#ITLife #DayInTheLife #TechCareer
Have you ever wondered what a day in the life of an IT professional looks like? Well, buckle up because I’m about to give you the inside scoop on what it’s like to work in the exciting world of information technology!
👩🏽💻 What’s a typical day like in IT?
A day in the life of an IT professional can vary depending on the specific role and company, but here’s a general overview of what you might expect:
1. Morning Routine
– Many IT professionals start their day by checking emails and reviewing any urgent issues that may have arisen overnight.
– This is also a time for planning out the day’s tasks and priorities.
2. Problem-Solving
– IT professionals are often tasked with troubleshooting technical issues, whether it’s fixing software bugs, resolving network issues, or addressing hardware malfunctions.
– This can be both challenging and rewarding, as it requires critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
3. Project Work
– Many IT professionals are also involved in ongoing projects, such as implementing new systems, upgrading infrastructure, or developing custom software solutions.
– This may involve collaborating with cross-functional teams and stakeholders to ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget.
4. Customer Support
– Providing support to end-users is a crucial aspect of many IT roles.
– This can involve responding to help desk tickets, assisting employees with technical issues, and providing training on new systems and tools.
5. Ongoing Learning
– Staying current with the latest technologies and trends is essential in the fast-paced world of IT.
– IT professionals often spend time researching and learning new skills to stay ahead of the curve.
🔍 What type of IT career are you in?
There are countless career paths within the field of information technology, each with its own unique responsibilities and opportunities for growth. Here are a few examples of common IT roles:
1. Network Administrator
– Manages and maintains an organization’s computer networks, ensuring that they are secure, reliable, and efficient.
2. Software Developer
– Designs, develops, and tests software applications to meet the needs of end-users and businesses.
3. Cybersecurity Analyst
– Protects an organization’s sensitive information and systems from cyber threats, such as hackers and malware.
4. Data Analyst
– Collects and analyzes data to help businesses make informed decisions and identify trends and patterns.
5. IT Project Manager
– Oversees the planning, implementation, and completion of IT projects, coordinating resources and managing stakeholders.
So, what’s it really like to be in IT? It can be a mix of feelings – happy when solving complex problems and learning new things, stressed when dealing with urgent issues, and challenged by the constantly evolving nature of technology. But at the end of the day, many IT professionals find their work to be incredibly rewarding and fulfilling. If you’re considering a career in IT, hopefully this peek into the daily life of an IT professional has given you some valuable insight!
Are you currently in the field of IT? What’s your typical day like? Let us know in the comments below! And if you’re considering a career in IT, feel free to reach out with any questions you may have – we’d love to hear from you. #TechCareers #ITProfessionals #TechnologyJobs
Jack of all trades for a non-profit. No two days are the same, usually. It’s probably an even split between general desk nothingness (meetings, emails, product research) and technical work (maintenance, scripting, deployment). Not that challenging anymore. Low stress, low pay. Currently looking for more stress for more pay.
Tier 1 at an MSP. Work on tickets all day, constantly figuring out why things are broken. Many tickets are stupid problems that aren’t really problems, or things like user error. Constantly speaking with customers and dealing with people. Overall it’s pretty good, but I’ll be happier when I’m tier 2 😉
Most of my day is planning which bathroom to hang myself with my belt in.
I highly suggest getting into the It field ! Lol
Cisco TAC- one moment I solve a ticket that takes five seconds, the other it’s a stupid crazy outage you’re on all day for. It’s stressful at times but it’s rewarding in its own way. You just learn you can’t please everyone as much as you’d like to..
I (25M) IoT (internet of things) engineer facilitating proof of concepts and proof of business for the automotive industry. My current projects are RFID (radio frequency identification) and autonomous vehicle measuring systems. The RFID is an IoT enabler and allows us to put a THING on the INTERNET. It gives any item a unique identifier that data can be associated with and actions / decisions can then be made based on that data when the RFID tag is read. The autonomous vehicle measuring systems can be lidar tech for autonomous driving, tpms for bringing the ID of the tire to the vehicle, and many other tech. My day to day is currently pretty boring. I am trying to assess the market for some tech developed by my European counterparts for the US market. So it means talking to a lot of people about technology that I know needs a lot of work but “up selling” it so that people buy into the idea. Not IT related so it kind of sucks at the moment. I really like the research and development aspect of my job but I rarely get to do it. I am more IoT management at this point. I despise management roles and responsibilities cause it truly just isn’t for me. I travel a decent amount, I was just at CES and will be in Germany and France in the next few months. IoT is a jack of all trades industry and every aspect of the IT stack is needed within IoT. I’m always down to talk about a passion so feel free to ask any questions!
I had about 12 meetings today, anywhere from half an hour to 2 hours each. I launched two new projects. That was stakeholders of a dozen regional offices for an AV rollout. Had 2 one on one with my team members. Participated in small outage. Spent some time renegotiating a contract with a vendor.
I run a unified communications team, I’m in charge of all the faxing technologies, contact center phone, IVR, All audio video. And AI.
Some days I’m stressed out of my gourd some days I hate my life, but for the most part I really truly love the challenge and the technology.
Hide in the server room for a bit. Hide in the bathroom for a bit. Hide outside for a bit. Fast walk to appear busy for a bit. Head home.
Male (23), recently graduated with a Bachelor in IT May 2023. This is my first IT job ever. I don’t have my A+ but I have a bunch of fundamental Microsoft and Google certs that I earned for free.
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I work at a university right now as on-site IT Support. I’m basically a full time student worker with access to the building keys and whatnot.
It’s pretty easy I won’t lie and I like being able to problem solve and just get stuff ready for people. Basically once I get into the office, I say hi to the front-desk secretary, log in to my computer and get logged into our portal and ticketing system. Then I basically just keep an eye on that and the phone. Sometimes I have to reset passwords or go to a classroom to fix a hardware issue. In between, my boss or co-workers will ask me to get some computers ready and I’ll have to reimage them which just means configure them and get a charger ready.
My day isn’t consistent with work though, some days I’ll be running around constantly, other days I’ll just be sitting at my desk waiting for something to do. Been trying to study for other certs to try and upskill but the reality is I’m just browsing youtube and chatting on Discord until I get a ticket or phone call.
Pay isn’t great right now and I get no benefits cause I’m considered a contractor but I’m hoping to move up soon.
Can’t complain other than the pay/benefits, this beats working at an Amazon Warehouse anytime of the day.
Work 3rd shift as a helpdesk analyst at a MSP for a F500 company. A lot of talking to overseas workers and contractors and troubleshooting their stuff. Overall it’s not too bad as we have days where it’s not busy since it’s 3rd shift, but the pay is downright awful
Tell people that they need to contact HR if they have a problem with their pay. Tell people to contact the police if they have found a dead body. Go for lunch. Copy and paste a question into Google, copy and paste the answer back. Tell someone to contact security if their dead body has been stolen from the car park. Watch YouTube.
I troubleshoot a variety of software and hardware health/performance issues, from simple faults to deeper debugging. I spend a lot of time in meetings, more than I’d like to some days, but in between I try to fit in as much automation as I can.
System specialist is my title but I do a it all. My company has 2 people supporting 130 users across multiple cities. Plus a lot of work from home people. My day is non-stop putting out fires for users. Any spare time I get is spent working on improving my environment. Probably noteworthy that I inherited this environment from someone 6 months ago and the other IT person only runs reports and supports our main database software, but they don’t know anything else in IT. I handle everything else. Never a dull moment and as long as your self motivated there is always something to do. Even in the rare moments I don’t have a project to work on, I will pick something I want to understand better, and start learning.
IT is an extremely broad field with a ton of specialties and generalist type positions. In my experience the ones who enjoy it the most are those who are genuinely interested in what they’re doing, have an inner drive to constantly learn new things, and have healthy boundaries between work and personal life. Very easy career to get burnt out in though.
Desktop support at a big casino/resort. Pretty chill and easy going most days. Pretty easy work never very challenging. Mostly just walking around, it can take many hours just for one ticket.
Wake up. Work a ticket. Get out of bed.
A Dispatch network engineer and T2 Support working at an MSP currently.
For Dispatch network engineer(when I’m not supporting end-users in their back office):
Go back to my company’s office at 9am and wait for dispatch jobs (I get to bring my own laptop to study or game). Usually dispatch jobs are from Telecom companies or on-site jobs for existing clients or vendors, consists of either laptop/desktop fixes or network troubleshooting (wrong settings in the routers, reset, etc). The great thing about them are bumping inyo a lot of scenarios that have weird network configurations, so I get to learn a lot. On the contrary, you’ll have to familiarize the networks and troubleshoot them on the spot with little to none (info) to start with. Ending up learning a lot and currently trying to get the CCNA.
For T2 Support:
Wait for helpdesk to escalate tickets to me if they can’t resolve the issue, some VIP user support as well and some network configurations or smart-hand (basically I’m just sitting in the client’s back office as my company outsources support/engineers to different clients depending on the contracts). Got to work on my communication skills (oh man, sometimes you just straight up deal with bossy bitches or crybabies that don’t even bother to change volume settings or try to switch the device settings on Microsoft Teams. They’re all either directors or higher-ups.)
Overall, it’s a decent experience, but it’s a Russian roulette as I don’t get to decide what contracts or jobs I’m getting my hands on, could be a back office that doesn’t have much to deal with(going out for strolls in the nearby park without anyone giving a shit about that) or an office that I need to work my ass off the entire day.
Help other IT professionals use their tools. Wonder daily if I got lost on the way to work and ended up in end user support again.
Create automations, write powershell scripts, keep tools working and make sure people know how to use them.
Right now I’m troubleshooting why people can’t auth into our broken ass RMM that we are thankfully replacing. After that I’m going to work on an automation to scrape a report and send us alert emails based off it because our vendor is too incompetent to have proper alerting for the service we’re using. Then I’m going to work some more on porting over our RMM set up from the shit ass one to our new one.
DevOps.
Have no idea what’s happening and bullshit my way through Daily.
Play games until lunch, spend 2h during my 1h break even though I WFH. Do some laundry, groceries, walk the dogs.
Deploy some minor updates Devs send me. Bitch about bugs that inevitably happens during deployment and wait two more hours for them to fix it even though they will send me the same fucken version with the same errors, so patch it by myself. Finish deploy, mail stakeholders, log 3x the time to justify my day. Joke around with the guys from DB team.
Analyse logs from incidents, ignore them and send back to 2nd level support so they’ll think they are responsible to handle it. Tell stakeholders during meeting that’s not on my contract.
The CEO of my company called me to fix his speaker, turns out power buttons turns things on
Come in, check my emails and ticket requests. Coworker stops by shoots the shit for half an hour, then go out and do 1-2 tickets, make my rounds in the hallways and check on everyone and let my presence be known. Those with issues will pull me in. Come back to the office, check on email again, queue up YouTube to catch all the NFL games I missed out on over the weekend.
Go to lunch (30min-2hrs), come back from lunch.
Go image and inventory a few machines. Check inventory, order some equipment. Read the news, maybe tests some things, do research or catch up on a bit of Netflix.
I work in public sector, 6 figures, always above or outstanding on PRD review.
You answer a few emails or phone calls on the weekends from the VIPs from time to time, help your director and team look good and they give you a lot of leeway to do whatever you want.
Talking to devs, supports and management. Attend Report and Meetings. Discuss something for 30 minute to 1 hour regarding strategic reports/documentations/suggestions. Assist devs on building/solving and assisting supports. Talk to management lots and lots. Since it’s new year, I 99.9% might assist newcomers while doing everything above.
Absolutely Hate all of it. Hey it gives money and I’m used to it.
Cybersecurity. I have worked many jobs at many places in my career. At some the weight of the company was on my shoulders and I was busy all day every day. At some jobs my management only wanted me to do “break/fix” things so I worked only a few hours a day while getting paid (boring) waiting for the show to drop.
If you find yourself at a boring job like my last example make sure you spend free time bettering yourself by learning new things. Take those new things you learned and write up proposals for your boss as to how they g could be of use. Do this at least monthly.
If you aren’t improving your skill set you will fall behind
I’m a 7 year in CCNP. I’ve been at this gig on a team of CCIEs and I literally usually do NOTHING. Been here for 3/4 of a year and pretty much all I do is study and stay confused. The guys are bringing me along….but man, it’s slow. I’m used to getting hired, being brought up to speed like drinking from a fire-hose and maybe drowning for a month or two, but that def isn’t how they are doing it.
Enterprise Data Protection Specialist. I work with nationwide (US) scale multi-site backup configurations with disaster recovery and site-to-site replication. I work from home most days, and do everything from sitting in planning meetings all day, to configuration triage, correcting replication failures, reporting, analyzing, optimizing, and testing equipment upgrades and maintenance. It’s low stress, my team rocks, and I only go into the office for physical hardware failures or issues. I love it, it’s a steep climb to build the technical knowledge to succeed in this role, but once acquired it’s a fantastic job. Pretty niche role, as we sit somewhere between storage management and cybersecurity.
Log into the call queue, take calls almost back to back, catch up on tickets that are being ignored by the rest of my teammates, go to lunch, come back into the queue to immediate calls, log out at 5, go home and question if this job is even worth the stress when I’m not being paid well.
Almost forgot, train out intern because nobody else wants to do it. I’m at the point where I’m starting to seriously looking into a different career.
Weekdays
1. Wake up and make coffee
2. Join the phone queue
3. Work tickets non-stop for 8 hours
4. Cook > workout > shower > clean
5. Work side hustles
6. Spend time with gf
7. Sleep
Typically, after this daily weekday schedule, I have no time for anything else. I work non-stop for 8 hours with an hour lunch to break the day. Tickets never stop coming in and clients never stop calling. I usually like to either learn something new or game on the weekends. With how crazy my work life has been lately, the weekends are usually reserved for watching movies with my gf or playing video games.
Wake up
Work from home or take the train to the office
Work at office for 8 hours
Get home
Study
Game
Spend time with girlfriend and watch youtube
Sleep
My work consists of:
Fixing hardware defects and inventorizing, picking up calls and solving tickets, usually user side issues.
Sometimes I lead bigger IT projects.
Sometimes i have a decent amount of free time which i often fill with udemy e-learning funded by my employer.
I’m helpdesk but my studies are focused on Data Engineering
VMware Engineer. I love my job. It’s no stress at all.
This is what I did today.
Start 6AM – I work from home. After I logged in, I went and got coffee.
I then started logging into all my systems/dashboards to do a once over and make sure there is no red (outages).
I found 1 VMware ESXi host with failed memory. I opened a ticket with HPE to get it replaced.
7AM – Daily meeting going over everything that happened over the weekend. Nothing for me.
8AM – Started looking at my tickets. I have several daily tickets I need to get done. Check logs and clear alerts.
9AM – Call with Dell. Our VxRail upgrade failed last week. This call was to troubleshoot it. Turns out it was a cert that it could not verify, but was indeed good. Edited a file in Linux to skip that part of the upgrade. Upgrade finished and I closed out my change ticket.
11AM – Lunch
12 PM – Meeting to discuss some deviations. We reviewed our current deviations and updated some wording in the documentation.
1PM – Meeting for a new project. We have some VMware ESXi hosts that run our Spunk environment. They need to be upgraded from ESXi 6.7 to 7.0 and moved to a new vCenter and have their DNS changed to match our standard.
2PM – Edited some PowerShell script to configure the Splunk ESXi hosts after they are upgraded.
3PM – Log off for the day.
Tomorrow will be similar, but not exactly the same. And I can’t wait. I really look forward to going to work. I’ve been blessed to be able to play with computer for 20+ years. I couldn’t imagen having another job.
Get up, look for jobs, apply for jobs, hope to hear back, interview, wait…
Systems engineer with a specialty in Azure AD, M365, Exchange, AD, account provisioning, IAM.
GIAM, drive 40 minutes, clock in, compare two Excel sheets to each other. Send an email, sit through a meeting and then scroll my phone for 7 hours waiting to go home.
Also work desktop support, nights, where I study for the huge gaps between easy calls.
I work Help Desk, I get to work at 8 and answer calls/work on tickets for the first hour of my day. Hide in bathroom/imaging room until our team meeting at 10:30. Sandbag my assigned work until 5. Go home