Why YOU are Proud to Be IT Professionals

Last week I gave some insight as to why I am proud to be an IT professional.  I got a pile of responses and wanted to share some of what others told me about why they are proud to be IT pros.

Blake Handler MVP

• I get paid to do what I love
• I help people for free on my blog and forums
• I feel a "bond" with other IT Professionals

Glenn MacDonald

• Being the one everyone comes to for help
• Meeting the challenges of being stumped by programmers or hackers
• Enjoying what I am doing even though it may be difficult and not pay as much as other professions
• Getting to use all the new gadgets before everyone else

Terry Grignon

• the most important is how interesting the job has become
• Sometimes I'm tempted not to call it a job since there are so many cool things to learn and ways to be creative.
• I am lucky (although I think it's becoming more common) to bestride both worlds in that I manage hardware/software/databases AND do development.

Peter Piluk

• I have an impact on every part of my companies operations, from our VoIP phone system to our email system to our network infrastructure to our manufacturing processes to even the simple task of showing someone how to schedule a meeting in Outlook.
• The thing I am most proud of is the problems I solve before anyone knows one even exists!
• As an IT Pro, when I have a good day, everyone can do their job...heaven help them when I have a bad day. Thankfully I've had very few of those!

Ed Braiter

• Trying to figure out all the acronyms (and not confusing that acronym with a similar one).
• Keeping up to date with the latest technologies - especially if in a company that doesn't give much training or are between jobs.
• Keeping clients/users up to date and notify them in the easiest terms they can understand (I send out an email to clients once every two weeks to notify them of security updates, new phishing scams, and other fun stuff that IT pros have to fight).

Kyle M. Cowan

• One of the main reasons I'm proud to be an IT Pro is because of the community of IT Pros, and the support from Large Corporations such as Microsoft.
• It is not often you see an entire industry look towards its community base for support. Although knowledge is power, the best way to gain knowledge is to share the knowledge you already have
• Being a frequent attender of many of the Microsoft Events, I love to see the drive of all of the other IT Pros, and to feel the support they give me when I need an answer to a difficult problem.

Anthony Joseph

• I'm proud to be an IT Pro because when there are IT issues or problems, I know first hand where to go and what to do to fix them.
• I feel great knowing I am the one they are looking to for answers instead of having to chase others to get them.

This is just short sampling of the responses I got.  I was overwhelmed by what people wrote in their emails and I will be posting more of these comments over the next week.