Which part of the IT field is better (programming or infrastructure)?

Question

I am currently going through school and am wondering which route to go. Which is more profitable, involves more credentials, etc, etc, etc... Thanks!

Answer 1

It does depend on your minor and coursework, which job you could apply for other than at a help desk with an IT degree. If you do an internship, that would really help you get into a good job sooner.

There are programming and networking jobs that you could apply for, but they often want 2-3 years of experience. Networking would be safer, since many more programming jobs have been outsourced. In my area, the dot.com businesses went bust, the telecom companies laid off thousands, and quite a few help desk and programming jobs have been outsourced. But it depends on the part of the country you live in. Usually systems analysts have to have a few years of experience in the IT field before they're hired. Database and Security jobs demand plenty of IT experience first as well.

Here's a list of computer jobs from the US Dept of Labor where you can click on a title and find out the job description, duties, education needed, job outlook and wages:
http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco1002.htm

If you want to know which 6 computer jobs are hot (networking is one of them) for 2004-2014, here's a list of the 30 fastest growing jobs according to the US Dept of Labor (all the computer jobs listed need a BS and make $43,000+): http://www.bls.gov/emp/emptab21.htm

It's can be hard to get into, but if you like technology and you love constantly learning new stuff, you've picked the right career.

Good luck!

Answer 2

It depends on what you really like. There are opportunities for advancement and "fun" jobs on both sides.

If you are more creative and value closure on projects, you will like programming as a developer better. If you like operations and process, infrastructure may be a better fit.

Career and paywise, they are comparable. However, I would give the edge paywise to engineering as you go up the ladder. However, in contributor roles, operations positions often get paid more because of the critical uptime nature, especially DBAs and systems admins. They tend to work a lot more hours though because they are on-call.

Answer 3

There are probably more jobs available in infrastructure. Programming on average might pay better.