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IT vs Tech?

What exactly is the difference between the two -- why is Blind making a separate career? Is IT simply easier, more basic and less well paid? Or is there something unique about working in IT?

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HERE aehauhe7 Jul 1, 2019

One is like changing the oil in an engine the other is designing the engine.

Docker DckrSecBro Jul 1, 2019

In modern times, IT is usually what we refer to as "internal technical services" that serve the business. IT keeps the email working, phones ringing, manage MDM, manage the corp network, etc. IT as a career is extremely vendor certification heavy. Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, F5, etc. Lots of Java and .NET. In 2019, there are companies who's business is software. Usually the folks who build the software on product teams are what we would consider to be tech workers these days. Lots of CS degrees and elitism, but also a strong creative lean. That said, a Senior F5 or VMware engineer can earn what a Senior Developer makes, if not more, especially if they are cleared. CCIE = $$$$. The "elite" and "intellectual" gap is completely made up. But, the cultures of IT and product team software devs are often extremely different. IT has lots of ex-Military, often older men. Software devs are often younger and have exposure to things like UX & design as serious disciplines. Now... Shit like Kubernetes, Go, infrastructure as code and actual DevOps are blurring these lines. There's a strong convergence of tools used by product teams to support SaaS and internal IT teams who build & run business apps. I think the cultural differences will remain for some time, but the difference in job function is reducing down to, "who's your customer?" in many cases.

Facebook dzntz Jul 1, 2019

Do you have long hair and wear Birkenstocks to work? Your view of what a SWE does is...warped.

Docker DckrSecBro Jul 1, 2019

It's intentionally warped, heavily towards SWEs who work in SaaS/app product teams. I would not call the developer working on backend bank services for BoA a "techie", nor the woman writing nav code at Boeing. All of these personas, IT vs Tech especially, are built on tropes, and there are of course others that exist.

FINRA pawntod4 Jul 1, 2019

IT is the janitor of the tech world.