The Unhappy World of IT Professionals 981
npistentis writes "According to an article on ZDNet.com, only 1 in 7 IT professionals rate themselves as "very happy" with their chosen profession- which stands in stark contrast to one in three hairdressers, plumbers and chefs, and one in four florists. But then again, very few plumbers have to deal with users who consistently download BonziBuddy, blindly click on suspicious email attachments and use their cd trays as cupholders." Of course, it should be noted that by and large IT professionals earn more money then most other jobs - which I suppose is once again a warning of money != happiness.
Not many professionals are happy. (Score:5, Informative)
Position Profession Vocational/Academic % Very Happy
1 Care Assistants Vocational 40%
2 Hairdressers Vocational 32%
3 Plumbers Vocational 32%
4 Chefs Vocational 30%
5 Florists Vocational 20%
6 Chartered
Engineers Professional 18%
7 Lawyers Professional 16%
8 Mechanics Vocational 14%
9 IT Specialists Professional 14%
10 Scientists/R&D Professional 14%
11 Secretaries
receptionists Vocational 13%
12 Butchers Vocational 12%
13 Builders Vocational 10%
14 Teachers Professional 8%
15 Architects Professional 8%
16 Electricians Vocational 6%
17 Accountants Professional 4%
18 Pharmacists Professional 4%
19 Media Professional 4%
20 Estate agents Professional 4%
Re:Is it just me? (Score:4, Informative)
"which stands in stark contrast to one in three hairdressers, plumbers and chefs, and one in four florists"
It's you (Score:2, Informative)
Find your glasses and re-read the story.
I find it truly amazing that anyone asking a question, even like this one, can be modded Insightful
Not true! I love my job! (Score:1, Informative)
It's gotten to the point where I don't even like dealing with most people unless absolutely necessary-- I'll walk in the house on Friday night and not leave it until it's time for work on Monday. Ah, the sweet, sweet embrace of solitude.
Re:what makes IT professionals unhappy (Score:5, Informative)
Heh. That's what all the state employees here in California thought. They're getting laid off left and right.
It's simple really (Score:3, Informative)
It appears to me that the level of job satisfaction is almost entirely dependent not on the TYPE of job, but at what company that job is being done at. For anyone in the IT industry that comes as no shock, but it was eye opening to the rest of the company.
What we found in our internal study was that IT workers feel particularly disengaged from the rest of the company. They are forced to be very task oriented ("We've decided to install XXXXX, heres how we want you to do it") which is rather disheartening for most workers in this industry. They are trained to be problem solvers, but are often left out of the decision making process and instead become highly paid installation men.. which runs almost completely counter to their personalities. As a result they feel replacable, underutilized, and bored. That's a recipe for job dissatisfaction if I've ever seen it..
What we've done is go to a more distributed problem solving model. At the highest levels (CTO/management) the problems are defined, and then commitees are formed consisting of the actual IT workers to solve those specific problems. When choosing a new customer support system, for example, we made sure that the end users (CSR's), IT network engineers, system administrators, and the customer support manager where all involved in evaluating and designing the system they wanted to put in place.
After that project was complete we found a remarkable increase in satisfaction. The simple fact of engaging these people made them feel secure in their jobs (they felt valuable), engaged, and stimulated. The project was completed in record time and the rollout was nearly flawless. It was an incredibly interesting excercise for me (a software development lead), and apparently for those involved in the design as well.
All of this is a long winded way of saying that the problem isn't IT, but those that run it. They fail to understand or utilize the value of their staffs. They force assignments on them. They treat them as disposable commidities, rather than the intellectual assets they are. This creates a job situation that is rather unpleasant for everyone involved...and management seems to be blisfully unaware that anything is wrong. Instead they complain about how hard IT workers are to manage and how they refuse to 'fit in' with the corporate culture. After all, a good marketing guy will sit there and do what he's told.. It's a severe clash of personalities, which is why you'll find much higher job satisfaction rates at technology driven companies (generally run by people with technical backgrounds).. which does beg an interesting question: "Are marketing, accounting, and other business related people more unhappy working at technology companies than at business driven companies?"
Re:6/7 IT Indians consider themselves happy (Score:2, Informative)
Are salaries really higher in IT? (Score:3, Informative)
Judging by what the dealer charges me for car repairs, the high end mechanics are getting $30-40/hour. In my area that's good money, and more than the folks in my department make.
The Washington Post had an article in the magazine a few months ago about a hair colorer in the DC area who pulls in well over 6 figures. (And blows it all on designer shoes)
You can do just fine with a blue-collar job
Re:6/7 IT Indians consider themselves happy (Score:3, Informative)
It's the non-tech guys fault... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Pharmacist 4%? (Score:2, Informative)
This was another country, another continent, but on my first visit to the USA, I met a pharmacist and he was complaining about his job too! The same complaints I found back home (physicians get all the credit, too little say).
Up until that outsourcing thing, it was a good decision.
I can tell you that pharmacy is a really really boring job. It is not a desk job, you are standing for 8 hours a day. You decipher bad handwriting by physicians, and it is almost mechanical, counting pills and putting labels, and perhaps checking drug interactions. Definitely not worth it after 5 years of hard and deep study.
You are also a retail outlet of sorts, and you have to deal with people just like a grocer or a convenient store. You are subject to various regulators, more than a normal retailers (at least in some countries). You have more liability than them too.
In may cases, you have to be open beyond 8 hours a day, and sometimes on weekends and holidays too!
At least in North America, the pharmacist does not have to man the counter for cosmetics, makeup, feminine hygiene, kids accessories, and diapers too! They have to do so in other places, since they could well be the only person in the shop!
So, I understand fully, and was happier with IT over the last 19 years. At least it challenged your brain, not moronic like the reality of being a retail pharmacist.
Now, research pharmacist is different, but how many are there?
Re:I'm happy with my job (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Time prediction on projects. (Score:3, Informative)
I would recommend:
"Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules" by Steve McConnell
"A Discipline for Software Engineering" by Humphrey
Just to name a couple. Otherwise, like in most cases in the engineering field of academia vs. The Real World, go find someone who's good at it. Find a team that gets their product out on time every time. Learn from whoever leads it.
I don't really understand your statement saying that in software you don't understand how the system works until at least the end of the design phase. I don't know of any project in any engineering discipline where this isn't true. As for not understanding until implementation, well, that certainly happens. It's still an immature field, to be sure. The idea of managing a large software project has only been around for what, 30-40 year? But there are people out there doing it, and doing it well.
Re:Programmers in IT get treated poorly (Score:3, Informative)
Well, DUH. They're not paying you to work for YOU, they're paying you to work for THEM.
In an ideal world employers would trust their programmers to research and implement the ideal solution for whatever problem comes their way, but too often they have seen bad programmers waste time dicking around with the Newest & Shiniest Toys to the detriment of timely problem solving.