Disillusioned With IT? 1027
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?"
What did I do to get out of the rut? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:You've been working for 12 years, right? (Score:2, Interesting)
I saw many of my former classmates from high school, have kids, get married, etc. All of them before they were old enough to think for themselves.
High school mostly retarded our growth and turned us into semi literate graduates. As a result we had another 4 to 8 years worth of growth required to match what our grandparents were by the age of 16. We're still breeding at young ages, but we are not emotionally or mentally mature enough to understand the ramifications of what we are doing as an age group. Thirty years of age is the earliest I've heard recommended by some of my currently breeding peers, as the age when they should've started breeding. Most breed before they even hit 20. They then become enslaved to the threat that their children will lose their home.
Maybe think about technology research? (Score:3, Interesting)
In fact, people with you experience are very valuable in research teams, as those who use the current technologies routinely have the best knowledge of their shortcomings and pitfalls and can give the most valuable input into improving them - sometimes many times more valuable than people who created them.
Additionally, research gives much more satisfaction - instead of just creating something useful, you create something better and more powerful as well, probably easing the work of all those you worked with before, who still do their daily administration routine.
And be assured, there's no shortage of jobs in the network technology research field - fiber optics, high-speed wireless, large-scale routing, extreme load-resistant and distributed systems, and many more.
Re:You've been working for 12 years, right? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
I'm changing careers into music (Score:3, Interesting)
Several years ago I decided to change careers into music [geometricvisions.com]. I taught myself to play piano many years ago, and since making that decision I've been studying it intensively with the aim of enrolling in music school someday, where I will major in music composition. I want to write symphonies!
Of course I realize that musicians rarely earn as much as computer programmers. It's going to be a while before I can pass the entrance audition; during that time I'm continuing to work as a coder, while paying down my many debts as fast as I can. I'm pretty sure I can be debt-free by the time I start school.
I'm also developing a GPL audio application called Ogg Frog [oggfrog.com], whose website also has articles and HOWTOs on the general topic of digital music. The software isn't released yet, but I'm pretty sure that by the time I do go back to school the software will have been available long enough the website will earn enough money through advertising to provide for myself and my wife.
Musicians need to be well-known to be successful. One way I've been promoting my music is by giving away free CDs [geometricvisions.com] of an album I recorded in 1994. If you'd like to receive one, email your name and postal address to support@oggfrog.com [mailto]
I'm absolutely serious! I've given away almost two thousand of them in person; a few weeks ago I plugged my CDs here at Slashdot and got fifty requests in just one day. I expect to finally mail them on Friday. And yes I am happy to ship internationally.
The music is instrumental piano, and is all my own original compositions.
Re:Reality check, please! (Score:4, Interesting)
It should also be pointed out that
Re:Why would you need more than one point? (Score:1, Interesting)
With an attitude like that, your significant other will have left you, taken half your money and you won't be able to retire.
Re:Baskin Robbins (Score:1, Interesting)
Personally, I went consulting. I get to move from project to project, doing something slightly different every time. My company pays for ongoing training so that we can have the expertise to keep our customers happy. The best part is, if I ever get fed up with something I know that I'll be doing something different in 6 months or less. It works well for me.
Unfortunately, you do run into companies occasionally who think that it's still 1997 and that because you're in IT that working evenings and weekends are all part of the job, along with being on call 24/7. Usually that's just an excuse to keep them from realizing that their environment and processes are totally f'd up, but then you get to set them straight or walk away at the end, so it's no biggie.
Re:Time to become a drunk (Score:4, Interesting)
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.nosig
doing what you love (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
FalconRe:Why would you need more than one point? (Score:4, Interesting)
Humans are human, we are not machines and assuming you are a machine generally ends very badly for everyone involved.
Re:You've been working for 12 years, right? (Score:4, Interesting)
No kids, no house payment, no car payment, $250k in the bank = you do what you want, and if you need to find another job, you find another job.
And from a boss' perspective ... I wouldn't miss that person (nor expect them to be around that long anyway). They bug off anytime they are asked to make some committment or sacrifice ... 6-12 months at each job on the resume. Sure, hire them for some contract gig, but otherwise, no thanks. I've moved when I felt it was necessary. I've asked my employers to give back when I give my all. If they don't (and haven't), I move on.
Okay, well (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm creeping up on my 10th year where I could be said to be doing computer support professionally. I went through about 5 years where I was like, "wow, this sucks and isn't very challenging".
I figured out though that there's real benefit in having a job where I can go home and the end of the day and forget about work and do stuff I like. Not to mention that even though the things I do from day to day aren't amazingly challenging, it isn't that way for everyone I work with, and as such, it's much easier to stand out and be regarded as excellent in my professional field.
So yeah, look around and consider all the options, but my advice? Don't make your work your life... unless you're getting paid millions of dollars quarterly, then make it your life for 10 years and retire. :D
Re:A father must at LEAST bring in money. (Score:2, Interesting)
People who talk about how a man should spend more time with his kids need to either stop complaining and do something to reduce the hours that men have to work in order to provide, or they can just accept the fact that society is just demanding more and more from people
But when you talk about the below $100k range, well, I'd rather sacrifice my happiness to get into the $100k range so my kids can go to Yale.
From your post, it seems like it IS your choice. You choose to work enough to send your kids to Yale. You choose to trade time with your kids to send them to Yale. Yale is not a requirement, they can live a good life if they go to a University, or even a community college.
You mention: if I could make $100k a year working 20 hours a week I'd rather do that than work 40 hours a week and make $200k
That is where YOU set your limit. You could work 20 hours a week and live off of $50k. BUt you'd rather trade your time for money. Society is not forcing this on you, you are.
Re:Reality check, please! (Score:3, Interesting)
Helicopter pilots are desperately in need.
CNC machine operators are in need.
If you qualify, neither of those takes much training to be employable. 2 years, tops.
While you can probably do all your helicopter pilot training in 2 years, you'll need $110,000 in cash to pay for it, and the price is going up with the quickly rising price of gasoline. You can get student loans, of course, but these are usually limited to $70k, plus with the collapse of Silver State Helicopters (a big scam), and of course the rest of the country's credit industry problems, getting a loan isn't an easy thing any more.
Flying a helicopter is also a difficult and dangerous job. It's been compared to standing on a beach ball while patting your head and rubbing your stomach, as you have to constantly adjust for wind conditions and other factors. Some people can learn it, some people just can't, and you may burn tens of thousands of dollars before finding out that you're one of the ones who just can't hack it.
If you have an analytical mind, are fairly good at math, and have good motor skills and coordination, and most importantly are good at doing things exactly "by the book", you'll probably be a good helicopter pilot, but you'll need someone bankrolling your education to get there.
However, you also have to think about your career prospects. After you finish your certifications, the only thing you'll be able to get a job in is teaching at the flight school you just graduated from. You'll do this for 6-12 months, at mediocre pay, until you reach 1000 hours of PIC time (pilot in command), at which point you can get another job somewhere else (no one will hire you with less than 1000 hours). Now, unless you just love teaching, your choices widen to:
1) flying oil rig workers to and from oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. You'll live in a horrible little hellhole in Louisiana, living in a nasty trailer with other pilots, getting crappy pay ($50k), probably working 7 days, and getting off 7 days. On your off days, you'll probably go stay with your family somewhere along the Gulf
Coast, perhaps New Orleans, Gulfport, or maybe Houston.
2) flying as a tour pilot in Hawaii, the Grand Canyon, the Bahamas, or someplace like that. With this career, the pay isn't too hot either, probably about the same as with the GOM operations, but you also get tips. The scenery is far, far better of course, but you do have to contend with a much higher cost of living generally. And with the poor economy, not as many people might be taking helicopter tours, though there's probably a lot of rich European tourists who aren't as affected.
3) flying EMS. This is where helicopter pilots go to die. The pay isn't all that great either, but the worst part is that you don't build hours (i.e. experience) very fast, so you're basically stuck there. Unlike the GOM and tour jobs, where you're flying all the time, EMS pilots just sit around all the time watching TV or reading books until someone has a nasty car accident. If you don't care about building hours or flying, this might appeal to you, but if you'd rather be flying most of the time, or have your sights on some higher-up career, this isn't going to help you. However, the BIG plus side of EMS is that EMS pilots are needed in every city, so unlike the above jobs, you can basically live anywhere you want, provided there's a job opening.
If you have a family and kids, being a helicopter pilot is really a no-go unless you're independently wealthy I think. The up-front cost of training is very, very high, and the starting salaries are very low; you won't be able to afford to pay back your student loans if you have a mortgage and mouths to feed. Eventually, with plenty of experience, there are other, more interesting and better paying jobs you can get into, such as logging, construction, news gathering, etc., but the road to these is long, and again, with many of th
Quit and Send Your Wife To Work! (Score:2, Interesting)
That's what I did after 10 years in a nice IT job.
This depends on what your wife is skilled in, and if she wants to work. For us, I was burning out and ready for a change, my wife, recently having received her PhD., was ready to launch her own career. Both of us thought having one parent stay home with our new baby was the right thing to do, even if it mean watching the budget closer.
1.5 years later, I can honestly say I don't miss IT in the slightest. Except that I have a whole new respect for stay at home parents! It is more rewarding, and at the same time more challenging than the IT job ever was.
Hadn't seen it posted yet, so wanted to throw that out there.
Go for the middle road (Score:2, Interesting)
So, to summarize - we all eventually grow tired of the same IT stuff after a while. But you can make a change that takes advantage of your experience that will give you enough of a change of scenery and enough challenges to motivate you. Going into something completely different may seem good in the beginning, but you may feel the same as you do now after a number of years. Examine yourself and your own feelings about why you find your work "very tedious, repetitive, and boring".
Good luck.
Left IT and glad I did (Score:3, Interesting)
Well if you have gotten past the slurry of goatse references, random trolls, and at least one or two (hundred) Vista jabs, I laud your patience and thank you for reading my $0.02. I was in IT for about 10 years, worked hard, made great money, and never lacked for a job.
But I had to leave.
It wasn't just the continued feel of deja vu. I mean, if you switch jobs or do consulting/contracting, you get used to arguing for the benefits of process, unit testing, design, etc... But everything just was getting so boring. The options of tech people -- staying in the trenches and fighting the same battles year after year or going into management (yawn) weren't really appealing to me. And really at the heart of it was a nagging feeling of there being something that would be better for me to do (more complimentary to my strengths, more intellectually interesting, more personally satisfying).
I think you need to look at what you feel is missing with your job. Many people have suggested looking for a different job in the same field. That is good advice. If you do not think you can get what you need in the field, then consider a job switch. If you think you need a job switch, make sure you and your wife are in agreement on the course of action (well - since I do not have a wife, I would assume this is the best course of action :)
Even though you have a wife and kids, many things are possible. I switched from IT to medical school, and am almost 1/2 way done with my M.D. I have many classmates who are in the 40s (and some in their 50s) with wife and kids and manage to make things meet. I do not regret the switch one bit, and while the loss of income is difficult, it is only temporary.
Many will argue that you need to stay where you are for your kids. Perhaps that is true, although giving your kids an example of having strength/tenacity/etc... to make a positive change in your life might be good as well. You have been given a gift of having options in your life. That is not something that many people in this world have (even in the US). As an engineer you know that there are many ways to fix a problem - the trick is to find the right method for the given situation.
Not sure if this has helped out at all, but you know what they say about free advice...
A hero of mine. (Score:1, Interesting)
For, basically my whole life, I had this great plan. Go to school, get a degree, get a girl, get married, get a career, have kids, die. Seemed like all I needed to know when I was young -- unfortunately, I completed most of that list by the time I was 22 and suddenly it seemed kinda depressing. I thought for a long time about a career change, but I kept saying to myself "I can't change careers, I've already invested 8/9/10 years down this path..."
Then I met this guy at my work place, and started talking with him about how he got here. He was working as a developer on my team, and he was in his late 40s. Being young, this was weird to me. The average age in the office was probably 27 or so, so this guy definitely stuck out.
When I asked how he got here, he told me a bunch about where he'd come from.
He grew up in a small town, on a farm, in a very religious family. Up until some time in his late teens, he was destined to take over the farm. At some point, though, he picked up a French Horn, and decided that it seemed interesting, so he signed up for a Music degree at a local Christian University, and off he went.
A couple years later, he dropped out to take a position with a symphony. This lasted for about two years, and then he made a pretty major life change. As part of the change, he distanced himself a great deal from his past, including the horn, so he dropped what he was doing and became a trucker.
A few years driving trucks, and he'd seen a good deal of North America. He met some friends out on the West Coast, and decided that he wanted to move on out. He could settle with his job as a trucker, which he loved, so he had to change up his life again. He made a career change into a wholesale/retail operation.
He worked in the retail sector until the early 90s, then his company started tracking inventory in this 'database' thing. This marked his move into the IT sector as a DBA. He took some time here and there to invest into a new passion of his: writing. And he did that semi-professionally for quite some time.
He worked in 'light IT' for about 6 years, doing simple DBA and dev work, and then wanted to take the plunge into full on application dev. No one would have him without a formal education. So, he quit what he was doing, took four months off with no pay, and got a couple of certifications, and now he has a job as a developer.
For me, meeting this guy has been one of the most liberating experiences in my (still pretty young) life. It doesn't sound that cool at first, but for me, I'd always been led to believe that 10 years is a long time to do something - far too long to consider doing something else. Also, once you had a good paying job with a 'career path' you should shut up and stick to it until you retire.
This guy has been a farmer, a musician, a trucker, a retailer, a DBA, a writer and at 45 years of age, he made another career change to a developer.
He's taught me that I'm not committed because I've done something for ten years; rather, I have 40 more years of work to get through, which is a whole lot of time to change gears, try something else new, and see what else is out there.
You've got a long life in the work force - you might as well take some chances and make the most of it.