Joel’s Diary

IT as a career…

As much as I love IT and computers, there is one thing that is unfortunately a reality: you just can’t do it all. Computers are so complicated and the work so diverse, that there are just so many different jobs you can get or things to specialize in. In a couple of weeks I’m going to have to choose between one of three more-specific majors: “Technical Information Technology”, “Information Technology” or “Business Information Technology”. Each has a different focus, with the technical variation specializing in programming chips and hardware, while the business variation looks at business processes and IT in the enterprise. That’s the short version atleast.

Right now, I sorta do PHP freelance work, when I find the time for it. Some weeks I’m so busy with school and other exciting things the projects get put off for weeks. I’m a pretty good PHP programmer right now, but I know it’s something I don’t want to do forever: the web industry is big and complicated. On the other hand I don’t know what I do want to do…

Regarding the technical information technology variety: that’s something I’ve not got too much experience in, but it’d be awesome to know more about… On the other hand, I’m not sure I’m that “low-level” type of programmer. I would likely find this interesting, but I have no clue where I would end up working or what I would be doing.

Then there’s my other option, the “Business Information Technology”, which is more focused on businesses and their information needs. My big fear against choosing this specialization is that I’d drift too far away from computers, and be too involved in processes to be doing “fun” stuff, and instead writing reports and analyses all day long. On the other hand, I could really see myself being put to good use, both in the business sector and in missions: there’s plenty of organizations that could use a system architect typish person. Backing this up is also my “business reputation” – two of my six exam / graduating classes in high school where Business & Management and Economics. Both classes (esp. the business one) I really enjoyed, and I also got top/highest marks there.

So, I really don’t know what I want to do, one thing I’m doing is emailing this post to some real wise people, and pfcourse God is with you everywhere with great advice: just look Finally, I’m, also going to take a look at the course guides and overviews to see which classes that make up each specialization interest me more.