{"id":53698,"date":"2019-12-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-07T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prohoster.info\/blog\/blog_prohoster\/pochemu-a-glavnoe-kuda-lyudi-uhodyat-iz-it"},"modified":"2020-02-18T14:01:37","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T11:01:37","slug":"pochemu-a-glavnoe-kuda-lyudi-uhodyat-iz-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prohoster.info\/en\/blog\/news\/pochemu-a-glavnoe-kuda-lyudi-uhodyat-iz-it","title":{"rendered":"Why, and more importantly, where do people leave IT?","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello, esteemed hub community. Yesterday (while under the influence<\/i>), after reading a post from @arslan4ik<\/a><\/noindex> \u201cWhy do people leave IT?\u201d<\/a><\/noindex>, I pondered, as it's truly a good question: \u201cWhy..?\u201d<\/p>\n

Given my residence in the sunny city of Los Angeles, I decided to find out if there are people in my favorite city who have left (for the dark side of the force<\/i>) IT for one reason or another. After googling statistics on unemployed\/laid off\/career switchers (pick your preference) kindly provided by (Alcoholics Anonymous<\/i>) the Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a><\/noindex>, I realized that this is not very relevant to us, so I decided to take a different route and reach out to people who are mixing (in the hell<\/i>) in the cauldron of IT. <\/p>\n

Flipping through my business card album (yes, imagine, that's still in vogue), I quickly found the contacts of Mr. Aijimen, a Cisco engineer who developed the scheme and installed the smart home and alarm system in my cottage. It turned out that turnover in IT is a more serious problem than I imagined. During our conversation, Mr. Aijimen offered to introduce me to his 'guru' who helped him open the gates to the IT industry, but who, due to circumstances, is no longer working in this field. <\/p>\n

So meet: RJ<\/b>, a person who dedicated 13 years to IT and his story of divorce from his beloved profession\u2026
\n<\/a><\/noindex>
\nFor those who made it under the cut, first of all, thank you, and secondly, it turns out you\u2019re not that many (sorry, I couldn\u2019t help it). To skip the lengthy and sometimes boring story (of battle wounds<\/i>) of places of work and the number of projects, I'll just summarize:<\/p>\n

RJ encountered IT in the 5th grade, and at the age of 16, he married it. They had a bright love. This included trials of localization with SypeX Dumper, as well as a long love affair with it (yes, he is that ancient). And the beloved tourism 'Secure', VolVox (like Bitrix), and xRotor (may he rest in peace<\/i>), and the beloved 'Wagtail', various automations for factories and plants. In total, he worked (by his words, loved) with IT on 4 continents and eventually settled in the USA. During his first year in this country, he worked at Universal Studios and Reboot on ordinary and not-so-ordinary projects (NDA) until his life changed.<\/p>\n

RJ, what has changed and why did you decide to leave IT?<\/h4>\n

\nFirstly, no one has given up on anything, and IT is still a part of me. Sometimes it is my shield, sometimes my weapon. The only thing I have given up is participating in projects and working for someone else; it feels like a later revelation, if you will. For a long time, I cultivated someone else's dream, I was one of the millions of those workers, yes, you heard it right \u2014 one of those workers.
\nAt some point, in the pursuit of mirages, I forgot that first and foremost I am an engineer, I am an artist, I am an artist in the end.<\/p>\n

Was there any signal or event that led to your departure from IT?<\/h4>\n

\nIt all happened on June 10, 2017, when I visited JPL (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), it was on that day, standing next to a replica of the Mars rover 'Curiosity', that I remembered why I wanted to become an engineer. I understand this may seem childish to you, to exchange a career in IT for something still intangible, for a whim in my head, but that was the moment I decided it was time to change something in my life.<\/p>\n

Can you say that 'IT did not meet your expectations'?<\/h4>\n

\nOh God, certainly not! You're still looking at it too one-dimensionally. Understand, a poorly chosen employer or project is not a reason to say that someone's path is wrong and needs to be urgently changed. I may sound like a scratched record of Shalyapin on my grandmother's gramophone (CEN), but I believe that in one form or another, every individual should be or at least have some IT literacy, in the aspect in which you view it (IT literacy), namely, the ability to program.<\/p>\n

What can you say about the absence of a calling in IT?<\/h4>\n

\nHere we go again! Let's please clarify what IT is, otherwise our conversation will constantly lead to a dead end. Today, IT is not just pure mathematics and programming skills, as it was in the 60s or in the 90s. Do you know what the most difficult part of being an IT professional today is? 'The ability to work with people!' And do you know what the most important skill is, let's say in sales? Correct \u2014 'The ability to work with people!' Hence the simple conclusion, today (and always, in fact) IT is not only about programming. <\/p>\n

The average salary in this field across the country (referring to the USA) is $5500 in the interior states and $8000 in IT hubs. For instance, the average salary for an UBER driver is around $6000. Hence, it\u2019s evident that IT is no longer something super prestigious or highly paid. IT, in general, has become a massive machine or grindstone, if you will, where there is less and less room for creativity at the mid-level or among software developers. Therefore, calling it a calling is just a myth, just like the belief that talent is a guarantee of success!<\/p>\n

Can you say that you have 'burned out' as a specialist?<\/h4>\n

\nNo, definitely not! Have I burned out as a worker? Perhaps, but as a specialist\u2014definitely not. I won't speak about other areas within IT, but let me be specific about software developers, as this is what interests you the most. Programmers and network engineers often leave due to disagreements and pressure within various projects. Often, programmers are viewed as semi-robots who simply write code, but in reality, most of them are very creative and artistic individuals forced into constraints that hinder rather than help their work. As you know, artistic people can become melancholic, and in order to dispel negativity and recharge positively, they temporarily switch to other professions. Unfortunately, returning to IT becomes progressively more challenging.<\/p>\n

So, do you want to go back?<\/h4>\n

\nSpecifically, I\u2014no, but a couple of my acquaintances wouldn\u2019t mind. Even though I'm not working in the IT field, I try to compensate for the loss of 'myself' in the industry by infusing it with new blood. Like cutting down an old tree, you plant ten new ones.<\/p>\n

Can we say that competition is detrimental to IT specialists?<\/h4>\n

\nAbsurd. It's like saying that antitrust laws harm monopolies. In reality, competition is a hallmark of a healthy ecosystem. It's thanks to this that we know about Straustup or Burns LI, Zuckerberg or Durov, after all. I won't deny that competition reduces the likelihood of a good salary (which, by the way, is increasingly becoming a reason for leaving the IT field), but it alone is not a destroyer of talent in this or any other sector. In fact, the damaging factor is that IT is very dynamic, and today a person who has completed just three months of training at some boot camp (apologies for the English term) can earn more than someone with ten years of IT experience solely because they possess a currently relevant skill. If you are not engaged in self-education, just three months later, your knowledge will be considered outdated in the programming world, and you may find yourself on the job market.<\/p>\n

Before we get to the main question of where people are leaving IT for, I want to know if a lack of communication can be a reason for leaving the IT field.<\/h4>\n

\nUnfortunately, that's yet another stereotype. In reality, in a healthy team, there is at least one meetup (either a morning or evening meeting), a review session, pair programming, and working with interns (yes, that too). Generally, there\u2019s constant chatter within the office since teams often work around a table or in an open office layout. So, opportunities for solitude are almost nonexistent unless you have an office, which is not common for 'regular' IT people. Overall, those connected to IT are mostly social butterflies in an antisocial world of constraints and prejudices. To understand just how sociable we are, come to the next Comic-Con in San Diego. I wouldn\u2019t hesitate to say that at least 70% of that audience will be connected to IT. Yes, within the confines of this world, we might seem 'strange' or quirky, but believe me, a lack of communication is not something we suffer from!<\/p>\n

So, the main question: 'Why did you leave the world of IT?'<\/h4>\n

\nRemember, I visited JPL, where I met Ria (a girl from Caltech, a former IT specialist), PhD. So (I left for her.<\/i>), her group (like thousands of others on the planet) is looking for a solution for cheap alternative energy. While working from 8 to 5, she managed to study, build a career, start a family, and become one of my idols, all within a 5-minute conversation with her. I thought to myself, how is it that, as an immigrant just like her, she was able to leave the stressful world of IT and realize herself in something else, without feeling guilty for betraying someone, especially herself. When I asked her this question, you won\u2019t believe it, she replied with the words of my best friend Ali, who left the IT world about 7 years ago (but has not stopped programming) and is now breeding fish \u2014 and he is happy. <\/p>\n

So she said, \"Programming is like the gold bracelets on my arms; at the right time they are my adornment, at other times, my protection; they do not burden me and are not my shackles.\" <\/p>\n

Later that same day, I called Ali and said I met his female avatar (laughs). Of course, I started to think about it and remembered that my close friend Vadim, also a former IT guy, an expert in streaming systems in the entertainment industry, now works in a field that is as far from entertainment as it is from IT in general. After talking with him about the acute problem of ventilation and cryogenics in the world of space, he suggested introducing me to his friend Nikita, an engineer in cryogenic systems, since he has more knowledge in this area and could help me become something greater. <\/p>\n

\"So where did you go from the IT world?\" \u2014 I blurted out eagerly.<\/h4>\n

\nI became a NATE (North American Technician Excellence) technician, working on the design, installation, and as much innovation as possible in HVACR (Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration); as you understand, knowledge in IT helps me with modeling and calculations of systems.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s not a secret, how much do you earn?<\/h4>\n

\nLet\u2019s put it this way, I won\u2019t give you a specific number, but at this moment I earn three times more than I did when I was working as a DevOps engineer at Universal Studios. I mostly work from 8 to 4, sometimes until 7, I have two days off, and a bunch of free time that I spend reading, using Autodesk Fusion, or in the xCode development environment working on my projects that interest me.<\/p>\n

And the last question, where do you think people from IT go?<\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n