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| Thread ID: 119149 | 2011-07-07 09:28:00 | Curious - IT industry question. | Nomad (952) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1215400 | 2011-07-07 09:28:00 | Many people say that hardware jobs are blue collar jobs? On that note, can health issues impact on it .. like artificial pacemakers? Would software jobs be more abundant than hardware jobs when you can do geeky jobs or just work with simpler database/spreadsheets, SQL, reserach or what not? Starting out IT jobs are more restricted when IT is just IT? While some other jobs are more transferable. :thanks: |
Nomad (952) | ||
| 1215401 | 2011-07-07 10:12:00 | Health Issues -- well that can effect any job, IT related or not. Trouble with the questions is that you cant really ask about IT jobs as a whole unit - meaning the range is almost endless as so many jobs are all classed as IT, and they can be all completely different skill levels and requirements. A simple example, I can class myself in IT, I run my own small computer service, sales and repair business do bits of a lot of different things, not an expert at any one thing in particular, then you could take someone who works in a high end position, managing many people, various offices and hardware , etc, and That can also be classed as IT. |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 1215402 | 2011-07-07 10:18:00 | These are very broad questions. Is there something specific that you were wanting to know? You can't quite generalise across "hardware" jobs and "software" jobs - there is a huge continuum in both sectors (technical you could argue that I'm working in a "software" job although I don't actually write any software). | somebody (208) | ||
| 1215403 | 2011-07-07 11:11:00 | I was meaning that hardware tech jobs might be somewhat similar to jobs like a electrician. So would health be more of an issue like a pacemaker should not be used near electro-magnetic fields and ditto those with joints or back issues ie., carrying/moving equip. I understand there is the computer shop right up to nationwide infrastructure. So would health issues be more bearable for those who work in more office style environments like network admins or as a programmer. Re: the availability of jobs. I thought hardware style jobs might be more specific while those in the software field can work in places like finance, reporting, statistics, or even just office administration where they need skills in database, spreadsheet and data extraction etc... So software guys might be able to get more diff jobs and won't be too much off track? I get what you mean. A tech could end up in a network admin job ... that is more a software thing and less on actual hardware. I am probably meaning more at the beginning of a career. So a person who has an intention to work in h/w or into s/w. |
Nomad (952) | ||
| 1215404 | 2011-07-07 19:49:00 | I think the nearer you get to a software career the more boxed in your work experiences will become (and consequently more stale as well). The hardware option will still always involve at a minimum the installation and config of software, with room for more software skills to come to the fore on occasion, and should be a more varied work environment (but also a more off and on style of work as the demands would vary a lot). Hardware work may see you travel about a bit. Software work will reduce the travel, possibly to the degree where working from home can be considered. Physical challenges - hardware work may involve sprains, cuts, crawlspaces in ceilings and sub-floors. Software work may involve constipation, RSI, heart disease from the sedentary nature of the work. |
Paul.Cov (425) | ||
| 1215405 | 2011-07-07 20:33:00 | Many people say that hardware jobs are blue collar jobs? On that note, can health issues impact on it . . like artificial pacemakers? Would software jobs be more abundant than hardware jobs ? Blue collar? What does that mean? Crap pay? Non-skilled? Techs working for someone else, especially if entry level can have fairly low pay for IT . Compared with say, programmers, network engineers and other more specialised skilled parts of IT . Health issues? Hey even if you fix PCs, you're not dealing with anything with high voltage . Unless you felt the need to stick your hand in the innards of the PSU while it was connected I doubt your pacemaker is going to even care . You want to know which areas of IT are in demand now - do a search on one of the job sites and see which is more numerous . There is always more demand for experienced highly skilled specialists than general techs or less experienced people . Thats true for careers not in IT also . |
pctek (84) | ||
| 1215406 | 2011-07-07 23:41:00 | Thanks, yeah ... maybe more into the career it is more boxed up environments. People online said techs are more blue collar so I thought it was like a electrician. Like crawling around, cabling, moving equip on trailors .. Oh and yeah more crap pay I read too (least in the US market). But if a person took the software route early in their career and if they had some office experience it might mean they get a bit better pay since the skills are more transferable than a tech guy? Office admin might not mean much to a tech guy right? |
Nomad (952) | ||
| 1215407 | 2011-07-08 00:43:00 | Like crawling around, cabling, moving equip on trailors .. if they had some office experience it might mean they get a bit better pay No. It's nothing like being an electrician. PC techs install software, drivers, apps etc. Replace components, connect and troubleshoot connectivity. Stuff like that. Train users. Office experience (admin) isn't relevant either. Software - well you have programmers of various types, it all involves coding and testing. Fairly specialised skills needed. Network Engineers for instance, not techs but more hardware than programmers - maintain, install, troubleshoot servers, clients, connectivity between them all.They may specilaise with certain things - Citrix systems, Exchange server, or do the lot. Again, more specilaised skills needed. They may be more into the backbone networking - the routers etc and have high level Cisco skills. |
pctek (84) | ||
| 1215408 | 2011-07-08 00:54:00 | Being a Tech, can involve a lot of different activities, just depends who you work for and what sort of jobs the place does . To add to the list PCTek put, I have done my fair sharing of running cables, under houses, crawling around in the dirt ( and god knows what else), drilling holes through walls/ Floors, setting up complete networks . Doesn't worry me doing that sort of thing . Had to do that this morning -- I was under a house checking out what was needed to set up a new network . One concrete wall is going to be "interesting" :D Now later in the day I'm now working on other PC's in the workshop, ranging from software or hardware problems, removing infections . ;) The question really is, what do YOU want to do, as in what type of work . ? |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 1215409 | 2011-07-08 03:43:00 | The question really is, what do YOU want to do, as in what type of work. ? I was just curious to know around the matter. On that note, tech is always cool but maybe not long term. Perhaps, data mining/extraction and IT Audit type. |
Nomad (952) | ||
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