Squizz

I've been in IT since 1987.

I'm pretty sick of it now, and struggle to motivate mayself to drive the 25 miles to work each day.

I've been through highs and lows in the industry, from earning £64K per annum to earning £16K per annum the following year.

I've been made redundant once, and just survived another redundancy scare (for now...).

I'm keen to move into something - Else.

Heaven knows what my CV will do for me in another career, or who would contemplate taking me on. I don't even know what I want to do, except leave the IT field completely.

Advice, anyone?

hail-hail

What IT field were you in?

Squizz

My CV is now pretty extensive!

Began as a COBOL programmer. Done programming, Testing, Project Management - As both a permy and contractor. Done Mini's, Mainframes, PC's, Client-Server, web-tech, etc.

Currently working as a Senior Systems Tester, using the Rational Robot Test Suite and some advanced automation techniques for regression testing.

Blah, blah, yaddah, yaddah...

blip

I've been having the same dilemma for the last 2 years. I'm a self-employed website designer, have been for 8 years, and really don't get any job satisfaction whatsoever. Designing boring b2b sites for bland companies every day lost its appeal quite a long time ago.

For a long time I have been contemplating a career move, but like you I don't really know what it is I want to do. I drive my girlfriend nuts going on about it, but it's really hard to just stop doing something you've been doing for years and take the plunge.

My main worries are:

1. I'll have to take a huge drop in income and then I'll have to give up my beloved toys!

2. I will really struggle to transfer my skills/experience to anything else.

3. I still won't be happy once I've changed career, or worse will be unhappier.

I'm 33 now and am worried that if I don't do it soon I never will. I just can't see myself doing this forever more. Would like a total change, maybe something ootdoors, or sports related, or something that doesn't involve staring at a screen for ten hours a day ;-)

I think I'll take some professional careers advice soon, I think it would help to get a completely objective and unbiased opinion. It's got to be worth a few quid if it helps me see the opportunities that are out there. Just need to make the time to do it now ;-)

dogmaul

i want to change too im a network administrator at the moment but im only 22 but i just want out of IT i hate it i only got into it as it was easy and i was good at it. i just have no idea what else to do, aslong as it pays more than 15k i would be happy.
Ooh you get 24k for managing a Burger King

Pavlo

hmmmm, burger king.....(drooool!)

Pondering a similar sort of thing, but not currently in IT. Got my current job in about 1 week after I started looking, at a time I thought I was unemployable (well, I know I can do a good job, but I don't have the right letters after my name....).

After escaping redundancy a few times, watching the bonus go because other groups are in the red, pay freeze for last 18 months etc etc. Time to start looking in earnest.

P

InvisibleMan

aye im at the same point atm. Off to get some professional advice in a mo

Squizz

blip - Ha! You're the same age as me, and in exactly the same frame of mind!

Apart from working where I am now, I'm involved with this little side project in your field: www.priodev.com

We're hoping to build up the business and at least then I'll have some control over who we work for and the work will be more diverse. I'll be doing project/account management and lots of testing.

B2B, B2C, ASP, MSN, PDQ, WTF!!!!!

blip

Yeah like the site, looks like quite a nice project for you to be involved in. Do you see that as your next step, or do you want to escape the world of pixel-pushers and code-monkeys altogether?

Stueyb

Well heres my two peneth.

I work in IT and am jaded by the amount some of these "I did a computer course that was advertised in the paper" type things want/get.

To me, these people shouldn't be allowed in IT. They are the people who forced the rates down IMHO.

I am starting a sideline though, and I think I will enjoy (and make more money for less work and a different slant.

I have a knack of aquiring kit at cheap prices etc, and was thinking of selling it on a stall, not making huge profits per box etc but when you can buy a p233 64 MB Compaq very cheaply, you gotta be able to sell it for a profit

MarkO

The rates were forced down post Y2K, after being artificially inflated by the Y2K crisis. I remember back in 1999, pretty much anyone who could identify a PC by sight could walk into a £50/hour contract without being questioned. [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Rates are finally dropping because at last the 'chaff' is being lost. With a bit of luck, and a following wind, some of the unknowledgable cowboys who jumped on the bandwagon in 2000 will just sod off now, and the more professional amongst us can actually get a little respect. At that point rates will stabilise.

I wouldn't get out of IT altogether. Why not just move into a totally different field, but sticking with IT? For example, I've had a fairly diverse career so far - first a couple of years in newspaper and book publishing, then some document management, then some pensions quotations systems, and now a cross-asset trading system in the city.

It's one of the things I like about IT - it covers so many fields, it's possible to 'change jobs' without actually altering your core profession.

Squizz

I think if the Priodev stuff starts picking up, then I'd make that my full-time occupation. There is a lot of business out there for a down-to-earth web-shop covering local businesses.

The trick is getting the commissions coming in.

We don't lack technical expertise in any field. I guess I see the Account Management and Client Contact as my next challenge (Although done before, not for ourselves!) - Yeah, that'd be a bit of a change. Whilst still being slightly IT.

Once a geek, always a geek?

Just sometimes I do wonder if there's more to life?!? I know I CAN do without my flash car, and gadgets, etc...Maybe I'm (we're )getting old, eh?

MarkO

Yeah? I bloody couldn't.

carl

Thought you were getting an X-Type, Mark

MarkO

FO!

Already got it, actually.

Squizz

When the contract market went quiet in November 1999, I spent two months decorating my house. The "Tax Man Cometh" and thanks to my accountant f*cking up big-stylee I saw half of my savings disappear!!

I asked a friend if he needed a tea-boy. He was Head of Bespoke Developments at tw2.com at the time. I sent him my CV and on the strength of my SQL alone, I got a job as a trainee ASP developer.

That was the best job I ever had. Just £16K per annum.

(Sigh)

MarkO

The contract market went haywire in late 1999!!! I negotiated a 50% rate rise that autumn!!!

Squizz

"Darn Sarf", maybe...

My skill-base was purely Mainframe oriented at that time, and pretty much all Legacy system projects in the Midlands were complete, or shelved until well after the beginning of 2000.

Tell a lie - I was actually offered a Testing Manager role for Bradford & Bingley Building Society. I went to check out the Bingley HQ and despite being offered a rate of ££££££ per day decided that living THERE and travelling home during the weekends was not going to be happening.

There's more to life than ££££££££.

ash1

iTrader: (2)

There is another alternative - just take a complete break from it for say 6 months / year ?

Squizz

Prospective employers take a dim view of long breaks, usually. Besides I need something to tide me over financially, and to keep me alert.

I know I don't want to work in... Financial Services or Insurance, other than that I don't know what.

Tiggs

squizz, why not financial services? while you IT boys are going pearshaped we are all still getting 100k plus for 4 day weeks

T

MarkO

Pffff. 100k for 4 days a week? I wouldn't get out of bed for any less than 150k.

Besides, I attend for 5 days a week, but the amount of actual productive work I do is measured in hours/year.

Oh, and stevecotton - shut it.

sempers

Realistically, what are the chances of getting into finance from compsci?

To join the me-too's, I'm working for a certain telco that's going pear shaped in a hurry. Chances of being made redundant in the near future about 50/50 I reckon; Would like to leave, but I know the market's not a nice place atm.

Currently a senior s/w eng, but hate writing s/w Ideally would like to leave IT completely, but at least head for consulting/similar. Hate being stuck in a little box.

dogmaul

my company makes things for mobile telcos and stands a great chance of also going **** over tit

Pavlo

my company supplies services to the telco companies that are going **** over tit.....

BoxerFlat4

Certain irony here .... I was in the computer games industry for 18 years, and ended up hating it. Always wished I'd gone into IT properly, but without the degrees/qualifications on paper to prove I could do it, never got there.

Ended up quitting anyway, and setting up in business myself, totally removed from computers. Although, I seem to spend more time developing my web site than actually trading ! :

Squizz

BoxerFlat4 - We could take the strain of website updates of yer hands!

As for Financial Services, I currently work for Marlborough Stirling. I'm busy testing Financial Services software destined for use by FA's. The thought of doing this for much longer or studying for FPC qualifications horrifies me.

I'm sat here creating mounds of test data, thinking "Who the f**k cares?"

There has to be something more meaningful, that I can do for a living?

I'm actually considering setting up a web-shop selling products for the new MGs. They seem to be everywhere at the mo!

BoxerFlat4

Squizz -

No thanks, I've spent enough setting up in business ! And if I get another bloody charity ringing me up, asking me to fund a wall planner, or another accountant trying to get my business, I'll flip !

Squizz

"Does a lot o' work for charidee, doesn't like to talk abart it!"

I must be listening to too much Coldplay or watching too much Hugh Fearnly Whittingstal (sp?). I'm fed up with the "rat-race". Civilisation will start fragmenting in a few decades thanks to power/oil reserve/water shortages.

Blighty is going to be over-run by sponging immigrants, who should be shot on sight when trying to get through the chunnel.

Crime will be rife thanks to them, and our own children whom we can't even chastise for bad behaviour anymore. Laws that have no deterrent are ignored... Etc.

(Cor blimey, I've got it on me today, eh?! )

Hmmm, New Zealand sounds good - North or South Island, anyone??

GaryK

Squizz,

Do you know Phil and Sam Arnell by any chance? Sam still works there, I know them from my days of old at Pearl Assurance and a few people left to go and work at MS.

>No thanks, I've spent enough setting up in business ! And if I >get another bloody charity ringing me up, asking me to fund a >wall planner, or another accountant trying to get my business, >I'll flip !

boxer aint that the truth, it goes from no calls to about 4 in a day, parasites the lot of 'em!

you could always try what I did one day:
caller: "Can I speak to the managing director?"
me: "No!" and slammed the phone down - works a treat!

Gary