IT Sucks : a hard-coded perception or reality.

Listening to the word "IT" , first thing that clicks amongst most of mind's is :"IT Sucks". Have you ever thought what makes you feel that "IT" is the worst of the jobs available in the Corporate Industry ?

Outsourcing is something that has made India, a country full of job opportunities with IT, BPO, KPO jobs. There are approx 3500 engineering colleges in India, offering 14.85 lakhs seats (Capacity) with varieties of streams Mechanical, Civil, Computer, Chemical, Electrical, Biotechnology, Aeronautical engineering , Industrial, Instrumentation, Marine, etc.These engg colleges make 15 lakhs engineers annually and approximately 60-70% of engineering graduates irrespective of the stream they come from, join IT. Now the question here is that despite the colleges offering so many job why 70% join IT ???

One obvious reason is that the number of jobs IT offers is more than any other sector. Other than this , it is quite easy to get into IT industry compared to other sectors. In bangalore the situation is like if you throw a stone in a crowd, 99% chances are that it will hit a software engineer :). These days getting a job in government sector is like owning The Kohinoor(the largest diamond ever known with un-estimated cost and is the purest form of diamond in the whole world). Lakhs of people write exams for vacancy of a few seats in public sector. Taking an example of banking, around 4 lakhs people wrote IBPS clerk exam for hardly 100 seats.

A man always likes someone else's wife, or a hindi proverb sets perfect here i.e. Ghar ki Murgi daal barabar. Generally people can see only the greenery of the other side. Its really very hard to fit in someone's else shoes and even if you try to , the knots are not tied the way it is tied for the person facing in-front.

Many of my friends are working in core industries and we end up discussing about professional/job life manier times. Engineers working in IT find Core/Non IT Engineers job to be better while Core engineers find an IT professional's job to be perfect. A Core engineers(for eg civil/mechanical) job demand him to sweat, respire dusts, all day standing in field with low salaries. On top of that, they are forced to miss the glamour of life(as they say :)) by getting settled in small tier 3 cities as most of the core industries are located small cities with offices in remote areas, where he/she cannot find sources of entertainment or proper living situation.

Where as an IT professional job demands him to work comfortably with his bum sticked to a well cushioned chair, eyes fixed on a 17 inch screen and breathing an artificial air from air conditioner. After 5 day(Mon-Fri) of similar routine(Home->Office and Office->Home) fun starts for ITans. Friday comes and you can see and feel the kinda joy/happiness that comes on the face. Most of us celebrate these 2 days, watching movies, boozing at pubs, shopping or bird watching in malls/streets, or some trips to nearby tourist spot. Oops I was talking about bachelors , married couples spend 1 day with similar activities and 1 day doing grocery shopping ;) (can see long long queues in big-bazaar/more/reliance). Where as Non-IT guys get only 1 day in name of weekend where they end up doing some pending task with less time to enjoy. Can any one of you(IT Professional) even think about one day weekend??? Most of you would have already experienced this feeling when project demanded you to work on weekends. Additional perks include travelling to some parts of globe as on-site opportunities.

What remains in common is the desire for personal and professional growth which is reflected by promotions in corporate ladder. Promotion again in all cases is inversally propotional to the amount of regional, geographichal or personal politics in the organization. Now most of readers who are from IT would agree to above point, raising brows to the point that an IT professional works days in/outs , night in/outs, in rotational shifts etc. So dear IT professional your job demands it and companies are paying for the same. Do you know how much Banking professionals are pissed off? they work on an avg 10 hrs per day and during financial closing even they are required to work 18 hrs a day as job demands it. Most of us are not aware of the job responsibilities and requirements of peers in another industry. We just know that bank opens at 9 and closes at 5 or 6, doesn't means that is the working time for employees. After closing of bank employees need to do auditing on daily basis and other processes which we are unaware of.

Plenty of IT professionals quit IT and join B-School thinking that MBA will help them to escape IT and get them into some other vertical. But know what most of them end up in IT again because it is the only sector that gratifies their expectation after putting loads of money(two years salary loss + B-School fees which is avg 10-12 lakhs). A very few students who are initially from IT join other sectors than IT.

Actually equation is very simple guys. A normal human being will be bored if his daily routine becomes monotonous. For eg if your wife cooks the same parantha everyday, wouldn't you be bored? you'll simply say WTF. Anyone will be bored boss eating same bread and butter everyday.

A developer might get frustrated with same kind of work all the time, and the situation and mindset demands change. There are always a variety of options available, if you are bored of programming in java, try sql, try objective c , try android and when bored of development change the job role itself. Remember change is the only permanent (refer http://experiencedtalks.blogspot.in/2010/11/changing-times.html ) thing.Either you change or the monotocity will change and blow your brain out.

If not IT than what are the options :
1.Farming - remember its toughest of all jobs. Numerous farmers commit suicide not for just fun
2.Business - its a viable option but requires much more effort than you are currently giving in IT. Again depends on your thurst for it , whether you want to be one among Tata's, Oberai's, Ambani's or a normal shopkeeper earning two meals bread.
3.Marketing - you better know the number of times you shut the door to marketing guys.
4.Finance - good option for those who have the Finance DNA. Just doing MBA doesn't makes you a finance professional.
5.Doctor - Oh sir you are already doctor of software and you know the pain of it and many more....

It is not that that changing the industry is difficult or bad. There are live examples where IIM A grads have chosen for farming/others than sticking to white collar job. There are entrepreneurs who are successful without any kind of formal education. What you need is the ambition with proper vision and mission. Whether you be in IT,Core,Banking or a business doesn't matters. There are people walking through ladders in all the streams and ascending towards echelon.

Try to love your job rather than cursing it as it surely will effect your work in some way or the other resulting in relatively less hike which again will frustrate you and this not ending cycle will continue. Self possessions are always undermined and other’s possessions seem better. Rather than finding other's wife beautiful work on making your own wife the most beautiful, because changing wife is not a solution you may get bored again ;-)

Author: Ravi Bhojwani