IT Employment·20,084 discussions

Are IT jobs a thing of the past?

Tags: Microsoft

So, I’m semi looking for a new job right now. I got my Bachelors in Applied Science like 15 years ago. The way the degree worked is I majored in technology and minored in business. But my major had a kind of a major and minor too. I could major in Cisco and minor in Microsoft or major in Microsoft and minor in Cisco. I majored in Cisco. But, after I graduated, I decided I didn’t really like routers and switches, so I’ve worked in the Windows server space since. I’ll admit, in my honest opinion, I think I make really good money for what I do. But, my job is going in the wrong direction and away from technology and I’m considering a change. But, I’m a little rusty on my Windows server stuff. My company doesn’t keep up with the newest and greatest OSes. I need to learn Windows servers better. But, I’ve been trying to find study material and it is getting really hard to find these days. They do have books on it. But, what I was looking for was where in college I would get a textbook and the corresponding lab manual where you could practice what you just read in the text book. Those basically don’t exist anymore. The Microsoft Official Academy Courses book series has been discontinued.

I’m now noticing that MCSE, MCTIP, and other certs they’ve had forever are being discontinued. All their new certs seem to be 100% cloud certs. A few weeks ago, I was talking to my manager telling her that I feel my position is drifting too far away from technology and I have to start turning it back towards technology because that’s what my degree is in. She tells me, well the industry is starting to go the other way and that’s the way we’re going.

I’m starting to think she’s right. Is she right? Are IT technical positions going to just fade away? Will the only technology positions be if I work at a cloud service provider because Microsoft is going to push the thin client model where everything is hosted in the cloud?

I went into a technology career because I saw it as the future. But maybe I was wrong?

Topic

They’re not wrong.

In reply to Are IT jobs a thing of the past?

Look at what folk do and it’s either with a smart phone or a web browser so old school IT has indeed changed. The cloud is just someone else’s computer but hey, servers. I don’t care if you call it a cloud or a server. Same results for me.

If you sell services on the cloud, then you use the lingo they tell you to. Me, it’s a server/service/cloud, etc.

Back to your question. There are still IT jobs but they have changed.

ok…

In reply to Are IT jobs a thing of the past?

I understand Clouds aren’t magical. There are people behind the cloud service that makes it work. But, it would seem if Microsoft, Google, and Amazon host 80% of the cloud services, I am now limited to 3 potential future employers instead of before tens of thousands around the country.

Classic IT is fading fast.

In reply to ok…

You omitted other cloud companies such as Facebook, Dropbox and so on.
Then you have the Crypto companies which are different again with hopefully a lot more security along with “wallets.”

But the old IT where you wired up the office, kept the PCs humming, reloading, finding why the network is down does seem to be shrinking so fast that it may be called imploding. There’s still a need but the pandemic accelerated the shrink.

Where is everyone else moving their poker chips to?

In reply to Are IT jobs a thing of the past?

So, if these jobs are going away, even if there are a fraction of the companies in 10 years still offering the classic IT job, they’re going to change someday too when they realize they’re missing out on what everyone else has switched to.

So, what is most people that have an IT administration background doing to prepare for tomorrow’s jobs? Are you all learning programming or something else or just looking to get out of IT altogether figuring ITs jobs days are numbered?

The PC changed too.

In reply to Where is everyone else moving their poker chips to?

Desktops roamed the offices (roamed or ruled?) So with the move to mobile and a big move to web based apps the classic IT work is smaller.

Remember I am writing about old IT work. That’s not called for as much. It’s not going away but as it shrinks there are folk that only did such work and they are going to be on the hunt for where it’s still called for.

There are plenty of IT jobs out there but the old IT work I noted so far is a fraction of the size it once was.

What is everyone’s assumption of tomorrow’s jobs?

In reply to Are IT jobs a thing of the past?

Ok, I know no one can predict the future. But, what is everyone else doing to prepare for their IT careers in 6 months or 5 years from now? What are you focusing on studying to prepare you for that?

I’m not “in” IT.

In reply to What is everyone’s assumption of tomorrow’s jobs?

I’m into embedded electronics, firmware or apps, some automation software and because of smartphones, apps for Android. The apps for smartphones are for setup, reporting and control of the embedded boards so it’s very boring stuff. Along the way we learn a lot about PCs so at the offices I’ve worked at there was almost no call for IT staff in the engineering departments.

Which means I watched as the classic IT duties shrank. But areas beyond that are still there but for those that not only knew the network area but could work on the web servers and now cloud services.

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