- Computer development jobs are the jobs that involve creating new products. They include hardware and software engineers, programmers and quality assurance testers. Programmers write, test and maintain software (by producing patches, or improvements that fix bugs in existing software). Engineers design overall systems. In software, they lay out the functions and overall workings of the program, while hardware engineers design new models of computing hardware, such as processors and memory. Quality-assurance testers work in software development studios making sure the different parts of a program work together as they should. They locate bugs for the programmers to fix.
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Computer support people work with existing systems, including hardware, software or networks. They set up, maintain and guide people through these systems; they include repair technicians, help desk workers and office networking techs.
Unlike development people, support workers have considerable interaction with users. Repair techs and some help desk workers can spend a lot of time dealing with members of the public, while networking techs in offices can expect to spend some time dealing with the users of the network they're supporting. -
Educational requirements in IT vary widely. Some companies hire help desk workers without any education beyond a high school degree, giving them on-the-job training in the specific systems they'll be advising members of the public on.
The A+ certification is helpful, and often necessary, for repair technicians. It certifies knowledge of hardware and software installation and repair. Microsoft and Cisco offer their own certifications for dealing with products; the MCSE (Microsoft Certified systems Engineer), for example, certifies knowledge of Microsoft networking software.
Higher-end jobs, such as programming and especially engineering, usually require bachelors' degrees or higher levels of education, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The most common degrees are bachelor's degree of science in information technology or computing science. -
Most IT workers work in offices. The hours can vary; some, such as programmers and software engineers, work regular business hours. Others, especially help desk workers dealing with the general public, often work evening or weekend shifts.
Network techs in charge of systems such as web servers are often required to be on call nights and weekends in case a problem arises during nonbusiness hours.
Some programming jobs have tough deadlines. 'Deathmarches,' when a development team is pushing to get a product completed before a certain date, sometimes happen; the programmers in question often find themselves working 70- or 80-hour weeks to meet the deadline. - Pay in IT varies extremely by company, job and education level. Help desk workers are usually paid by the hour, while most programmers and development engineers are salaried. Low-end computer repair techs make bout $11.25 an hour, according to the BLS; high-end development engineers, or the senior network technicians responsible for major networks, often make six-figures.
