Oct. 22, 2023, Post by Curtis
This depends a little bit on what your idea of fun is. Do you like solving problems, playing games, or building things? Not everyone has the same idea of what fun is but some IT jobs are just more fun than others.
It is important to think of what you like to do when choosing a career path. Most people choose their career based on how much they are going to make. But most people also leave their job because they don't like it, not because they are not making enough money. So save yourself the time of getting a job because it pays well and skip ahead to getting a job that you will enjoy.
The job title alone won't decide whether the job is fun or not. There are a few other factors like if you have a nice boss, if you like your coworkers, or if you are overworked. These factors can make any job miserable, so just because you are in the field that best suits you, doesn't mean you will love your job. You also need to work for a company that has a healthy work environment. It is important to check a company's employee reviews before accepting a job. Here is an article with the 10 best employee review sites.
Most IT jobs will have plenty of problems to solve, but these jobs will have some really challenging ones:
Cybersecurity - Security can be like a game of cat and mouse. Not all cybersecurity jobs are fun as many of them have to do with knowing and implementing procedures and rules. But some of the fun jobs are Pen-Tester, Threat Hunter, and Red Teamer, Blue Teamer, or Purple Teamer.
Network Administrator - Very similar to Security and is the foundation for security. Setting policies for what can get in, where it can get in, and how it can get in. There are a lot of layers of complexity that make it a lot like a strategy game (it is a strategy game). There is also a fair amount of planning and network schematics in this job.
Network Administrator - Network Admins get to plan and build networks, like corporate office buildings, and then figure out how to connect those separate buildings in a way that's secure and efficient. They also assemble all the network gear into racks and connect it all together. They then need to confirm that it is communicating in the manner that they intended.
Systems Administrator - Sysadmins get servers (Windows, Linux, and others) up and running. Then they get the applications those servers serve up and running. Then they need to make sure it can work together over the network, with users, in a secure fashion. Sysadmins build complex systems.
NOC - Network Operations Center Engineers get to build out racks at large data centers. They are responsible for setting up the servers, network-attached storage, and networking gear. They work with the physical hardware that makes an organization's IT infrastructure work.
Help Desk Break Fix / Builds - Most IT departments have a dedicated position that fixes broken PCs and hardware and also builds and configures all the new computers. They are responsible for the physical hardware of an organization.
Software Developer - Developer is not technically an IT job, but the lines between IT and Development are starting to blur. IT is adopting more coding and automation to quickly and consistently deploy IT infrastructure. Examples are infrastructure as code, software-defined networking, and Dev-ops. Developers get to create code to solve any imaginable problem.
Field Tech - A Field Tech is responsible for fixing mostly hardware problems. They get to take apart computers, servers, and network equipment to find what is not working. A keen eye and knowing how hardware works together are the skills required to be a Field Tech. Field Techs drive to different locations and the work involves plenty of lifting, pulling, standing, etc.
Help Desk Break Fix - Similar to a Field Tech but without the driving. This is an in-house job where the broken equipment is sent to you. The Help Desk keeps dead hardware to scavenge for parts to fix the other broken hardware that comes in.
IT jobs that are known for their high levels of job satisfaction are:
According to Payscale.com, this is how IT job satisfaction ranks:
| Cyber Security Engineer | 4.1/5 |
| Data Scientist | 4.0/5 |
| DevOps Engineer | 4.0/5 |
| NOC Engineer | 3.9/5 |
| Network Admin | 3.8/5 |
| Systems Admin | 3.8/5 |
| Software Developer | 3.8/5 |
| Field Tech | 3.7/5 |
| Cloud Solutions Engineer | 3.5/5 |
If you have a passion for technology, love solving problems, or just love learning, IT is a great field to get into. No job will be fun all of the time, but picking a field that holds your interest and suits your personality will give you a better quality of life.
Keep this in mind when choosing a career path, but also know that changing fields in IT is pretty common. There are a lot of crossover skills from one job to the next so just about any job in IT will look good on a resume for a different IT job.