Why are IT Techs so up their own bottoms?

dmpoole said:
This even extends to work experience - every department at the NHS will allow work experience but IT flatly refuse.
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I did Work Experience in IT Department at my local hospital and it was absolutely brilliant! All of the people there spoke truth, and there was hardly any "office politics".

The staff around the hospital...well that's another story.
 
I've found that "up their own bottom-ness" is inversely proportional to their ability, once you've taken the cynicism into account.

E.g. It tech that is up their own bottom, and isn't naturally cynical, is retarded.
 
dmpoole said:
Its OK to go and see a lady's fairy pot or watch somebody having an operation but its not OK to see a printer being set up to a computer.
Pathetic.
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So basically someone has made a decision that you don't agree with and have no power to change so you are sulking and throwing your toys out of the pram...
 
dmpoole said:
I don't say this lightly and its come after years of experience but virtually every IT Tech I've come across have been up their own ass.
Every one has come over as arrogant and as though they're a few steps up the ladder from 'normal' folk.
From the years I spent at a factory, fixing PC's in a local school, working at a juvenile prison, visiting many shops including the blue shirts and now working at the NHS - every Tech guy has been arrogant and I've met quite a few.
This even extends to work experience - every department at the NHS will allow work experience but IT flatly refuse.

Perhaps I've just had bad experiences but I've yet to meet a nice one.

Ooops - could have sworn I was in GD (first time I've done that).
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All are up their own arse? You've yet to meet a nice one? Funny how I could easily say the same about 90% of people on this very forum, the up-their-own-arse, pious, snobbish and up-on-their-pedestal pedants who clamour for attention and the opportunity to spew caustic remarks at all and sundry! I don't say that lightly, either.:p

I work in IT support and in my team spread accross the country you couldn't have a nicer bunch of guys... all are friendly, polite, and certainly not your average stereotype of an IT geek who finds it hard to talk to people, and nearly all have girlfriends. You can't have met many if that's your solid opinion, because there are tons of nice guys out there. As has been stated, the problem is often that they have to deal with overwhelming stupidity on a regular basis for very little thanks, even common courtesy, and after a while that can grate on the nerves. We all have our off days. Either way from your posts in this thread it's clear you have the problem, and i'm guessing maybe it's because you may have some inferiority complex stemming from an ineptitude with computer or something similar. It's likely these techies are just going about their day harmlessly fixing computers while you or these people you know who hate them sit there seething and getting increasingly paranoid. You come accross as narrow-minded and petty in your views.

Visage said:
Because 90% of them are nerdy virgins who spend every non working, non waking hour playing WoW. The only thing they have over us normal folk is they have some (minor, generally) nerdy skillz. Its is obvious therefore, that they use this insignificant advantage to try and convince themselves that it in some ways makes up for thaeir lack of ability in every single other area of life.

It doesnt.

They seem to think that every time they say 'LOLZ - they thought their PC was broken, but they'd forgotten to turn on the monitor!, LAWKS' that it makes them better than the poor victimn of their condescension. It doesnt, and moreover, that 'victim' probably knows what a real naked woman looks like.....
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You consider yourself a "normal bloke", do you? Funny, from what i've seen of you on this forum in GD and SC you seem like a bit of an angry little man with a lot of screwed up view on many things. I'm sure if you said what you said face-to-face with a lot of these "gormless techies" without the cushty anonynymity of the interweb you'd be bricking it. Your post makes it seem like you're one one with issues. :D

easyrider said:
People's aspirations have nothing to do with the degree they get.

Sometimes its just a means to get money.

Then apply for jobs that equate to their eductaion.

Others find the foot in the door approach opens up massive doors for them.

Fact is get any job and a degree will set you on the right path.

Its graduates that want the be all and end all jobs when they don't even know how to communicate on forums thats gets me.Never mind in the work place.
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Nail. Hit. Head. Its's hilarious seeing people with a CS degree thinking they're going to walk into some cushty hgh-paid job, when the harsh reality is that 9/10 they will be sitting there scouring the job pages hoping to find any local IT job that is willing to take them on. Like it or not, for many people the foundation of any IT career is doing your time in the helpdesk trenches, building up experience and raising your profile, and then moving onwards and upwards from there. If you're lucky you can get in with a big and wealthy company with its fingers in many pies, and from there move out of .I.T support into the business where the real money is... which is what I intend on doing. The benefit of this is that it's much easier to move into other areas of the business internally than it is coming in externally, and you will often get the support of your managers etc to do it, as well as be able to skip some of the entrance requirements. Working in I.T. support and helping all those managers, senior managers directors and partners means you end up building a network of contacts in many different places, which will in turn make your transition to the next level easier. I make sure I get on with everyone in my office not only on a professional level but a personal one, and have made many friends. Don't know helpdesk roles, they can be very useful if you iknow what to do with them. :)
 
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Richdog said:
Nail. Hit. Head. Its's hilarious seeing people with a CS degree thinking they're going to walk into some cushty hgh-paid job, when the harsh reality is that 9/10 they will be sitting there scouring the job pages hoping to find any local IT job that is willing to take them on. Like it or not, for many people the foundation of any IT career is doing your time in the helpdesk trenches, building up experience and raising your profile, and then moving onwards and upwards from there. If you're lucky you can get in with a big and wealthy company with its fingers in many pies, and from there move out of .I.T support into the business where the real money is... which is what I intend on doing. The benefit of this is that it's much easier to move into other areas of the business internally than it is coming in externally, and you will often get the support of your managers etc to do it, as well as be able to skip some of the entrance requirements. Working in I.T. support and helping all those managers, senior managers directors and partners means you end up building a network of contacts in many different places, which will in turn make your transition to the next level easier. I make sure I get on with everyone in my office not only on a professional level but a personal one, and have made many friends. Don't know helpdesk roles, they can be very useful if you iknow what to do with them. :)
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FFS how many times do we have to say this? No one thinks that having a CS degree will automatically get you a high paying super job. A CS degree is *not* a precursor to an "IT career", it takes you into a computing career. I can only assume that those who have only seen IT and not computing can't tell the difference, but trust me it's there and it's significant.
 
bam0 said:
FFS how many times do we have to say this? No one thinks that having a CS degree will automatically get you a high paying super job. A CS degree is *not* a precursor to an "IT career", it takes you into a computing career. I can only assume that those who have only seen IT and not computing can't tell the difference, but trust me it's there and it's significant.
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A little clarification here might help some people.

A Computer Science degree will be of direct use to people who want to work with computers at an advanced level in their day-to-day work. I would put people like software developers, systems analysts and to some extent systems architects in this group.

Information Technology is a different discipline all together. Here you are dealing with implementation and maintenance of computer systems to support the business. Typically you will be spending a lot of time dealing with business issues rather than technical and dealing with people from all departments within an organisation. The most successful IT people usually have a strong technical background but are more concerned with how the IT infrastructure supports the business and keeps people working that necessarily the nitty-gritty details of the IT setup.

A CS degree is not a great deal of use in the latter example - indeed experience is much more likely to get you the job and serve you well for this kind of role.

Just my tuppence worth.
 
Richdog said:
Nail. Hit. Head. Its's hilarious seeing people with a CS degree thinking they're going to walk into some cushty hgh-paid job, when the harsh reality is that 9/10 they will be sitting there scouring the job pages hoping to find any local IT job that is willing to take them on.
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It's sad that you admonish Visage in one sentence, and then belittle people in a subsequent one.

The main problem is that people are led to believe by a bull******* government that getting a degree will lead them into high paying jobs. Nonsensical education targets and quite frankly atrocious standards of teaching have led to a generation of largely worthless degrees.
 
Most PC tech support folk are up themselves I agree.
Proper system engineers, programmers, consultants etc tend not to be.

I worked my way from IT helpdesk with a couple of bad a-levels to where I am now in 9 years (practice manager for an IT solutions company) and it was only hard work and a willingless to learn that got me there. A degree wouln't have helped me.
 
bam0 said:
FFS how many times do we have to say this? No one thinks that having a CS degree will automatically get you a high paying super job. A CS degree is *not* a precursor to an "IT career", it takes you into a computing career. I can only assume that those who have only seen IT and not computing can't tell the difference, but trust me it's there and it's significant.
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No-one thinks that? You can speak for everyone can you bam0? You're speaking for yourself, nobody else. The fact is a lot of people studying CS or related degrees have an unrealistic view of where it will take them straight out of uni, I have personally known many who thought they would be waltzing right into their dream IT/computing job only to end up in... yup... you guessed it... IT helpdesk. They have then gone from there to carve successful careers for themselves. It's those people I was referring to... if you personally don't hold that line of thinking then there's no need for you to respond so defensively to my post, I didn't meant it insultingly. :)

platypus said:
It's sad that you admonish Visage in one sentence, and then belittle people in a subsequent one.
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Yes, the world may just well end as a result. However, it's nothing I wouldn't say face-to-face, and it's my genuine opinion.
 
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Ignoring the flirting going on about IT vs CS..

I left support and moved into development, and it's a completely different world. When I did support, I like to think I wasn't one of these arrogant types, as just about everyone I worked with was.

However, just as equally, IT tech's are treated with contempt. Maybe it's a cycle of contempt between parties, but I had some seriously damn right rude users. "My PC is is broken, why did you let this happen? I can't login anymore, time is money and money is time. I'm holding you responsible for this, if I can't send this email within the next 5 minutes your head will roll." "You've accidentally put caps lock on, sir." only later to be complained about for "arrogance"...
 
Dj_Jestar said:
However, just as equally, IT tech's are treated with contempt. Maybe it's a cycle of contempt between parties, but I had some seriously damn right rude users. "My PC is is broken, why did you let this happen? I can't login anymore, time is money and money is time. I'm holding you responsible for this, if I can't send this email within the next 5 minutes your head will roll." "You've accidentally put caps lock on, sir." only later to be complained about for "arrogance"...
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Thats pretty much the crux of the problem. But then if IT users weren't idiots, there would be little need for IT support..
 
Richdog said:
No-one thinks that? You can speak for everyone can you bam0? You're speaking for yourself, nobody else. The fact is a lot of people studying CS or related degrees have an unrealistic view of where it will take them straight out of uni, I have personally known many who thought they would be waltzing right into their dream IT/computing job only to end up in... yup... you guessed it... IT helpdesk. They have then gone from there to carve successful careers for themselves. It's those people I was referring to... if you personally don't hold that line of thinking then there's no need for you to respond so defensively to my post is there. :)
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It's the generic "no one", not a literal "no one". Ie: That view isn't anything like as widespread as people think. And you're are mistaking exasperation with defensiveness, it seems all the IT people here want to equate their work and skills with computing. An equivalent example would be a drill rig worker thinking they work in the same field as a geophysicist, sure they might both get mucky occasionally but they are actually worlds apart.
The point is that it is a waste of the skills you get from a CS degree to go into IT support as the latter makes no use of them.
 
bam0 said:
It's the generic "no one", not a literal "no one". Ie: That view isn't anything like as widespread as people think. And you're are mistaking exasperation with defensiveness, it seems all the IT people here want to equate their work and skills with computing. An equivalent example would be a drill rig worker thinking they work in the same field as a geophysicist, sure they might both get mucky occasionally but they are actually worlds apart.
The point is that it is a waste of the skills you get from a CS degree to go into IT support as the latter makes no use of them.
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I'm in IT support and I have an environmental biology degree. Am I wasting my degree too?:(
 
Ben M said:
I can imagine that on the NHS they don't do work experience in IT because of the nature of the data that you'd be able to access.
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What I was thinking. Plus if somebody messed with a cable it could be disasterous. The NHS operate Mission Critical Systems and having a novice just "one spilled cup of tea" away from the servers...well go figure. on the other hand if they DID allow people there and they did cause a mistake, people would then jump all over them and complain etc.

- Pea0n
 
bam0 said:
It's the generic "no one", not a literal "no one". Ie: That view isn't anything like as widespread as people think. And you're are mistaking exasperation with defensiveness, it seems all the IT people here want to equate their work and skills with computing. An equivalent example would be a drill rig worker thinking they work in the same field as a geophysicist, sure they might both get mucky occasionally but they are actually worlds apart.
The point is that it is a waste of the skills you get from a CS degree to go into IT support as the latter makes no use of them.
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Ok I fully understand your point and apologise if I came accross as aggressive to you, you weren't a target in my posts. There is a sound difference betwene the fields, granted, but a lot of people regardless end up going into a helpdesk environment regardless of the path their CS degree should take them down, two of my friends among them. Starting in helpdesk can end up taking you where you want to go regardless of it not being what you specifically studied in your degree for... and my point was that it often serves as a platform to launch many and varied IT/computing-related careers. :)
 
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Mat said:
I'm in IT support and I have an environmental biology degree. Am I wasting my degree too?:(
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Saying it's a waste of the skills you got doesn't imply that it was a waste of time doing the degree. Although I doubt much of what you did in environmental biology relates to the work you do now, same as if you'd done a CS degree.
 
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