Disillusioned With IT?

cgh4be writes "I have been working in the IT industry for about 12 years and have had various jobs as a consultant and systems engineer. Over that time I've had the chance to do a little bit of everything: programming, networking, SAN, Linux/AIX/UNIX, Windows, sales, support, and on and on. However, over the last couple of months I have become a little disillusioned with the IT industry as a whole. Occasionally, I will get interested in some new technology, but for the most part I'm starting to find it all very tedious, repetitive, and boring and I'm no longer really interested in the hands-on aspect of the business. I suppose going the management route is one option, but I would still be dealing with a lot of the same frustrating technology issues. The other route I had in mind was a complete career change; take something I really enjoy doing outside of work now and try to make a career out of it. The only problem is that I have a wife and kid to support and my current job pays very well. Have any of you been through this kind of career 'mid-life crisis?' What did you do to get out of the rut? Is making a complete career change at this point a bad idea?"

My vote...

Do what you love. In the end it is all that matters.

Re:My vote...

Do what you love. In the end it is all that matters.

But pr0n don't pay if you are male
   

doing what you love

Do what you love. In the end it is all that matters.

But pr0n don't pay if you are male

Sure it does, start your own paid porn site. Actually about 10 years ago I read an article in an internet magazine about how Asia Carrera taught herself how to program so she could start her own porn website, I think it said she made a lot more from the website than she did acting.

Falcon

Re:Thats irrational and selfish.

You are oversimplying -- dangerously so, I think.

Your kids MUST be your number one priority, but should NOT be your only purpose.

If they are, there won't be much left of you or your marriage or your future once they leave the nest.

Having only one point to your existence is unhealthy. Your kids your first priority? Good. The only purpose? Bad -- even for the kids.

Re:Thats irrational and selfish.

You're making the implicit, and totally unwarranted, assumption that the sole measure of a father's success is his ability to bring in money. Dropping out of IT might mean a drop in income, but it doesn't mean he can't find a different way to make money, which is what I assume he intends. There is absolutely no reason to think that he can't raise his children to be at least as healthy and happy on a smaller income.

Depending on what he goes into, he may end up with more time to devote to his family, which is worth more than money.

I'm not saying money is irrelevant, but it is not nearly so important as some people make it out to be.

You've been working for 12 years, right?

So you have a nice little nest egg stashed away, right? Saving for retirement? Rainy day fund? How much reserves you got to start something on your own?

If you do, then start thinking about doing that right now while you have this well-paying job, and spend some of your evening hours developing a business plan, potential clientele, educating yourself.

If you don't, then you need to take a few years to build that nest egg up, to be responsible to your wife and kids.

Re:You've been working for 12 years, right?

I have no idea what you are talking about. My only suggestion was, if he had been setting aside money over time then maybe he'd have the financial resources to consider his independant business venture. And if not, he should consider starting that savings now, while the money is good.

Raising a family while very young is the trap that lords and masters have laid into the path of the peasant since lords and masters have been around. See, once you have children, they have something they can use to keep you honest (read, subservient, read also, shackled). See, a man who accepts that all is transient, and family comes and goes as does youth and riches and poverty, will be hard to shackle down, or to enslave.

I'm 25. Been married for nearly 5 years. We had our first child when I was 22. Lived in this house for two years. And despite having two kids and a wife to keep me "subservient" or whatever you propose, we've paid down nearly 10% of our mortgage, and put about 25% of my net income per month away in savings and investments. It isn't hard to do if you are committed to it. Having kids early, getting married early, really isn't a strain if you are disciplined in money management. And if you aren't disciplined in money management, you'll blow it on loose women, cars, computers or beer as a single guy anyways.

Reality check, please!

If you're in the U.S., you should look around you at what is happening to the economy, and what direction it's headed. THEN make up your mind about whether you want to change careers right now.

Re:Reality check, please!

If you're in the US and take a look around at what is happening to the economy, you're more likely to be out on the ledge on the 19th floor at this point.

Man Up

Occasionally, I will get interested in some new technology, but for the most part I'm starting to find it all very tedious, repetitive, and boring and I'm no longer really interested in the hands-on aspect of the business.

I spent the majority of my childhood until I was 18 picking rock and bailing hay on a farm. You think you're in a tedious, repetitive and boring job? The fact that you're posting on Slashdot during work hours tells me otherwise. I'll bet you have air conditioning.

I know this is a bad thing that Americans don't like to dwell on but you should be happy you have a solid source of income and work in comfortable environments. Most people outside of the industrialized world can't say that.

The only problem is that I have a wife and kid to support and my current job pays very well.

If you can't find joy in your job and you can't find another job with comparable income, then find joy in your family. Generations before you have worked in mills, textile plants, mines, slaughterhouses, etc. all in the name of their wives, daughters & sons living a free life. Again, if I were you, I would opt to be thankful I can provide for my family under much better circumstances (and probably at much higher pay with inflation taken into account).

On the other hand, I recognize that the young idealist in us all strikes [flickr.com] every now and then. But you've got a family and a paying job so I would recommend you focus on those aspects instead of risking them. I guess if you do decide to act on your instincts, ask them if they're willing to accept the risk for your happiness at work. They're now part of your life and depending on you so respect that and be responsible.

Re:Man Up

I spent the majority of my childhood until I was 18 picking rock and bailing hay on a farm. You think you're in a tedious, repetitive and boring job? The fact that you're posting on Slashdot during work hours tells me otherwise. I'll bet you have air conditioning.

Peter Gibbons: This isn't so bad, huh? Makin' bucks, gettin' exercise, workin' outside.
Lawrence: Fuckin' A.
Peter Gibbons: [nods] Fuckin' A.
- Office Space

Re:Man Up

I spent the majority of my childhood until I was 18 picking rock and bailing hay on a farm. You think you're in a tedious, repetitive and boring job? The fact that you're posting on Slashdot during work hours tells me otherwise. I'll bet you have air conditioning.

I think he may have misinterpreted what he really means by boredom as burnout.

What do Soldiers, Firemen, Paramedics, and IT person have in common?

Jobs that have times of lulls and then complete disasters that were never the same as before. This is why they attribute post traumatic stress symptoms to soldiers due because its a constant emotional rollercoasters of pure boredom and then unexpected disasters.

Now, IT is no where as bad as being a front line soldier (no ones buddy was ambushed by a sniper in the server room) but overall the same issues that are bad for the mind for the soldier are the same for the IT person.

An IT person sits around until the phone rings, Blackberry goes off, or gets an email and then they have an unexpected issue on their hands they they could have never predicted. It might be as simple as having to show someone how to install a printer to a complete disaster where the exchange server goes down and the CEO needs an important email for a big contract.

A single issue in itself isn't that bad, but the issues keep happening and they are often not the same or at a predictable interval.

I remember a psychological test done on lab rats with such a scenario where they shocked one rat with electricity at regular intervals and then shocked the other at random. Even though the one at regular intervals was shocked more often, the rat that was shocked at random ate less and slept less and could not adapt to the situation.

Same thing with IT and burnout... From an anectdotal experience, I work IT but I have also worked in places like warehouses lifting boxes and sorting orders for a mail order company.

The warehouse was hot and the boxes were heavy and the task with hurt your fingers but for the life of me I miss the job because my job was straight forward and the task was predictable. Sadly, I had to give it up for money and moved back into IT and just deal with the stress as best I can.

So while farming and assembly line work is mundane and boring as heck, the stress levels aren't that bad because the tasks are predictable and your aren't running to one issue or another like a fireman trying to put out fires or a soldier who keeps getting ambushed.

Re:Man Up

You make a good point. I have worked hard, physical jobs in the past, so I do appreciate the value of having a stable professional career.

That being said, I also appreciate the value of coming home after a long day of work feeling like I accomplished something, even if it was just bucking bales.

I can put you in touch with one of my uncles that "bucked bales" for a good 30 years only to find out he was destroying his knees as he did it. Doc says he should look at driving truck and think about how he spends his money as it may be wheelchair time soon.

Or maybe you can talk to my other uncles and aunts who aren't into farming. A few of them tried it but you know there's these things called "corporate farms [wikipedia.org]" that (at least when I was younger) had tax loopholes, subsidies and Republican style protection from taxes. They have been known to put together a failing business model, buy up land, get investors, flood the market with one product for three years while they operate in the red and then just, you know, file for bankruptcy. Since it was all under a corporation they just regroup and do it again next time.

What does all this excess in the market do to the family farm? Kills the income for that year. Family farms can't operate in the red for more than a year. And if you file for bankruptcy, that's your name.

So you basically have to be business smart and have lawyers to be a farmer these days. Just ain't worth it. Easier and more stable to be a Java monkey (look at me!).

Couple that with the tricks you have to pull to pass on the farm and machinery to the kids and you got an impossible sustaining source of income. Happened to the entire generation of farms before me, I'm out.

Sorry to go on a tandem there, but if you are seriously thinking about "working the land" and "accomplishing something" and feeling tired from good hard work at the end of the day, don't do it. It's a crap shoot these days.

well..

I have a wife and kid, and had a long term career that I was fundamentally bored with. I quit, went to back uni, and ten years later don't regret a thing.

I say take the chance, or risk looking back in ten years and wondering where your life went, seriously.

It's all about the benjamins.

IT sucks. It's a hard, high-stress field that demands constant study and practice.

This is why it pays well.

Don't expect to be able to hop out of the field and be able to command the same salary unless you have some well-established, lucrative backup profession.

If you really can't take it anymore, expect to downsize your life somewhat. Lack of stress may make up for lack of cash.

The IT industry is maturing

No surprise, the IT industry is maturing (slowly, but steadily). Things should be getting a little more boring for your standard administrator, we have begin to learn and apply the lessons learned over the last 40 years (a.k.a. "best practices", a terrible buzz phrase but an accurate one). So now you have a choice: you can leave IT and find another fiend that is less mature and still growing rapidly, or you can find an environment that still encourages and rewards innovation and new ideas, in other words the difference between slowly tweaking the system so it is more efficient and creating entirely new systems (that may or may not be more efficient, only one way to find out =). My advice is change your job before you change your career.

Here's a suggestion

Set up a large network of thousands of machines, install on them all, some genetic programming software, then have them generate billions of random applications. Then simply release the resulting ecosystem into the Internet. See what happens then.

 

What did I do to get out of the rut?

I built a race car.

Seriously. I got together with a friend of mine who is a mechanic and put together a race car to go drag racing. We've won events with national sponsorship, got on TV and even have magazines asking for photoshoots.

I was able to learn alot and I even applied my IT skills in tuning fuel injection and ignition control systems. Now there are people begging me to tune their cars for them and I might actually have a side business that is quite lucrative for not alot of effort given my extensive computer based background. If I play those cards right, I could end up being a legitimate chassis builder and tuner. Kinda cool when you think about how something that was just intended to get my mind off my problems turned into something like that.

Baskin Robbins

You have what I like to call Baskin Robbins Syndrome. It's where you really really dig ice cream - UNTIL you get a job where you can eat a bunch of free ice cream. You now loathe ice cream.

Unfortunately this cycle is perpetual. Baskin Robbins Syndrome applies to any profession. So even if you're immensely interested in what you do for a living, you will eventually grow to hate it. Don't you think Taco and crew have had mornings where they wake up and go "wow, fuck slashdot, im going to go be a hamster farmer..."

I went through this a few years ago with IT security. I even tried going into gaming. Eventually I solved the problem by taking a year off of anything work related to travel and clear my brain. This isn't an option for a lot of people, but if you can do it, it will change your perspective in a huge way.

Construction

Several of my friends did construction for a while. A year later they were back in IT. They say the change was great.

Re:Family is all that matters in life.

Sure, work hard at a boring job so that your child has all the right opportunities to grow up and do the same for his child.

From my point of view, it's better to take a fun but low-paying job, because you'd inspire your kid to follow his own dreams instead of taking the easy way out. (There's also the side benefit of perhaps not being so materially-focused.) Plus, even with your responsibility for others, it is still your life -- as long as you can still keep your family in food and shelter, why not enjoy it?

Also, don'tcha want to be the "cool dad" everyone else's kids want to have? :P

Re:Family is all that matters in life.

Tell me then... what exactly did his parents sacrifice for? Is his child expected to also sacrifice his happiness, so that his grandchildren can be happy? What of them?

I say, find balance and moderation in all things. Don't give up on happiness, but don't pursue only that. Lots of people manage to make career changes and support a family, and many of them are happier for it.

/. is being an awfully depressed and pessimistic bunch today.

Re:Family is all that matters in life.

If your job pays good money, be a man and provider and sacrifice your happiness so your child can have a better life.

What a load of horse dung. There is nothing "manly" about being unhappy and dissatisfied.

Here's a better alternative - be smart, and research into what you like and make a plan to go towards it. That way, you are working towards a goal. And when you finally do accomplish it, you'd be happier for it.

The whole "be a man" and do stupid things for life is the biggest load of nonsense I've heard.

My Dad quit his job as a banker and became a lawyer when I was in school, and now he's very successful and quite happy. My Mom quit her job when she had me, and went back to being a daytrader.

My girlfriend is in premed and we're thinking of getting married and having kids -- but that does not mean that I do not plan on going to business school sometime, or that she's not planning on doing medicine.

You can have both. You just need to be smart about it.

Re:I'm sitting in the same place

Get your finances under control. Reduce your need for money. The difference between how much you make and how much you must spend reflects the size of choices available in your life. Reduce your dependence on needing a lot of money each month, and the number of choices available to you increases dramatically, and your freedom increases dramatically.

In my case, I used to own two cars, now I own none. I moved to another state that is 1/2 the price for housing. I quit eating out, started buying things like pinto beans and rice, and cook all my own meals. After restructuring my life, I have far more money and options available to me.

Once your finances are in order, and you learn to do without things like starbucks every day and whatnot, you may find you have the freedom you need to pursue your dreams. It may take years to get to that point, but you must try to take control. Otherwise you forfeit control of your life to the will of others.

Re:Time to become a drunk

[...] and beat off an invading alien dinosaur army [...]

Wouldn't his hands get tired?