consultant... but not a very happy one...

I was tired of being the scapegoat/workhorse/disposable worker/go-fer.

a good consultant is an expensive *****, and it is the businesses that created that environment.

If you are a good worker, you are a bad consultant because you will end up unemployed.

Consulting is about selling solutions. Consultants find 'good workers' to implement solutions while they are busy selling new solutions to current or prospective clients. As long as you can be honest with yourself, your staff and your clients about this, you can be happy in the business. Otherwise, you will be miserable.

You'll be told during the interview process that you'll get to train for your certifications between projects and the company will pay for them. What you won't be told is that when there are no projects they will let you go and any certifications they want you to get you'll have to do after hours without extra pay or comp time.

All jobs are like that, I believe: I work occasionally as a dental nurse to supplement my earnings. A new regulation demands that all nurses must be trained and registered, which makes sense - we are dealing with infections and blood here - but my boss wants me to a) pay for the course myself (three month's gross salary) and b)deduct a whole day's pay when I'm attending compulsory class - most studying is done at own time.

So far I have done dozens of hours of overtime, but have I ever got any extra pay? Tomorrow is Saturday, yet there is no chance I'll get paid weekend rates... If I did the course, I would end up doing the scaling and polishing that the dentist does now - but I would hardly get a pay rise.

We deal with 60-70 patients a day, including dental surgery, and my job is to aid the dentist (this includes the usual mixing impressions and fillings, developing X-rays, clearing water and blood out of mouth and making patient comfortable, setting up machines for RCT, measuring the length of files, etc), disinfect instruments immediately afterwards, put desinfected instruments back, chase lab for dentures, find the next person's record and log in payments and dental charting and update stock. All has to be done during the 10 minutes of each patient's visit. I also take over if the receptionist needs to go to go away from the desk - so I also need to deal with bookings, money and inputting new patients into software as well as creating manual record. At the end of the day I file patient cards, wipe surfaces with disinfectant, oil had pieces, empty bins, vacuum surgery, waiting room and hallway and wash the floor. There is no coffee breaks and no time for even a cup of water and you go to the toilet during your lunch break (often reduced because of difficult case or patient being late) or not at all. If lab or supplier is expected during lunch time, I will have to sit at the reception and eat my lunch there without anyone seeing.

The dentist claims that he could do all my work AS WELL AS his own (I'd like to see it!) and the only reason he needs me is as chaperon with female patients... So, aside treating me as an idiot because I'm a woman (he is a Muslim) my job really is worthless and I am waste of money.

When I created a simple Excel sheet for stock control and a flat database for DNA (did not attend) patients, he claimed I messed up the bluetooth connection between the reception and surgery computers; no way he would believe I could understand anything about computers. (I tried to tell him that I only studied computing for three years, but it should be enough to know Office applications don't cause downtime. I even downloaded a free spyware remover, without shortcuts - a year later he still hasn't found it.) The surgery is about to get another dentist and I've been asked to join the establishment on permanent basis.. I do like my work but I am a bit thin skinned about the downgrading attitude towards my skills: somehow I don't think I'll say "yes".

I don't mean to be a computer snob but I'd really be questioning a place where the office network was connected by bluetooth; Good for phones, good for cameras, good for PDA and good for sharing a file quickly but it's a temporary connection. It's also a completely unsecured connection for anyone that takes five minutes to find the free tools.

If the circumstances ever worked out just right, I'd think it would be fun to just show up to a meeting with the staffers in the office. Say, when you where doing a little presentation or demonstrating a potential IT change they could make. Come in with a notebook, let it boot up a Linux distro with all the init messages showing ending in a gorgeous GUI login. Then while your chatting, let Windows (being the OS on the office machines they have) boot in it's own window as you continue to get a few other programs ready. Keep the conversation non-technical and just let the tech stuff put on it's show in the background. (I always wanted to do similar in university with *nix on a laptop booting then loading Windows under emulation while the machine was plugged into the projector.)

Of course, the more satisfying presentation would be to get everyone in for a meeting, start with a cold notebook, boot into a Linux distro and start displaying bluetooth and wifi packets on the screen in the time it takes everybody to get sat down and ready. "oh, by the way, I'm here to talk about our computer security. Here is our bluetooth network data which anyone walking down the sidewalk outside can see. Here I'm connecting into the office computers hard drives, there's the client files right there, which anyone walking down the sidewalk can see. Here is an audit of each of your cell phones cracked through bluetooth." Then you hit enter at another waiting terminal prompt and broadcast a Hello World message to each phone without having paired your notebook to any of them. "oh, and here are my technical certifications and qualifications."

Where you go from there would be up to you being that the harder part is initial setting up the meeting.

If you really wanted to make an eyebrow or two raise end with; "oh.. nearly forgot, Dr. , your wifi router at home is named with WEP key . Here are the steps to change it. I printed you a copy of the manual. I had to identify the make and model form the radio's MAC but I think that's the right one."

bahahaha.. oh that would be a fun, fun day provided you knew them at least well enough that they'd not take to the legal response frequently chosen in these new paranoid times we live in.

Damone you really highlighted the key issues.
MOTHER OF ALL PURPOSE..
GOOD LUCK VICTIMS!!

SSDD,DSDD

Do you agree that ?The key to product integrity is leadership?? Are there dirty little secrets about working in (IT) with it? Why or why not?

You really nailed it. Well done!!!

A couple things of resent discussions that I can add are as follows.

11. Your job can get Out sourced. It can be sent over seas or to a local contractor and can be filled by someone here on a VISA. Typically they don't do that to other highly skilled White collar jobs.

12. Some companies have full time permanent positions but wont fill them with direct hires and instead will have them filled by a contractor. You will typically find that they wont do that with any other position.

13. If the companies technology needs change and you don't have experience with the new stuff instead of having you trained they can replace you with someone who does.

14. You may find that your company will have a non IT person heading the IT department. Where do you begin with that one? Once again typically they wont do that with any other department.

15. Both users and there supervisors don't think that they need to concern themselves with learning the goings on with the IT stuff (to have a good user understanding) because that is what we are here for. Lacking a good user understanding and because of that having problems, those problems that they have made a conscious informed decision to have are often the source of their complaints about us.

16. Users playing with the equipment such as changing settings for anything. Surfing and causing network slow downs and getting stuff like pop ups, viruses and other Internet nasties, causing their PC to lockup and so on and then proclaiming the victim status. More over when their supervisor backs them up and claims that with computers malfunctioning they just can't run the office in that environment and serve the "CUSTOMERS" the way the "CUSTOMERS" deserve. They wrap the customers around their own neglect, violation of policy and general incompetence like a bullet proof shield.

17. Typically IT (both equipment and people) is viewed as an expense. Even if IT generates more sales then the sales and marketing departments.

18. The general group think that they don't need to spend money on retraining IT people. We should just simply be all knowing. Also, if they train us we will just leave for a better job.

19. Being a perpetual employee. You are often on call 60/60/24/365 and work many hours of FREE Overtime. You are on salary.

20. You will find out that many supervisor jobs where you work pay as much or more then your job even although they only have a fraction of the intellectual demand and general workload you have and may never work overtime and have plenty of staff. Hey your just that geek that works on those #$%@& computers.

Kind of implies they know that they are not providing pay/working environment/both that corresponds to the position.

Or is that just my cynicsim?

It really makes you stop and think. I have heard that at several companies.

I saw this on a show called the IT crowd, I was laughing untill i realised that it was hapenning to my department. One day an (IT)manager gets hired, can't format a floppy or copy a file (from a floppy to folder on the network), can't stay focused for more than 6 minutes, poor time management skills and ignores IT policies. One does not have to be a guru to be an efective IT manager, but who keeps hiring these people!?! basic computer literacy? "Working in a UNIX environment" may look good on paper but if the interviewer has no idea to what level, whats the fricking point! if all their knowledge is about 4 scripts and some jargon, then that department is doomed.

"We were looking for you..."

Of course, as luck would have it, the conference rooms in the office are located right by the office entrance. So, just when you walk in people can see that you are there...

Yeah, that's always a bad sign.

I thought you were going to say, "The computers are down" (but that's only four words).

an Iphone - can you set it up?

I hear that almost everyday before I even make it to my office, which is only ten feet from the front door. Words that usually follow that are "the server is down", "I can't send email", "my computer is slow", or "I think I accidentally clicked something I shouldn't have." This, on top of the fact that I'm the lone person for any IT support on phones, computers, servers, or network at all, makes for a wonderful start to my day.

Wow--I never stopped to think that there are other poor souls out there who live this type of life. This is my morning, every morning. I never get to my desk without someone grabbing at me. I decided to change my hours (for the company's benefit, of course) to 6:30 AM to 3:00 PM. I still can't make it to my desk or reboot the servers--either someone is here already and grabbing at me or they are VPNed in from home! I GIVE UP!

"Kiss me before you screw me."

I always answer the first person to say this with, "Hi, Bob, how was your weekend? The kids?" it takes them out of the ooh, the IT guy's here mode and makes them engage you as a person.

I have been doing IT for the last two companies I worked for and have had a few interns. Your article is dead on. And being an OLD hand at it, I agree completely.

I agree with most of those points especially these ones:

1. Any system outage or problem is your fault:

I absolutely hate the question, "Are you doing something to the system?" as if I receive a weird sexual pleasure from impeding their work. I just got off the phone with a doctor that told me, "The Internet connection and E-mail were working fine until you installed that new Internet connection two weeks ago." Really? Why am I just hearing about it now (didn't ask him that)? So I promptly got into his system remotely to prove that the Internet was working. Turns out that their domain controller (also a DNS server) went down over the weekend. By powering it back on, it worked fine.

2. Every problem, no matter how minor, is too important to sumbit through the Help Desk System.

The reason we installed the Help Desk system is to manage and prioritize trouble tickets, yet I still get phone messages, sticky notes on my door and knocks on my door for trivial stuff like accessing a certain website, converting Word Perfect Documents and transferring baby pictures from their digital camera to their work computer. If I tell them to submit it to the Help Desk system, I still lose because it looks like I don't want to help them.

Ever get a call and the caller's first words are: "Why is my computer......" or "Why is ....... happening?"

They haven't described the problem yet. You have no idea what the symptoms are, yet over the phone you are supposed to know exactly why they are experiencing problem X.

Being in the IT field for the last 12 years I have been asked that a million times, even by my family.

I often ask them in response if they would just pickup the phone and ask their doctor why does their throat hurt, etc without him examining them first.

I get calls every day like this. They never think to explain any further than "I Can't Print". OK, from what app, to what printer???

How about "My computer is slow". They never bother to tell you that they are running a 2550 page report.

My favorite is "My email doesn't work". Out of the 1,5000 symptoms they could describe, that is all they can offer?

I think any good IT course should include a Mind Readers 101 course. I learned the hard way, but I am certainly qualified to teach this course!

a weird sexual pleasure from impeding people's work via their computers??? Why else does one go into IT?

2. Absolutely true!! And even if they know 2 or more weeks before someone new is starting in their department, it is entirely too much to ask of a manager to submit a request for access (network account, email account, systems passwords, etc) until the day the new person shows up. And then of course they have to have it all done RIGHT NOW because said new person can't begin training until they have access.

Or work for the same company...

"Hey, we have a new employee starting tomorrow...I need you to set up a computer and phone system so she can access the network..."

And since my name is "Dell", I'll just draw the machine out of thin air...Maybe other people on the board have warehouses just for this type of request...Anyone?

I do support on SAP systems and sometimes users just send me an e-mail with only theri username in the message body, no subject, and I must decrypt what this person wants.

"deriving weird sexual pleasure from impeding peoples work via their computers" to the official IT job descriptions at my office.

However, I lament that I shall have to replace the cute college graduate I recently hired as he isn't quite deviant enough in this regard...

(LMAO! "Why else does one go into IT?")

(BTW-- Only another techno-gyrl would appreciate such humour! Thanks for that !)

That was one of the reasons I left my prior job. The CIO instituted a Help Desk system for the benefit of all; users AND IT to be able to organize support requests. But as you pointed out, many users simply felt their needs were too important to have to bother dealing with that. I would be approached in the cafeteria, in the men's room, and in the hallways with computer questions, and no matter how many times I politely asked users to go through the Help Desk, some of them continued to blatantly ignore that. I stopped going to company parties because I would inevitably be accosted by users seeking home PC advice (one in particular wanted me to lay out full, complex details on how she could hook some Macs into her home network and share files. I guess I was seen as a walking, breathing encyclopedia!). I did manage to make a few bucks off the nicer ones by fixing their systems for them for a fee, so that was OK, but I would also be looked at with shock by some users if I suggested they could pay me to fix their PCs - as if *I* was the one trying to take advantage of *them!*

Finally it came to a head with one user who stomped into my office one morning complaining about some Excel problem. Whatever I was doing at the moment was, of course, totally inconsequential to her. When I simply looked at her and asked "Did you call the Help Desk?" she stormed out swearing, ran to management, and complained I was rude to her. The IT Director came down and gave me a lecture on how "We're here to help our customers." I pointed out the Help Desk system was instituted BY management FOR our customers, and I was merely reminding her of the rules that were in place, to no avail. It was clear his only concern was not being made to look bad in front of other managers by having one of his employees act "inappropriately."

I was gone a month later. Went to a company with smarter users, better pay, a shorter commute and a lot of fun company parties.

Ah, we have those. Basically, you are invited to go someplace that you have to pay to enter, see the same people you see all day long at work, with the added benefit of meeting their kids, too.

No thanks.

Maybe there ought to be a city-wide, cross-company IT party. Then we'd have something to relate to.

I would like a job with smarter users, better pay, a shorter commute and more fun at parties! Any openings???

I can so relate to your post. I am accosted in places I would never dream of. I get requests while going to the bathroom (and I mean I am literally going to the bathroom at the time!), while eating lunch in our lunchroom, while attending our company Christmas party, while home on vacation (you gotta love cell phones and Blackberries), or while recovering from major surgery. Nothing is sacred anymore!

Since I am the IT Manager of 1 employee (myself), I instituted a help desk policy also--no requests outside of email, which of course would benefit them also, as I wouldn't forget between the time I wiped my *** and got back to my desk. This worked for a week and quickly went back to verbal requests in all the wrong places.

I give up...

I used to regularly get calls from users bypassing the help desk. Of course all the help desk ever did was log the problem and pass it to someone else. And human nature is to call whoever salved your last problem (regardless of what field). I would just ask the user if they had called the help desk, and if the answer was No, tell them to 1) slap their wrists, and 2) promise never to do it again. Then I would try to solve their problem.

My biggest problem with help desks is that it is not in their best interests to actually fix the problems. They are judged by the number of calls they get. If someone actually FIXED the root problem, that might eliminate 100 calls. I think that we all know what would happen in an organization where the help desk had actually fixed the problems, and got only a few calls a day. Most of the staff would be history.

IT builds systems fed by humans, operated by humans, misunderstood by humans, and with the intention of serving some human-oriented purpose. The most essential problems in IT are positioning the box and the software in a human network, and understanding how people will use it.

A good background in Russian literature is more useful in real IT problems than any fistful of certifications. If you want to work with genuine technical problems that don't have a personality element, stick to automotive engine repair.

I have found very ?handy? to have education for kindergarten teacher and 15 years work experience with children before starting at pc support. I don?t mind that people ask me same things over and over again because I have used to repeat everything once again?But sometimes I feel that kids learn really fast

If only it were that simple! All aspects of automotive repair involve morons who are barely capable of turning the key in the first place, let alone understanding the explanation given when they ask what is wrong with their . Sound familiar? Next they whine and complain about the cost of the fix, seeming to think that mechanics **** specialty tools out of our butts. Sound familiar? It is of great amusement to see how much the complaints I have seen in this thread are identical to problems I have dealt with as a mechanic, and with the advent of more and more computing power being included in modern vehicles, it is only going to get worse.

Sometimes getting a new manager can be damaging or even deadly to your career. Especially if it is someone that used to be a co-worker! A good analogy is what happens when a new male lion takes over a pride. The first thing they do is kill all the existing offspring, and start making their own. If your project or function is one of those killed...
When the layoffs are coming, you have a new manager, and you haven't brown-nosed as much as the other guy, you may be the one to get the ax!

I've seen much the same happen in other departments.

James

I'm not an IT guy, but rather an electrical engineer, but I get the same treatment.
Will you fix my computer? My TV? My stereo? Everybody expects you to do it for free, or for a measly pittance. I just tell people I don't do repairs anymore.
Apparently all technical professionals have the same expectations laid on them.
Good luck to the rest of you!

I'm a network administrator but have repaired shredders, radios, pencil sharpeners, power outlets, put together and moved tables, chairs and cabinets. Built Databases and am an expert user on all programs we use. All without any offical training.

You job dose not create value for the company it is an expense. Unless you work for IBM, value added and IT are mutually exclusive. The IT job might reduce expense but still your job most likely does not generate profit.

that's one of the best ways to make the case for how IT generates profit.

until they let their IT people go and things start collapsing.

Dow Jones did that in spades, which is why Rupert Murdoch was able to waltz in and buy it.

that IT is tangible expense and an intangible revenue. It's easier for the bean counters to measure a tangible expense, but next to impossible for them to measure an intangible revenue. Accountants like concrete calculable numbers and not statistical estimates.

Things like service fall by the wayside.

Good service translates into increased revenue, but the beancounters don't see that either....