Besides the obvious reasons to work in IT (a higher salary than many other jobs, not having to wear a coat and tie to work, playing with new technology, having an aptitude for computers), here are some more reasons why IT isn't such a bad place to be right now:
1. You're an instant computer expert to those who don't work in IT.
2. You know what it's like to experience "flow," that state of mind where you get so involved with what you're doing that you lose all track of time.
3. You're part of a field that's constantly changing, so you learn new things and adapt to new situations--reducing your chances of getting Alzheimer's Disease. (Okay, maybe you don't care now but you will, you will.)
4. Every organization needs an IT person, whether it's a pro basketball team, a hospital, a university, a school district, a publishing company, or a government agency.
5. You have us: the editors who work for Windows IT Pro. You are all we think about for 8 hours a day. Seriously. Eleven or 12 minds constantly humming away, kind of like your own private datacenter. Maybe 14 minds, actually.
Some of those 14 minds (i.e. those higher up on the editorial food chain) are visiting Microsoft to see what everyone's doing over there. They're reporting and twittering (I hate the word "tweeting") about it too.
As for me (I'm Caroline, Editor #8 or #9, maybe #6), I'm acquiring some Group Policy articles, very hands-on stuff, which Darren Mar-Elia is working on. And Guido Grillenmeier has promised to have some more Active Directory articles in soon. Another all-around good-guy IT guy, Eric Rux, went through a very intense AD migration recently, which I'm hoping to bring to you in all its technical glory. And I'm querying some other folks about writing about Windows event logs, thanks to reader email.
But at the heart of it all, I'm interested in what you're doing in IT right now. Drop me an email, tell me what's going on where you work. If nothing's going on, tell me why you got into IT in the first place. I'm here and I'm listening.
