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IT work is 'boring,' students

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Ditto that! Your points cannot be stressed enough!!
techboy_z 23rd Jun 2008
My first job was a few years at a small (i.e. 30 employees) engineering firm. Variety was the order of the day - you did what needed to be done. You learned on the job as a result. New ideas were relished. Results were the emphasis.

Then went to a large F500. You could not step out of your role - that meant audit problems. Ideas needed vetting...if they got past initial veto, you needed to find a "sponsor" to fund a proof of concept. There had to be an ROI study. You quickly got the picture - unless you have a total blockbuster, don't bother stirring the pot. I.e. spend your own time to prove it, develop it, and bring it to us already 80% done on your own unbillable time. Oh, but we know "our employees are our greatest asset"...so, you have to get x% of your time in on training every year, or your performance review will suffer. So we all go to stuffy training classes to keep us "up to date" on technologies that we should just know if we were able to tinker with things that we find interesting. And yes, there's a form or approval for everything. Sigh.

I guess it is no secret that small & private = innovative. But it really blows the mind every time I think back and do a mental comparison.
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