# How Much Room is There For Creativity in IT?



## jklunder (Nov 28, 2011)

Hi Everyone,

I am a complete novice to the IT world. A few friends and professors recommended I get a Master's in IT (despite being a liberal arts major).

1. While I think it's great for career trajectory, I worry that the field will be too hard, boring, etc. Have any of you guys ever felt this way?

2. As a whole, how much room is there for creative applications? (i.e. I'd like to be on projects that help improve education, etc. throughout the world).

3. Is there any possibility that I could work on projects that increase cost-effective internet access? 

(Being a teacher in Korea, I can see that anybody who knows English, at home or abroad, can gain education through having sheer will and online internet access.). Nothing would make me happier than knowing I'd be spreading a democratization of information availability.


----------



## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

do you mean you want to be a programmer? if so then creativity would be upto the boss of the company you work for I suppose.

If you want to be a web designer then that would more likely have more of a creative approach to it, especially if you were freelance


----------



## Basementgeek (Feb 7, 2005)

Hi and welcome to TSF:

You may find this post interesting, on the best and worst jobs:

http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f173/what-is-hot-and-what-is-not-611447.html

I see Liberals arts in the bottom half myself. Maybe take some IT courses on the side.

BG


----------



## BosonMichael (Nov 1, 2011)

jklunder said:


> Hi Everyone,
> 
> I am a complete novice to the IT world. A few friends and professors recommended I get a Master's in IT (despite being a liberal arts major).


I'd recommend you get an entry-level IT job instead and start building some experience to help you move up the IT career ladder. Even with a Masters in IT, you'll still have to start at the bottom... unless you somehow manage to snag a CIO job and become yet another clueless manager who throws around buzzwords but doesn't _really_ understand the technology or how it is implemented.



jklunder said:


> 1. While I think it's great for career trajectory, I worry that the field will be too hard, boring, etc. Have any of you guys ever felt this way?


No, not really. I've never found IT to be boring. There's always something new to learn. If you like learning new things, IT is a good career choice. But IT isn't for everyone... the learning pace can be stressful for some people. If you prefer to learn something and then simply rest on your knowledge, you'll quickly become as obsolete as the technologies you know how to support. 



jklunder said:


> 2. As a whole, how much room is there for creative applications? (i.e. I'd like to be on projects that help improve education, etc. throughout the world).


Starting out in IT, you won't have much opportunity to be selective in the jobs you take. It's hard enough getting a start in IT... you shouldn't artificially make things more difficult for yourself by trying to cherry pick jobs that meet certain criteria... particularly in this employment market, where everyone and his brother is switching career fields to IT, competing with unemployed techs who have an experience advantage.

Could you work on something creative? It's possible. But not very probable. Most entry-level employers just need you to perform a certain task, and that's what they'll pay you to do.

After you gain some real-world IT experience, you'll have much more control over your career path, and you can search those jobs out while you remain gainfully employed.



jklunder said:


> 3. Is there any possibility that I could work on projects that increase cost-effective internet access?


Again, it's possible, but not likely. It's great that you have these lofty goals, but at some point, you need to put food on the table and get some real-world IT experience under your belt. By all means, seek out jobs that match your goals... but take what you can get. Nobody says you have to work in your first IT job forever.


----------



## jklunder (Nov 28, 2011)

Hi Guys,

1. First off, thanks for all the advice. It sounds like an IT career is promising.

2. As clarification, I'd try a Master's degree, as it would just seem more prestigious than an undergraduate degree. The admissions officers said I'd have an equal shot at either degree.


----------



## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

depends what you want to do.

A degree is not a neccesity if you want to be an IT tech or network engineer but its better to have one for a programming job


----------



## BosonMichael (Nov 1, 2011)

jklunder said:


> Hi Guys,
> 
> 1. First off, thanks for all the advice. It sounds like an IT career is promising.
> 
> 2. As clarification, I'd try a Master's degree, as it would just seem more prestigious than an undergraduate degree. The admissions officers said I'd have an equal shot at either degree.


Sure, a Masters degree is more prestigious. But there's a reason why McDonalds doesn't hire people with Masters degrees to be fry cooks... and there's a similar reason why tech companies with entry-level jobs avoid hiring people with Masters degrees to be entry-level techs: they're a flight risk, leaving the employer to find, hire, and train someone all over again. Thus, a Masters degree can often make it MORE difficult to get an entry-level IT job, not LESS difficult.

That's not saying you wouldn't be a good IT tech (you very well might), and that's not saying you shouldn't try to move up the career ladder as soon as possible (you very well should). I'm simply saying that a Masters degree - or even a Bachelors degree! - isn't required to be an entry-level tech, and employers know this. 

Thus, the point isn't whether you CAN do a degree, but whether the degree will be a benefit or a hindrance at this stage in your IT career. And, based on what I've seen in almost 14 years of being in IT, a degree's only going to help open up doors that would otherwise be unavailable to you further up the IT career ladder.


----------

