The struggles of working in the field of information technology differ depending on the area of specialization and other factors. However, some of them are pretty universal, which is why it might be nice to be part of a community of people who know exactly what you’re going through.
That’s likely one of the reasons the ‘IT Humor and Memes’ group already has over 900k members. In a previous interview with Bored Panda, its creator, Trevor Paquette, revealed that he started it after noticing the lack of general IT meme groups.
The founder pointed out that there were groups for developers or programmers, hackers, networking, and so on, but not that many dedicated to generic IT humor, so he created one back in May of 2019.
In a recent interview with Bored Panda, Trevor shared that his expertise covers several areas of information technology. “With 30+ years under my belt, I’m more of a jack of all trades when it comes to IT. Plunk me down in just about any situation, and I’ll either get going right away or figure out how to get it done.
“However, if I had to pick my strongest suit, it would have to be systems administration, and being able to connect high-level ideas to the low-level systems and processes. Because I’ve done both throughout my career, I'm great at connecting the two,” he said.
Trevor told Bored Panda that he got interested in computers back in high school. “A fellow student brought in his Apple II+ (yes, I’m that old), and put on a ‘Lunar Lander’ game. My mind was blown. I knew at that moment I wanted to program and work with computers as a career.”
“Over the years, I’ve gained loads of experience in software development, system administration, DB management, vendor management; you name it, I’ve probably touched on it from doing the work, all the way to managing others that do the work,” he added.
Information technology is a broad term that encompasses an abundance of different roles and areas to focus on. And the extensive list, including but definitely not limited to analytics, programming, artificial intelligence, application development, cybersecurity, and so much more, is likely to continue growing due to the rapid technological advancement of the current times.
That’s one of the things the founder of the Facebook group loves most about it. “In my mind, the best thing about the IT field is it’s always changing; always. There is always something new to learn or to read up on. This keeps the mind active and engaged.”
Statista’s 2022 data pointed out that JavaScript and Java are some of the most in-demand skills in the field nowadays. Though, it also revealed that professionals of the IT sector were the most interested in developing skills related to artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning.
When it comes to the struggles IT specialists face, Trevor Paquette singled out communication challenges as the most prominent one. “IT people think in ‘tech’, while our users think in their individual work terms (think ‘medical’, ‘finance’, etc). In the end, we all want the same thing—for someone to be able to do their job and be as productive as they can.”
“Some in IT forget we are there to help, not dictate and we both have different ways to describe the same problem. Sometimes that can lead to frustration on both sides; that the other ‘just doesn’t get it’. We’d be surprised at [how much we can reduce] the shared stresses we all face if we tried to just clear up communication,” he told Bored Panda.
Considering the significance of information technology in our everyday lives, there are quite a few people we have to thank for keeping things running smoothly. According to more of Statista’s data, there are 3.12 million people working in the IT sector in the US alone, as of January 2023. The number is expected to surpass 6.1 million by 2032.
The creator of ‘IT Humor and Memes’ believes that IT professionals can benefit from similar groups by reading about other people’s experiences. “You’d be surprised at how often others have already lived what you are living and have a solution ready to offer if asked the right question,” he told Bored Panda.
Trevor also pointed out that theirs is not an IT support group, but more of an “IT Support support” group. “It was originally intended, and still is, a place to laugh at ourselves and many situations we find ourselves, our peers, and our users in. Laughing helps the day go by, and anything to help ease that stress, is a welcome respite, I think.”