3 Things Information Technology Majors Aren’t

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Graduating with a Diploma in IT is a good and bad thing. You’re more up-to-date with technology and its advances, you understand specs of your gadgets better, allowing you to access them before going all out and spending the extra cash for some capabilities that you will not need.

IT learnt and taught in the past decade is very much different than in the decades before. My dad has a Diploma in IT as well, but I didn’t learn more than half of the things he did and vice-versa. Technology is something that is constantly evolving. Solutions from the past can’t be applied in the present. Those from the present may not be applicable in the future too.

1. We are not technicians, even though we studied technology.

I absolutely do NOT recall learning how to dismantle a CPU and taking out hard drives, motherboards, disconnect and re-connecting the various wires, etc. I DID, however, learn the compartments of what can be found in a CPU, theory-wise.

When I told my superior that “I don’t know how to remove and install a new HD,” he actually said (and I quote WORD for WORD) “What the hell did they teach you in school?!” with a baffled, unbelieving face. I could tell he was in total and complete shock.

Just because we are from “IT” doesn’t mean we are technicians. Technology and manual hands-on are totally different. Fixing your computer requires an engineer, who studied and practiced manual hands-on stuff. NOT us.

Disclaimer: Not sure what they taught in other schools in (and/or) other countries, but not where I’m from.

2. We aren’t magicians.

We can’t just “make your computer faster.”

If you open too many tabs and folders and documents, how’d you expect your laptop to function fast enough to your expectations? “My laptop at home can do it”, you say? Well, here’s where we tell you that you can’t compare a higher end model / brand to what you’re working on at the office and start giving you a mini lecture on how a “2.5GHz 2GB RAM and 2GHz 2GB RAM” are so similar but so different.

We can’t revive your “dead” laptop / desktop.

It doesn’t turn on, you call for help. We get there, and we are actually pretty dumbfounded too. Chances are we would use our best friend GOOGLE and try out every method they state – press and hold the power button for x Seconds, remove all cables, turn off the main power, wait a couple of seconds and put cables back and turn the power back on, etc.

If it still doesn’t, it probably has to be sent for repair by the technicians (see point 1 again). And seriously, we do NOT have an answer to “why my computer can’t be turned on”. We have no idea either. Computers are kind of mysterious. You never really get them, but sometimes you understand why things are happening. You know what I’m saying?

3. We don’t know everything about computers.

You know the saying “Google’s your best friend”? Yeah, it’s oh-so-true indeed. Even in school, our teachers don’t have all the answers to our questions. So what do they tell us when they find themselves at a corner, unable to explain to us our doubts?

“Google it for me would you, dear?”

We really aren’t geniuses. Sorry that our diploma / degree makes us seem so much smarter than you (in some ways), but honestly, we only know so much in theory, and practicality is very different. We still learn new things every day we (and you) encounter issues. Give us some space and time to adapt to the ever growing industry of technology, will you?