Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

I've been working in IT for over 11 years now, but there must be more to life!!

I've worked on a help desk, in a logistics department, in house bench engineer, on site project engineer, help desk manager, IT consultant, business analyst, project manager and as an IT manager.

I've worked for small companies, large companies, small companies that have been bought out by bigger companies.

I've been outsourced to financial, legal, local govenment, construction and manufacturing sectors.

I've worked for resellers, in the direct marketing industry and legal services sector.

In all this time, I've only been made redundant twice, but I'm now thinking of leaving IT completely.

Problem is, I don't know what I'd rather do instead!! Is there anywhere I can get career advice or guidence?

pslewis

Career Guidance Office at the Jobcentre????

Pete

mark1234

If you work it out, tell me

Seriously, the only help I can offer is 'What colour is your parachute' - Richard Boles (IIRC), worth a read at least, not IT specific, but aimed at helping you work out the answer to the question.

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Thanks Pete

Mark, I guess need to know the question before I can answer, if that makes any sense?

SJ_Skyline

Best of luck Andy!

ChefDude

PADI diving instructor

boxst

Hello

You will find that almost any other career that you can jump to easily will not pay anywhere near as much as IT.

So whilst I respect your decision to look for an alternative career, it will be difficult. As you probably know, plumbers, electricians are making lots of money at the moment so that might be a way forward if you can cope with the bad apprenticeship and training to start with.

Steve

FlightMan

Noise and Track Keeping manager at the "World Greatest Airport"?

Oh, sorry, thats my job and I aint leavin!

Seriously, it can be done. I made a complete career after 18 years in IT, change and haven't looked back. My only advice is try looking for somethign that will utilise your IT skills, but not be IT per se. In my case, the syetm we use to track the flights and record the noise levels is Unix based, running on W95 clients ( I kid you not ) using an old piece of emulator software. Thast my IT skilss, the new part of the job I learnt!

Good luck.

Simon K

I had a similar thought when I reached 30. Been an IT contractor since I was 25, and just had enough of IT.

Decided that I would do something different. Thought about starting a small car dealership, selling the odd car, or maybe even opening a pizza franchise that just does deliveries.

After about 3 months, I went back into contracting as I never really pulled my finger out, and decided that better the devil you know, than the one you dont.

However, I would say try it. Better to have tried an d failed, than never tried in the first place. You can always return into the IT world. What would you like to try ? do ?? I would love a job that involves my hobby, so this is why I wanted to get involved in cars.

Let me know how you go.

SBK

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Same here but at 35 with responsibilitiies its difficult to change, locked and loaded into providing, no spare income to save to prepare for a period of retraining or the low pay that comes with the initial stages of a career change, still might go contracting, it does turn your head being the only permie with 5 contractors at 400 a day !

Abdabz

Im in IT at 31 1/2 and have been considering a change since I hit the big 30. Something less stressful that keeps me fit and has flexible hours I thought...
Sounded great in principle but cant find anything that pays me to be kept in the manner to which I am accustomed... At least not without taking too many risks...
I looked at courier franchising, opening a wine bar, becoming a postie, going to college and learning to be a plumber, drug dealing, becoming a pimp and freelance assassin...

So 18 months later Im still in IT and will be keeping an eye on this thread for ideas...

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

I think I will invest this months salary into the EuroMillions!

Foot_Tapper

Been seriously thinking of ditching IT as well.. not a clue what I would do, am just fed up with it.
Perhaps all the I.T.'ers should have a week off at the same time, and let the users sort out all their own crap.
(specially the know-all ones, who **** their pc up, then tell you how to fix it when you come around)

stevem2k

I.T's like the Hotel California ..... you can check out ....


I'd be looking after a Lake in deepest France given the opportunity <sigh>

flynnstudio

oh my god...are we all thinking the same thing - it's like a group mind at work...I thought I was an individual - now I find that everyone in IT wants to go restore old Ferrari's and run a small villa come restaurant/B&B in the south of France...


bugger!!

flynnstudio

Then everyone of them asks you 'what was it?" - then you do them the courtesy of explaining and they just immediately switch off and show complete disinterest...

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

I was thinking property developing (obviously watching too much telly and near on impossible where I live) or a sandwich shop (but I've obviously forgotten what hard work the food industry is!)

If money wasn't an object (if only), I'd like to be a counciller for Smaritians, or something useful like that, but I'd probably only get a load of calls from IT people who are sick of their jobs!!

Petem95

Things arent looking too rosy for IT at the moment - with the outlook for the economy being bad, its often IT spending which is the first thing to be cut.

Secondly people were worried about IT jobs going to India, but apparently now Indians are coming here to take UK based IT jobs which cant be exported!

85% of the UK work permits granted in 2004 were for Indians working in IT!!!

http://www.cw360.co.uk/Home/Articles...oesonshore.htm

flynnstudio

About 10 years ago I wanted to install a piece of software on a mail gateway to our indian office. It was £300 and all it did was basically dial up and retrieve mail.

It was decieded that they could employ an indian to sit by the computer all day and click the button to connect every 10 mins instead..and pay him £15 per month!!

Maybe I'm being to severe here but I think the problem for me in IT is unless your a software engineer you technically have 'no trade' because the foundations of your knowledge base are constantly eroding unlike say a graphic designer who has core skills and we just 'wing it a lot' when new kit comes in the door...

After all as my operations director once told me 'IT is a piece of p*ss really isn't it'

No wonder they're shipping in cheap labour...that's how they view it!

Now Andy where's that number for the samaritans!!

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

The number you require is...

As an IT Manager, I not only have to find time to be up to speed technically, I have to keep up to date with laws, licensing, budgets, implementations, projects, staff, etc, etc.

I've always said that IT is thankless job, and it's the same no matter what level you work at.

Foot_Tapper

Cheers pete, thanks for making my mind up
Andy want to go into partnership (with the property thing , not the sarnies)

555-Shaggy

Tell me about it, they are all working here in my office.. already lost my development job offshore, now ended up in project management when its not really what I want - just want a job sat in a corner coding and testing. The girlie is an IT contractor and has been for years, she's got no work and no sign of work either.. anyone thinking about it for the £400 per day, can you still live on that when you only work for about 6 months per year or less?

Squizz

Andy,

I'm in the same boat. Been in IT for 19 years in various positions - Coding, testing, project management, permanent, contracting, etc.

I'm sick of it

I'm finding it hard these days to not shout "Who the f*ck cares?!??" when asked about the ludicrously complicated systems I'm working on at the moment.

Luckily, I'm qualified as an Internal Auditor and will soon be taking a TickIT Auditing Course. I may well then decide to follow a career in auditing everyone else's IT projects and will be taking extreme please in pronouncing every project I audit as "A total bag of w*nks" and give them all non-conformance reports to keep them busy.

Alternatively, wait until the missus job as a Group Accountant starts earning even more wedge and become a house husband.

Foot_Tapper

I'm just waiting for the day of the big bang.
For the companies that have farmed out so many offshore jobs, when the string holding it all together finally snaps.

Would lmao over a few stellas

flynnstudio

After I, at the age of 30, started making people aged 40 redundant in my own profession I came to the conclusion that this job is very temporary and that specifically IT Management took my 'youth' in trade for crap money to begin with that rose over the years to great money but was spent on fast cars and cinema projectors etc etc...so I became a music producer instead - sold 4 musical spectaculars in the first year alone (for kids shows mind you but got to start somwhere!)...now done that and I'm consider my next adventure...

I really think 'Who WAS I?' when I was in IT - 12 years gone in a flash..

mark1234

Ok!

The question seems to be 'what the hell can I do that's more fulfilling / will make me happier' (well, for me at least). A panacea it isn't, but there's some interesting ideas about finding your vocation, rather than a job. It hasn't solved it all for me by any means though

wez_sti

hate the ones that lie, they change settings that mess it up then you ask them if they changed em and they deny it! you know they are lying, and they know you know!

mark1234

Cheerful bunch As an IT contractor looking for a job, I think I'm about ready to slit my wrists!

But in answer to 555-Shaggy - 400 a day is about 55k in 6 months (before tax). In my previous permie job, the taxable value of my package (including all benefits) was 45k (in 12 months). So, can I live working 6 months a year? Go figure!

SJ_Skyline

I hate the relatives that treat you like a sodding helpdesk. "Oh he works with computers, he'll be able to help"

Reality

Just tell them you are "Hardware" or "Software" depending on the nature of their "Fault call" .

Or tell them to **** off if they're in-laws