Ruminations on “Has the Glory Gone Out of Working In IT?”
A recent Ask Slashdot pondered the following:
… writes to wonder if the glory has gone out of IT… Has a more pervasive technical culture forced our IT gurus into obsolescence?
This question is unfortunately very loaded, but I’m going to step into the minefield: The only segment of IT impacted negatively by this evolution are user support staff. The image of the Helpdesk technician riding the Silver Steed of Only I Can Solve Your Problem and being lavished with riches, lovers, and their own parking spaces went the way of the dodo a long time ago… Probably about the time Yahoo! hit their stride.
In truth, the more pervasive an adept “the users” are to technology, the more “IT gurus” are needed. What has changed, is where the bar to be a “guru” is set. It used to be that anyone who could add RAM to their own computer was labelled a guru by neophytes. As IT has evolved, it has joined the ranks of other venerable classes in that your proficiency (or guru-ness) can only be measured by qualified peers. Thus impressing the luddite by showing them how they can just hit Ctrl-B to make things bold, and having them fawn all over you doesn’t count.
But it does. User support has been increasingly marginalized as the user bar has gone up, but it is still exceptionally important, and will remain so for quite some time. Ineffective user support leads to all sorts of problems within an organization, and excellent user support enables the entire organization to evolve and move forward without tripping on the little things.
The advice I give to people who have become sullen about their profession is the same that I give to everyone: Evolve your skills. If you’re surprised that the same skills you had 15…10…5 years ago aren’t getting you the love today, tough. Unless you’re a philosopher, theologian, or geologist, your skills need to evolve. You’ve chosen a profession that isn’t static: you’re not pondering the past in IT, you’re supporting the future.
