I just did the math on how long I’ve been in IT and the honest number is closer to 35 years. I’d never put that on a resume. Don’t want people to think I’m old. I don’t feel old.
But 35 years. I started learning transistor theory in the Marines when I was 18. I remember sitting in that electronics school thinking nobody can learn this stuff this fast. What I didn’t realize at 18 is that a lot of people can learn it that fast. That was just the beginning. The amount of information coming at you in this industry only accelerates.
Every few years there’s some kind of sea change. New platform, new architecture, new way of thinking about everything you thought you understood. I’ve been through enough of these cycles now that I’ve lost count.
And every time one of these shifts happens at work, and this has been going on for decades,people look at me. For help, for guidance, for reassurance. The one thing I always tell them is this:
The IT department cannot be averse to change. We are the change. On a day-to-day basis, we are the ones making change happen for everyone else in the organization. That’s literally the job.
But when change happens TO us, change we didn’t cause, didn’t plan for, didn’t ask for,even IT people get change-averse. I’ve seen it. Smart, capable engineers who push code and migrate servers all day long suddenly freeze up when somebody reorganizes their department or swaps out a tool they’ve been using for years.
I think we need to prepare our teams for that. We need to make them the flag bearers of change, not just the people who implement it for everybody else. And we need to teach them how to handle it when it happens to them too.
35 years in and I’m still figuring that part out.