Erik Dafforn - Information Technology (It) Professionals: A Practical Career Guide

Erik Dafforn is a writer and technical consultant from Indianapolis, Indiana, where he helps organizations with search engine optimization and analytics issues. His hobbies include cooking, running, and traveling with his wife and three children.

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I n the introduction, you learned that the information technology field is growing and is expected to be a strong career path for a long time. At the same time, you learned that its a competitive industry and that to succeed in it, youll need to keep learning new techniques, languages, and technologies all throughout your career.

This book is not designed to convince you that you should pursue an IT career. Instead, its goal is to thoroughly describe various careers within IT to help you decide whether its something youd like to explore. IT is an interesting career choice because IT professionals work in every type of industry and business imaginablefrom architecture to zoos, from the largest companies in the world to the smallest nonprofits.

This chapter discusses six key fields in IT, covering the basic duties and tasks involved with each. After reading this chapter, you will have a good understanding of six different types of IT jobs, and you will start to determine if one of them is a good fit for you. Lets start with discussing what IT professionals do.

If you have used a phone, watched a video, used a computer, printed a paper, or ordered something online, you are probably aware of some of the ways information technology has made it easier for you to do things you want to do. IT workers program phone apps, create video-editing software, ensure that networks are transferring data properly, and make sure you can track your package after ordering. In short, IT workers consistently build, maintain, and fix the products, services, and systems that we use every day.

Information technology also exists in places you might not expect. Even buying dog food or playing soccer at the park involves IT behind the scenes in more ways than you can probably imagine. IT has become so integrated into our lives that its hard to count how many ways it affects us. Thats one of the reasons the information technology industry offers so many different opportunities and different types of jobs.

For now, however, its important to understand the six main types of IT careers this book covers:

• Technical support staff
• Programmers
• Web developers
• Systems analysts
• Network architects
• Security analysts

The following sections discuss each one of these fields in depth, including the basic tasks and duties involved in the job, the level of education typically required, and the job outlook for that specific field over the next several years.

Technical support staff (also sometimes called computer support, tech support, IT support, and other similar terms) offer guidance, advice, and help to organizations and to specific users. Because information technology takes so many different forms, technical support staff provide this assistance at many different levels:

• Hardware: A hardware support specialist helps users diagnose, repair, or replace specific pieces of hardware, including monitors, printers, keyboards, or specific components of a computer, such as network adapters (the specific products that help computers talk to other devices). Often these technical support staff are the first people who get a call when a user has a problem. In addition, hardware support helps roll out new equipment to users on a broad scale. For example, if its time to upgrade an entire group of workers to a new computer system, hardware support will help each user set up and become familiar with those new computers.

Studying and learning new things is a big part of every IT career.

• Software: A software support specialist helps users with specific applications so that the users can be as productive as possible, whether the application is used for work or for personal reasons. For example, a software support specialist might help a user learn a new version of a spreadsheet program to do his or her accounting job better. Similarly, a software support specialist for a phone manufacturer (such as Samsung or Apple) might help new users understand the operating systems of their phones, how to download and use apps, and so on.
• Network: A network support specialist typically helps users who need machines or devices to communicate with each other. The list of devices is nearly endless, and it could contain everything from computers and peripherals to tablets, phones, appliances, and medical devices. For example, a worker might need assistance hooking up a computer to a printer, or a company might have problems being able to connect to the internet.

In large companies, all of these types of technical support might be performed by different people or teams. In other words, you might be software support staff, and other people might be hardware or network support staff. In some smaller companies, however, workers might be expected to support all types of issues, from hardware to software to network and beyond. When you begin your education, youll probably have exposure to multiple types of support scenarios. This will help you decide whether you enjoy hardware, software, networking, or some combination of them.

There are, by far, more people to work and collaborate with on various projects than I imagined. It has been a terrific additional learning experience.Amanda Gunnels, development and IT administrator

While most information technology jobs involve some amount of interaction with other people (users, managers, customers, coworkers, and so on), technical support staff usually spend a very large amount of time with others. As technical support, you will often be among the first people called when theres a problem, and your ability to remain patient while assisting users is important. Beyond the tasks described previously, the typical tasks of a technical support person include:

• Listening to users as they describe the issues they need you to fix
• Asking users questions to help diagnose the exact problem so you can fix it efficiently
• Describing the process users need to follow to fix their problems
• Repairing computers and other devices as needed
• Installing new hardware and software and training users to use it efficiently

If you enjoy working with people, love to know how things work, and like a fast-paced environment, a technical support position might be good for you. In some ways, technical support staff are like the doctors of the IT world. People come to them with problems, and they diagnose those problems and make recommendations or treat the problem until its better.