Hey peoplez, i have been asked to give a short talk about the IT industry to some new (IT) students. I was hoping to get a few ideas/topics to talk about from you guys. Just general, overall feel of what the IT industry is like, what to expect and stuff. A point i will mention is that IT is always evolving, so one must keep up with the evolution. Any other points?
If I'd want to be evil, I'd say you should tell them that no matter what they do (including customer support), they will never work for the costumer, and certainly their job won't be to do them much good, except if it's a side effect of what you want to achieve But to be serious, I have about zero clue, I only know the business from an end user's side of the table.
Just tell them to watch the IT Crowd series. Then tell them it's their actual future and watch them becoming emotional wrecks. But seriously in my opinion be realistic. Tell them about in what their future job will consist for example. Like that they gonna use Google 83% of the time. Also I'm not IT expert or related in any way to this profession but to my knowledge there are 2 types of people that seek help. First are the clueless people who have no idea what they even want and can't execute simple instructions like restarting the PC. Second are those which are a bit more average users but think they know everything. Usually they are very rude and angry. Tell them to be themselves and to believe in the better future and all their dreams and hopes.
That it is horrible just like everything else. Always evolving is a good topic which you mentioned, they need to keep themselves with the times not lag behind.
That it's amazing and that there's too much too learn. I've been doing this since I was 11 (building PC's, tweaking, overclocking etc) and I still learn today! (almost 22 now). Topics is going to be quite difficult, it should be something that catches their attention... Fancy CentOS terminal magic? Programming? Server management? Building actual components? Rendering/game development? Networking? There's sooo much. Ask them what they think about certain topics and continue with that?
university. thanks all for the ideas/feedback. i will compile something from the comments. looks interesting thanks again.
I took a gap year out during my undergrad to work for HP as an intern. Was invaluable experience. Perhaps let them know that it's always an option to take a year out and try get experience somewhere, most big companies will have intern programs.
25% knowledge in IT 25% luck&Google. The rest is a show for the client,just to show you sweated your butt off to earn your money. In IT,my limited experience taught me that when you do your job,it seems that you didn't do nothing at all,and when the sh!t hits the fan,IT gets all the blame and pay cuts. I wish that someone told me that before/after i finished my studies in computer science and got in IT field,which i left kinda.Too much stress.
anticupidon, i know what you mean. upper management is a bunch of wanna be retards where i am and they 'have each others back' an the low level techs get all the ****. what i have learnt is that just do the bare minimum, cos the more you know, the more work you get (with no pay rise ofcourse). Saale harami neech!! Anyway, thanks again all you guys. Tomorrow is d-day. i will lie like i have never lied before.
As a programmer I just. Sit all day and do the necessities cause holycrap doing too much work for no more salary is pointless.
I'm so glad that the company I work for isn't like that :O Anyhoooo, good luck! Try talking about something you like, you'll transmit your enthusiasm easier that way
Tell the truth,even lying. Had a guy who lied(for the company) and told the truth in jokes in example while winking ....had to read between lines.It was a rite of passages for some us us, who knew better
1) Always assume user error first. That includes you (the Tech) 2) Learn to equivocate. 3) You can have it fast, cheap or good. Pick two.
Tell them it's all BS and they should simply buy a CISCO book instead of some lecturer regurgitating the same crap as in the books anyway but in an amazingly more boring fashion. Tell them to read it, be bored by it and hope when they pay to sit their CISCO exams that they pass without having to attend CISCO boot camp in the next 5 years to reiterate what they forgot. And most importantly, tell them to kiss their bosses ring piece.