Careers in Computers

[xRyokenx]

Considering that I'm about to go to college in a couple months, the fact I have almost no experience doing much of anything thanks to my sucky high school, and also the fact that there are many people my age or younger on these forums:

I was wondering if our senior members (older than me, not in the "senior citizen" aspect) could post some info about their jobs to help myself and others that are interested in a computer related career. Stuff such as:

General description of what you do.
How widespread it is aka job availability.
Starting pay (if you know it/wish to post it)
Classes you needed in college (to compare to what's needed today, etc.)
How well you like it.
Anything else I've forgotten to add.

I'd greatly appreciate it for all in computer related fields to post what they have so maybe I can see what I'd like to do. Like I said earlier, I have very minimal experience doing anything, mainly related to my own PC and the other PCs in the house too, stuff like installing hardware and software, troubleshooting minor problems, etc.

Thanks,
Anthony

P.S. A round of reps to those that do post, lol. I have a little while before I need to make a choice, so take your time, quality over quickness, preferably both, but you get what I mean.

[AJ@PR]

Wow... I have to run, but I'll post soon.
In any event, this is going to be a GREAT thread!

[XcOM]

i did have a job as Assistant IT Administrator until the school downsized!

But regardless,
1)I was incharge of maintaining an entire building filled with 6 rooms, each housing 35 PC's for students and staff to use. I had to maintain these, Clean the keyboards, mice, Monitors, base units ECT ECT once a week. Then once a month do a system check and update the software. IE Antivirus scans after def updates, do a security check on systems, DEL any rubbish the students downloaded in that month. And fix faults on call.

2) The job is all over the country (UK) but the school jobs are very far and few.

3)14k PA rising to 16K PA after 6months.

4) REquirements needed was GNVQ in ICT, BTEC ND in ICT, Networking, 10yr Police check, 10yr job check or back to school.

5) I loved it, it was soooo much fun. Loads of PC's to play with, even had my own office and PC to do with as i please, so i install the classics, Doom, Quake, Ect.

When you do your course, don't mess about, get the best grades possable, then do the next level, HND? or even MSCE/MSDST.

Hope this helps.

[lominono]

I can't speak for myself, as I am not in the computer field, but my dad hated being a network engineer(mainly repairing broken networks).

He would work for small companies which would be called to fix networks. He did work for at&t at one point but got laid off when the .com boom thing happened.

He didn't like it. he said LONG hours, Lots of traveling(he would go out to states that surrounded my state), lots of head aches, and lots of idiots bugging him on an ETA, and not enough pay.

So maybe stay away from network engineering?

[Scorchio]

Hi there..

I used to work in the computer games industry. I worked for a company called Mythos Games and funnily enough we used to make the X-COM series of games (noticed XcOM's post).

My job title was "mapper" which is a little vague, so I will elaborate. I Worked in the art department but wasn't strictly an artist. I used to take the graphics created by the artists and put them in to the levels of the game. I also designed the structure of the levels, set the physics data on the objects ingame so that they acted correctly, helped design some of the interfaces, bug testing and so on. It was a pretty mixed bag.

If you like the idea of working for a games company and are artistic you could try to get into a course that focuses on modelling, texturing and animation. That way you get a good all round education on the fundamentals of the art side. They also deal with a lot of theory as 3d packages are extemely complex and a good grounding in this is always a good thing. Then you can usually specialise in one or the other. A lot of games companies have modellers and texturers, then there are the animators, as was the case at Mythos. In others the artists do a more generic role encompassing all three. The direction you choose would depend on your strengths and weaknesses.

You wouldn't have to work for a games company if you went this route as the skills can be transfered to any CGI field, be it film or tv etc.

The programming side I am not to knowledgeable about. A course that includes C++ is a good bet. I won't go in to too much detail as I am sure there are some programmers here who would be able to point you in the right direction on this one.

There is also sound deisgn. There are courses that deal specifically with this aspect and again are transferable to film and tv too. The courses deal with music creation, sound design, a lot of theory, recording etc.

In regard to the Art and Sound side, it is always good to have a qualification behind you, but that isn't the only route. I have worked with people who have had no relevant qualifications but have had a killer show reel and good experience in the tools that are used in the industry. For art they would be Maya and 3ds Max to name a couple. For sound it would be Pro Tools, Cubase or Cakewalk, Soundforge, Vegas etc.

The pay for the games industry isn't amazing in general, but it depends on the country and the company. The hours can be long, especially when it is coming up to milestones to keep the publishers happy or the beta is due. But, inspite of all that it is very satisfying. Especially when the royalty cheques come through

Hope that helps a little.

Scorch

[Spacehonkey]

Well all I can tell you is what mistakes I made in my younger days maybe you can learn something from it.

Well back in '96 I went to college like most kids do taking a few computer course trying to get my feet wet and I soon learned that even though I wanted to major in some kind of computer field I still had to take the basic classes that had nothing to do at all with computers. Well I felt I didn't want to waste my time with that so I finished my first semester and then decide to go to one of those art schools in hopes of getting a job doing some 3D work for movies and commercials like Toy Story and such.

Well fast forward to 2 years later, I became very familiar with computers PC and Mac alike. I learned the ins and outs of Adobe Photoshop, After Affects, AutoCAD, a couple computer languages, one of the 3D programs Alias, I think they call it Maya now and the list goes on. I did pretty well too the instructors were impressed with my work and was even giving a TA job. I thought I would have the world eating out of my hands when I graduated or at least not have a problem finding a job but what I didn't know was that at that time the small companies in that area that would hire a fresh graduate didn't use the Alias program and the larger companies that did would only hire seasoned professionals.

Well I was screwed I had all this built up energy to explode onto the 3D modeling community and no outlet for it. I guess you could say I was over qualified for the small companies and under experienced for the larger ones. Well needless to say days turned into weeks, weeks into months with no promise of getting a job in my dream field. Well after the tuition bills started to roll in I had to take some drastic measures to pay off my bills that didn't involve asking my parents for a handout. I joined the Marine Corps and now I'm in a job that has nothing to do with what I went to school for. Don't get me wrong I enjoy what I do now but it has nothing to with what I set out to do.

What I would say to you is that you're doing the right thing by asking questions like this. I wish I did something similar back then. The one thing you should take from my mistake is that you need to know what type of job you can get when you first start out and than what it'll take to advance you in that field.

[SgtM]

While I could draw this out and make it extremely long, I'll condense a little. Got out of the Marine Corps in March 2000. My last 2 years I acted as the network/user admin. Active duty staff of only 10 people, HQ in New Orleans did most of the work for me. After I got out, I was working for Qwest Communications where my real networking exposure started. During that same time, I built my first computer. I'm mainly self-taught. Since then, I've studied and passed the CompTIA Network+ exam, and the Microsoft 70-270 exam, which earned me my MCP. I'm also working on becoming CCNA certified also. Since Qwest let me go in 2002, I've been a cable installer, customer service rep/telephone repair tech for MCI, and a computer tech for Microdoctor, Inc.

Currently, I work for First Energy as a Network Analyst. I landed this job through a recruiter. I don't have the exact job description with me, but we're staffed 24/7/365 here in 12 hour shifts. We work 3 days on, 2 days off, 2 days on, 3 days off. I work the 7pm - 7am shift. Put simply, we are responsible maintaining all servers and networks that keeps the power on for for Ohio, PA, and NJ. I started here as a contractor in March 2007. I'm officially hired on effective July 2nd. Pay rate is high 30's/yr.

I hope this helped with what you're looking for. If you have any other questions, let me know.

[nil8]

I've been working in professional small to medium IT enviroments for about 3 years.
I wouldn't recommend IT to anyone who isn't REAL serious about computers, because spending your professional life and personal life working on them can make you very sick of them.

I can trace down and deal with simple network problems, printer issues, phone issues, run cable, terminate & certify cable, work with Active Directory, fix simple domain issues, and handle project implementation from new keyboards to new domain controllers.

My forte is still the PC and it's the area where I have over a decade of time and experience under my belt.

Alright, enough of my resume. Many people don't understand what IT grunts do. They see them and deal with them in limited spans of time, without knowing the stresses of IT. When we sit at our desks, we're working.
A small problem can snowball and take up days of time.
Priorities shift constantly. If I'm helping you with your email and an important printer jams, guess which will take precedence?

As a grunt, when something breaks, you're the face of your department. Customer service is VASTLY more important than knowing every facet of technology. You can always learn and get certs, it's way more difficult to learn good customer service.

I'm currently working for a company of around 250 employees here in the US.
It's a small manufacturing company and I'm happier here than I ever was at my last 2 jobs. Jeans, no on-call schedule, weekends off, good pay. I landed a rare job in the IT world these days.

Most places you work will require formal dress to some degree. Not many places still allow the idea of the greasy, unshaven IT nerd. Expect dress shirt and khakis. It's pretty much the norm at this point.

My last 2 jobs were in hospitals, and unless you have a real dedication to work, I would not suggest going this route. Being called in at 3am and working until 11pm that night makes for some bad moods and missed friends.
There is always high levels of stress and tension out of many of the people you're working for, and when their equipment breaks, they dump on you.

Oh, and get really, really knowledgeable about Microsoft Office, specifically Outlook. If you work in an office environment, you will get asked questions and have problems out of left field.

I make around 30k a year because of my experience with networking and MS Server 2k3. Most PC grunts make ~10/hr here.
I'm A+ certified. I've studied for net+, ccna, ethical hacker, and MCDST.

A lot of what I've mentioned is negative, because no one explained to me the pratfalls of working in IT. There are good things that come out of it, including an increased understanding of just how little people understand technology and the feeling of being able to help them with real problems they face. It is a service industry, like it or not.

I will end this post with something a contractor told me on my first day at my first real job. "Anyone can be trained to swap out memory, it's how you deal with the customer and how they feel about your visit after the fact that determines how happy that employee is with the entire IT department."

[$loth]

Sounds very cool Scorchio, i'm a bit of a newb at mapping, though i've done a little for CS and some CS:S mapping, though probably not in the leagues of you.

[Airbozo]

OK, First off, stop blaming your High School for not preparing you for a career. That is not what they are about. You want to lay blame for your High School not providing you with a "diverse" education, blame the "No Child Left Behind Act", which is THE #1 cause for extra curricular activities being dropped from the High School level due to Schools being required to teach certain things and make sure you pass with a certain grade level. (enough about that).


One of the best things you can do to see what field you are interested in is to apply for internships. Some pay, some do not. You will be doing the basic grunt work, but you will get a feel for what the _real_ job has to offer.

Here is what I know (based on local (Silicon Valley) companies);

An average starting pay for a JR sysadmin with a college degree is; ~$45k/year.
Last sysadmin job I held was a SR position and I was making ~$105k/year.

Those are salaried positions, requiring more than 40 hrs/week. On call is not uncommon either and some companies pay extra for on cal duty, some do not. I personally will not be responsible for on call duties unless I am paid extra (and more than just a few bucks).

For sysadmin salary surveys, go here; http://www.sage.org/salsurv/. The most recent survey is password protected (no I am not sharing, don't ask), but the older ones are free for everyone and are not that much different.

If the company requires travel, they must indicate this and also how the pay will be structured and who pays for all travel related expenses.

Experienced IT consultants get paid anywhere from ~$40/hr to ~$300/hr+ depending on the job. You must be good and have good references to make that kind of pay.

I will ask the Wife about where to find the salary info for a couple different fields. She runs her own recruiting business and knows where to find this info easy shmeasy... (she recruits mainly executives and high level design engineers for high tech companies).

If I was better organized and had better cold calling skills I would be a recruiter full time. The _good_ recruiters that work for themselves can make my yearly salary in a week. The pay scale for an independent recruiter can go from 10% to 35% of the candidates first year pay. The highest paid person the SO has recruited was making ~$265k/year! She _only_ made 25% off that one... She did have expenses, including the cost of posting on the job boards and travel. She also paid for the candidate to house shop (plane ticket, rental car, hotel, food for a long weekend. Also paid for the candidates wife...).

Hope this helps and let me know if you are interested in the salary info.