Skip Links

Network World

  • Social Web 
  • Email 
  • Close

(Comma separation for multiple addresses)
Your Message:

IT's identity crisis

Some say the glory days are over; others believe IT's best days are ahead.
By Paul Desmond , Network World , 07/10/2006
  • Share/Email
  • Tweet This
  • Comment
  • Print
Don Dargel, IT burnout

Don Dargel, at left, has been working in IT since he was a teenager, and now, at age 37, he wants out so badly he's willing to join the National Guard to get extra money so he can go back to college. And yes, he's aware there's a war on.

Dargel works for a large outsourcing company that provides IT services to a medical research facility. The Intel systems administrator says he's lucky to have the job he does. He was laid off in 2001 and again in 2004. At one point the only work he could get in his hometown of Rockford, Ill., was installing point-of-sale terminals in restaurants.

"It was pretty embarrassing, installing touchscreen terminals in burger joints," Dargel says. He eventually landed a better, higher-paying job that required him to relocate, but he's still suffering from a bad case of IT identity crisis.

He looks back wistfully to the days when elite "command prompt commandos" ruled the IT universe, using skills that he says have been rendered largely obsolete by graphical interfaces and automation. "Now I'm a monkey just responding to lights," Dargel says.

His career crisis certainly isn't unique. A recent Network World story on the predicted shortage of IT workers touched a nerve among readers, many of whom shared their frustrations over the directions their careers have taken of late. Share your frustrations and stories in our identity-crisis forum.

"There's a lot of defensiveness," says Diane Morello, vice president and research director at Gartner. "[IT workers] watch as they themselves or spouses, family and friends get replaced, systemized, automated out or moved around. They say, 'This is not the glory profession that it was when I got interested in it.'"

Diane Morello, VP at Gartner
Diane Morello, VP at Gartner
"[IT workers] watch as they
themselves or spouses, family and
friends get replaced, systemized,
automated out or moved around.
They say, 'This is not the glory
profession that it was when I got
interested in it.'"
Click to see: Diane Morello, VP at Gartner

IT, it seems, is getting hammered from all sides. Industry analysts and pundits are making dire predictions. For example, Morello wrote a research report that said the ranks of IT will be chopped significantly in the coming years, as IT departments hire small numbers of "versatilists" to replace larger numbers of specialists.

The industry itself is maturing and changing in ways many IT execs don't like: there's outsourcing, automation, increased regulatory requirements many consider onerous and more emphasis on formalized processes, such as the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

Plus, the image of IT is taking a beating everywhere - from the college classroom, where the number of new computer science majors in colleges is plummeting (see graphic, below), to the boardroom, where the influence of IT seems to be waning.

  • Share/Email
  • Tweet This
  • Comment
  • Print

Partner Content

Blue Stripe Software

www.bluestripe.com/

Improving Application Performance Troubleshooting

Diagnosing why an application is slow is hard, at times taking days or weeks to isolate and resolve. This paper explains the challenges involved using current management tools, provides a 'wish list' for application management and analysis, and explains the need for an application system-wide approach that monitors entire applications, not components.

Download Whitepaper

Virtual Vigilance: Managing Application Performance in Virtual Environments

This paper highlights the impact of virtualization on application performance.  "Managing Application Performance in Virtual Environments" states: "Best-in-Class organizations are predominately taking actions around improving visibility across both physical and virtual systems, assessing the business impact of application performance and understanding interdependencies of applications in virtualized environments."

Download Whitepaper

Application Service Requests: The Missing Link for Pragmatic ITSM

Forrester Research analyst Glenn O'Donnell and BlueStripe co-founder Vic Nyman discuss a breakthrough approach to application problem management. Learn the new approach for ITSM problem management, which provides: Rapid isolation of application slow-downs to specific components for quick problem resolution, 24/7 monitoring for proactive notification of potential issues before end users are impacted and much more.

Register for Webcast

Comments (1)
Login
Forgot your account info?

RankBy Anonymous on March 5, 2009, 7:17 pmPFC Dargel RearD4U

Reply | Read entire comment

View all comments

Add comment
Anonymous comments subject to approval. Register here for member benefits.
Have a NetworkWorld account? Log in here. Register now for a free account.

Videos

rssRss Feed