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Four Wrong Reasons to Work in IT

Those of us in the industry know: Tech is an amazing place to be. But like any career path, it can be a disasterous one if you head down it for the wrong reasons. Here are a few that can trip you up…

Money and Job Security – Sure, relatively high pay and job security keep a lot of people working in technology, but money only motivates for so long. When the inevitable long nights on the occasional boring project begin, you’ll need more than just moeny to keep you involved.

People talk with their friends in IT and learn that the good ones are very well paid. Great programmers, security professionals, and IT managers can afford an amazing lifestyle, but being attracted to that lifestyle doesn’t mean that you’ll make a good programmer. It takes more than that.

Love of the Internet – Even people who work for Internet companies don’t spend all of their time online, so if you’re hoping to extend your surfing and chatting time with a job in tech, you may want to think again. That’s not to say that many IT jobs don’t demand an uber-connected lifestyle. They do. It’s just that being on call in case a server starts to wobble is very different from spending lots of time on the net.

Excitement – Adventure? Excitement? A jedi craves not these things. And if you want a successful career in tech, you’d do well to avoid making them your primary motivations. Sure, there’s plenty of allure about working in a fast-paced industry where you get to touch the latest technology, but not everyone gets to work at Google or Apple. While tech jobs do have their exciting moments, those times are balanced by days and weeks where you’ll be working in infrastructure. You need other sources of motivation to get you through those times.

Gaming – Gamers love them some technology, but love for your Xbox does not a good IT worker make. Sure, you may end up at a company with sweet hardware and a network that’s just made for a late-night LAN party. You may even land at a company that won’t mind letting you set that up. But you shouldn’t count on it. And if you’re making that a primary decision point when you’re in the middle of a job search, well, you might be looking for a while…

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