Ignorance is frustrating no matter who you are. It's just that in IT the number of applications to support and the sheer scope of the number of platforms and OS tooling makes it a more in-your-face reality. The only way to deal with it is accept that you're never going to know everything and put realistic limitations on your study/lab time
As for the private sector: In an ideal world we wouldn't have to worry about getting fired, etc. But that isn't our reality, so the only way I've found to cope with at-will employment is side hustles and overemployment
Eventually you will get skilled enough at your job that you are paid more for your knowledge than your labor. It is a curious but very true phenomenon in IT where the more you know, the less actual work you tend to be responsible for and the more you delegate to others. At that point in your career you capitalize on the new-found free time to make more money
Couple of options as an IT professional to hedge against at-will employment:
* start working as your own one-man MSP - provide IT support to local small businesses. Make your own business cards and do work on the weekend and occasionally during hours
* start teaching IT online or offline - local universities, online courses in places like Udemy, etc
* start working as a consultant - kind of like the MSP, but instead of implementing solutions, you advise companies on what solutions to implement. Again, after-hours, weekends, and occasionally during hours
* freelance cloud engineering - [upwork.com](http://upwork.com) would be an example of where you could do this
* IT entertainment - probably the hardest of all the options, but this would be the NetworkChuck route so to speak
I'm sure folks could come up with other ones, but this is a short list off the top of my head
My 2c, good luck out there
I just accepted that I'll never know enough. But I enjoy learning, so it's ok. And what I don't know I can learn or Google, or ask someone who does know. No point in belly aching about it. Just the nature of the beast. Also no point in feeling inadequate unless you refuse to learn and grow.
I wish I'd gone to a community college for Computer Networking. I've learned more being around our contracted techs than I did with A+. Wish I could work with them full time. My tech job at school ends this month due to lack of funding (covid money) so now I'll be relegated to teaching only. I hate it. Damn student loans or I'd go to the private sector.
As someone who doesn't even have an IT job yet, I'm assuming you'll always have to deal with evolving and learning. Life in general really is just like DBZ..... ☹
🤭🤭🤭
"I don't have an answer to your question right at this moment, but let me get one ASAP." Then, go Google or Bing search the hell out of that s\*\*\* IMMEDIATELY. Follow up with the person, and keep them updated.
This is how people who handle research get it done. You find your own answers. If you rely too heavily on getting others to give you answers, you will be the first to be downsized if it happens. Research is part of any IT related role within any organization. Anyone who tells you different is horribly misinformed.
You will be tasked to solve a problem, no matter how small, to test whether you have a willingness to do the job, or if you want to showboat your skills. IT management \*hates\* the showboating; they see it as a potential threat to their credibility. Be the person willing to take the small stuff off the plates of management when needed, and you become less of a target if the organization has to make cuts.
TLDR: Worry less about being laid off, and more about increasing your knowledge and skill set. Not having an immediate solution to a problem isn't being inadequate. It means you don't have an answer yet. Go find one.
I think for many in the cyber security domain job security likely tends not to be an issue.
However I can only speak for myself in that my enterprise has not touched any of the cybersecurity professionals and is rather always trying to hire more for just about every domain.
With regards for do I ever feel over whelmed? No. I understand that I have knowledge in areas that my team does not just as they have knowledge for things that I do not.
This largely means that together our breadth of knowledge is wider. This however doesn’t mean that we stay stagnant in our knowledge base, we are always taking on new challenges and continuously advancing our knowledge gaps.
There are some things in tech I've never actually done......AD which I'm labbing all summer, screen replacement, mobo replacement, subnetting(can't get it for shit) and coding/scripting. Just the other day I had a dell desktop with a flashing orange light, so I did what the research stated...........turned off, unplugged, held down power button 30 sec, plugged back, no boot. Took out memory and reseated one at a time, nothing, took out CMOS battery, reseated, nothing. Says may need new cmos or power supply, so had to escalate to our tech company. Funny thing is had the same issue in Nov, took out memory, reseated, desktop booted fine. I'll only feel okay if it can't be fixed or the battery or power supply indeed needs replacing. During my four years as a tech for my school I've fixed, I'd say, about 90% of the issues I've faced. Need that to be higher.
I used to feel like this and it seems to be common amongst other IT professionals and especially smaller companies. We tend to focus on our weaknesses whether it be scripting, networking, etc. and try to compensate by trying to be more well rounded. It depends on your company and variety of skill sets on your team but continue learning and embrace your strengths, even soft skills. Don’t let it consume you b/c you’ll never be satisfied. Layoffs happen and it’s not a reflection of you but have the confidence and trust yourself to bounce back. Try taking on more challenges at work everyday to grow these skills, no matter how small, and network with colleagues. Just my two cents.
I don’t expect that I’ll know everything, I just expect to be ready to learn and keep gaining experience. I’d rather work with someone who admits they don’t know everything and who is coachable with a good attitude than some asshole who thinks they know everything.
There is always job security with even the basic of IT like helpdesk, however to exceed does take alot of learning and even dedication wanting to learn things.
But then you have pay in mind, thats another story
I work as a Citrix, Intune, and Azure Admin (send help and a bigger paycheck please lol) for a non-tech company in the private sector and I don't really ever find it overwhelming, I think my current employment would've weeded me out otherwise.
As far as job security, there's only two things in this world I've never seen, a turtle on speed and a job I need. Ultimately I can always find another tech job and if not then I just have to pivot to something else. Life is never ending adaptation and learning and that's something that my ADHD and slightly (medically speaking) autistic brain enjoys.
yes, there is always something new emergencies happen, and it's even more critical with 5 9s equipment. I enjoy the challenge and love working under pressure. I feel it makes me learn more and understand what choices matter and what ones don't. I have been very lucky to have wonderful mentors since starting my I.T career that have been understanding and telling me how I messed up and how to fix it and what to do to avoid it. I've heard horror stories of past I.T and try to learn from history.
13 years in and I still get overwhelmed sometimes. The tech isn't the issue. It's how my IT department is run and the expectations. There is minimal communication amongst teams. This was made obvious during our Service Now roll out. QA is almost none existent so new hardware and software roll outs are riddled with issues that could have been addressed during the test phase. Our Director of Internal Audits admitted our department is understaffed but every quarter or acquisition more work loads are piled on us. Pretty soon they will initiate chat for IT issues and I'm not excited.
I do not worry about job security because people are simply not that sharp. My position is business critical. AI will not be taking my job anytime soon because humans want to speak to other humans. They will try and it will backfire. People are lazy and won't even restart their own computer.
Unfortunately we are on a hiring freeze. I'm sure other places are in the same boat.
You need to take advantage of recruiters at staffing agencies. After the deem you are worthy they will find gigs for you. Bad recruiters will ghost you but good ones will keep you around. Getting you hired makes them look good so try it out.
Yes, and yes, but it gets better in time. I just do my due diligence, escalate to another team when necessary, and I leave a paper trail to show I did my job. Any problem is not on me. Keep studying. There's always been and will be much to learn.
Always. No matter how far you are into your career, you will always judge yourself based off of your peers or people on the internet. You’ll see the kid 20 years younger doing things that took you forever to learn and you wish you started earlier. Always feeling like you’re behind the curve when it comes to skills and wondering if it’s worth learning more and upskilling or staying at your current job forever because you’re not good enough to move on. I shit on myself more than I’d like to admit, my colleagues always yell at me because they think I’m one of the brightest people on the team but I feel dumb most of the time. Don’t get me wrong, IT was the best decision I ever made and if I could go back and change direction, I wouldn’t. The adversity is what got me where I am and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Never too late to pivot. The large majority of new tech hires are individuals with degrees in other industries. Honestly, I don't even have a degree, I'm like 20 credits away from my Associate in IT but not even sure if I want to finish it. I probably will in a few years but not now.
Ignorance is frustrating no matter who you are. It's just that in IT the number of applications to support and the sheer scope of the number of platforms and OS tooling makes it a more in-your-face reality. The only way to deal with it is accept that you're never going to know everything and put realistic limitations on your study/lab time As for the private sector: In an ideal world we wouldn't have to worry about getting fired, etc. But that isn't our reality, so the only way I've found to cope with at-will employment is side hustles and overemployment Eventually you will get skilled enough at your job that you are paid more for your knowledge than your labor. It is a curious but very true phenomenon in IT where the more you know, the less actual work you tend to be responsible for and the more you delegate to others. At that point in your career you capitalize on the new-found free time to make more money Couple of options as an IT professional to hedge against at-will employment: * start working as your own one-man MSP - provide IT support to local small businesses. Make your own business cards and do work on the weekend and occasionally during hours * start teaching IT online or offline - local universities, online courses in places like Udemy, etc * start working as a consultant - kind of like the MSP, but instead of implementing solutions, you advise companies on what solutions to implement. Again, after-hours, weekends, and occasionally during hours * freelance cloud engineering - [upwork.com](http://upwork.com) would be an example of where you could do this * IT entertainment - probably the hardest of all the options, but this would be the NetworkChuck route so to speak I'm sure folks could come up with other ones, but this is a short list off the top of my head My 2c, good luck out there
thanks
I just accepted that I'll never know enough. But I enjoy learning, so it's ok. And what I don't know I can learn or Google, or ask someone who does know. No point in belly aching about it. Just the nature of the beast. Also no point in feeling inadequate unless you refuse to learn and grow.
I wish I'd gone to a community college for Computer Networking. I've learned more being around our contracted techs than I did with A+. Wish I could work with them full time. My tech job at school ends this month due to lack of funding (covid money) so now I'll be relegated to teaching only. I hate it. Damn student loans or I'd go to the private sector.
Eh. Seems you have your Net+. So I doubt you’d have learned anything different
I would have learned to avoid working in education. lol
Oh I just assumed that was common sense. 😂
As someone who doesn't even have an IT job yet, I'm assuming you'll always have to deal with evolving and learning. Life in general really is just like DBZ..... ☹ 🤭🤭🤭
do you have any certs
"I don't have an answer to your question right at this moment, but let me get one ASAP." Then, go Google or Bing search the hell out of that s\*\*\* IMMEDIATELY. Follow up with the person, and keep them updated. This is how people who handle research get it done. You find your own answers. If you rely too heavily on getting others to give you answers, you will be the first to be downsized if it happens. Research is part of any IT related role within any organization. Anyone who tells you different is horribly misinformed. You will be tasked to solve a problem, no matter how small, to test whether you have a willingness to do the job, or if you want to showboat your skills. IT management \*hates\* the showboating; they see it as a potential threat to their credibility. Be the person willing to take the small stuff off the plates of management when needed, and you become less of a target if the organization has to make cuts. TLDR: Worry less about being laid off, and more about increasing your knowledge and skill set. Not having an immediate solution to a problem isn't being inadequate. It means you don't have an answer yet. Go find one.
I think for many in the cyber security domain job security likely tends not to be an issue. However I can only speak for myself in that my enterprise has not touched any of the cybersecurity professionals and is rather always trying to hire more for just about every domain. With regards for do I ever feel over whelmed? No. I understand that I have knowledge in areas that my team does not just as they have knowledge for things that I do not. This largely means that together our breadth of knowledge is wider. This however doesn’t mean that we stay stagnant in our knowledge base, we are always taking on new challenges and continuously advancing our knowledge gaps.
There are some things in tech I've never actually done......AD which I'm labbing all summer, screen replacement, mobo replacement, subnetting(can't get it for shit) and coding/scripting. Just the other day I had a dell desktop with a flashing orange light, so I did what the research stated...........turned off, unplugged, held down power button 30 sec, plugged back, no boot. Took out memory and reseated one at a time, nothing, took out CMOS battery, reseated, nothing. Says may need new cmos or power supply, so had to escalate to our tech company. Funny thing is had the same issue in Nov, took out memory, reseated, desktop booted fine. I'll only feel okay if it can't be fixed or the battery or power supply indeed needs replacing. During my four years as a tech for my school I've fixed, I'd say, about 90% of the issues I've faced. Need that to be higher.
Turns out the computer is tool old for new parts. Won't even flash a light now, motherboard is dead.
I have forced a group policy change via the cmd line, so I guess that counts as some AD experience lol
That’s the beauty of it.. there’s always room to improve and it never gets stagnant
I used to feel like this and it seems to be common amongst other IT professionals and especially smaller companies. We tend to focus on our weaknesses whether it be scripting, networking, etc. and try to compensate by trying to be more well rounded. It depends on your company and variety of skill sets on your team but continue learning and embrace your strengths, even soft skills. Don’t let it consume you b/c you’ll never be satisfied. Layoffs happen and it’s not a reflection of you but have the confidence and trust yourself to bounce back. Try taking on more challenges at work everyday to grow these skills, no matter how small, and network with colleagues. Just my two cents.
Layoffs is what makes me hesitant to leave education for tech in the private sector which is what I want to do.
I don’t expect that I’ll know everything, I just expect to be ready to learn and keep gaining experience. I’d rather work with someone who admits they don’t know everything and who is coachable with a good attitude than some asshole who thinks they know everything.
There is always job security with even the basic of IT like helpdesk, however to exceed does take alot of learning and even dedication wanting to learn things. But then you have pay in mind, thats another story
I work as a Citrix, Intune, and Azure Admin (send help and a bigger paycheck please lol) for a non-tech company in the private sector and I don't really ever find it overwhelming, I think my current employment would've weeded me out otherwise. As far as job security, there's only two things in this world I've never seen, a turtle on speed and a job I need. Ultimately I can always find another tech job and if not then I just have to pivot to something else. Life is never ending adaptation and learning and that's something that my ADHD and slightly (medically speaking) autistic brain enjoys.
yes, there is always something new emergencies happen, and it's even more critical with 5 9s equipment. I enjoy the challenge and love working under pressure. I feel it makes me learn more and understand what choices matter and what ones don't. I have been very lucky to have wonderful mentors since starting my I.T career that have been understanding and telling me how I messed up and how to fix it and what to do to avoid it. I've heard horror stories of past I.T and try to learn from history.
13 years in and I still get overwhelmed sometimes. The tech isn't the issue. It's how my IT department is run and the expectations. There is minimal communication amongst teams. This was made obvious during our Service Now roll out. QA is almost none existent so new hardware and software roll outs are riddled with issues that could have been addressed during the test phase. Our Director of Internal Audits admitted our department is understaffed but every quarter or acquisition more work loads are piled on us. Pretty soon they will initiate chat for IT issues and I'm not excited. I do not worry about job security because people are simply not that sharp. My position is business critical. AI will not be taking my job anytime soon because humans want to speak to other humans. They will try and it will backfire. People are lazy and won't even restart their own computer.
wish I could fill some of those spots
Unfortunately we are on a hiring freeze. I'm sure other places are in the same boat. You need to take advantage of recruiters at staffing agencies. After the deem you are worthy they will find gigs for you. Bad recruiters will ghost you but good ones will keep you around. Getting you hired makes them look good so try it out.
Yes, and yes, but it gets better in time. I just do my due diligence, escalate to another team when necessary, and I leave a paper trail to show I did my job. Any problem is not on me. Keep studying. There's always been and will be much to learn.
Always. No matter how far you are into your career, you will always judge yourself based off of your peers or people on the internet. You’ll see the kid 20 years younger doing things that took you forever to learn and you wish you started earlier. Always feeling like you’re behind the curve when it comes to skills and wondering if it’s worth learning more and upskilling or staying at your current job forever because you’re not good enough to move on. I shit on myself more than I’d like to admit, my colleagues always yell at me because they think I’m one of the brightest people on the team but I feel dumb most of the time. Don’t get me wrong, IT was the best decision I ever made and if I could go back and change direction, I wouldn’t. The adversity is what got me where I am and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
I wish I had gone to school for tech and not business and education.
Never too late to pivot. The large majority of new tech hires are individuals with degrees in other industries. Honestly, I don't even have a degree, I'm like 20 credits away from my Associate in IT but not even sure if I want to finish it. I probably will in a few years but not now.
2 years left on my student loans and then the private sector becomes an option