The Pros and Cons of the IT Industry: What You Need to Know

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What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you talk to someone and they tell you that they work in the IT field? I know, right? You probably think, Oh, you sit down behind the desk all day, you go to work clean, you come home clean, you don't get dirty. You don't work hard. Trust me. I've heard it all from relatives friends. But I'm here to let you know that there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes in the IT industry. So stay tuned. Today, I'm gonna go over some pros and cons of working in IT. So don't forget to like, subscribe, and click the notification bell.

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Welcome to debt free in it. I'm your host, Mike, this podcast is for anyone who's looking to get into it field, whether you're looking for a career change, or are you just curious and interested to learn more. So in any profession, you're gonna have good days and bad days, as an IT professional, your days can go from good to bad, in a matter of seconds in a blink of an eye. Some days, maybe chill where you don't have to do much. And then some days, me myself, I remember some days when I wouldn't even see my desk for the day, because I was out and about putting out fires. So putting out fires pretty much means you're out resolving issues, where you may have some sites down, or some sites having issues, especially if a storm or something came through, usually you have a lot of issues, then especially if you're in a networking department. So I'm gonna start off with a couple of cons that I think you need to think about, you know, before you decided you want to make that jump into it, because it's, you know, it looks, it looks good from the outside looking in there. Like I said, it's still a good field. But here's some things you need to think about. So my first con is, you have long, unusual work hours. So no matter what department you're in, and it if you're a network and you're in Server Group,

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if you're in development, usually,

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not every day, you know, you have your set schedule, whether it's eight to five or nine to six, or, you know, first shift second shift. Usually, if you're in a NOC you may be on third shift. But sometimes you will have hours that run longer, because you think of if you think about it, a lot of changes that has to be done on the network, those changes can't be done during business hours. So if you're doing a project, or if you're doing an upgrade, or if you're doing any kind of major change that may have effect the whole in the environment. So a lot of times, things like that would need to be planned out, coordinated. And then usually what happens is, you may be there when there's is least amount of people on the system as possible. So usually, that's gonna be your weekends. So on weekends, if you have a project you have to do, you have to do some reboots or something like that. Usually, like I said, it's gonna be done on the weekends where most companies are short, there's not a lot of people on the network at that time. So you don't affect as many people. So a lot of times, you may have to go into your job on the weekend to perform a certain upgrade or a configuration change. Or you may be

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you know, remote where you can do it from home. But still, you got to wake up on that weekend, and go in and make a configuration change and then hope all goes well, usually it does. But one thing about that IT field is computers sometimes have a mind of their own and it don't go as planned. You try to practice it as many times as you can, you know, before the actual changes done. But like I said, Everything doesn't always go as planned. So that's my first con. The second con is kind of piggybacking on the first one is the work home life balance. So a lot of times

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in a lot of these industries and fields, especially if you work for a company that never closes where they're open seven days a week, let's say says it's a hospital, something that never closes where you know, holidays, you're still open. So a lot of times you have what's called on call, so on call, it's pretty much after hours, let's say after five o'clock, whoever's on call, they will be the person to call if any kind of issues went down on the network or whatever department you're in, if they had issues of a user had issues, then usually the help desk or your operations team would call whoever's on call to resolve that issue. And then if the issue can't wait till the next morning, so it's a thin line between whether it's urgent or if it's something that can wait till the next morning. So if it's something that urgent usually you're gonna get

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Calm. So you could be just getting home from a long day, you get home, unpack want to unwind want to relax, all of a sudden, you're getting a phone call that Oh, such and such is down or this department can't do this, or this is going on, it's affecting the whole environment. So usually, you know, thank God for being able to work remote. So usually you might get remote in and try to resolve things. But you're still pretty much working, you're not even though you're home, you're still working. So you try to remote remote and try to resolve some things. If it's something you can't do remotely, then guess what, if you stay an hour away, I want a half away 45 minutes away, you're gonna have to get in your vehicle and drive onto that site to try to get the result, then it may be an issue where it ends up where you haven't to involve other departments. So in that case, you know, you may be on a conference call. So it could take an hour could take two, three hours could take four or five hours to get that issue resolved. So for me, that home work balance, like I said, it's not the greatest, but like I say, this is doable.

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Sometimes you may be on call and don't get called at all. So it's just something that's a toss in the air. One thing for me is I never like there just because it's the fear of not knowing, like a lot of times you don't know what the issue is until you get called. So it's almost just that point of, okay, if I go to the store, am I gonna get called. So that's one thing. Another con, like I said, that I didn't like. So moving on to the next one is you have to be a people person. So you have to be a good people person to work in it because most IT jobs is going to be some sort of support role where you're working with users who may not be as good with it, who may not know how to describe issues that's going on in it. And then also you're working with your other it co workers, so you're working with other departments in it to get things done. So a lot of times you have to be a good people person, which that may be a con for some people may not for if you're a people person that may not be a con of for me, I consider myself a people person. So it wasn't extremely hard. Once I got in and I could pick out everyone's personality, then it was made it easier for me. So you have to figure out you're working with different personalities, you have to figure out okay, what type of personality this person has. So you got to feel that out. Because you're working with project managers, you're working with other departments. And then you're working with end users, which end user with knowledge, that, if you don't know, an end user would be the person that let's say, if you work at your job, and you call into your support team that, oh, I have this computer issue, then you're what's called the end user. So you're the one that's calling me and reporting issues. So you have to work with those end users sometime. And you know, sometimes they don't have the best attitudes. So and then sometimes it's almost like pulling teeth to get the right information out of that person. So you have to be good with people, you can't be one that I will send you get aggravated and you just start cursing people out, believe me, if you do that, you will have a short career in the IT field because word spreads fast. So you won't have a good career in the IT field. So that's my third. Well, my fourth, that's my fourth con is you have to be a people person. Then my fifth and last con for the cons for this category is that tech is always changing. So there's always going to be something new coming along. One thing that was a real new for me is like I said I had a networking background. So if you've been following networking, over the past couple years, it has went from regular networking to where you have network programmability, where you're able to program and write scripts for a lot of stuff. So what that means that you need to have some kind of programming skills. So if you got programming skills, that's how good you're valuable, you know, but if you just come from a regular networking background, and your company starts implementing some of these changes, then you're gonna need to get your programming skills up to bat. You don't have to become a full on developer for the full on programmer, but you're going to need to know some basics that work your way around getting those scripts written and being able to use them. So next, like I said things it's always changing. It's always changing. You have SD Wan that's come about software defined networks. So a lot of things is changing. And like I said in technology, you always have to adapt so there's always something to learn. So that could be a pro or con to you

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You know what type of person you are, if you like learning new things, like I said, that's gonna be a pro for you. But you know, that could be another con. So like I say, it is always changing, so you're going to always be learning. So that brings me to the end of the cons, I'm about to go on to some of the pros. But at this point, if you're finding value in this episode, please let me know by clicking Like or Subscribe, if you're on Apple podcast, please leave me a review, tell a friend to tell a friend.

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We went over some of the cons for working in the IT industry. Now it's time to look at some of the pros. So my first pro is, which everyone probably knows by now, but it pays very well. So for what you're doing and what you're learning, and, you know, for the pay that you get for it, and depending on your state, depending on your state, but I think the average pay for an IT person is around about 70 to 85,000. You know, don't kill the messenger. But that's what I've seen seen online. But that also is going to depend on your state. So whether or not if you're in a major city, a large area where there's a lot of IT companies that pay could be at that range, or it could be way more, but with IT. Like I said it pays very well. It's something that when you learn a good skill, you can potentially get paid very well for learning that skill. So that's one of my first pros is that it pays very well.

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The next pro is that you can work from home or work from anywhere, depending on your job title. So I would say like, if you're an entry level, let's say if you come in entry level helpdesk some of those roles may be work from home or some of you may have to go in on site.

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If you come in, let's say if your network if you come in network technician, and usually the network technician may be the eyes and ears on site. So if some kind of equipment goes down, you're there to rack and stack to where when you move up to an analyst or engineer, then you may have some days from home, or you may be totally remote. So like I said, you're able to work from anywhere, depending on your title in IT industry, if you're a programmer, you know, some of those programs that I know, they weren't totally from home. Some of them, they're able to work from anywhere as long as you got a internet connection. So that's one of the pros with it. My next pro is that your skill set is highly transferable. So it impacts every industry. So you can't name a company that doesn't have an IT department. So you learn cyber security at a working for a school, that's going to transfer it to cybersecurity working for a fortune 500 company. So do your skill set is highly transferable. And like I said, Every large company medium sized company in some form or fashion, they're utilizing technology, which means that they need someone to support that technology. So there's always an IT department somewhere, you may not never see them, because they may be remote, you may never see them, because they may be in a totally different building than you. But there is an IT department at your job unless you add a very small, small company. But like I said, it impacts every industry, your skills are transferable. Whatever you learn to do in one industry, it's the same thing when you move to another industry network in this network and is not going to change security is security. There's not going to change programming, that's not going to change. Now what you're programming for may change, though some of those technologies may change, but the basic core functions is still the same. So that's one my third, Pro, the next pro is that it's not manual labor. So you're not

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doing manual labor, where you're doing the same thing, let's say like,

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if you work in there, like me, I come from a textile industry. So I did manual labor, where I was doing the same functions over and over again, you know, we was moving the same things over and over, you know, to where, you know, you get tired, you need to take a break. So it's not manual labor, a lot of times you are, you know, working on a computer. So you may have some stress on your mind, but you know, you're not going to be physically tired. Now there are some days when let's say you get in new equipment, you may get in a new server, you may get in a couple routers and switches that needs to be racked and stacked. So then it may be a little bit manual labor because you do have to put those devices inside of your networking closet. It's you know, get those devices secured, get those devices installed, but overall, it's not a lot of manual labor. And then my last

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Pro is that your IT skills. If you're an entrepreneur, you can take those IT skills and start your own business. So I'm sure if you look around in your town, you probably see a lot of

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independent computer repair stores. So if you learn to work on PCs, you can start your own computer repair service, then a lot of those computer repair services, what they do is, they may reach out to other small businesses in the town and get that small business to sign a contract with them for them to support that it, whatever it equipment they have, or just BE THERE IT support. So you think of it you look around your town, you probably got a couple small medical offices who those medical offices may not be tied to a larger hospital, or a larger company, they may be independent. So a lot of these places need some sort of IT help. So you could be the one to go in and field that need. When you could go in and offer your services for that company, you work out a contract to where they pay you so much a month to be your support, you let them know your hours. So that can be your own business, which a lot of those can have the potential to be very lucrative. So like I say, that's something to look into. So

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also with your own business, like I said, you have different car, lots, individual car, lots, a lot of those needs some sort of some sort of IT support. So just look around in your town and see what kind of small businesses you have then approach them and see who supports Dell computers, because I'm pretty sure every business is using some sort of computer nowadays. So like I said, that wraps it up for my pros. Like I said, we went over some cons and we also went over some pros with working in the IT industry. I hope you have enjoyed this episode. So if you would follow me on Tik Tok and  IG I'm at debt free in IT. Then also if you have any questions or comments, please shoot me an email at debtfreeit@gmail.com. Other than that, I'll see you the next episode. Peace

Transcribed by https://otter.ai