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Mobius posted:Ah, okay. Epic is an electronic medical record vendor - the one I work for. Are you having as terrible a time as everyone else I've known that has left Epic? I had been recruited there after graduation and turned them down right before some in person test they wanted me to take and hearing all the horror stories.
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Jun 1, 2010 04:29
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Well, he can't be having too bad of a time if he's stuck with it for five years. (And from the looks his staff picture it's not for a green card, and from the looks of his development, it's not because he can't do better)
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Jun 1, 2010 05:24
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Mobius posted:Ah, okay. Epic is an electronic medical record vendor - the one I work for. We do a lot of active recruiting, so when you said you were "approached" for a job in medical informatics, it rang a bell. I just live up in the Twin Cities. Are all of Epic's job need relocation to Madison or they have work from home opportunities?
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Jun 1, 2010 06:10
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SplitDestiny posted:Are you having as terrible a time as everyone else I've known that has left Epic? I had been recruited there after graduation and turned them down right before some in person test they wanted me to take and hearing all the horror stories. Nope, I like it. The key is to know when to say "no." I hear plenty of horror stories of people working 60-70 hour weeks on a regular basis. I do my damndest to keep that in the 40-45 range. Also, it helps to not be an implementer. Zhentar posted:Well, he can't be having too bad of a time if he's stuck with it for five years. (And from the looks his staff picture it's not for a green card, Ooooh, I have a stalker! quote:and from the looks of his development, it's not because he can't do better) Curious what this means, though. Spy posted:I just live up in the Twin Cities. Are all of Epic's job need relocation to Madison or they have work from home opportunities? Yes, all positions require relocation.
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Jun 2, 2010 00:32
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Mobius posted:Ah, okay. Epic is an electronic medical record vendor - the one I work for. We do a lot of active recruiting, so when you said you were "approached" for a job in medical informatics, it rang a bell. No, I don't know much about it. It's for a small regional healthcare system. I haven't talked to anyone but my wife yet and she can't really tell me anything about IT as she works in the lab. The position isn't posted on their website, so I sent my resume directly to the manager. Hopefully I'll hear something. The more I research the field the more I'm interested. It seems like there is a lot of room for growth and positions available nationwide.
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Jun 2, 2010 15:45
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LowJack posted:Started at 22, been in the business for 8 years. I, too, like my job. It is probably not a coincidence that I, too, work at a large state university. The ivory tower provides good security. For reference, I dropped out almost as soon as I got to college, got a temp job working at the help desk, and now I am upper level support/IT MacGyver. It's pretty great. I'm almost 30 now and am not thrilled about the prospect of being an IT goon forever, but it's a good job that pays well and is very low stress, so I feel pretty  about my situation.To answer the OP, if I had to do it over again, I'd get tested for ADD and find a fix. Then who knows what would've happened, I probably wouldn't have ended up in IT. IT was just the only one of my casual interests for which I could find a job after dropping out. It is not easy to find a job sleeping, or ordering pizza, or watching your friends play Final Fantasy, so IT was my only viable option. Jiminy Krimpet fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Jun 2, 2010 |
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Jun 2, 2010 23:15
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shredswithpiks posted:In my experience most organizations view IT similar to the way they view utilities. Every large company pretty much has an IT department, so it's lost the "competitive advantage that makes us awesome compared to everyone else" image. Now management's all about minimizing the cost of IT support and solutions, however business critical IT might be. Non-profits are like this, but worse. I used to work at a few library systems. Right before I got laid off (I had advance notice, as it was) I got an interview with this non-profit company that was supervising various places that were using a thinclient system with linux. The reason I was interviewed is so they could scope out my then-current job to see what chances they had under a faux interview. It didn't go well for them, but I found out that my then-current job was the focus of many of the same type of corporations that were going to undercut various IT departments at other non- and for-profit organizations by switching them all over to thinclient systems. Needless to say, they had a point. The role of IT has diminished to the point that many businesses just see it as a hassle that can be outsourced. Many other libraries in my area have IT departments of a few people or a part-timer on hand to talk to the hired help that shows up every so often and is on-call. While hospitals and the like cannot afford that luxury, it's my guess that IT is a threat to some businesses because of the power that most IT people hold. In my job, I was perhaps one of the most important people in the building when it came to daily operations, even to those who made 5-7x more per year. To conquer that, shipping it out to an outside source allows a customer relationship instead of a boss/employee relationship which the fabric of IT threatens in a normal business environment. Most work can be deciphered for anybody using Fordist tactics. With IT, that's nearly impossible due to the factors within. So, when businesses cannot figure out, they change into something they can. The diminishing isn't one of importance but of necessity and to regain workplace power. With non-profits, the idea of IT is a necessary evil but one that, in a time of strict and tightening budgets, becomes one that can be changed. In a weird way, I almost welcome the change: with the way IT jobs are becoming harder to find and cheaper by the hour, I'm kinda glad to be getting out of it now. Or at least finding another avenue. That's why I asked about database management: stuff like that will be the future in many cases for non-profits and smaller organizations. But IT-wise, I just see it shrinking unless it's a corporation.
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Jun 10, 2010 04:20
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In a strange way my company is a non-profit. Maybe that's where a lot of my views of IT are being jaded.
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Jun 10, 2010 04:33
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shredswithpiks posted:In a strange way my company is a non-profit. Maybe that's where a lot of my views of IT are being jaded. I know mine are. Then again, I went through a very weird process of being forced out, so my mileage may vary.
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Jun 10, 2010 04:35
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I'm actually just starting an IT, or at least technology career. In the middle of my first internship this summer. It's still kind of hard for me to describe exactly where the position I have falls in the spectrum of IT careers. I think the team I am working with most closely fits the description of Computer Systems Analysts. We deal mainly with maintaining/integrating 3rd party software that the company uses(for example, Siebel applications). There is still a decent amount of programming we do ourself, but most programming we do seems pretty straightforward and nearly always designed to help integrate 3rd party software somehow. I am actually liking the work so far, but this is my first time doing any type of real world programming so even designing and programming very basic things is exciting right now. But I am somewhat concerned if I did it as a career it would get boring of constantly trying to get 3rd party software to work correctly, but rarely if ever designing something really cool yourself. Obviously that's something I will find out more and more during my internship, but I am curious how some people who already have the career feel. It's not really an easy question to as an intern "Hey do you ever feel like your job is boring and you would be happier designing the software instead of implementing it?". Of course the solution to my problem is getting a job designing the software, which is my goal internship next summer. For all I know it might not be as interesting or exciting as I imagine it to be.
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Jun 10, 2010 06:02
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I knew IT would be headed this direction several years ago and figured the best move I could make was getting into a sub-specialization that would boom as everyone tries to outsource their IT or cut costs - virtualization. The key to any sort of career is to stay ahead of the curve so that once the demand hits, you'll already be trained up and be able to negotiate with employers / customers easier on your terms. It has always been one of those areas that exist purely to accelerate business process that doesn't align anywhere with the company's business oftentimes. Given how lovely IT works at most places, most organizations are actually best off outsourcing as much as possible to actual experts. Then again, I work for a hosting company and sometimes I wonder if half the people I work with know what they're doing besides anything purely technical because boy do our internal processes suck so much rear end.
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Jun 10, 2010 09:39
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Just wondering- would a CIS degree likely lead to these careers most of you seem to hate? Still trying to be figure out what I'm doing in college...for now I'm going for a Bachelor's in CS but I have the option of enrolling in a masters CIS program.
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Jul 16, 2010 18:09
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pooface posted:Just wondering- would a CIS degree likely lead to these careers most of you seem to hate? Still trying to be figure out what I'm doing in college...for now I'm going for a Bachelor's in CS but I have the option of enrolling in a masters CIS program. I'm in IT for an aerospace/defense contractor, and at my company there doesn't seem to be much stock put into graduate programs. Most of the guys I work with have a Bachelors in CS/MIS/Engineering, and with that, they do all kinds of different jobs. As long as you have a technical BS, you should be able to get your foot in the door at most companies doing whatever you're interested in. That's not to say a Masters in CIS would hurt you or anything, but it's probably not necessary. If anything, find a job first, then go back and get it on their dime. Jort Fortress fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Jul 16, 2010 |
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Jul 16, 2010 21:18
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I think this is a semi-appropriate thread for this question. Right now I'm 90% sure I'm going to switch my major to MIS. I don't think I want to do anything purely technical, but I would like to work in a business role at a tech company (I'm currently interning in a biz dev role at a tech startup). Would an MIS degree give me any credibility in that sort of situation? I know a lot of product management positions say they prefer someone with a "CS or similar" degree. As an alternative route, if I were to do some form of IT consulting with a Deloitte/Accenture/IBM for a few years, what skills would I learn/where could I go from there given I want to branch out to more of a business role? I know there are a bunch of different roles within "IT consulting", but if there is a general answer that would be great.
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Jul 17, 2010 07:38
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flyingfoggy posted:I think this is a semi-appropriate thread for this question. Right now I'm 90% sure I'm going to switch my major to MIS. I don't think I want to do anything purely technical, but I would like to work in a business role at a tech company (I'm currently interning in a biz dev role at a tech startup). Would an MIS degree give me any credibility in that sort of situation? I know a lot of product management positions say they prefer someone with a "CS or similar" degree. It sounds like you should just get a true business degree.
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Jul 17, 2010 19:04
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flyingfoggy posted:As an alternative route, if I were to do some form of IT consulting with a Deloitte/Accenture/IBM for a few years, what skills would I learn/where could I go from there given I want to branch out to more of a business role? I know there are a bunch of different roles within "IT consulting", but if there is a general answer that would be great.  Don't even need a master's at this point for that kind of pay, just knowing the right standards that IT execs get scared by, panic, and throw money at the problem. You don't necessarily need tons of years of experience either - I'm 27.
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Jul 17, 2010 23:22
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three posted:No. MIS degrees are bad degrees. They are not respected in the industry (except by other MIS graduates). CS graduates will always be above you in line for computer jobs, and Business graduates will always be above you in line for business jobs. Thats not true..
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Jul 18, 2010 00:10
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Texas Tech student posted:Thats not true.. Why would I hire an MIS graduate over an individual with a CS degree? MIS is usually, in most programs, where individuals go that can't pass Calculus. CS is still, by far, the go-to major for computer-focused fields. I would be very surprised if you could find a single job that prefers an MIS degree. Also, no one is going to hire either a CS or MIS graduate to manage people as soon as they graduate.
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Jul 18, 2010 00:42
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flyingfoggy posted:I think this is a semi-appropriate thread for this question. Right now I'm 90% sure I'm going to switch my major to MIS. I don't think I want to do anything purely technical, but I would like to work in a business role at a tech company (I'm currently interning in a biz dev role at a tech startup). Would an MIS degree give me any credibility in that sort of situation? I know a lot of product management positions say they prefer someone with a "CS or similar" degree.
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Jul 18, 2010 06:50
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I have a business degree (management) but work as a network engineer. I loathe it with every fiber of my being and only stumbled into it because I'm good at picking up new things and it was a high paying job. My goal is to move up into management and eventually CIO, but I'm not sure how to do that. Anyone with experience going from the technical side to the management side?
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Jul 18, 2010 15:14
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Become a consultant for high-profile accounts, do it for a few years building up a network of executive clients, then eventually you'll get picked out as an executive candidate if you fit in with the upper management's golf schedule, beating out all the people that are below these execs probably. You'll likely want a customer facing role somewhere along the line, so sales engineering is a decent step to get to that role. Unfortunately, most places seem to want folks that have sales experience first over engineering experience among their sales engineers, so it's a bit of a tough bind. I say this based upon indirect experience.
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Jul 18, 2010 19:03
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necrobobsledder posted:Become a consultant for high-profile accounts, do it for a few years building up a network of executive clients, then eventually you'll get picked out as an executive candidate if you fit in with the upper management's golf schedule, beating out all the people that are below these execs probably. You'll likely want a customer facing role somewhere along the line, so sales engineering is a decent step to get to that role. Unfortunately, most places seem to want folks that have sales experience first over engineering experience among their sales engineers, so it's a bit of a tough bind.
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Jul 18, 2010 20:49
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If you can't sell poo poo you think someone doesn't need, you probably can't go very far in sales. It's no different to me than working on stuff you don't really like - you're just a cog in the machine, your opinion is of little importance in the end... until you get to the C-levels or director, in which case you're so high up in the clouds you don't know if something's a lovely or terrific product anymore because everyone underneath you talks in business-ese rather than straight technical talk (because they assume anyone in that sort of role isn't that technical, which is reasonable). If I'm going to have little say in the matters and direction of a product, I'd rather just get paid more to compensate for the headaches and choose a battle not involving politics.
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Jul 18, 2010 21:36
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What's a C-level?
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Jul 19, 2010 03:59
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three posted:No. MIS degrees are bad degrees. They are not respected in the industry (except by other MIS graduates). CS graduates will always be above you in line for computer jobs, and Business graduates will always be above you in line for business jobs. MIS is a business degree. It's part of the business school and takes the same finance/marketing/accounting/management core but the 10 or so major classes are in MIS. I know it's not nearly a CS degree and I'm fine with that since I have no desire to be a programmer. It just seems like besides accounting (or financial engineering), the other business majors don't really provide any tangible skills that can't be easily picked up, while with an MIS degree I will come out of school with knowledge about databases, writing business/technichal requirements, some basic programming, etc. No matter how little is learned compared to CS, I would imagine having "Information Systems" on your resume would also label you as a guy who likes and understands technology. What I guess I'm getting at is if CS isn't an option, an MIS degree seems to be a solid way to gain some applicable skills for many jobs as well as open up more potential career paths than a finance or marketing degree (they hire anthropology and history majors as consultants and bankers after all, but working on the IT side is a bit more specialized). Is my logic wrong? This job at Facebook for an Ad Operations Analyst, for example, seems like a job where an MIS degree could give you a leg-up over a finance degree. quote:Requirements flyingfoggy fucked around with this message at 05:55 on Jul 19, 2010 |
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Jul 19, 2010 05:53
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Cicero posted:What's a C-level?
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Jul 19, 2010 08:02
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If I could do it again, I would have toughed it out and finished my CS degree, even though I went into the support/infrastructure side of things with my career. Bailing on it because I couldn't wrap my head around it was a mistake, and so was walking away from school with a General Studies (and 2 minors) because I was impatient. Granted, this was after 6 years of college, but the consequences have sucked ever since. My 4th year killed me, both academically and for some personal reasons, and I never really picked up steam again afterward. I'll probably have to go back somewhere else and get a 2nd bachelors at some point. Hoppy fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Jul 19, 2010 |
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Jul 19, 2010 14:04
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flyingfoggy posted:MIS is a business degree. It's part of the business school and takes the same finance/marketing/accounting/management core but the 10 or so major classes are in MIS. I know it's not nearly a CS degree and I'm fine with that since I have no desire to be a programmer. It just seems like besides accounting (or financial engineering), the other business majors don't really provide any tangible skills that can't be easily picked up, while with an MIS degree I will come out of school with knowledge about databases, writing business/technichal requirements, some basic programming, etc. No matter how little is learned compared to CS, I would imagine having "Information Systems" on your resume would also label you as a guy who likes and understands technology. You're sacrificing depth for very little breadth. It's the easy way out. If you take your career seriously, or have any pride in what you do, pick either a business degree or a CS degree. You're trying to have your cake and eat it too. It sounds like you'd be much better off with a business degree. That facebook job would accept a business degree, plus you'd be able to apply for so many other business jobs. Jobs that wouldn't want an MIS degree.
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Jul 19, 2010 14:06
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Spy posted:I just live up in the Twin Cities. Are all of Epic's job need relocation to Madison or they have work from home opportunities? Very much a drink the jim jones coolaid company from the last 5 friends that have worked there including one family member.
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Jul 20, 2010 03:05
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Hoppy posted:If I could do it again, I would have toughed it out and finished my CS degree, even though I went into the support/infrastructure side of things with my career. Bailing on it because I couldn't wrap my head around it was a mistake, and so was walking away from school with a General Studies (and 2 minors) because I was impatient. Granted, this was after 6 years of college, but the consequences have sucked ever since. My 4th year killed me, both academically and for some personal reasons, and I never really picked up steam again afterward. Glad I'm not the only one that went this exact route. I was so sick of school by my fourth year that I just got the heck out with a degree. I'd go back for mechanical engineering.
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Jul 20, 2010 03:08
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necrobobsledder posted:Get an MBA, learn ITIL and other enterprise IT standards, maybe get a specialization in networks, IT, or systems. Hang around for a few years being near the CTO and other senior execs. Rake in cash. Would be moving by now for a $180k / yr cloud migration job all living costs paid (not bad cost of living, too) now if it wasn't for the wife What was your Bachelor's degree in or did it not even matter? Also does an MBA help you land a job if your only job experience involves working in retail stores?
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Jul 20, 2010 20:24
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pooface posted:Also does an MBA help you land a job if your only job experience involves working in retail stores? I certainly hope not. I guess it might if you want to sell stuff you don't understand to people who don't understand it either for a living, but that does not sound very satisfying to me. sanchez fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Jul 20, 2010 |
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Jul 20, 2010 20:43
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My school offers a senior health science major and one of the available non-clinical specializations is informatics. I was originally thinking of changing my major to either computer science or information systems but am hesitant because ive been in school so long already (24) and changing to either of those 2 would add at least 3 more years. It's been said that informatics is a growing field.. what skills would it be best for me to learn before hand? How flexible are the working hours usually? Or does it depend on the job? My dream job would be to work from home eventually and I figure that something computer related would make that easier.
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Jul 22, 2010 05:03
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Mobius posted:Ah, okay. Epic is an electronic medical record vendor - the one I work for. We do a lot of active recruiting, so when you said you were "approached" for a job in medical informatics, it rang a bell. I don't work for Epic, but I work with Epic, doing both ambulatory and inpatient support for clinicians. I'm tired of getting paid peanuts to basically support every conceivable end-user issue for every single module without any training; I want to focus on a specific area, master that, and get paid. Any recommendations on what would be the most marketable module to specialize in? They've been jerking us around about certification (probably in Ambulatory) where I'm currently at, but I have access to a ton of literature and if I put the time in I can sit for any proficiency I want.
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Jul 22, 2010 08:52
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COUGH SYRUP HIGH posted:I don't work for Epic, but I work with Epic, doing both ambulatory and inpatient support for clinicians. I'm tired of getting paid peanuts to basically support every conceivable end-user issue for every single module without any training; I want to focus on a specific area, master that, and get paid. You can't go wrong with either Ambulatory or Inpatient. Historically, Epic has been more Ambulatory-focused, but lately, is selling a ton of Inpatient. Get that certification, and you'll be making a lot more than "peanuts." Don't bother with the "proficient" level, just get fully certified any way you can. Put that on your resume on Monster and you'll be getting recruiters calling you daily. I'm not exaggerating.
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Jul 23, 2010 03:19
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Hired Gun posted:I have a business degree (management) but work as a network engineer. I loathe it with every fiber of my being and only stumbled into it because I'm good at picking up new things and it was a high paying job. My goal is to move up into management and eventually CIO, but I'm not sure how to do that. Anyone with experience going from the technical side to the management side? I came up through Network Administration and over about 8 years made Director of IT, which is the top IT position with my company. Results are obviously going to vary depending on the size of the company you are working for, but here's what I've observed. 1) Be the very best, most competent technical fellow 2) Be an excellent communicator, talking in plain or technical language as appropriate. 3) Be well liked and have a positive attitude. This is usually enough to make manager eventually. To be honest, you've got to be a little lucky as well, but you've got to be "good to get lucky". To move through management to executive levels, you've got to be a leader and a strategist. You've got to understand the business in depth and the challenges and goals of the various business units. Your job is to thoughtfully apply technology to these problems in a cost effective manner. You can never lose sight of the trenches and your team. Roll up your sleeves when necessary, lead and inspire. There are many, many IT folk who don't understand the true purpose or value of IT in Business - you are there to serve, create efficiencies operationally and advantages competitively for your company. Many IT guys just want to spend the day bitching about how many passwords they had to reset on Tuesday morning or how stupid the users are and how much they hate their work. They view users as an interuption to their work, when really they are the purpose for thier work. You reap what you sow. Those are my thoughts in a nut-shell. It's likely a bunch of nonsense, but it has served me very well. Saltin fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Jul 23, 2010 |
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Jul 23, 2010 19:34
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I have 11 years experience. Went from Help Desk ---> Help Desk ----> MIS -----> Systems Admin/Support. I'm about burned out with user problems now. Any advice for getting out of it? I'm so loving sick of I NEED THIS RIGHT NOW and HOW PASSWORD CHANGE IT. I make decent money and work for a decent company. It's just small, and as someone said upthread, we're a cost center. It's also pretty unlikely they'll move our positions to anything else. My guess is they will change them and reduce the salary whilst outsourcing the upper layer stuff. There are some aspects of my job I like. Right now we're doing a complete AD/OU/Security/virtualization overhaul. I'm actually really enjoying that.
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Jul 27, 2010 17:39
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SmellsOfFriendship posted:I'm about burned out with user problems now. Any advice for getting out of it? I'm so loving sick of I NEED THIS RIGHT NOW and HOW PASSWORD CHANGE IT. In my experience, there is no way out of it. I got out of "user" support by moving from desktop to Unix Server admin, and figured out that even when the people you support are in IT they do the same stupid crap your users do. Most of the time it's even dumber crap. I thought IT security stuff would be a little better in this respect and it's not. I get insane requests like "hi are you blocking port 5000 on the network firewall I can't telnet localhost 5000 SEND HELP OK!" all of the time. From senior IT employees making 75k+. Maybe consulting is better? Or working for a company that's in the tech field instead of working in a cost center IT supporting some other function?
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Jul 28, 2010 12:50
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Are there any IT Project Managers reading this thread that could describe their career history, thoughts about their job(s), etc?
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Aug 4, 2010 21:05
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This seems like a good thread to ask this question: So I'm currently 25 and have been working in IT related fields for the past year and a half or so. I have a degree in math with a minor in CS and just fell into IT after college. I did some work on my own time on web servers and middleware and I was brought on to do similar work just in a corporate environment. That job dried up due to the bad economy so I took on a help desk role but that has also gone away as well. I'm thinking at this point I would like to get out of IT and take on a less involved role but still be part of the tech world. Does anyone have some suggestions about careers I might try looking for and how I might go about finding them?
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