IT Career Without Coding

[sanantone]

I was just curious to know if it's possible to have an IT career without doing or knowing how to program. I've already gone down another path, but several years ago, I was briefly a computer science major. The Visual Basic course I took solidified in my head that programming is boring as heck. I tried working through Udacity's Java course the other day, and I couldn't take it anymore. I have a very short attention span, so I don't think coding could possibly ever be interesting to me. I prefer studying living, breathing things, hence my interest in the social and life sciences, but I also like putting things together. Even though I have taken a different path, I'm wondering if I could have made a career in networking or fixing hardware without coding. Those two things don't bore me to tears.

[publius2k4]

I was just curious to know if it's possible to have an IT career without doing or knowing how to program. I've already gone down another path, but several years ago, I was briefly a computer science major. The Visual Basic course I took solidified in my head that programming is boring as heck. I tried working through Udacity's Java course the other day, and I couldn't take it anymore. I have a very short attention span, so I don't think coding could possibly ever be interesting to me. I prefer studying living, breathing things, hence my interest in the social and life sciences, but I also like putting things together. Even though I have taken a different path, I'm wondering if I could have made a career in networking or fixing hardware without coding. Those two things don't bore me to tears.

I'm totally with you on coding. I've barely gotten past writing the "Hello World" script that is considered the first step in programming. But I love hardware. I built my own dual booting linux/windows system, water cooled, with a 660ti nvidia graphics card, 16 gigs of ram, and a processor that cruises at a decent 3.8 MHz. I'm all about hardware mods and I'm even pretty decent with the linux command line, but trying to teach yourself programming is very similar to studying the rate of growth of the vegetation found in one's own front yard.....(you know, watching the grass grow).

I'm sure it would be fairly easy to get a basic troubleshooting job without any programming knowledge. I don't often see the IT professionals in my job having to write their own programs. My agency usually just buys whatever software they need.

I'd love to get a job in computer forensics. I don't think I'd have to know how to program, but I'm sure I'd at least need some knowledge in programming languages.

[clep3705]

It's called management, actually clueless management. Read Dilbert. The pointy haired boss doesn't know anything about coding - or much else, either.

There are many people who hate coding but do it for a living. Jobs that are fun generally don't pay well. Jobs that most people hate tend to pay better. Have you every heard the term golden handcuffs? That applies to many coders. It's really rare to see someone in IT break the golden handcuffs and go pursue a passion such as healthcare. Would you rather hold a computer mouse or a person's hand? Touch a touchscreen or touch a person?

[sanantone]

It's called management, actually clueless management. Read Dilbert. The pointy haired boss doesn't know anything about coding - or much else, either.

There are many people who hate coding but do it for a living. Jobs that are fun generally don't pay well. Jobs that most people hate tend to pay better. Have you every heard the term golden handcuffs? That applies to many coders. It's really rare to see someone in IT break the golden handcuffs and go pursue a passion such as healthcare. Would you rather hold a computer mouse or a person's hand? Touch a touchscreen or touch a person?

Correction: Jobs that are easy, require little skill, and/or are extremely safe generally don't pay well. The exception would be social work where the stress and education requirements are high, but the pay is low. Fun or interesting is subjective. There are a lot of people who code for fun. There are also a lot of highly paid healthcare professionals who find their jobs interesting.

Even without the knowledge of programming languages, I have managed to fix most of the issues I've ever had with my computers including hard to remove viruses. I've also upgraded hardware and software on my computers. The only time I had to go to a repair person was when I needed to have a part soldered on, but I figured out the issue on my own. I'm sure the computer repair person didn't need to know how to program in order to solder on my DC jack.

[sanantone]

I actually can't think of many low paying jobs that are fun. The most hellish jobs tend to pay less than $15 an hour: construction, landscaping, cleaning, customer service, nurse assisting, retail, food service, etc.

[scorched]

My career in IT spans 20+ years now, and while I did do some coding I have never held the title of programmer.
I consider myself a jack of all trades and master of none.
At my company I am considered an "individual contributor", just means I am not a manager, but my company recognizes me as a director of the company due to title and level.
My job is to coordinate all aspects of what it takes to convert companies from standard IT operations, into It as a Service(ITaaS) better known by the over hyped name called a private cloud.
This means I have to know a bit of high level programming at the API level, all the way down to the compute, network, san, and storage infrastructures.
Think of the term "System Engineering", not Systems Engineers like IT companies like to call pre-sales technical guys. We are talking Systems integration, that has been my focus and so far has allowed me some serious fun at start ups and very old companies alike

So yes you could have had a good life in IT without programming.. .

And as a non-programmer, I make just about more money than any other person I know in IT regardless of where they live or what their title has been.
Except billionaire founders of many start ups.

[drozx12]

I was just curious to know if it's possible to have an IT career without doing or knowing how to program. I've already gone down another path, but several years ago, I was briefly a computer science major. The Visual Basic course I took solidified in my head that programming is boring as heck. I tried working through Udacity's Java course the other day, and I couldn't take it anymore. I have a very short attention span, so I don't think coding could possibly ever be interesting to me. I prefer studying living, breathing things, hence my interest in the social and life sciences, but I also like putting things together. Even though I have taken a different path, I'm wondering if I could have made a career in networking or fixing hardware without coding. Those two things don't bore me to tears.

It is 1000% possible!! What provides direction depends on your interest, experience, education level, skill set, etc.

So about 15 years ago I took some certifications and some programming classes and set out to be a programmer right up until I wrapped up my BASIC and VB intro classes and climbed to C and C# and couldn't make heads or tales out of the darn homework assignments. That was when I knew being a programmer may be beyond my reach. Soon after I got an entry level I.T. job (tech support) and was exposed to what programmers and other positions actually really did. At this time I thanked god the programming classes discouraged me so much because to be honest, being a full time programmer takes a special person (i.e. extended periods of solitude, a lot of math, deep thought, etc) and I'm not built like that. To shorten the story, I worked my way through a handful of positions since and I'm now in Sr. Management (Sales to boot) at a global software company in the ERP space making more money than many lawyers (partners not included) and other professional positions do, and I just completed my B.S. degree requirements last week.

So for advice per se......if you're not working in the I.T. field today, try and see if you can switch career fields/jobs, volunteer or something so that you can get exposed to other positions in the field. There are jobs such as support, quality assurance, systems analyst, requirements analyst, business analyst, consultant, project manager, system administrator, systems engineer, product manager, database analyst, network engineer, database administrator, and many other positions I either held, worked along side of, or managed.

A lot of opportunities that fit a variety of interests, skills, experience, education levels, etc so you knowing a little more about different positions....well you can better decide what may work best for you. Also many of the job titles I previously mentioned are very mobile (company to company or state to state) and offer pretty descent salaries and can easily get into 6 figures. Lastly the industry that you ultimately end up in also plays a part regarding compensation (i.e. a network admin working in the public school system will probably make considerably less than a network admin in a company like EMC, and EMC will surpass comp for a small organization with about 100 employees) healthcare, aviation, transportation industry, etc.

Side note hardware techs have been a dying breed over the past decade, and network engineers have consolidated as well (i.e. Cisco certified engineers pay top $$ but you have to be a stud to get the certification and experience not far behind a darn Dr.) Then you have to consider are you a geek per se that enjoys reading about the newest technology that's slated to hit the market, newsgroups, getting trial copies and tinkering well beyond your normal hours of 8 to 5 not including being on call If this doesn't appeal to you then you may want to back away several of the previously mentioned job titles because you will get left in the dust by your peers because some of them will be geeks.

Hope the info was helpful. Good luck!!

[sanantone]

I'm totally with you on coding. I've barely gotten past writing the "Hello World" script that is considered the first step in programming. But I love hardware. I built my own dual booting linux/windows system, water cooled, with a 660ti nvidia graphics card, 16 gigs of ram, and a processor that cruises at a decent 3.8 MHz. I'm all about hardware mods and I'm even pretty decent with the linux command line, but trying to teach yourself programming is very similar to studying the rate of growth of the vegetation found in one's own front yard.....(you know, watching the grass grow).

I'm sure it would be fairly easy to get a basic troubleshooting job without any programming knowledge. I don't often see the IT professionals in my job having to write their own programs. My agency usually just buys whatever software they need.

I'd love to get a job in computer forensics. I don't think I'd have to know how to program, but I'm sure I'd at least need some knowledge in programming languages.

I'd rather watch paint dry than program for a living. At least with watching paint dry, I can daydream about doing a more interesting job. There is a lady who is paid to watch grass grow.
World's most boring job? British woman gets paid to watch grass grow  - NY Daily News

I thought about completing Penn Foster's Forensic Computer Examiner certificate program just for the heck of it. I've taken several career interest and aptitude tests and most have said that I should work in business management, law enforcement, the military, as a network administrator, or a computer programmer.

My career in IT spans 20+ years now, and while I did do some coding I have never held the title of programmer.
I consider myself a jack of all trades and master of none.
At my company I am considered an "individual contributor", just means I am not a manager, but my company recognizes me as a director of the company due to title and level.
My job is to coordinate all aspects of what it takes to convert companies from standard IT operations, into It as a Service(ITaaS) better known by the over hyped name called a private cloud.
This means I have to know a bit of high level programming at the API level, all the way down to the compute, network, san, and storage infrastructures.
Think of the term "System Engineering", not Systems Engineers like IT companies like to call pre-sales technical guys. We are talking Systems integration, that has been my focus and so far has allowed me some serious fun at start ups and very old companies alike

So yes you could have had a good life in IT without programming.. .

And as a non-programmer, I make just about more money than any other person I know in IT regardless of where they live or what their title has been.
Except billionaire founders of many start ups.

Thank you for the response.

[sanantone]

It is 1000% possible!! What provides direction depends on your interest, experience, education level, skill set, etc.

So about 15 years ago I took some certifications and some programming classes and set out to be a programmer right up until I wrapped up my BASIC and VB intro classes and climbed to C and C# and couldn't make heads or tales out of the darn homework assignments. That was when I knew being a programmer may be beyond my reach. Soon after I got an entry level I.T. job (tech support) and was exposed to what programmers and other positions actually really did. At this time I thanked god the programming classes discouraged me so much because to be honest, being a full time programmer takes a special person (i.e. extended periods of solitude, a lot of math, deep thought, etc) and I'm not built like that. To shorten the story, I worked my way through a handful of positions since and I'm now in Sr. Management (Sales to boot) at a global software company in the ERP space making more money than many lawyers (partners not included) and other professional positions do, and I just completed my B.S. degree requirements last week.

So for advice per se......if you're not working in the I.T. field today, try and see if you can switch career fields/jobs, volunteer or something so that you can get exposed to other positions in the field. There are jobs such as support, quality assurance, systems analyst, requirements analyst, business analyst, consultant, project manager, system administrator, systems engineer, product manager, database analyst, network engineer, database administrator, and many other positions I either held, worked along side of, or managed.

A lot of opportunities that fit a variety of interests, skills, experience, education levels, etc so you knowing a little more about different positions....well you can better decide what may work best for you. Also many of the job titles I previously mentioned are very mobile (company to company or state to state) and offer pretty descent salaries and can easily get into 6 figures. Lastly the industry that you ultimately end up in also plays a part regarding compensation (i.e. a network admin working in the public school system will probably make considerably less than a network admin in a company like EMC, and EMC will surpass comp for a small organization with about 100 employees) healthcare, aviation, transportation industry, etc.

Side note hardware techs have been a dying breed over the past decade, and network engineers have consolidated as well (i.e. Cisco certified engineers pay top $$ but you have to be a stud to get the certification and experience not far behind a darn Dr.) Then you have to consider are you a geek per se that enjoys reading about the newest technology that's slated to hit the market, newsgroups, getting trial copies and tinkering well beyond your normal hours of 8 to 5 not including being on call If this doesn't appeal to you then you may want to back away several of the previously mentioned job titles because you will get left in the dust by your peers because some of them will be geeks.

Hope the info was helpful. Good luck!!

This was a very informative post. Thank you.

[jam123]

There is no "career" in fixing hardware. It doesn't fail as much like it did in the old days. Nowadays it's cheaper to buy new then fix old. Fixing hardware issues and removing viruses is about as easy as it gets in IT.

Most network people I know have good knowledge of scripting languages so they can automate tasks. Many network people have some minor coding experience as well. If your job is to support an application server it helps if you have some coding knowledge to understand what your supporting.

Coding is only boring while you are learning the basics. Once you get into the real world it is far from boring. It is about solving problems and puzzles. About finding creative solutions to these problems. Helping the business leverage IT to make or save money. I went from help desk, to network support, to programmer, to databases, to manager and back to programmer. Programmer is the least boring.


Knowledge of basic computer science (architecture, operating systems, databases, programming, etc.) makes any person in IT 10+ times better in their job. They will almost always perform better then an IT person without this knowledge.

I know some people in IT management jobs without this knowledge or experience as well. They usually get these jobs because they've been with a company so long, they know someone or they just started doing it because their company didn't have anyone else doing it. These are the people that usually cause major problems because they are making the big decisions without really knowing how IT works or how all the pieces fit together.


Just my two cents for 20 years in IT. If you're going to do something then do it right.