Managing an increasingly complex IT environment and a business landscape that's constantly evolving requires IT pros to work fearlessly and tirelessly to keep modern corporate enterprises running smoothly.
Results from SolarWinds' recent Little Known Facts survey find that, despite donating time for education and problem-solving for end-users, spending countless hours texting with their monitoring systems, and quelling security threats that would otherwise keep them awake at night, IT professionals agree that they tackle all of this and more because they love their jobs.
The survey results provide a glimpse into the often-overlooked aspects of IT pros and the jobs they do, and shed light on the ins and outs of life as an IT pro.
A comprehensive look at the findings show that:
IT pros extend beyond the call of duty to solve end-user and business problems
IT pros spend just over two-thirds of their time (65 percent) actually managing IT and IT-related services. What are they doing with the rest?
■ Educating business leaders and end users about IT/technology (18 percent).
■ Fixing office equipment that is NOT related to IT (nine percent).
■ Performing admin duties unrelated to IT (eight percent).
IT pros dedicate most of their problem-solving to senior executives
Of the 65 percent of time IT professionals spend on core IT responsibilities, nearly half of that time (47 percent) is dedicated to resolving technology issues from senior executives/chief officers.
■ Rounding out the top three users who take most of IT's time, 43 percent list finance/accounting/procurement as having the most technology issues that require an IT pro to solve, followed by sales/business development personnel at 39 percent.
■ Marketing and PR required the least support, at seven percent.
IT pros (at times) communicate with technology more than humans ...
In any given week, nearly one-third of IT pros surveyed spend more time communicating with their IT monitoring systems than people close to them: 30 percent say they receive even more texts from their IT monitoring systems (for example, system alerts) each week than they do from their friends/family/loved ones.
… but they want to connect on social media
LinkedIn is the preferred method to network and connect with peers, according to 57 percent of IT pros surveyed.
Nearly half of all IT professionals (45 percent) use Facebook as their preferred social media platform, followed by Twitter (29 percent) and Instagram (nine percent). Just three percent, however, feel compelled to share face-filtered selfies on Snapchat.
IT pros don't fear the machine
Despite industry hype that AI and machine learning are threatening their jobs, keeping their organizations secure is IT pros' greatest concern: 89 percent of IT professionals surveyed most fear a security breach. Just nine percent fear AI will take their jobs, a finding that is echoed by a recent McKinsey report on AI's nuances.
IT pros want you to ask for help!
One in four IT pros surveyed agreed that when a user tries to fix their own problem, there is a two-to-one chance that they'll make the problem worse.
IT pros chronically overwork — but still love being an IT professional
91 percent of IT pros surveyed work overtime hours — and of those, 57 percent do so with no compensation for working overtime.
■ Over half of IT pros work at least 10 overtime hours per month, and one in five IT pros works 20 or more overtime hours per month.
■ Of the 44 percent who do receive compensation for working overtime, the majority receive something other than monetary compensation, such as comp days.
■ 94 percent of IT pros surveyed enjoy being an IT pro, and over half of all IT pros love what they do.
These little-known facts demonstrate how much IT pros do to keep businesses up and running, and how we as the end-user can (and should) do our best to support and appreciate them.
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