why do IT workers deserve 6 figs?

[Formerly known as...]

They probably are paid well because they have to maintain the stability of the network, have to resolve issues quickly, and there probably just aren't a ton of them out there.

Or at least, there may not be enough good ones.

Plus, a lot of IT people work long hours.
When we migrated to Windows 7 this year, I think those guys worked like 20 hours straight.

Only just migrated to Windows 7?

 

[ElectroMan]

Only just migrated to Windows 7?

Windows XP fo life

 

[semtex]

OP's ArrayList of bytches is empty :barkley:

 

[GoPro]

Ill let you know when I get there

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Okay breh. I don't know why people think corporations will try to cut, automate, outsource every field and division EXCEPT theirs. You really think they're paying you because they want to? Technology is moving at a fast pace breh. Sure, you'll always need programmers but will you need as many and will they need to be paid as much is the question.

What exactly are you basing this on?

 

[McTwerk]

Your getMoney() method is hardcoded to return null and

 

[How Sway?]

its more complicated than it looks. Som IT areas pay alot less though. Like help desk for example

 

[Regular Developer]

I think the main reason why IT folks get paid is because of their problem solving skills. Its pretty much a form of engineering. The part of IT that currently isn't automated is the translation of business requirements to actual code. Each new level of languages and tools are just building on top of older infrastructure so that the most common requirements can be generated by computer. We're not at a place where any random person with requirements can generate exactly what they need.

For older people that make money in IT and don't learn new technologies are in a predicament where the company is using some archaic system (Mainframe, Cobol, smh) that noone these days is learning. Or at least that's what I've seen.

But hey, if my job becomes automated and my IT skills become automated, I can always become a barber, or a farmer or something. I'll be fine either way.

 

[How Sway?]

@bdizzle come school the OP bout that cert-life

 

[McTwerk]

Not all IT fields are that good paying.

Unless you are in programming or Network engineering..which are 2 of the hardest field you will not make 6 figs

We be eating pretty well in the Security sector breh

 

[meth68]

They're lazy and site on their ass and browse the web all day and the old ass baby boomers aren't tech savvy enough to say shyt.

Because we can spell simple words like "sit"

I had my Networking instructor once tell me, The main goal of an IT manager, Network Admin, System Admin is to sit at your desk with your feet up. That is a sign that you are doing your job well. The ones running around like a psycho obviously don't have it under control. We are paid to fix things once broken, not to pretend being busy all day.

And don't confuse an old head that looks lazy in the IT world, with some young ass kid who is a geek with stats, specs and technical terms. When all hell breaks loose, you want the guy that's been there before and just gets it resolved. I have hired many jr sys admins under me that are young kids with amazing looking resumes, certs out the ass and seem very knowledgeable when you speak to them. They rarely last.

The smarter these kids get, the less they want to work. Most old school IT guys work more hours the 2 of these young bucks would work a week. Feet up 1 day, next day putting in 16 hours of extremely stressful work resolving important issues... no one talks about those days though.


@McTwerk security sector is where it's at now. I wish i shifted focus that route long ago actually. I went 1 way my best friend went the security route, I can't complain but, hes eating much better then me these days and much easier days for him

 

[Panther]

The notion of someone "deserving" a certain wage (above live-able) is stupid

 

[Regular Developer]

The notion of someone "deserving" a certain wage (above live-able) is stupid

True, but after a certain point its really just supply and demand. Its just how Capitalism works. Company has a need for a person with skills A,B, and C. They look and only find a handful of people with those skills. Then out of them, how many of them don't already have jobs? Now out of what's left, you're competing with 10 other companies looking for those skills, or maybe one of those skills. How do you persuade any one of those prospects to take a position at your company vs a competitor's?

 

[Data-Hawk]

Okay breh. I don't know why people think corporations will try to cut, automate, outsource every field and division EXCEPT theirs. You really think they're paying you because they want to? Technology is moving at a fast pace breh. Sure, you'll always need programmers but will you need as many and will they need to be paid as much is the question.

We just had a thread on here about IT outsourcing. Companies tried the whole outsourcing to India and are starting to bring those jobs back. I'll just link you to this thread where me and @bdizzle briefly went over it.


http://www.thecoli.com/threads/java...a-141-000-average.265448/page-2#post-10830004

Yup. http://news.dice.com/2012/02/16/outsourcing-declines/

I think Dell brought alot of their support positions back because customers couldn't understand the technicians from India. ( I myself had a terrible experience ..lol)

( The below article, I kind of figured this was happening because some of our consultants from India are charging $$$$$$ out the ass )
http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/29/mitra-india-outsourcing-tech-enter-cx_sm_0229outsource.html

http://www.cio.com/article/2395946/offshoring/outsourcing-declines--are-it-jobs-coming-back-.html
""Many organizations have been beefing up their internal organizations for several years now after outsourcing a good piece of their IT work," says Phil Fersht, founder of outsourcing analyst firm HfS Research. "In many cases, IT departments have moved out too much work that requires closer interaction with the business and an understanding of the organization's institutional processes. Many have had to feel their way in learning what balance of in-house [versus] outsourced works for them."


Hacking/cracking has always been around ( still remember the days of watching teenagers trade user/passwords around in IRC chat like pokemon cards ) only difference now is companies are being forced to step up their security. I think Home depot just lost $60 Million due to a breach. no way in hell are those positions going to be outsourced to another country. Companies are losing too much money being shamed on the news/ reissuing credit cards, contacting customers etc. way way to much to risk now.

We've been trying for over 5 years now to follow a model call " Follow the sun", where we develop code during the day and offshore pickup the workload at night. It doesn't work and those exact words came out of our CIO's mouth.


Edit: How could I forgot, the work I'm doing now. Was originally outsourced, management wasn't happy and decided to create a new department and have internal resources handle it.

Technology is only moving in a fast pace in terms of Raw computing power. Just about everything else has been thought of a long time ago, we just waited for the computing power to catch up. The biggest example is VR becoming the hot tech, Yet they were doing research on it back in the 80's/90s and its has now only become feasible because of the mobile field growing and the hardware becoming cheaper.


AI is one of the most complicated and one of the most expensive computational tasks especially in video games and even the brightest game programmers still have to cut down on AI features or have shytty frames per second. Ask any coder, We spend maybe 50 - 70% of our time coding and the rest is human interaction ( dealing with the business analyst, feature request, stupid meetings , design documents, documentation ). Imagine the cost if the software that was suppose to automate programming for you, didn't give you the desired results? and you have a deadline to get the latest feature requests in? I don't care if you are Einstein himself, you can't just throw a programmer into a large code base and say "Figure it out".LOL



I agree with you 100000%, companies would love to get rid of their IT center because IT is a cost center. It's just that we've been down this road a million times and it never fails. Every single time you introduce something , you introduce a new set of problems, no piece of software is perfect , the best coders have bugs. I mean the selling point of all our 3rd party vendors is " Buy this and we will get rid of problem x", only to find out they gave us a new problem to fix in the process.


Best example I have is, when I was working the service desk, my company spent over a million dollars on a piece of software that was suppose to help users with their passwords ( Self service if it needed to be reset , sync your passwords across all systems etc ), I was legit worried and even asked our management, will they cut down on the staff if this software works. Our call volume actually increased due to it and later we threw it out.

 

[meth68]

True, but after a certain point its really just supply and demand. Its just how Capitalism works. Company has a need for a person with skills A,B, and C. They look and only find a handful of people with those skills. Then out of them, how many of them don't already have jobs? Now out of what's left, you're competing with 10 other companies looking for those skills, or maybe one of those skills. How do you persuade any one of those prospects to take a position at your company vs a competitor's?

Exactly you got to play their game they will use against you.

Just like if there is 5 people with same skill set, they will try all 5 at an extremely low salary, hoping 1 will bite.

The key is to go job hunting while you have a job to advance, don't go when you lost a job, because any option is good at that point.

If you are making 60k and thinking you're busting your ass and under paid but then get laid off, quit or fired and are on the hunt for 6 months. A job offers you 50k you're desperate and you have to take it. You went from making 60k thinking you deserved more to now accpeting 50k, needing a 20% raise just to get back where you were a year ago...

If you have a job making 60k and feel around, you might find a company looking for someone like you for 65-70, you go back to your job say hey I might have to take this, they will either pay you (if you really do deserve it) or you jump ship.

It suck's because I like most people HATE jumping from job to job, but unless you get lucky and get a good position with a good company with great job security, you got to keep those eyes open at all times, even when you are happy with your current job.



And don't get me started on outsourcing to India... I can add some crazy stuff to that. To sum it up, is it cheaper? Yes, do you get what you pay for long term YES.. 10 Indians at a call center is half as good as a decent in house tech, and I am not exaggerating, it just comes down to how stupid/cheap your boss is.