Do you work in IT?

[+Majesticmerc MVC]

I took a paycut for a job I love and have risen steadily in the organization where I work. I think if you do something you love you in an environment you love of course you will get promoted because you will demonstrate genuine passion. Short term loss definitely worth it!

I did exactly this. I left my first job in 2011 to join the company I'm at now. I left a full developer position at my former employer to join a graduate program at a slightly smaller wage (cost of living taken into account) half way across the country. Everyone (parents included) thought I was insane. A year later I'm getting ?10,000 more in salary than I was after 2 years at my old place.

Jobs, like everything are a long term game. Play the right career move, and a bit of short-term pain pays off in spades.

[.bin]

I work in Finance.

I like computers, too. I'm a codejunkie by night. :rofl:

[YanksOnTop]

Sometimes (When the regular Job is slow)

and

Yes. I love tech.

[CrashG]

I used to... well still kinda do. Corp office is in another state (where the actual IT dept is located), but I've had to get involved with a few network/server/printer/idiot users issues in our office.

Yes I still love tech/computers.

[BeerFan]

I took a paycut for a job I love and have risen steadily in the organization where I work. I think if you do something you love you in an environment you love of course you will get promoted because you will demonstrate genuine passion. Short term loss definitely worth it!

Agreed 100%. I started out as a tech making dirt, which is what they actually pay you at a state-run community college. I struggled and lived on a very modest salary and incredibly tight budget for a couple of years. But it was worth it as the work environment is great - loads of good people around who like what they do. That positive environment helped me get 2 major promotions in just 5 years. Now I'm making 3x what i started at and still (mostly) love my job, and consider myself quite fortunate.

We spend so much of our lives at work that it's critical to find something we can at least feel somewhat good about. (Y)

[Michael Lacey]

Yes to both

[CloudEngineer]

Yes and yes,

like a few other fellow posters, I also left a lucrative contracting role working in the infrastructure space at a global finance firm. I hated working there, my managers couldn't manage themselves out of a debt of a dollar. Even though I was being paid a bucket load of monies.

I took a rather LARGE paycut to go where I am now. Better environment, more challenging and support from my manager mades up for the pay difference for now :)

[beanboy89]

I do not work in IT. I am intrigued by technology and gadgets, but I went to school and am looking for work in the geography field. Ideally, I'd love to get a job which combines geography and IT, but at the moment, I'm stuck working in the electronics department at a major national retailer.

[Original Poster]

web developer

and yes ... love it

[raid0]

Both yes, recently changed career

[threesixtyflip]

Yes to both for me, I work in IT and I love IT techy wechy stuff :)

[ahinson]

Yes - Software Engineer

Yes.

[tim_s]

How many people are using Windows / Mac / Linux for day to day work?

[majortom1981]

Agreed 100%. I started out as a tech making dirt, which is what they actually pay you at a state-run community college. I struggled and lived on a very modest salary and incredibly tight budget for a couple of years. But it was worth it as the work environment is great - loads of good people around who like what they do. That positive environment helped me get 2 major promotions in just 5 years. Now I'm making 3x what i started at and still (mostly) love my job, and consider myself quite fortunate.

We spend so much of our lives at work that it's critical to find something we can at least feel somewhat good about. (Y)

CCivil service IT rocks specially at schools and libraries. I am an IT admin at a library. While MY salary isn't as good as private sector I get a pention AND 5 weeks paid vacation. Also none of that Must be fixed now, pressure of a private company.

[Routerbad]

I used to work in an IT field, but dealing with the stupidity of end users really drained me mentally so I left that job. I will always love technology and electronics though, they cannot kill that for me

Once you work yourself into an engineering role, the only end user interaction you'll likely see is when creating use cases to design solutions around. Even as an SA you shouldn't deal with users on a regular basis, that's tier 1 tier 2 stuff.

[f0rk_b0mb]

How many people are using Windows / Mac / Linux for day to day work?

Windows 7 - Work machine, personal gaming machine

Mac - Personal laptop

Linux - Secondary personal desktop machine. When I want to do some lightweight web browsing or emailing. I run Kubuntu.

[AJerman]

Yes and mostly yes. I have a lot less interest in tinkering with things at home these days after working on computers all day. I do QA so my job is basically to break things and help get them fixed, so when I go home I don't feel like dealing with things that are broken which limits my tinkering. I've been trying to get myself focused on a few different tech hobbies that have faded over time. For one, Android development, and two, playing with my arduino. Phones have taken over 90% of my tech hobby time these days.

How many people are using Windows / Mac / Linux for day to day work?

Well, I work for IBM, so no Mac, haha. But I regularly use RHEL, SLES, VMWare, and Windows.

[AndyMutz]

B came first, A came later, both are still the case :)

-andy-

[Sandor]

If web design counts as "IT" then yes.

and yes.

[jonbjerke]

Yes, 20 years in IT

[tim_s]

Remember leaving university - I got my first job supporting hardware and the company was ran by the older "crew". The company was far from progressive ... my "Boss" brings me into a room, it had a table and on this table is 1 desktop and he continues by saying "Now Tim, Say you needed to know what the network card is?", in-which I quickly responded by grabbing the mouse and iterating, "I would go to device manager then ....", interrupted with, "By opening it up son ... by using your eyes ... kids will never learn".

Mind you, my first task in the interview was to build a machine I.e. a pile of boxes containing mother boards, ram, HDs etc - Just grab and go.

[+Fahim S. MVC]

Started off when I was 18 (16 years ago), progressed through developer, lead developer, application architect, IT architect and now enterprise architect.

Love my job and love tech on a professional and personal level.

[Nas]

Kinda-sorta for both.

In the broadest sense, I work in IT... and although I'm a hobbiest/enthusiast with computers (both hardware and software), I'm not a fan of what's on the market because I feel that most of the commercial offerings keep the world stuck in outdated technology. The transition from concept to commercialization should only be months, not years.

[Wyrdstorm]

I work in IT and also have always been really interested in IT, I use numerous versions of MS Windows/V Ms at both work and home

[John S. Veteran]

No, Chemical Industry / Yes love the geeky stuff