Currently I'm enrolled in a grad CS program after 25 years in the field. Most students in my classes have never been in the field before. My caution to them is

Currently I'm enrolled in a grad CS program after 25 years in the field. Most students in my classes have never been in the field before. My caution to them is to understand their own likes and dislikes. If a person loves writing software and delving into a problem for many hours without interruption, then the person needs to be careful with in-house IT. (I also caution them that some likes and dislikes won't be known until they've been in the field a few years.) I spent too many years being frustrated by this lack of understanding and outright denial. After all, we're in IT, don't we all want to produce really great software to help people? Recently I had to admit to myself that the answer to the above question is "No". Often a timely good solution beats out a future great solution in the minds of people who thrive in in-house IT. They accept good enough and have no qualms about a vendor providing it. [EDIT: spelling correction]