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Some folks thing the key to getting more time off is being a manager, I can see that but in many cases being an IT manager may require you to do 2-3x more work than your subordinates.
Another cause of losing time is that you've asked for more money and the only way a firm can justify that is to give you more responsibilities. Job security also creates more work, if you thought that by adding more job securing responsibilities you're gonna be hanging around for a long time. That's exactly what you've asked for which is more of your time is required.
Definitely agree on the manager thing. The other risk of that is that you remove yourself one level from the gruntwork, which means less stress but also less job security. I saw one of my former managers basically delegate himself out of a job - he was an admin who worked to become a manager so he wouldn't have to deal with the stressful admin stuff, then created an under manager position to handle some of the stressful management stuff...and then when the company needed to streamline, guess who got laid off?
Right now I'm a FT mom but one of the other exit strategies I was considering besides getting into coding (which I understand comes with its own headaches) was getting into security auditing and analysis. After helping gather documentation for audits all of those years it seemed clear that a lot of the auditors didn't have technical knowledge - it seemed a good path (though again with its own stresses)
Another exit strategy my coworkers and I joked about was getting into consulting...It always seemed like our managers paid a whole lot more attention and money to the IT people they hired as consultants.
When I was a contractor... I was almost never called after hours.
A week after I became a benefited employee... I was handed a pager and told I'm first call 24/7 and had to let anyone know when I would be delayed in physically coming in.
I had 28' Pearson Sailboat on San Francisco Bay that I ended up selling because without fail, I would be out on the Bay and a crisis would erupt.
^^^Yep^^^^! Birthdays,mothers day,well pretty much any holiday and most nights I could expect to at least get a call if not go in.
I was working from home overnight up to 1hr before my wedding(municipal judge). I wanted to fix the production problem thought and everyone was a bit embarrassed. I just spoke to my wife about it and she said she was kind of proud of me and my role with the businesses. Shes japanese and job as #1 is part of their culture. Its not in mine, but I'm compelled to be as dependable as I can be. I'm not yet tired of IT. I probably have another 20years in me if given the chance
This isn't exclusive to IT personnel. I started working in the strategic planning department of a Fortune 100 company in the early 1980s. I wasn't there for six months and I was seeing a doctor with chest pains and heart palpitations. Most of us worked closer to 80 hours a week than 40. We traveled constantly, nobody took sick days. Since I had just started I only had two weeks vacation per year and I couldn't even take it over holidays because as low person on the totem pole, I had to cover the office then, as someone always had to be there in case of a corporate emergency.
I'm not saying IT workers aren't abused, I'm just saying it's been going on in many fields as long as I've been employed in the big leagues. THIS IS WHY WORKERS FOUGHT TO HAVE UNIONS. Owners will take advantage of labor any chance they get. And in this economy there are more of you where you came from. But what is it that tells me many people in your field side with owners rather than workers when it comes to choosing a government that would be in a position to curb corporate greed?
As I've posted before, there are plenty of IT jobs that you don't have to work long hours. It really depends on the company and the line of work.
Say you work in support and off hour coverage is required. There should be a rotation and a proper escalation process.
Some folks thing the key to getting more time off is being a manager, I can see that but in many cases being an IT manager may require you to do 2-3x more work than your subordinates.
Another cause of losing time is that you've asked for more money and the only way a firm can justify that is to give you more responsibilities. Job security also creates more work, if you thought that by adding more job securing responsibilities you're gonna be hanging around for a long time. That's exactly what you've asked for which is more of your time is required.
Exactly. You may or may not actually be doing the work as a manager, but you are ultimately responsible for the results. This can have its own headaches. When a network issue occurs, the network folks gets called; when there's an application, issue the server/application folks gets called, when there's a security issue, the security folks gets called. When any of those folks gets called, the manager these groups report to gets called as well. One of the hardest things about being a manger is having that accountability and having to trust others to execute your plan.
Personally - I've been working in IT for over 17 years. And while the roles I've served were all considered 24/7/365, I've never ever felt the job was intruding into my personal life. I think it has more to do with the organization and one's own personality than the job. I've seen people that complained about always being called etc. But when you try to help them out, you find out they're simply not willing share the responsibility. Be it a feeling of job security or a lack of trust to be able to hand their "baby" off to someone else. On the other hand, some organizations simply don't have the resource (or feel the need) to establish a contingency plan to lessen that intrusion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tribechamy
Right now I'm a FT mom but one of the other exit strategies I was considering besides getting into coding (which I understand comes with its own headaches) was getting into security auditing and analysis. After helping gather documentation for audits all of those years it seemed clear that a lot of the auditors didn't have technical knowledge - it seemed a good path (though again with its own stresses)
Another exit strategy my coworkers and I joked about was getting into consulting...It always seemed like our managers paid a whole lot more attention and money to the IT people they hired as consultants.
Auditing is extremely tedious. And you're sort of stuck in the middle - you find gaps, but you can't really tell them how to fix it. And besides, who likes auditors . How much of a pain is it to just gather all the documentation requested? Now imagine having to go through all of it without the context that an internal staff may have. And the type of audit will dictate the necessary skill level. I work for a consulting firm that support Federal programs (FISMA audits, C&A, risk assessments, etc.). And while you may no longer be standing up servers and configuring firewalls, you're still going to need to know how that's done to determine if the controls are adequate or the necessary processes were followed. Of course, auditing is a business function - so it's definitely more about business processes than it is about technical toys.
As for consulting - I can only speak for management consulting (Deloitte, PwC, BAH etc.). You may not work overtime for the client. But you'll certainly be for your own firm. In addition to your billable hours, it's very common to have to put in time for proposal/business development, community service, internal capabilities etc.
Ive got a buddy in IT that manages servers and such. Ive never seen more ridiculous working hours. He frequently has to work overnight to take them down and do whatever technical stuff they do. Holidays, weekends, nights....no thanks.
Definitely agree on the manager thing. The other risk of that is that you remove yourself one level from the gruntwork, which means less stress but also less job security. I saw one of my former managers basically delegate himself out of a job - he was an admin who worked to become a manager so he wouldn't have to deal with the stressful admin stuff, then created an under manager position to handle some of the stressful management stuff...and then when the company needed to streamline, guess who got laid off?
Right now I'm a FT mom but one of the other exit strategies I was considering besides getting into coding (which I understand comes with its own headaches) was getting into security auditing and analysis. After helping gather documentation for audits all of those years it seemed clear that a lot of the auditors didn't have technical knowledge - it seemed a good path (though again with its own stresses)
Another exit strategy my coworkers and I joked about was getting into consulting...It always seemed like our managers paid a whole lot more attention and money to the IT people they hired as consultants.
Getting into coding may seem pretty easy from the outset, but it has proven extremely difficult for me. I'm currently a sysadmin at a small company and here, once a sysadmin, always a sysadmin. I've tried my darndest to get into code. Even with additional schooling and spending a large portion (>90%) of my time learning code on my own time, I've had little success finding a software dev gig.
Being a system admin is one of the most thankless jobs in IT. And I feel STUCK.
Ive got a buddy in IT that manages servers and such. Ive never seen more ridiculous working hours. He frequently has to work overnight to take them down and do whatever technical stuff they do. Holidays, weekends, nights....no thanks.
What did he expect? You're required to be in office with everyone else to ensure everything is running and you can't do any real maintenance work until people are off work.
This is the one area that I think he should come in as a consultant and not as a perm so you're compensated for those off hours.
Most companies use consultants to come in and build stuff and keep the in-house staff around at night to push or move stuff.
Getting into coding may seem pretty easy from the outset, but it has proven extremely difficult for me. I'm currently a sysadmin at a small company and here, once a sysadmin, always a sysadmin. I've tried my darndest to get into code. Even with additional schooling and spending a large portion (>90%) of my time learning code on my own time, I've had little success finding a software dev gig.
Being a system admin is one of the most thankless jobs in IT. And I feel STUCK.
Shoot for Spotfire, BusinessObjects and the likes, admin slash dev (data analysts). Then get into analytics (more advance SQLing). You can even probably start producing sysadmin stat reports now
I dont get 'learning how to code'. IMO crossword puzzles are harder its just a trivial game
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. How much of a pain is it to just gather all the documentation requested? Now imagine having to go through all of it without the context that an internal staff may have. And the type of audit will dictate the necessary skill level. I work for a consulting firm that support Federal programs (FISMA audits, C&A, risk assessments, etc.). And while you may no longer be standing up servers and configuring firewalls, you're still going to need to know how that's done to determine if the controls are adequate or the necessary processes were followed. Of course, auditing is a business function - so it's definitely more about business processes than it is about technical toys. 
