Working in an IT company

Working in an IT company is a life of its own. It is way different than other work environments. There are few things which run in every IT company which, in a way, helps in the growth of IT and on the other side, is the cause for its debacle.

1) Fast paced and Fragile - It sometimes happens that nobody knows whats happening. Everybody is doing something. Work is so fast paced that within 2 years, the technology or tools become old enough to give way to new developments. Though everything starts with 'Keep It Simple' policy, pretty soon, the technology explodes to a very complex system. With many big-brains putting in stuff to that technology, simple solutions become round-abouts. Cooking so many things at once will spoil the whole stability idea. Just when we think, 'looks stable now', things start to fall apart.

2) Limited research - This is again a positive and a negative aspect of IT. Positive - new things come up in no time. Negative - Things which come up cripple down fast if not competent enough. Compare a IT product with a pharma product. I would say, an IT product can come up in days (if not hours). Whereas a medical drug goes through a whole lot of research and tests before being offered to consumers. IT forums, online groups, open source ideas - all lead to ideas of coming up with products in real quick time. 'Agile Programming and development' solely talks about this concept of how fast we could produce a software product.

3) No mentoring - I see this as the major subject in the IT industry. Everybody is in the whirlpool and is trying to stay afloat without sinking. That is the way IT looks from outside. I have never seen clear-cut documents/explanation to any tool/product. When new joinees enter a company, first thing they will need is an overview of systems around. People inside any company are so busy that one really finds it very hard to get the right mentor who could explain the basic architecture. Positive side of this - Every individual has to figure out things himself; downside - many gray areas left out and consumes lot of time and effort.

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