What Community Means to You
After getting a sense of your favorite methods of interacting with your community, I wanted to delve into how you really benefit from all this interaction. To get their thoughts on the subject, I talked to a number of Windows IT Pro readers who hang out at Mark Minasi's MR&D forum.
"I think dedicated techs get involved," offered Aidan Finn. "Most systems administrators I meet are 10-to-4 guys who have no interest in their jobs or improving their skills. They think you're weird if you keep up with blogs, conferences, or forums. Then I see the state of their networks and their horrific daily experiences, and I'm the one laughing. Having access to a worldwide gathering of serious brains backed by experience brings together lots of skills and perspectives." With regular forum participation, Aidan said, "I'm learning every day about things I wouldn't otherwise know about. I make my job easier by being better at it."
A common theme among IT pros is that you strive to achieve a sense of camaraderie in your community. Jeremy Ferguson said, "I never thought that anything good could come from a forum or a blog." But his favorite forum "has changed the way I think about IT and what I think of other IT folks. Within a day or two, I could sense a feeling of brotherhood. I started posting a lot sooner than I expected and even found myself able to help a few people out."
I asked Mark M. Webster about what he values about his activities at the forum. "Books, magazines, blogs, events, and newsgroups can all be excellent sources of information," he said, "but when your network and career are on the line, what you really want are good friends who have been there before and have the skills to guide you through the worst that can happen—unpretentious experts anxious to see you succeed."
Curt Spanburgh provided a baseball analogy: "Finding a solution to an obscure or difficult system problem is akin to getting a clutch hit in the bottom of the ninth inning. When you get back to the dugout"—your favorite forum—"you receive the high-fives of your peers and get to provide a solution for someone else. Coming up with a solution like that makes the job worth doing."
Roger Osborne spoke of the magic of finding just the right forum: "The difference between a good forum and a technical event is the friendships you develop. I believe that my time spent within the forum has been more beneficial—to me and my employer—than the hours I've spent at technical conferences and lectures."
It's clear that establishing peer relationships with fellow IT pros is important to many of you. After digging deeper into your sense of community, I started to get an idea that strong community involvement might have a meaningful correlation with your satisfaction on the job.
The Satisfaction Parallel
Our 2006 industry survey asked you specifically whether you're satisfied with your job. Just for the record, 21 percent of you are totally satisfied, 56 percent are somewhat satisfied, 10 percent are ambivalent, and the remaining small percentages are dissatisfied to one degree or another. You can see the full percentages in Figure 3.
Compared with last year's results, this year's survey shows a definite rise in job satisfaction. The most striking change is a significant percentage uptick from "Somewhat dissatisfied" to "Somewhat satisfied." Perhaps the reasons for the lifting of spirits include new job opportunities, fewer layoffs and thus less fear of losing jobs, less restructuring, and rising salaries. Or maybe it has something to do with an expanding and energized IT community.
Rather than remain satisfied with the survey's point-blank question and percentage results, however, I decided to look for a possible correlation between your job satisfaction and the number of activities you participate in. I dived into the survey numbers and found some interesting results. Although I didn't find a strong correlation between satisfaction and the number of activities you're involved in, I did discover that IT pros who are satisfied with their jobs are definitely active in the community—especially in user groups (51 percent belong to at least one), technical conferences (70 percent have attended or plan to attend at least one this year), and Web seminars (30 percent have attended at least one).
In the end, as much as I wanted to simply conclude, "The more IT pros are involved in their community, the happier they are with their jobs!" I can't assume such cause and effect. But I can say that people who are satisfied with their job are likely to be involved in community activities—particularly activities that provide that sense of camaraderie among IT peers and the sharing of job-related knowledge.
I asked reader Nathan Winters about his take on the relationship between community involvement and job satisfaction. "I feel that community plays a critical part in a good IT person's life and career. No way would I have the same sense of job satisfaction without hanging out [with my peers]. For me, it's absolutely about community. Without a place to share common frustrations, to get and give support, my job wouldn't be nearly as satisfying."
Added Jeremy Ferguson, "My job satisfaction is higher, but more important, personal satisfaction is higher. It's great to receive help and solve a tough problem at work; it's an even better feeling to know you helped somebody else through a tough problem."
So I guess it comes down to how you want to look at it.
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