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Posts Tagged ‘IT Operations’
Revisiting dirty jobs in IT…
I’ve found some answers to the question I posed earlier, what are IT’s dirtiest jobs?
Jason Hiner over at techrepublic.com (registration required, I believe) just started a thread asking, What are the worst jobs in IT? accompanied by the counter question, What are the best jobs in IT?
Great question, one I’ve asked here before in my IT Dirty Jobs post. And now I get some answers! Here are my three favorites.
How about computer technician for elementary, middle school, and high school computer labs, yikes. I envision virus infestations and germy keyboards (of course, studies have shown that keyboards are filthier than most toilets. Ew.) Not to mention the script kiddies who fancy themselves as hackers in the older grades.
I also liked the job description for an industrial machinery debugger and programmer. The loud, hot or cold (depending on the time of year) factory floor is your workstation, and apparently you have to climb over the broken machinery, risking life and limb! Risky, dirty, and high pressure all in one.
And the final one I’ll mention because it gets a lot of votes is “sole IT person,” meaning if it gets plugged in, you’re the one in charge of it company-wide. Yeah, that has to be a dirty job. Crawling under desks, driving to remote sites only to find out the problem is fixed before you get there, and the pressure under emergency situations (all eyes are on you until the network is up). Sounds down and dirty to me.
Other finalists include: ISP tech support, network cable installer, help desk, cooling fan hairball remover (okay, actually, computer refurbisher, blech).
So there you have it, a report on some downright dirty jobs.
IT-related resolutions for the new year
The new year is ever nearer, and here are some new year’s resolutions for both information technology experts and technologists in general.
Pick up a copy of Time Management for System Administrators for productivity tips that speak to the sys admin life. I just read the first page of Chapter 4 and the best quote is “I’m a system administrator! I manage chaos for a living!” True, true. I’ve seen this in person.
Shadow or interview one of your typical users this year. Take someone who uses your applications to lunch.
Invite a co-worker in another area of business to coffee to gain some insight and perspective outside of your corner of the world (and perhaps outside of your influence).
Find a way to automate one of your daily or weekly tasks. I’m personally working on automating my digital photo backups at home.
Clear out your help desk inbox. We all have those tickets we just haven’t wanted to deal with. Start 2006 with a clean inbox.
Pick your favorite lifehack and put it into action, such as search shortcuts.
Find ways to examine your business’ needs and see how IT or any technology can help. You can choose just one BSM Route To Value as a starting point if you get stuck.
More business and IT connections
If you didn’t already know that business and IT have real connections that matter to customers, here are a couple more examples.
I like the user experience blog This Is Broken. There are two recent entries that caught my eye as examples of connecting IT procedures to customer-facing services.
This post showcases an error in the printout on this receipt from an ATM application. Hee hee.
*This is line 1 of the store message* *This is line 1 of the marketing message*
Another This Is Broken post is about a misprint on the label of a pair of jeans. Granted, this is probably a counterfeit label example, but, it relates to IT in front of customer facing products. The printout is a data source error ” =if(Label=”",”RMA”,”?”) ” which is funny text to read when it’s out of place on a label that’s supposed to contain say, sizing or brand information. I know, I know, you can’t blame IT for those necessarily, and the Internet conspiracy people think the image is photoshopped, but I like the image nonetheless.
Both examples are good reminders that IT and data does make a difference to the quality of the product or service that faces customers. Online shopping experiences are always good examples of how IT can make or break a sale. This Is Broken tends to get to “meatier” IT connections for consumer products, and I appreciate that approach.
