IT people, tell about your job.

In My Humble Opinion
1

So I am kind of the only IT guy in my extended family, and among my of my friends. I am constantly fielding questions about the IT world from people considering working in the field. I was just over posting in MPSIMS about my job and it occured to me I might solicit opinions from the rest of the geeks around here, to put together a little guide to point them too, maybe even a bit lower level than you naturally talk, just to clue in the total outsiders.

And to get the ball rolling I guess I’ll start.

I’m am currently working application support. It is on an large mission critical system for a large company. I am tier three at the moment. What that means is we have three teams of support. 1st tier is also sometimes called helpdesk. They get the basic questions about logging into the system as a whole, make sure their monitor is working, create a new user login for the applications. They work with almost every application the company has. For the matters that are out of their scope they transfer the users to tier two. Tier 2(which is called frontend support in some orgs). is specific to our application. They help the users with the front end of the app. The front end is the part the users run everyday and work through. Tier2 does some problem solving through the front end such as making sure the users profile is correct, and can talk through common and known problems.

For the stuff they cannot fix they pass it up to us in tier3(or backend support in some companies). We seldom use the actual program, instead we play around in the database and on the servers. It’s kind of a hard role to describe to start this thing with, because it has a blend of System administration, database administration and developmen(which if this thread works will be discussed by someone later). We are essentially the experts on the system and are expected to know everything about what is going on from the database, to the disks to the network, to the users. It’s not hardcore in-depth System administration, is the sense we don’t visit the computer room and change hardware. We also don’t install new servers and run patches. But we do have to know how to analyse the load, know know the architecture is supposed to be set up. If we find a drive has been lost from the system, we have to be able to tell the SA where it needs to be mounted, and what needs to be on it, even though they do the actuall mounting and installing.

The same with database work. We have to know how the databases are configued, which files are written to what disks, analyse perfomance and make suggestions. But the DBA team does the actual work of bringing the database down, re configuring it and bringing it back up.

We don’t do the hardcore development work, as that is handled by developers. But we do have to know enough to know where the errors are, figure out where the code is out of sync with the design, and create work around when the code cannot be fixed. We also right a lot of scripts and utilities that access the database, because we know what the loads are, and can work around them, without compromising the system. An example of this might be a director requesting a new access utility. They may have found some corrupted data in the app, and hireded 5 temps for three months to fix it. But rather than giving them access to the system through the normal front end interface, they want them to have only limited access. And rather than try to get the developers to create a new lightweight interface out of the existing one, they will tell us tier three support to just create a secure script to allow them only the access they need.

We also go to a godawful number of meetings. As the experts on the system(I have yet to have a manager with a clue about the tech side of things) we are always talking about the current load, explaining outages(when the app is unavailable), running custom reports on this and that. We also do a lot of documentation, and coordination between every group related to the app.

Pros: Lots of variety, new chalenges everyday. No one telling how to do the job, because nobody knows it better than you. A good plan of advancement, many people start as helpdesk, work their way to tier two and then tier three without a degree. It takes time and work, but it’s much easier to do than other IT work where you need the impressive stuff to even get started.

Cons. Can be frustrating, because if it is a problem in the app that is not database related, system related, or code related, there is no one to go to for help, you just have to slog it out. Usually only two teir 3 people, so you are on call for half of your life, just incase the app needs something complicated in the middle of the night. Lower pay than DBAs SAs and developers because people think you’re just glorified helpdesk :(. Hard to transfer skills to a new position. Unlike a SA, or DBA, where each year of work makes you more of an expert on Oracle or Solaris, and therefore more transferable. App support you just beome more of an expert on the app, which doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world, and if you take a new app support job you are starting over as a novice.

2

Since I have never done this before I’m giving a quick bump to see if the weekend crowd has more time to throw in.

3

I just started my application support shift. It blows. :frowning:

4

apps programmer for 19 years, for a state agency. I liked it for the first 10, now I’m counting down until i can retire.

Since our state is more hosed than others, we’ve had massive cuts and they will continue. We now have 9 apps programmers working for a major agency with over 2500 employees. We can’t do half of what is needed. We’re being shifted into ‘consultant/liaisons’ in a fw months. Now the prorrams will have to hire contrctors and we’re the go-betweens, the ones who kow the standards, what’s happening at DOA who controls the computers, knowledge of history of teh programs, etc… Programming will be less and less of our job. The state has succeeded in gtting rid of emplyoyees/programmers but the slack will be picked up by consutlants who will be hired. They get $70/hr minimum. We make, with benefits $45/hr. But there ARE less employees, and that’s what the people want. Our state is so screwed.

I use Powerbuilder, sas, cobol, and just learned DOT NET. I personally like the old school stuff-cobol. DOT NET I haven’t used, but think these new languages are real hard to learn and comprehend. Before you just needed cobol and jcl. Now to get something done it seems I need to know DOT NET, asp, xml, java, html and who knows what else. Progress?? ufff.

If i had more time, i’d go into something else, radiology or nursing but I’ve got 12 years minimum, and I do like the 5+ weeks of vacation I’ve earned, and the 1600 hours of sick leave I have banked.

5

oops, sorry for all those typo’s. There’s a really bad glare on the screen.

and I still have to look at the keys to type. :smack:

6

I am a Computer Operator for a big payroll company.

Using an AS800 iSeries Server, we process payroll.

Front office personell get phone calls and faxes from our customers. They input all the information, such as payrates, hours worked and such, and then submit the payroll to the system. The system balances the payroll, making sure all the numbers balance out.

At that point, the payroll becomes avaiable to us. Using menu commands for the most part, we select a group of payrolls with similar delivery methods, and submit them for processing. The system runs the payroll, creating all the tax files and output.

We then chose a printer for the output to go to, and start the printer.

We stack the payrolls up on a series of shelves, and our payroll wrapping folks take them away. Everynight we do a daily backup, and once a week we do an entire system backup.

I’ve been doing this now for almost 2 years. I’m getting bored, and my boss, as cool as she is, is also incredibly cheap… for example, the other groups are gotten lunch on a pretty regular basis. We, do not. Small, I know, but our morale suffers because of it.

7

Software engineer for a large fortune 500 company. We sell shrink-wrapped industrial automation programs, business intelligence software, factory floor data analysis, internet and intranet apps, and anything else that fits into the business model. Plus I do a lot of in-house development for supporting the development environment, build processes, internal intranet, etc. We have to be very flexible in what we’re willing to do and the tools we use. One day I’ll be coding Javascript and HTML, and the next I might be working on a device driver in C++. Then a Java applet another day, then perhaps some stored procedures for an SQL back-end for one of our OEE products. We’re really all over the map. I like the challenges and the chance to learn so many different technologies, but it’s also a lot of work, and I find that I’m having a harder and harder time remembering the exact syntax and object interfaces when switching between so many different languages all the time.

I have also been an IT manager looking after the infrastructure, setting up servers, managing databases, etc. I found that much easier. Almost relaxing and peaceful compared to the constant strain of short deadlines (often missed) in software development.

8

My title is Production Control Planner. This involves Many Things. I could easily get extremely verbose about what I do, but will try to restrain myself.

There are two Planners. Among our tasks that we do pretty much every business day are:

  • Setting up for (updating parm files, reviewing documentation, more) and scheduling batch processes that update and manipulate the databases that drive our products. Scheduling basically involves knowing what time of the day a process can run; some can run while users are accessing the databases, some have to run during evenings and other times users are blocked from accessing the databases.

  • When errors occur during these batch processes, we coordinate remediation of whatever caused the errors, or correct the causes of the errors ourselves if we have the knowledge to do so. This can involve making contact with multiple departments. It also involves prioritizing (for the on-call Planner) if a process that failed during non-business hours has to be fixed before the next business day or if it can wait until the next business day.

  • For the execution of these batch processes, we use a system that allows for automation of the execution of the processes and for automation of distribution of reports created by those processes. From time to time Planners have to go into that system to set up new processes and reports or alter the set up of existing processes or reports.

  • We assist with requests for product related CDs and DVDs. This involves going into the software we use that tells the CD/DVD burner systems where on the internal network to find the particular data set that needs to be put on the disks, how many copies to make, what protocol to use, etc. We set up all those details in the software, then another department that actually operates the burner systems uses the software to create the disks.

  • We do several tasks that run in the company’s customer management system. For instance, from time to time we need to run processes within this system that are related to the customer data and other data that goes on product shipping labels.

  • We also deal with security for the customer management system. That involves from time to time receiving security forms for new employees who need to use that system. The forms give us the details we need to define on the system exactly what that person can and can not access within the system. And when a person leaves the company who had been using the system, we receive the proper form that tells us to remove the person.s ability to use the system. And from time to time we need to make modifications to what a person can access within the system.

Those are the major details. There are all kinds of minor things I won’t get into.

On an average day I can receive and send 70-80 emails. On really busy days, that number can go to 100 or more!

9

I’ll try not to make this a Lengthy Tale of Woe ™.

I work for a large steel manufacturer. My division provides building materials - roofing, gutters, downpipes etc.

When I started there, I was a member of a small IT support team. The defacto team leader resigned within three weeks of my starting there, so I foolishly told my boss I’d do the job.

Ok, enough complaining. My actual job title is Infrastructure Support Analyst. My official duties are to provide support to the userbase (about 1100 people, 30 sites), to ensure the integrity of the company’s server and network infrastructure, and to ensure policies are complied with.

In practice, my time is spent writing policies, liasing with vendors, creating business cases, putting together budgetary information, running small projects, scheduling outages etc as well as all the regular break-fix stuff that comes with being a support person. I’m basically doing two peoples’ jobs. It’s tiring and stressful.

They will be changing my job title to Infrastructure Support Coordinator (hopefully this means a payrise too), which is not something I’m entirely comfortable with. I’m finding myself increasingly distanced from the technology and doing wanky pen-pushing. In particular, I’m doing way more project management than I’ve ever wanted to do.

My biggest problem now is that I feel my only career path is the wanky stuff. My certifications are way out of date, and the environment I’m in just isn’t conducive to learning new technologies on the job (the previous Business Systems managers were luddites - we’ve only just moved on from green-screen terminals). I promised myself I would never be a paper MCSE - and now I think it might be the only way to get out of this bind :rolleyes:

Bah, sorry folks. I did say I’d try not to make it a Lengthy Tale of Woe, didn’t I, so best I stop.
Max.