Do people in I.T. make too much money

[Midwayman]

I voted pharmacists.
They just follow the doctor's orders.
They provide absolutely zero value add.

They watch for harmful drug interactions and often give much more advice on how to use the drugs than the doctors do. If you're young and only rarely had to take meds you probably haven't seen what they really do.

 

[purbeast0]

Your opinion != industry opinion

just putting that out there.

it is not my opinion, it's well known in the industry that developers are not the same as IT people. it's the people outside of the industry that get it wrong.

developers usually take the comp sci or electrical engineering route in college.

IT people take IT majors in college. or IT people just did poorly in comp sci in college.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Most jobs in IT don't pay as much as people think. The ones that do pay well are those that don't require any knowledge of tech, like various management and project leader positions etc.

depends what you consider paying well.
good developers, DBAs, security admins, VM admins, storage admins make $150k easily.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

it is not my opinion, it's well known in the industry that developers are not the same as IT people. it's the people outside of the industry that get it wrong.

developers usually take the comp sci or electrical engineering route in college.

IT people take IT majors in college. or IT people just did poorly in comp sci in college.

what is an IT major?
sounds like a degree from DeVry.

 

[theevilsharpie]

it is not my opinion, it's well known in the industry that developers are not the same as IT people.

Lulz.

Every non-tech organization I've ever worked with has placed development and operations under the same IT management umbrella. The only time I've seen an organizational distinction has been in organizations where the core business was software development or professional IT services, and with DevOps becoming more popular, even that line is blurring.

As for college majors, a lot of the IT folks I've worked with (both development and operations) either never went to college, or majored in a completely unrelated subject. Outside of HR, no one gave a shit.

 

[purbeast0]

what is an IT major?
sounds like a degree from DeVry.

information systems, systems engineer.

in the indurstry if you say you do IT, 99% of the people will understand that you mean you do networking, workstation setup, trouble shooting, etc.

in my 9 years in the field so far as a software engineer i've never once heard someone refer to an engineer/developer as an "IT person". that is what we call the people who setup our machines and put new ram in our machines.

 

[phucheneh]

I've seen people who can't competently install Windows, swap out basic parts, or set up the simplest of networks make over 100k a year.

So I'm gonna have to go with 'yes.'

 

[Train]

in my 9 years in the field so far as a software engineer i've never once heard someone refer to an engineer/developer as an "IT person".

In my 15 years as a software engineer I've heard devs referred to as "IT people" like a thousand times.

15 > 9, so I win.

 

[JM Aggie08]

it is not my opinion, it's well known in the industry that developers are not the same as IT people. it's the people outside of the industry that get it wrong.

developers usually take the comp sci or electrical engineering route in college.

IT people take IT majors in college. or IT people just did poorly in comp sci in college.

Devs, admins, analysts, BI, etc. all fall under the IT organization in my company.

 

[vi edit]

Internal Devs, AKA produce stuff for the company they work for = IT.
Devs that write code for a product to sell = Not IT.

Just my experience.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

it is not my opinion, it's well known in the industry that developers are not the same as IT people. it's the people outside of the industry that get it wrong.

developers usually take the comp sci or electrical engineering route in college.

IT people take IT majors in college. or IT people just did poorly in comp sci in college.

I don't know a single IT person that majored in an IT major. Also, in most companies, developers are in the IT department.

FYI - I was an EE major (with very good grades) and am in IT.

 

[TheVrolok]

For what I provide for my company, I am paid appropriately.

Doctors on the other hand... How can someone be completely wrong and still get paid their full billable amount? "I *think* this is what's wrong, try this out and let me know. BTW, that'll be $131 for the 17 minutes you spent with me 10 of which was wait time."

Fuck you doctors.

lol, fail.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

They watch for harmful drug interactions and often give much more advice on how to use the drugs than the doctors do. If you're young and only rarely had to take meds you probably haven't seen what they really do.

Why can't a computer do that more accurately, faster, and cheaper? Sorry, but I agree that pharmacists are incredibly overpaid and mostly unnecessary.

 

[TheVrolok]

I voted pharmacists.
They just follow the doctor's orders.
They provide absolutely zero value add.

Retail pharmacists likely .. A good clinical pharmacist in a hospital is pretty nice to have, though, and frequently offer some good insight.

 

[Slew Foot]

Surprised at the lack of votes for dentists

I voted for dentists. Lawyer was a second choice. Banker/politician/Real Estate Agent wold be up there too.

 

[vi edit]

I don't know a single IT person that majored in an IT major. Also, in most companies, developers are in the IT department. FYI - I was an EE major (with very good grades) and am in IT.

It's really an age thing IMHO. And highly dependent on the college.

I'm a "Computer Science" major. 4 years before me at my college you would have taken nothing but programming and math classes. When I was going through (1996-2000) programming and math accounted for about 25% of our core major classes. The rest were more "IT" based things such as networking, system analysis and design, DB structures, and other non-programming/mathy kind of classes.

A year after I was done they ended the CS program and fully moved over to a "MIS" program that further went to a business/IT combination of classes.

In my opinion there's 4 distinct paths you can go professionally-

Development (Computer Science)

Design (Computer Engineering)

"Physical IT"...networking/sys admin (Can be any combination of CS/MIS/IT/skilled trades/cerfications)

"Soft IT"...application analysts/bsa's/project managers...can come from any background. CS. IT. MIS. Art. Business. A former nurse tired of working swing shifts and wants to build doc flowsheets in the EMR. Whatever. It's entirely dependent upon the organization/field on what background/experience is needed for this type of person to be successful.

 

[tfinch2]

Internal Devs, AKA produce stuff for the company they work for = IT.
Devs that write code for a product to sell = Not IT.

Just my experience.

This. We have R&D developers and IT developers at my company. IT developers report up through the business organization.

 

[destrekor]

Instead of $12 they should get $10.

My hate for IT comes from this: my entire company does programming, yet IT people treat us like idiots when we know how to code better than they do.

I've learned that just because people know how to do really crazy things that involve the computer as a tool - depending on the actual job (take design, for instance), at least half of them know jack shit about the actual operation of the computer.

I work with 3D designers who have to utilize some of the most complex software and have zero clue how to actually use the computer, except click on things they've memorized to do the specific job they know.
My brain is just so confused by that whole concept.


Granted - programmers, by trade, seem to be the least likely to know so little about general computing - but depending on the IT concept in general, they may not pay that much attention to other things.
I know coders who really know jack shit about even novice IT concepts.

Not a slam or anything - I couldn't code something to save my life. We all have our specialties and focus on them - my brain doesn't work with coding, it just doesn't see things like that.

There's different types of programming. Think of a car: IT can be more like working on the engine and transmission of the car, sometimes building the entire car sometimes tweaking gear ratios, perhaps adding a supercharger or replacing a battery... sometimes even the simple stuff, like changing the seat position or the way the steering wheel is set (height, depth, etc), also setting the locks, having keys made, and perhaps some advanced work configuring things in the ECU, like the fuel mixtures, compression, etc etc.

Some programmers are going to be right there with the more advanced IT types, doing the actual line by line coding and working on the variables and hell I don't know... for the entire ECU. The "kernel" type programmers are going to know the complexities of the system, and usually how things are interconnected and what to expect so that it can be coded/configured properly... and to know how and what we "builders" want so we can easily change things later without bugging you.
And some programmers work on the infotainment system, and know absolutely nothing about the way the rest of the car works.. and couldn't possibly care. Also designers fall into that group. Any designers who actually know a thing or two about computers, know that simply because they made tinkering a hobby most likely. I've dabbled into creativity stuff with digital design/photography - I'd know my way around computers because that's my hobby and now profession. If I make it as a photographer, I'll be a Photoshop and other digital darkroom user who is extremely confident with everything else on the computer because that's where I started. But it's rare in that crowd - they usually learn enough to get around the tool shed (the computer) so they can use the tool itself (the application).

 

[brianmanahan]

In my 15 years as a software engineer I've heard devs referred to as "IT people" like a thousand times.

15 > 9, so I win.

no you win because 1000/15 > 0/9

 

[purbeast0]

i guess it is a regional thing then.

i'd say that i work in the IT department, but i'm not an "IT person" at my job, since those people are traditionally the people that do all the networking, virus scanners, setup workstations, etc.

they also get paid significantly less than developers. not sure if that is regional or not either.

 

[brianmanahan]

Why can't a computer do that more accurately, faster, and cheaper? Sorry, but I agree that pharmacists are incredibly overpaid and mostly unnecessary.

true, unlike most problems, drug interactions are pretty darn easy to implement in code.

i voted pharma

 

[Mixolydian]

FYI - I was an EE major (with very good grades)

 

[TheVrolok]

true, unlike most problems, drug interactions are pretty darn easy to implement in code.

i voted pharma

It's not just to know that interactions exist, it's to critically think about them and act on it. Most EMR software has an "interaction checker" built it, and it's annoying as fuck.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

i guess it is a regional thing then.

i'd say that i work in the IT department, but i'm not an "IT person" at my job, since those people are traditionally the people that do all the networking, virus scanners, setup workstations, etc.

they also get paid significantly less than developers. not sure if that is regional or not either.

Depends on what they do. Help desk and desktop support? Sure, they make less. The engineers typically make as much as the more senior developers.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Go load your boxes on the UPS truck and STFU.