10 low-stress jobs for IT Pros

Takeaway: If you love IT but the stress levels are wearing you down, you might consider one of these less-intense job roles.

It is hard to say that there are any truly low-stress or stress-free jobs in the IT industry. IT workers operate on tight deadlines, mistakes can take entire companies down (or worse), and there never seem to be enough people to do the job. To make it even harder, IT pros are often asked to work with and even take direction from people who really have no clue about the technical details. But it is still possible to have a job in the IT industry that reduces many or even most of these pain points. Here are 10 IT industry jobs with relatively low stress levels.

1: Computer sales

As far as IT jobs go, being a salesperson at a computer store is about as stress-free as it gets. Sure, you need to deal with customers who often have no idea what they are talking about but come armed with a bunch of misinformation from the Internet and from their friends. But you know what? Sales folks don’t take their work home or have to deal with deadlines, and that alone makes a huge difference in the stress levels.

2: Desktop support technician

Desktop support can be tough, for sure. People’s PCs are not working and you need to get them back up and running as quickly as possible. The good news is, you should have a supply of PCs ready to go to get the user back up and running quickly if the problem is bad, so you can fix the broken machine in the shop. And yes, you are often forced to support a wide variety of applications, many of which you rarely have to work with. At the same time, most of the problems you see are the same list of issues, like bad hard drives and broken mice. Most important for the stress levels, while someone’s personal work (or a project) may get delayed until you fix the issue, systems administrators and network engineers have to fix problems that often affect entire departments, buildings full or people, or even the entire company.

3: Backups administrator

Believe it or not, some companies are big enough to have folks dedicated completely to managing backups. The beauty of this job is that while needing to restore from backup is a super-critical task, it is a rare issue. The majority of your day is spent doing routine tasks that are not under the gun on deadlines.

4: Configuration (or presales) engineer

If you’ve ever dealt with a company to spec out a server, you’ve worked with a configuration engineer. They come in a variety of flavors, but the common theme is that they are not the ones doing the actual implementation — which is where the stress of timelines and things not going right come into play. Once the purchase order is authorized, the configuration engineer has moved on to the next client. Again, this is a customer-facing job. But your customers tend to be knowledgeable, which takes a lot of the stress away.

5: Computer lab support

When I was in college, we had many computer labs on campus, and one of the much-coveted on-campus jobs was to be one of the support folks for these labs. Many colleges still have computer labs, despite the proliferation of student-owned PCs. For me, this was the easiest, least stressful IT job ever. All I had to do was answer basic questions (like how to save a file), keep the printers full of paper and toner and jam-free, clean one or two computers per shift, and file a ticket if a computer broke. I wasn’t there to troubleshoot. I’d just reboot the computer if it gave the user grief. The only stress from this job was the low paycheck.

6: Application architect

Of the wide variety of development jobs, I tend to see application architects as having the least amount of direct pressure on them in general. All development jobs are stressful in their own way, but architects’ code usually doesn’t deal with the troubles caused by actual users since the architects mostly write libraries that other developers use and guide the overall development of the application. Architects are often more separated from deadlines than other developers because the bulk of their work occurs at the front end of a project.

7: Build engineer

The build engineer is the person responsible for automating the processes and procedures for building software from source code to running code. Many times, they will fold in a lot of other work as well, such as creating unit tests (or setting up unit tests to be run), making setup kits, handling automatic deployment of code to test machines on a regular basis, and managing the source control system. Like the architect, this job seems to butt up against timelines the least and requires minimal contact with people outside IT. While it is a difficult job that requires knowledge of a large number of technologies, it is the kind of position where you are left in relative peace and quiet to do your work.

8: Installation technicians

The installation technician is the person who performs the initial installation and configuration of a piece of hardware, especially things like cable boxes and DSL modems. The beauty of this job is that while you are on a timeline and have a schedule, any major problems found at the client’s site are justifiable grounds for delaying the installation and are generally understood by the customer. As a rule, any mission-critical installations are performed well in advance of their deadline, which keeps a lot of the stress levels down.

9: Trainer

Trainers have a great job: They come in, present their materials, and leave before the real carnage occurs. Yes, trainers are there to educate, and it can be frustrating at times to be a teacher. And of course, speaking for much of the day — and often on your feet for most of it — can be difficult. Trainers may spend a fair amount of time traveling, too. But all the tensions that the typical IT staff has to deal with, like projects, crashes, end users, just are not there.

10: IT industry analyst

Without a doubt, one of the best jobs in the IT industry is that of industry analyst. These are the people who talk to industry leaders and then write reports filled with predictions of the IT future. Of course, like most folks, they do operate on a deadline. And to make things a bit more stressful, they tend to not be well respected by the rank-and-file IT workers. At the same time, though, they never have to actually implement anything. Even better, their mistakes do not result in dead servers, security breaches, or buggy applications. And by the time it is possible to find out whether their predictions were right, no one remembers them — or if they do, the “uncertainty of the rapidly evolving industry” is a perfectly acceptable scapegoat for mistakes.

Tech trends for 2012: Where career potential lies

Tech trends for 2012: Where career potential lies

Takeaway: Nucleus Research, Inc. has released its top ten tech trends for 2012.

1. The Productive Enterprise

Nudged by the ready adoption of Facebook, many enterprise software vendors are incorporating social capabilities to their apps. But, according to Nucleus, for every organization that has successfully adopted social capabilities, there are two that struggle to make it work. The biggest concern is that social media will leach productivity (like Facebook does) without adding to the collaboration wanted. Savvy enterprises will find a way to align social tools to support clear business purposes.

2. The cloud will change development

The cloud has made development faster and more iterative. When changes can be made on the fly, companies can deploy once and then adapt an app as business needs change. As we go forward, the cloud will make development more virtual. Crowdsourcing efforts and the integration of social networking tools into the dev environment will provide opportunities for developers no matter where they live.

3.  SAP will reemerge

SAP revenues have gone up and the company has introduced innovations in areas like mobile device access. According to the report:

We’ve started to see real traction with Business ByDesign. This is partly because customers that have growth aspirations are also risk averse given the economy. Also, cloud delivery makes BusinessBy Design less onerous to support than traditional ERP deployments.

Nucleus also cites last year’s exodus of top-level executives to be a good thing for its future.

4. Going big

Nucleus thinks that tech buyers are increasingly “going to look at big vendors with an 80 percent solution versus a best-of-breed application that must be managed, integrated, and negotiated separately.”

5. More ways for everyone to manage big data

Nucleus recognizes that although big data is definitely being overhyped, “companies will soon make smarter decisions using analytics to comb through huge amounts of data.” The report says that this is one area where we’ll continue to see innovation, like integration of field-programmable gate arrays.

6. Capital will move from labor to technology

While the unemployment rate will continue to hover near 10 percent, Nucleus sees technology hiring going up. A recent Nucleus survey (Nucleus Research 106, Nucleus 2012 IT spending survey, September 2011) found that technology spending is winning hands down. And there will be the need for people to support those technologies and to train end-users.

7. Smarter software

Nucleus says, “We expect to see more intelligent applications that search for and push information related to what workers are doing directly to their desktop, a rise in usability for analytical and text mining tools whose capabilities were previously only for the gearheads, and presence and location monitoring to drive new ways we interact with enterprise software.”

8. Labor will get optimized

Nucleus claims that workforce management software will change to show which employees are the most productive, show up on time, and create the least scrap. “Workforce management vendors such as Dayforce and Kaba are now delivering this data to managers by combining analytics tools with data gathered at time and attendance kiosks.” Slackers, beware!

9. Healthcare investment

Although the technology for moving paper health records into electronic form as been around for a while, Nucleus says that the availability of low-cost secure cloud applications such as those from Digitech Systems will drive significant investment in 2012.

10. Renewed focus on customer experience

Nucleus says it continues to see str5ong investment in CRM and related applications. They expect to see more investment in analytics, activity monitoring, and big data crunching as companies aspire to “the prefect combination of targeting, touching and treating their customers.”

The full Nucleus Top 10 Predictions 2012 research note is available at NucleusResearch.com.

10 tips for avoiding IT burnout

10 tips for avoiding IT burnout

IT Burnout

Takeaway: If your job is driving you to the breaking point, it’s time to look at a few ways to ease the stress. Here are some strategies to help you prevent a bad case of burnout.

IT pros know all too well that the long hours and deadline-driven stress of the job can take its toll. If left unchecked, excessive stress can lead to burnout. Fortunately, there are some things that you can do to avoid IT burn out. Not all of the following suggestions are going to be practical for everyone, but some may help. Here are the techniques that have worked for me.

1: Take time off whenever you can

It’s common for people working in certain IT positions to go for months without a day off. All those long nights and weekends can really run you into the ground after a while. One of the best ways to fight the inevitable fatigue is to take full advantage of your vacation days.

Over the years, I have had people tell me that taking a vacation is completely irresponsible and that it’s something no true professional should ever do. However, I completely disagree. I have found that for me, there is no better way to recharge my batteries than to take time off.

I realize that this isn’t an option for everyone. But if possible, try taking a really long vacation. I don’t even start to unwind until about a week into my vacation.

2: Identify stressful tasks

Another way to avoid IT burnout is to identify your most stressful tasks. Oftentimes, one or two things make a job far more stressful than it would otherwise be. If you can identify the things that cause you the most stress, you might be able to find a way to reduce that stress. For instance, maybe you can delegate those particular tasks to someone else. Or perhaps you can set aside a certain time each week for dealing with the most stressful tasks so you don’t have to worry about them for the rest of the week.

3: Unplug at the end of the day

Unplugging at night helps me relieve IT stress. Although there are some exceptions, I try not to check my email after 11:00 PM. That way, by the time I go to bed at 2:00, my mind has had time to relax and I don’t end up going to bed thinking about work.

4: Blow off some steam

I have heard various people say that one good way to relieve stress and avoid burnout is to have a hobby. While I agree with that general concept, I have found that not just any hobby will do. Some hobbies are better at taking your mind off work than others. For instance, I used to play golf, but the people I played with always seemed to talk about work. Today, a couple of my favorite hobbies are racing my Cigarette boat and flying RC helicopters. Both of those activities require total concentration, which makes it impossible to think about work.

5: Eat well and exercise

As strange as it sounds, a proper diet and exercise can help you to avoid burnout. Anyone who has ever had a fast food hangover can attest to the fact that people generally feel better when they eat right, and feeling good can go a long way toward helping you to make it through the day.

6: Socialize

When was the last time you got together with your friends or family? Regularly taking a little time out and socializing a bit might help you to forget about work for a while.

7: Develop an escape plan

If your working conditions seem completely intolerable, take some time to determine what it would take to make your situation more palatable. Maybe avoiding certain people would help. Maybe it’s time for a different job. Once you have figured out what would make your situation better, the next step is to come up with a realistic plan for achieving that objective. It might not always be easy to change your situation, and it probably won’t happen overnight. But where there is a will there is a way.

8: Get plenty of sleep

Given all the demands that are placed on us, it can be tough to get enough sleep. Even so,getting plenty of rest is essential to avoiding burnout. When I am well rested, I’m a lot less edgy and I think more clearly, which ultimately translates to doing better work in less time. It isn’t usually possible for me to get enough sleep during the week, so I make it a habit to sleep for most of the day on Sundays. I have found that resting on Sunday makes me better able to cope with Monday morning.

9: Cross train

Sometimes, what really leads to burnout is doing the same job day in and day out. If you are bored to tears with your job, why not start a cross-training program with some other IT staff members? That way, everybody gets a break from the normal day-to-day routine, and the organization ultimately benefits from the diversification of skills.

10: Learn to say no

This might be the most difficult suggestion of all, but sometimes you just have to say no to projects. This is especially true if you are already working nights and weekends just to complete the tasks that have already been assigned to you. Remember, there are only so many hours in a day.

10 tips for sharpening your logical thinking

10 tips for sharpening your logical thinking

Logical Thinking

Logical thinking is critical for IT professionals, managers, and executives. You must be able to diagnose problems end users are having. You must be able to evaluate vendor claims. You must be able to refute your boss when he or she turns down your request for a raise or promotion. The following concepts will help you hone your logical thinking skills.

1: The conditional statement
Have you ever dropped your smartphone into water? Not good, correct? Let’s assume, for purposes of this article, that every time it happens, without exception, that phone is ruined. In other words, this statement istrue: “If you drop your smartphone into water, then it will become ruined.”

This statement, in logic, is known as a conditional statement. The first part of the sentence states a condition or requirement. The second part of the sentence states the result of that condition. If the condition is fulfilled, the result will occur. If you’ve done any application programming, you doubtless have worked with conditional statements. The principles of conditional statements are the same for logical thinking.

2: Understanding premise and conclusion shorthand
The two parts of a conditional statement have specific terms with respect to logic. The first part is called a premise, and the second part is called a conclusion. Within a conditional statement, if a premise is true, the conclusion will be too, because it follows, or results from, the truth of the premise.

Sometimes, in shorthand, you will see the abbreviations “p” and “q” for “premise” and “conclusion,” respectively. The causal relationship (the “then”) is indicated by an arrow: →. Here, “p” would represent “If you drop your smartphone into water,” “q” would represent “the smartphone will become ruined,” and → would represent the “then.” The general nature of a conditional statement can be represented as p → q.

Once we understand the structure of an original conditional statement in terms of p and q, we can understand three other statements related to it. They are the converse, the inverse, and the contrapositive. Knowing these three is important to avoid faulty reasoning and to detect faulty reasoning by others.

3: The converse statement
The converse of the original conditional statement simply reverses the premise and the conclusion. In shorthand terms, therefore, the converse is q → p. In our smartphone example, the converse statement would be: “If your smartphone is ruined, then it was because you dropped it into water.”

As you can see, in this case the converse is not true, because a smartphone can be ruined in many other ways besides dropping it into water. Similarly, though someone who lives in Florida lives in the United States, not everyone who lives in the United States lives in Florida. Assuming that the converse is true, in fact, leads to the fallacy of the “false syllogism”:

• If a phone is dropped into water, it is ruined.
• John’s phone is ruined.
• Therefore, John’s phone must have been dropped into water.

An example of similar potentially faulty reasoning is the following:

• Every computer that has virus x has symptom y.
• Joe’s computer has symptom y.
• Therefore, Joe’s computer has virus x.

This reasoning is faulty for the same reason — namely, that a computer could have symptom y for other reasons. A correct analysis would be the following:

• If a computer has virus x, then it has symptom y.
• Joe’s computer has virus x.
• Therefore, Joe’s computer has symptom y.

The false syllogism is better illustrated this classic way:

• Dogs have four legs.
• Cats have four legs.
• Therefore, dogs are cats.

4: The inverse statement
The inverse of the original statement keeps the original premise and original conclusion but negates each one. In shorthand, the inverse is ~p → ~q.

The inverse of the smartphone statement would be: “If you do not drop your smartphone into water, your smartphone will not become ruined.” Sometimes, the inverse is true. But other times, such as with our example, it isn’t. A smartphone can be ruined in many ways. Therefore, even if we refrain from dropping the phone into water, it doesn’t prevent other bad things from happening to it. The inverse of the virus statement would be: “If a computer does not have virus x, it will not have symptom y.” This statement might not be true if symptom y can result from reasons other than virus x.

Be careful of inverse reasoning.

5: The contrapositive statement
The contrapositive is either the converse of the inverse or the inverse of the converse. That is, it involves a negation of both the premise and the conclusion, along with their reversal. Our smartphone contrapositive would be: “If your smartphone is not ruined, then you did not drop it into water.” The virus contrapositive would be “If a computer does not have symptom y, then it does not have virus x.” In shorthand, the contrapositive is ~q → ~p.

Assuming the truth of the original conditional statement, the contrapositive is the only alternative statement that will always be true.

6: Necessary conditions
Closely related to the conditional and related statements are the ideas of necessary conditions and sufficient conditions.

A necessary condition is one that must be met for a certain result to be achieved. For a smartphone not to be ruined, it must be kept out of water. Therefore “keeping a smartphone out of water” is necessary to prevent it from being ruined. The absence of virus x is necessary to have assurance that a computer does not have symptom y.

I know the objections you are raising right now, but keep reading for my further points.

7: Sufficient conditions
A sufficient condition is one that, if met, absolutely guarantees the occurrence of a certain result — that is, a result that is dependent on that condition. Dropping a smartphone into water is sufficient for ruining that phone.

Doing so guarantees that the phone is ruined. The presence of virus x is a sufficient condition for a computer to exhibit symptom y.

8: Necessary but not sufficient
A condition can be necessary but not sufficient. Keeping your smartphone out of water is necessary for preventing its ruin. However, even if you do so, your smartphone could be ruined in other ways, such as being crushed by a car or dropped from a height. In the same way, even if virus x is absent from the computer, they system could still display symptom y for some other reason. Therefore, keeping a smartphone out of water, and keeping virus x off a computer are necessary but not sufficient conditions for preventing smartphone ruin or the presence of symptom y.

9: Sufficient but not necessary
Similarly, a condition can be sufficient but not necessary. Dropping the smartphone into water is a sufficient condition for ruining it. However, it is not a necessary condition for ruining it. Having virus x is a sufficient condition for symptom y. However, if symptom y can arise from other causes, having virus x is not a necessary condition.

10: Neither necessary nor sufficient
A condition can be neither necessary nor sufficient with respect to a result. To prevent the ruin of your smartphone, it is neither necessary nor sufficient that its area code begin with an even number. To prevent virus x, it is neither necessary nor sufficient that the system unit have a property tag.

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