If you work in Tech or IT what's something you want everyone to know?

[Trollsandsqueakforbreakfast]

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I do still imagine it as one 😁

Old skool programmers are used to chasing up lazy BAs for requirements and explaining how the systems work to them and what their options are and accounting for all outcomes...but apparently there is no use for us anymore as we are lumped in with the Devs who sit there wide eyed waiting for the BAs to tell them what to do and don't bother asking questions or trying to work anything out...BAs are going to have to raise their game

@TheRealKatnissEverdeen the industry has always been you have to be full stack one minute and then a specialist then next, problem being that whilst you are in the 'specialist era' (or read siloed) you can get caught out when it flips back the other way.

Yes this makes sense actually.
It's difficult to stay on top of it all.

An additional thing to know about Tech is the ability to pick things up at pace and learn what you don't know quickly will stand you in good stead.

Turn your PC off fully (ie not in sleep mode) at least once a week. I've come across laptops which haven't been properly shut down for months, and they get really slow after a while. A full restart every now and then works wonders.

And when it suddenly develops a problem, turn it off fully then, too, before you call IT support - it's the first thing they'll tell you to do. Even if it seems very unlikely that it'll fix it, it's always worth a try.

Yes - it's quite an interesting realisation when you do that sort of thing - you can just 'see' how to go about doing something but you don't really think about it in words.

I rather doubt the current AIs can do anything remotely like that creative process.

I develop scientific software rather than 'tech', but the one thing I'd like to say which should be generally applicable is that if you're using complex software to solve non trivial problems, do once in a while think to RTFM.

I'm still a proper sys admin. We haven't all gone.

Great tip, thank you 😎👍🏻

"Have you tried turning it off and on again" isn't just a joke from the IT crowd.

We're not fobbing you off when we ask you to do it, it very often is a solution in itself or will at least help us diagnose the issue further.

Seems a bit unethical but you could look into installing spyware of some kind - try not to accidentally download a virus though and of course if the person whose search history you're trying to discover finds out that could lead to awkward questions.

I know when my students have used it to write their assignments because it hallucinates journal articles.

I did a part-time MSc in Computing about 7 years ago and did some part-time freelance Web development work after that, but didn't have a proper job in an organisation. Then when my kids were older I did a full-time 3 month government funded skills bootcamp with Tech Returners to build up my skills. And then I was able to get a full time job.

That almost every industry and job relies on Technology. Either in a small way, or completely dependant upon it. There are huge skills gaps and you should encourage your children to be computer literate, with the same emphasis as reading and writing.
AI will not take jobs, this is trotted out as a "gotcha" all the time as is simply not the reality. Jobs may change, as others alluded to, but for AI to replace humans we're talking decades and decades in the future, if at all. Even if the technology is there, only the richest enterprises can afford to adopt it. Then you need humans to police it, so AI adoption in itself creates new tech roles. Technology isn't going anywhere and is now fundamental to human life.

AI will not take jobs, this is trotted out as a "gotcha" all the time as is simply not the reality. Jobs may change, as others alluded to, but for AI to replace humans we're talking decades and decades in the future, if at all. Even if the technology is there, only the richest enterprises can afford to adopt it.

At a global level it may not be the case that AI takes all the jobs but many jobs roles that exist right now will not exist in future.

I run a tech startup and we're trying to automate as much as we possibly can. We're able to do 90% of our data analysis, legal and finance using AI. It's massively increased our dev speed meaning fewer developers required. I'll never need to hire a photographer or a copy editor ever again and I expect video editing to be fully automated soon.

Then you need humans to police it, so AI adoption in itself creates new tech roles. Technology isn't going anywhere and is now fundamental to human life.

You're quite right @definitedeferral I am already seeing the development of new roles due to the use of AI. It will always need a human element.

For me the biggest concern is the legacy software that banks, insurance companies and government agencies still use. One day it will all stop working and we don’t have the time to replace it with something modern before that. Where i live new laws about taxes or health insurance are delayed because we cannot update the software that administrates it in time. I don’t think AI can be much help with that. If you feed ChatGpt spaghetti it just comes up with more spaghetti.

I just hope people are ready for the year 10,000 problem - and any legacy software that won't cope with that

Close all of your tabs.
Close all of your browser windows.
Clear your cache and cookies.
Restart your machine.

The thread the other day on 'how many tabs do you have open' nearly made me cry.

Please tell me then how to get in to tech jobs? What is beginner who dont know anything can get in and learn in process.

Yes please tell us, how can complete beginer can get in and where to start?

The UK Gov spends billions every year on digital transformation, mainly outsourcing to consultancies who outsource a lot to India. Insurance companies, b2b etc use SAAS products e.g. 365 whereas before they might have developed in-house and we have more software graduates every year. Imho it is much harder than it ever has been before, but obviously not impossible to have a career in tech, every day my LinkedIn feed is full of people who have been out of work for months finding the job market tough, there have been thousands upon thousands of tech layoffs in the last couple of years so I'm not sure I would recommend it now as a career - but..

Code academy has some free aptitude tests @Beautifulpeople which could be a good starting point. For fun read When Wizards Stay Up Late.

At a global level it may not be the case that AI takes all the jobs but many jobs roles that exist right now will not exist in future.

Sure - but many jobs which don't exist right now will in the future.

My job didn't exist when I was in school.

CNTL+C = copy

you’re welcome.

Especially when paired with ctrl-V paste