The Pakistani Spectator

Now don’t think that being an IT Professional myself I am giving suggestion to the upcoming IT professional that do think again to work in the field of IT … That not the case for all of you . As being working in the IT field from past 10 years I have realized that it’s kind of “Thankless Job” … because when there is some problem occurred in the software or hardware at some critical moments fingers always pointed out towards IT and people think that they(IT) must have done something wrong which might be not the case and people think that being in IT they are doing nothing. They are just keep on resting and playing games. But from my experience being working in IT its kind of stressful job as you have to always on your toes to keep the systems running at their 100% and if something goes wrong I know how hard it is to face the management and tell them what went wrong . But as being service provider department or vendor or organization or consultant we have to face and ready for these kinds of situations.

But on the other hand there are cases where we have been appreciated and being rewarded also by putting up some marvelous efforts as in the case of ERP implementation in my current working organization, at the time of implementation 9/11 thing happened and the Consultants went back to their homeland … the project seems to be at stake as all the efforts being put on by the team and trainings have been done because at that point we cannot revert to the old things, but let me clear one thing the implementation team have the support from higher management for the implementation which is really helpful for us, by having support from them we have implemented the ERP which is now being running ALHAMDULILLAH successfully from past 7 years and now we are in testing phase of its new version and business process re-engineering / business continuity/ IT Governance.

Being in the field of IT you have to be well aware of all the current market trends and happenings around you, I know that its really hard to keep yourself update with the market trends and happenings around you related to the field of IT but you have too because if you don’t then you will be outdated related to IT knowledge. At times too keep yourself updated you have to spend the money form your pockets because it’s a sort of risk always related to it that management might ask you “DO YOU HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE CURRENT IT TRENDS” and if you say “No” then be prepare for listening anything from them .. You need to re-train yourself as much as you can. As myself , I  have to be updated all the time what is going on, which hardware is currently on the rising phase and which is out dated. What kind of software products we have in the market which can help us out and what not useful to us. As the things are so much rapidly changing in the field of IT that you will never knew what will come up next and by whom in this field.

Working long hours is usual in the field of IT as now become AN ENIGMA with it. So its not become un usual with most of IT professionals to work long hours but the thing is that working for long hours is not sort of routine jobs but yes it does at month ends or year ends when there will full load of work where you have to take the backups when all the work have been done or when there are least users connected with the application, make surety of the all the systems available. Most of my friends to whom I know are always on call basis including myself , if god forbidden something goes wrong we will be remain in touch. That’s why companies do realize our importance and they pay us too and give incentives as well, and also that some time we have to run the tasks that we have to really take care off like off server service packs or server up gradation or backup routines or system health checks for which we have to plan about the time days & strategy because these sort of tasks will be not be done in haphazard way.

People also assume that we all know about the IT stuff but that’s not the case because we all have some expertise related to the IT field. From system administration to Development to Networks to security to IT governance etc etc. all people working in those division have their working expertise related to it so its better to ask them those type of question on which they are working on . but not like that if you ask some software development person that what kind of router we are using in our organization or if you asked network person that how this software developed and what software technologies used in the development of it …… perhaps you get the reply “NO I DON’T KNOW ABOUT IT” . So it’s better to ask the person who worked on them by creating awareness about it amongst the people of your organization and around your peer network.

IT always be considered as the “Cost Centers” and hardly as the “Profit Generators”. IT department who are well mannered and established their benefits will remain unhidden which is not good so as being IT manger you need to point out what are you offering to the organization and how you are doing it . Add this with is that there is a lack of healthy respect for the technology that runs most businesses and what we get in return is not in the eyes of the management which being IT managers we have to point them out which is a constant uphill task for us thats where “Business Intelligence” comes up.

At times there were queries being generated by the HR departments that to list down the works being done by you being in IT and when you end up with it by listing down the whole work which is being done by you it gets into some lengthy work that those HR guys don’t feel bothered to read about them (that happen with me hehe). Also I observed that everybody’s job was urgent. If five people come to you in the morning each with a different problem, what can you do? Each one cannot continue their work until the “tiny” problem is solved. As they don’t know why the problem has occurred and what are the causes of it. I know it’s hard to say “No” to any one like that because all of them have priorities and workload so we have to tackle them with tips and tricks likes off on which position the user is and how much work load it have.etc etc. Some times its hard for the user to convey about his/her problems so being in IT my experience is that we have to listen them carefully what they are trying to say and then help them out being giving them some information about the problems and gathered the data about the problems and solved them as soon as possible in the prescribed manner.

In the end I can say that I may be missed out points that which I can not think of but do share with all of us and for new comers in the field of IT … all of you are always welcome so cheer up and wish all of new comers good luck and bright future. If you need any help of mine do contact me …..

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