Do You Hate Being Called an "IT Guy?" 736
An anonymous reader writes "The phrase 'IT' is so overused, I'm not sure what it means any more. OK, maybe it's an ego thing, but I spent a lot of years in grad school, lots of years getting good at creating software, and lots of years getting good at creating technical products and I don't want the same label as the intern who fixes windoze. I'm looking at a tech management job at a content company that is trying to become a software company, and they refer to everything about software development, data center operations, and desktop support as 'IT.' I'd like to tell the CEO before I take the job that we have to stop referring to all these people as 'IT people' or I'm not going to be able to attract and retain the top-tier talent that is required. Am I just being petty? Should I just forget it? Change it slowly over time? These folks are really developing products, but we don't normally call software creators 'product developers.' Just call them the 'Tech Department' or the 'Engineering Deptartment?'"
You have an ego problem (Score:4, Informative)
You're in IT. Deal with it.
Get over yourself IT guy (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I am a software engineer (Score:4, Informative)
Someone seems to have confused someone who can turn on a computer with a competent technician.
The people you speak belong in a call center reading a script to AOL users.
How do these people get these jobs?
You could try something like... (Score:2, Informative)
Software Engineering
Hardware Engineering
Support
Operations
Development
Now, combine:
Database engineering
Database operations department
Desktop support
Deskside support
Network Operations
Network Engineering
ECM (Enterprise Content Management) Developer
Need I go on?
You're just being petty (Score:2, Informative)
...get over it. It's the same in any industry. If you work in hospitality, you could be a bellhop, a cleaner or a hotel manager. The guy who comes to fix your laptop probably thinks you're an arse too. (I tend to think that about anyone who spells Windows with a 'z'). Also you probably have an over inflated opinion of your job (most people do). For example, all the 'IT Architects' I work with just see 'Code Monkey' jobs as roles to be shipped off to India.
Dialect (Score:3, Informative)
Briefly adding my own $0.02:
In Britain, 'IT' seems more acceptable to be used as a catchall for anything computer-related. In the US, many narrow the definition to helpdesk support, and the personnel responsible for the ongoing operation of anything computer-related. Developers and architects are separate (with DBAs and a few other positions hanging somewhere in the void between) --- I'm not sure if this is a regional distinction in the US, primarily because personnel in these fields tend to move around quite a bit.
Frankly, they're both valuable professions. I've worn both hats, and it's a bit of a shock to make the switch from one to the other, as both fields evolve and change so rapidly that it's very difficult to stay current in both. That said, I can easily understand why one would want their job title to accurate reflect their duties!
Re:Can't see why this would matter. (Score:2, Informative)
I hope he lets us know how "telling the CEO" works out for him. Most CEO's seem to genuinely appreciate an applicant educating them and assuming they don't understand an issue.
When I was in charge of hiring, I hated applicants. They assumed I had nothing better to do than listen to them ramble on endlessly. I barely had time to use the bathroom most days, let alone get lectured on semantics.
Re:Can't see why this would matter. (Score:1, Informative)
That's where the engineers are - you know, the people who design hardware of different types
Please don't give credence to professional engineering societies who try to fetishize the word "engineer".
Engineers are also people who adjust the mix levels of audio recordings. Or dig ditches for the military. Or drive trains or fire trucks. Or keeps the radio equipment running.
Or engage in the (IEEE-recognized, for what little that's worth) field of software engineering.
Not in Canada. The people who call (and can call) themselves "engineers" have specific responsibilities under the law, just like doctors and lawyers. There is a historical exemption for train operators, but someone who drives a fire truck is called a "driver". Some who keeps radio going would probably be called a 'technician'; a person who adjusts audio levels would probably be a 'mixer'. Microsoft learned this the hard way when they tried to expand their "MCSE" letters here.
The term is protected in Canada to help protect the public. When a person hires an "engineer" they know what they're getting in terms of education and experience, because experience has shown that any jackass calling themselves one can lead to bad things happening. The word became protected in Canada because of disasters:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Québec_Bridge
People who mess up after certifying a design get named to the wall:
http://www.peo.on.ca/aboutpeo/ProfessionalMisconduct.htm
http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/regs/english/elaws_regs_900941_e.htm
The term may be hazy in the US, but it actually means something in other countries, and has for quite a few decades.
Re:It matters to future employers (Score:3, Informative)
Your situation sucks.
You need to find a way to do just your academic work, or seriously, find another job. What they're doing to you will stifle you until you really just want to die.
It's not worth it.
I'm in a similar boat. I showed a capability to do databases in my current job and have been doing that more than the job on my title, and have built quite an interesting system that does a certain job really well. Now we actually want backup and I see why they were content having me do it. Our IT dept is finally providing 2 people to do the job, but both are paid far more than I am (I even got/had to interview one of them). It's one thing to be praised and told I'm one of the smartest people in the company (even in front of other people), but really, I'd like to be paid like I'm one of the smartest people in the company.
Luckily for me, a very interesting job just came up in the system and I've been working all weekend on my resume (instead of that database).
Good luck. You deserve better, but you'll have to demand better and be willing to leave for another job. They'll pay you as little as possible and shit on you as much as you'll let them.
Re:It matters to future employers (Score:2, Informative)
I use to have a student(full time during breaks, part time during school) position where I worked with ~6 other students to manage Faculty computers. Don't let the "student" part bother you, we had full control of about everything.
Nasty bug didn't want to go away? All the faculty knew you put your data files in your "My Documents" folder because that was the only directory we backed up on the network. We had a VERY high computer turn over, so if it wasn't in "My Documents", you'd have to wait EXTRA time to get it recovered from the full back-up we did before transferring your image. It was your fault for putting data in the wrong directory and we typically had better stuff to work on than pulling your old HD image and sift through to find your crap "shot gunned". They learned fast if not when we first warned them.
So, with a general understanding by the faculty to put your data in a single local.
Step 1 - Reimage the computer. This image had almost ANY program they could every want/use/need
Step 2 - Wait 15-30min for the computer to boot up for the first time and connect to AD(active directory) and patch itself
Step 3 - restore back-up files over gigabit network
Step 4 - return computer
Step 5 - Enjoy, your computer is clean.
Actually, which ever admin setup the Active Directory Polices knew what he was doing. We very rarely got malware issues and few people needed us to install stuff for them. In the 4 years of working there, I can count on my two hands how many times I saw malware infections and that's for somewhere around 500 faculty. Faculty also did not have Admin privs by default.
I know, people thinking "No admin privs?! They'd be calling all the time to get installed"
Nah... We had a program that only power users on that computer could use, which the owner was a power user. The owner would run this small in-house program and it would prompt for their password and a reason must be provided, This program would log their reason and then they would log off then log back on. Now their an admin for 2 hours and their background is forced(you couldn't even change this background after the fact) to this deep-red with a LARGE warning that said something along the lines of "WARNING!!! YOU'RE ADMIN, you're responsible for any changes". At the end of those two hours, they would forcibly get kicked off and next logon was non-admin and their background restored.
If someone abused their admin-elevated privs, they could get their temp-admin privs revoked.
And don't think you could get around the local admin account. Our standard image had an in-house root kit that managed the Local Admin password. It was a random 20 chars changed nightly per computer(every computer had a diff random 20 chars). Even if you loaded one of those All-In-One boot disks that let you change the password for admin, the root-kit changed it right back when the computer started back up. The password was created client side and uploaded to a central server via an encrypted connection.
Stop being pretentious and get over IT (Score:3, Informative)
My first IT job was as a basic programmer on the TRS-80 back in the 80's when I was a kid (unique situation where the grown ups had no idea what to do with it but the company thought they needed to do inventory on a computer). Since then I have been called a Web programmer, router jockey, network engineer, NTAC, consultant, etc... The most offensive to me is Engineer, not for me but for those that really are engineers, I have no engineering degree and dont operate locomotives so I qualify for neither. I work in IT, I do alot of things. IT changes so often that there is no box to really put into it as a title description. IT Person works just fine.
I've really never understood the obsession with cool titles, I have worked with others who thought they had to have some goofy title as if it somehow made them royalty. As long as you get a paycheck and are treated with a fair amount of dignity does it really matter?