10 Things You Should Know Before Working in IT

This post is an excerpt from the ReadWriteEnterprise channel, which is a resource and guide for IT managers and technologists in the Enterprise. As you're exploring solutions for your enterprise, check out this helpful ReadWriteWeb report provided for FREE courtesy of HP: The Age of Exabytes

Considering a job in IT? They have covered some of the reasons that perhaps you shouldn't and what could be done about them. But there are plenty of good reasons to consider a career in IT. For example: good pay, better than average job prospects and the chance to work with cutting edge technology. However, there are a few things you should know before you get into the industry. ZDNet's Jason Hiner has compiled a list of 10 dirty little secrets you should know about working in IT.

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Please note that Hiner's advice is for people like network administrators, IT managers, and desktop support professionals - not programmers and developers.

• The pay in IT is good compared to many other professions, but since they pay you well, they often think they own you
• It will be your fault when users make silly errors
• You will go from goat to hero and back again multiple times within any given day
• Certifications won't always help you become a better technologist, but they can help you land a better job or a pay raise
• Your nontechnical co-workers will use you as personal tech support for their home PCs
• Vendors and consultants will take all the credit when things work well and will blame you when things go wrong
• You'll spend far more time babysitting old technologies than implementing new ones
• Veteran IT professionals are often the biggest roadblock to implementing new technologies
• Some IT professionals deploy technologies that do more to consolidate their own power than to help the business
• IT pros frequently use jargon to confuse nontechnical business managers and hide the fact that they screwed up

These about right, and you can read more about each "secret" in the original article. There are two things I'd add:

• Even though you'll hear a lot about how there are "so many" IT jobs, you and your colleagues will often have trouble finding jobs. Why? Because most of those positions will demand very specific skill sets that are hard to acquire without direct experience
• Even though the pay looks good, many IT jobs are temporary contracts with no benefits. And you may go months at a time without working (see above).