Revisiting dirty jobs in IT...

Jason Hiner over at techrepublic.com (registration required, I believe) just started a thread asking, What are the worst jobs in IT? accompanied by the counter question, What are the best jobs in IT?

Great question, one I've asked here before in my IT Dirty Jobs post. And now I get some answers! Here are my three favorites.

How about computer technician for elementary, middle school, and high school computer labs, yikes. I envision virus infestations and germy keyboards (of course, studies have shown that keyboards are filthier than most toilets. Ew.) Not to mention the script kiddies who fancy themselves as hackers in the older grades.

I also liked the job description for an industrial machinery debugger and programmer. The loud, hot or cold (depending on the time of year) factory floor is your workstation, and apparently you have to climb over the broken machinery, risking life and limb! Risky, dirty, and high pressure all in one.

And the final one I'll mention because it gets a lot of votes is "sole IT person," meaning if it gets plugged in, you're the one in charge of it company-wide. Yeah, that has to be a dirty job. Crawling under desks, driving to remote sites only to find out the problem is fixed before you get there, and the pressure under emergency situations (all eyes are on you until the network is up). Sounds down and dirty to me.

Other finalists include: ISP tech support, network cable installer, help desk, cooling fan hairball remover (okay, actually, computer refurbisher, blech).

So there you have it, a report on some downright dirty jobs.