started as programmer, analyst, team lead, project lead, DB design, DB support etc. Survived W2K, went from mainframe programming on terminals to unix programming on distributed systems with an Oracle back end data base. Now doing web farm support and feeding, 99.9 up time, defining processes, keeping customers happy.
RW and us can live together. Nobody talks politics where I work. Go a bunch of really good people.

I've been here 12 years now. I MOSTLY manage the big Nortel Meridian phone switch but also handle infrastructure (pc/printers/terminals, install/maintain/upgrade) when needed. I started out 12 years ago as a scanner - I literally sat down all day and scanned paper records and burned them to CD. I took that job because I wanted to get into IT and that was the only thing available to me at the time. after a year and change I was within days of quitting because my boss wouldn't promote me even though he knew I could do the work and, in his words "I hired you to scan - fuckin' scan!" but he got fired and the guy who took over knew me and asked me to stay and I've been loving it ever since.

We are a not-for-profit with over a thousand employees so there's plenty to do to keep me busy and they have paid for a lot of schooling for me (and others here).

My office-mate is an atheist tea-bagger but most of the folks are middle to left leaning (not-for-profits trend that way maybe?). I'm a liberal atheist so we have a few things in common and the rest, not.

There is a programming team in our department that I would say is 75/25% liberal to conservative but none as far right as my friend in here with me - and he is a friend in the true sense of the word. We just see completely differently on political things.

I recognize that I latched onto a unique situation in that they considered hiring me without a lot of formal education but enough life experience to do what they needed and got enough OTJ experience and company-paid education to move up. I started out making pennies and now make enough to do mostly what I want and the freedom to do it when I want. (ANd the opportunity to do even more if I want to get degrees over and above what they are willing to pay for)

I do some traveling throughout the state because we have branches all over and I love doing that. And the mileage checks don't hurt my feelings either.

I also know that the skills I've gained here on phone systems will keep me employed should anything tragic happen to this place - but since we've been only growing all 12 years I've been here I don't foresee a tragedy...

Back then I think it was about $.34/mile (forget), but it took a hell of a lot less time to drive there than it did to drive to Logan, park, fly to Kennedy, get a rental, and head across the bridge. It was also cheaper for the company to pay my mileage than the plane ticket. The other advantage was not having to race out of the building to try to catch a plane when I wasn't sure the job was finished. With my own car, I could stay as long as was necessary to clean up aisle four and sleep in the car if I'd already checked out of the hotel. Airports sucked royally back then and they suck even more now.

I like the freedom of my own car, but that didn't work out so well when I had to go to California, Toronto, Texas, Kentucky, etc. But I DID get to drive some fun cars! We were required to reserve economy cars, but I always upgraded to luxury or sports when I arrived. I never got challenged over it, but I think that's because I was the one all of the customers requested. I'm done traveling. While it was fun, I missed a lot of time with my wife and children that I can't get back. There are younger people to take over now.

who takes planes from Orlando to Ft Lauderdale because he hates driving. The airports at each end are pretty close to where he needs to be but it takes him just about as much time to get to the airport early enough to check-in, wait around for the plane to take off, fly, land, wait around for de-planing, get bags and find a cab (or make some poor bastard from the office down there come get him) as it does for me to just hop in my car and drive down the turnpike. And when I get there I can go do stuff because I have a car.

Most of my trips are one day - I very rarely stay overnight - drive out, fix something, eat somewhere on the company and come home. There is one annual thing the company does that requires me to be down in South Florida for 3 days and sometimes my wife will come with me for that to volunteer during the day at the event. It's especially beneficial because the singles get crummy little rooms but the company gets suites for couples. She's a volunteer so she doesn't get paid but she gets fed and we get the better room. Except for the 14~16 hour work day it's like a little vacation - lol! It's a pretty cool deal really - they don't have to do that for us but this company is good people.

All different types of styles and flavors. Different career paths. The key to success is to understand what careers are available to you where you live and if you will be happy in them. Some areas of the country are better than others. Some worse.

There are a lot of disaffected folks in IT because of outsourcing and the H1B invasion, but don't let that dissuade you from going into the field. To me, outside of healthcare, IT is the best overall career field.

Good luck.

I've been programming since about '78 (earlier if you count my dad's HP calculator) and could still run circles around damn near anyone on Oracle and Sybase (the source of M$ SQL - same internals). Most of the early databases are out of use now, but Mr. Tate of Ashton Tate (dBase) used to answer the phone when I called for tech support (on the Apple II before the IBM PC came out).

It's a challenging career with good potential, but there will be a lot of overnights and long days. If you've ever programmed, you'll know the feeling of holding your pee in for four hours while you tell yourself "Just ONE more compile to see if I've fixed the problem" for that entire four hours. On the old Honeywell terminals, I would enter a command I knew would take hours to run and follow it with a stream of CTRL-Gs (beep). Then I'd crash under the desk and wait for the terminal alarm to let me know the operation was done. These are not nights where you're going to get laid.

And yes, there are a lot of right wing people in the field. I've known very few who knew a bit from a byte. They're mostly the 9-5 and I'm out of here types who just collect a paycheck for showing up. The only hard-core geeks I've known are like me - liberal and dedicated to the task at hand.

As for why it sucks for me now, it's because of my resume. I've actually got TOO much experience (translation: wants a decent salary). I had a chance at a job ten years ago where the guy I interviewed with graduated from the same college I did. He wanted to hire me and even though the salary was half what I had been making I wanted the job. The president of the company rejected me because he didn't think I'd stay around very long (experience problem). That sort of crushed my ego.

It's a rather thankless job (like teaching), but there's an amazing sense of euphoria when you solve a problem that nobody else could even begin to tackle. There are times when you're under immense pressure to pull off the impossible in a time-critical situation and when you do, you get, well, not fifteen minutes, but at least two minutes of fame. The fact that you succeeded remains as your only satisfaction, but it's a good one. It's a really good one. Even when I don't have an assignment, I still write code just for pleasure. It's sort of like writing. I've got a lot of books in the works and one I published for Kindle, but it's the writing I enjoy. You have to view IT as a challenge and an art to enjoy it. Both are necessary.

Give it a try.

Got my start with punchcards on an IBM 1130 mainframe.

Since I mainly work D.O.D. contracts, I encounter more right wing people but it depends on who you work for. In the same city in Alabama I worked for private industry and found more liberals.

My experience? IT was great in the 90s when I started. OK in the 00s when I rose through the ranks and meh in the 10s.

What I am noticing is that as more and more becomes automated, there are less and less jobs.

Rage against the machine indeed.

Lots of Libertarians, lots of Democrats, not that many Republicans - but hey, this is California