I started my IT career in 2011, I have enjoyed it, I have got to do a lot of interesting stuff and meet interesting people, I will treasure those memories forever.
But, starting with crypto turing general computing from being:
“Wow, this machine can run so many apps at the same time!” or “Holy shit, those graphics look epic!” or “Amazing, this computer has really sped up that annoying task!”
To being:
Yo! Look at how many numbers I can generate!
That brought down my enthusiasm severely, but hey, figuring out solutions to problems was still fun.
Then came AI/LLMs.
And with it, a mountain of slop.
Finding help about an issue has gone from googling and reading help articles written by something with an actual brain to mostly being rephrased manuals that only provide working answers to semi standard answers.
Add to that a general push to us AI in anything and everything, no matter how little relevance it holds for the task at hand.
I also remember how AI was sold to the us at first, we were promised to do away with boring paperwork, so we could get on with our actual job.
What did we get? An AI that takes the fun and creative parts, leaving the paperwork for the workers.
We got an AI that we need to expect to be stealing our work and data at every point, giving us shit work back, while being told that we should applaude it and be grateful for it.
And the worst thing, the worst thing is that people seem happy with it. I keep getting requests to buy another Copilot license or asking for another AI service to be added to our tenant, I am sick of it!
We got an AI that somehow has slithered onto the golden throne and can’t be questioned.
I am not able to leave the tech market at this time, but I will focus on more tangible hobbies going forward.
This year, I have given myself a project, I will try to build a model railway in a suitcase. That will be a Z-scale tiny world in a suitcase.
I have never done anything remotely like it, but I feel like I need something physical to take my mind off tech.
Sorry for the rant, but I just came off of a high from realizing and putting words to my feelings.
Sounds like you are doing sysadmin work for an public institution or so where people are only bullshitting their jobs. Maybe try moving to something more impactful? Like rail infrastructure or so?
Pivot to OT or telecommunication. Actual telecommunications in any industrial setting is screaming for capable people and is normally focused on providing critical safety systems. You may have to work for a soul destroying Oil and Gas company, but you could also get into rail or power.
That actually sounds quite interesting!
I find telecoms to be interesting.
I really like the work, Equipment tends to be a lot more diverse than bog standard IT, networks and systems more targeted to specific applications, technologies could be anything from ethernet to P2P microwave to satcoms to mobile radio to cellular to SDH/PDH, supported applications/systems will keep you forever learning, work locations can be pretty varied. While the industry generally struggles for staff, breaking in can be tough, but I think so long as you’re a straight shooter and willing to learn you’re generally fine. People transition in from IT all the time.
I’ll have to look into it, thanks for the tip!
For almost my entire career I have been working in the finance industry, my past place of work was amazing, if I get an offer to go back, I would go immediately.
I wouldn’t mind working in IT at a rail company, would be interesting
That’s the worst, mate. Just switching to a different filed may improve things. Nowhere is sunshine and rainbows, but I’m I’m in medical tech and not finance. Helping save lives is at least something I believe in, instead of moving money to siphon money.
About half my career and part of my current contract load is to a public organization of one type or another. But I’ve been half and half anyway.
Dotcom is a wasteland of gunners/pluggers and wageslaves, none of them afforded enough time to get anything complete and good. Public orgs with union contracts employ people with a good life balance and the freedom to do a great job about 95% of the time, after the layers of regulations are met.
I found slackers at both types of org: the public slacker is a hapless clod whose tasks all get reassigned and he really doesn’t do much. He’s about 3% of the workforce. The dotcom slacker is a harried guy muddling through something he’s not trained for, with no help since his peers have their own KPIs, hoping like fuck he can get Project Grapefruit done by next Town Hall meeting lest he be voted off the island. Again, 3%.
The public org is great people who’ve done this work effectively their entire career. They’re astoundingly good at it, and are still energized by the work and the educational programmes. Dotcoms have no training and the few people who make it past 2 years are likely PIPped by year 4 because of the “fresh talent” policy
I envy the public org people. I miss my non-work life sometimes.