Humanities and IT: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

To say that over the last 3-4 years IT has become mainstream means to say nothing. Attracted by tempting prospects to receive many times more than in the main specialty, people generated such a proposal that no demand here will help. Both old and young today consider it their duty to at least a couple of hours to teach HTML and CSS, when, as before, people would just laugh at the "wonderful". More advanced adherents of IT dreams have even taken up JavaScript and proudly demonstrate the same “Hello, world!” On the monitor, considering, apparently, that a little more “million dollar work” will be at their feet.



Well, the desire to grow and get more, in order to provide for themselves and their families, has not hurt anyone. Let out of all those who watch educational videos on, for example, testing, only 10-15 percent will enter the industry, but this will be progress not only for IT in the former USSR, but also for the whole society. The “computer environment” changes people and, it is worth noting, most often for the better. Anyway, everyone is in profit, even those who haven’t gotten into IT - the expansion of horizons has not hurt anyone.

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Meanwhile, not all people who work in IT can program, test, work with servers and hardware. In order to “enter the IT”, it is not necessary to be an IT person - you can also be a lyricist: HR and PR specialist, marketer, copywriter, translator, etc., etc. Humanitarians in the IT industry are actually a wagon and a small truck ...



Is it necessary to get a technical education to get into IT? No, not at all. Diploma in psychology? - Become an HR specialist! Diploma translator? - Try yourself in marketing or copywriting. Enough options. Let you and will receive less of your colleagues in the shop, but you will do exactly what you can, and, if lucky, and really want. Why bother yourself with javascript or python if you simply don't have the ability to programming languages. The option "not by washing, so by skiing" can work, but only to a certain extent. Can humanities from nature become, for example, Senior Developer or Senior QA? I doubt it very much.



I myself am a translator by education. I have been working in IT for more than 3 years, being at the same time the most complete ... humanist. This has both pluses and minuses, and absolutely fat minuses. Actually about this, I would like to talk. Let's start with the positive, of course.

The good

New information - constantly

Humanitarianism definitely does not save from working with purely technical information. Its a lot and you have to understand. Somewhere most, somewhere to search the Internet, somewhere and ask colleagues questions. Fortunately, there are no problems with answers, especially if you are able to ask questions.



More information - more development, more neural connections. In general, working in IT, you can accurately postpone the onset of senile dementia for 5-10 years, and perhaps more.

IT is the elite

Someone will say that IT specialists are considered to be some kind of elite - generally uncivilized and not tolerant, but I used to tell the truth. This is what it is: to get into IT, you need brains that a simple man in the street who is interested only in football and pivasik does not possess. Hint everyone understood.



IT is not only an intellectual elite, but also a cultural one. Yes, no one here discusses Tanizaki's novels and the latest Xavier Dolan films, but you will not find complete “stupidity in the flesh” here. IT is an area where you can push the "scoop" to the background as much as possible, and for me this is a huge plus.

Good salaries

Humanities in IT receive less than techies, but still much more than their “like-minded people”, who are fortunate enough to work in such great places as the copywriting exchanges, translation agencies, dating agencies, secondary schools, foreign language courses, etc.



In addition, in IT there is a progressive salary formation system: you get paid more for specific merits, and not for what you have spent the last 10 years in one place. Personally, I am more than satisfied with it - keeps me in good shape and pushes to develop.

The bad

Castes rule the world there

Personally, I have never come across a dismissive attitude towards “non-techies”, but they talk about this quite often: they say, it’s not IT that you have, but India of some kind, only Hindus are not enough. Programmers dislike testers; testers look askance at programmers; both the first and second hate project managers; yet together they stand united against the humanitarians, who are already waiting for the red-yellow I'm lovin 'it.



Such conversations can often be heard from women. The representatives of the fair sex complain that, they say, programmers show sexism and generally do not answer the questions properly, refuse to help, etc. Perhaps techies just flirt with “humanitarian aid,” or maybe they are really bored with constant questions about the same thing every day. I repeat: I myself did not become a victim of this. Maybe it's all about gender?

Some isolation from interests

Humanities like fiction, watching arthouse films, going to museums, reading poems under the moon ... Kxxx! On the glass. Obviously, no one in IT will let you write texts about Brodsky or Gauguin, here there are only hard technical texts where there is no thought of beauty at all.



As a result, it is unlikely that at least some pure humanities can say that he works in IT "with a spark." Yes, this is work. It is necessary and that's it. Yes, there are often interesting moments, but this is far from what you live for and wake up in the morning. There is only one joy - 100% of humanities in IT practically do not fall, and if they do, they will soon leave. Well, such a mechanistic environment is not like them.



In truth, I also suffer from a certain detachment from interests and hobbies, but this is not expressed too strongly. I like the job because it helps self-fulfillment and bring some dreams closer.

Difficulty adapting

The humanities and techies have different interests, which leaves an imprint on communication and adaptation in the team. Talking to techies about some books and films, and even more about some life issues, is often rather uninteresting. Why? The point is not only that they have not heard much about it, but also the lack of flexibility, inability to listen to another point of view.



It’s clear that people are different and you shouldn’t cut one size fits all, but it’s still not a mistake to say that techies are more logical and, consequently, subconsciously seek to build some models. Models are a beautiful word, but in reality they are the most commonplace prejudices and impenetrable principles, to which they cling as much as they can.



To the prejudice is added and somewhat overestimated ChSV. Apparently, high salaries and really strong technical intelligence give people the right to exalt themselves as experts in all life issues. More flexible and tolerant need to be, comrades!

The ugly

Foggy career prospects

You are a humanist. Point. Above the head can not jump. What is it for me? Besides, in fact, that the humanities in principle, and in IT in particular, have not too bright prospects for career growth. Today you are a copywriter, a year later - a content manager, two years later - a head of the content creation department, for example. What's next?



If you are a techie, then you are first junior, then middle, then senior, then team lead, and then you can rely on a managerial position higher or even open your own company, some start-up. Of course, no one bothers the humanities to be businessmen, but agree that in our technocratic world, a technician will have more chances and opportunities not only to open his own business, but also to rise higher in the company's hierarchy.



A technician can easily lead an IT company, but the humanities are very, very unlikely. As they say, c'est la vie.

Fight against inferiority feelings

Say what you like, but an IT company is the realm of techies, and the humanities here act as service personnel who pick up the leftovers from the royal table. Being an appendage is not very pleasant.



Another factor: technical failure. You can read a ton of information on the Internet, but you can hardly understand technical issues like a developer. As a result, errors appear in the texts of errors, for which you have to blush, and regularly. Mistakes are part of the job, but constant struggle with them is extremely debilitating and does not give a sense of satisfaction. If you are used to doing everything right, then your humanitarian self-esteem will constantly suffer. To this must be prepared.

There are only men around

To be honest, after studying 5 years at the translation department, where 98% of girls, you get into IT as in some other dimension. You don’t have any gossip behind your back, and you don’t need to rush to solve the problems of everyone. For a while, the eye is just resting.



However, time passes and you start to get tired. Moreover, the years go by and we must start a family. For me, a person fairly introverted and uncommunicative, it was the environment at first at school, then at university, and then at work, always became a source of friends and acquaintances. Therefore, the problem is: if there are only men around, outside the usual teams, I don’t get to know anyone especially, then how should I look for my wife?



Of course, it may seem that all this is not serious, but this problem is clearly not only for me. You are a humanist or a techie, but you think about your life. Moreover, if for a humanities woman, IT is a real gold mine that can be dug for years, then for a man is a dead number.

Finally

IT is just great to work with. Yes, there are some downsides, but you can quickly get rid of them. You get used to the employees, delve into their interests, learn to communicate without references to Nabokov and Heidegger. You gain some knowledge and gradually make fewer mistakes, and, therefore, distract colleagues from work less, and believe in yourself more.



But there are a lot of advantages, even if I singled out only three. Working with intelligent and intelligent people is a pleasure. Yes, we have to argue and prove something, but everything goes without insults. I am glad that IT specialists can admit their mistakes and work on them.



I am sure that the humanities can be held in IT. Here you can always learn something, plunge into a completely different world, so to say make a mental journey from the world of bookworms to the world of hardware and algorithms. Find the buzz in IT and you will be happy.



Worked on the article: greebn9k (Sergey Gribnyak), silmarilion (Andrey Khakharev)