For 10 years now I've worked in I.T, in everything from support, to server admin, to development, to networks and comms and so on. I do pretty well for myself but by God I'm bored!!
Did some reading today and was suprised to find I was one of a majority of the population who at some time of their life feel a strong drive to make a change..... so much so you can even find consultants who specialise in carrer change.
So
1) I'm an I.T speciallist.
2) I can't afford a gap in my earnings.
3) I'm 31 and want a change!
4) I need constant challanges and really need a environment that provides daily change!
Suggestions?
project management?
I changed career at 31. I work in the Print (in prepress) from school and found myself bored with the same out routine. So I did some Microsoft exams and moved over to service and support. Still in the Print industry, so I didn't waste my 15 years of experience. but a complete change in job. I did take a drop in wage. lost about 15k a year. but it soon bounced back. now I have just started my own business. earning more money than my old job and a lot happier.
I think you have to ask yourself, what makes you happy. Have you got any hobbies that you can turn in to a career. Maybe working for yourself we make your old career more interesting. as for not taking a drop in money. my experience is that the further you move away from you existing career the bigger the drop. anyway how much does an IT specialist earn :)
armitage, I think IT has to be the easiest career to move into as its used to some extent in every line of work out there..... moving out I fear will be much harder.
I took a look at the technical crimes arm of the fuzz.... but got the impression I'd need experience of working as plod for that.... I'm not against that but west mids police are not recruiting......
Im doing somthing similar at the moment as well.
Im bored, but that has more do with being **** on in my job.
Im looking for jobs traveling at the moment, spend a couple of months traveling around posibly. at the moment im trying to get out to the ski slopes for a bit.
When ive finshed with that then I will probably be looking in to actually getting a career, no idea what I want to do tho.
At the moment im thinking of going in to polotics, do begger all and get paid a sh!t load.
not sure politicians earn that much. not unless you count the brown envelopes:g:
A guy I used to work with joined the met in Jan. pay is not the great. Out of London starts around 24k. 29k in London, Hours are crap, a real marriage wrecker and you have to be a bobby for 2 years before you can specialise (met anyway).
What about sales. good money, freedom to do what you want (as long as you hit your targets :rolleyes: )
I would've recommended the fire service...until Prescott wrecked it:sad:
come to think of it, if you didn't know what it was like before, you wouldn't know any different.
It helps if you are a female or from an ethnic minority though...I've seen you so I know you're not...
they like gayers too, so maybe you do stand a chance:narnar:
best of luck:thumbsup2:
Quote from: Stryker;165247So
1) I'm an I.T speciallist.
2) I can't afford a gap in my earnings.
3) I'm 31 and want a change!
4) I need constant challanges and really need a environment that provides daily change!
Suggestions?
Have you bought CS:S already? Haven't seen you on :-)
But seriously, I think the best suggestion was to go and for indepedently. I ledt my previous (very prestiougs) firm and started a new one with a friend and we are very happy. Some months we earn more and some less, but everything is more interesting when you are diong it personaly for the client and not because your boss sent you to do it.
A friend of mine has a same career as yours. He was an
instructor, now he
works for a company that supply net services for many clients so the work is diverse and he travles a lot in the country. Anyhow, he got an offer from one of the clients to
work inhouse. These alone are three different points of view - for the same career...
Certainly joining the Police and doing the technical side would be interesting, but as Armitage says you'll need to work as a PC for a minimum of two years - and a friend of mine says that actually it's more like 5 years realistically.
How about an intelligence analyst for MI5 for similar. ?
https://www.mi5careers.gov.uk/
They have loads of job vacancies in various fields
eg
IT: https://www.mi5careers.gov.uk/job.aspx?jobid=48
Network specialist: https://www.mi5careers.gov.uk/job.aspx?jobid=20
You're not going to earn a fortune but it'd be different....
PEN
bizarrely another guy has just left my old place (not many left now :)) and now works for GCHQ in the IT sector. looks like he will be doing some interesting stuff. but the office is in Cheltenham.
I've worked in cheltenham before. Its a 60 mile commute each way. As far as money goes I'm happy so long as I can live on what I'm paid.... I think its more important to enjoy what you do.
Gay female fireman sounds interesting blunt, but you never said if that meant I'd be giving it or taking it..... makes a big difference to me, only one I think I could live with :roflmao:
Quote from: Armitage;165275What about sales. good money, freedom to do what you want (as long as you hit your targets :rolleyes: )
Do you know any sales jobs like this?
If you do can u hook me up? Im a salesman, fully trained and experenced in technical sales, Ive never been able to do what I want.
The only people that get to do what they want are R&D / research.
I think everyone who does IT wants out after 10 years. It gets stale, there are a million propellor heads being turned out of university that aren't jaded by corporate stifles (What a great word).
I'm in the same boat, got bored with hands on tech and the management side of that, moved away and am now ....deep breath.... a manager. The worst kind, middle management, but it's a means to an end. It should open some more doors.
Ideally I'd be off doing what the rest of the world wants to do, property development, but I'm in a wage trap, 4 kids and an expensive mortgage...so for now here I am.
Good luck chief, I genuinely feel for you. I think you either need to make a huge jump, or suck it up and get on with it. Your kids ((if I remember correctly) are young enough to move without too much upheaval, so maybe now is the time.
I'll go back to watching 'Place in the Sun' and 'Grand Designs' and getting annoyed with the cowboy bastichs that appear to be involved in every aspect of the building / labour type roles, then I'll dream of how I could do better. I'm heading home tonight to tile my kitchen floor. Rock and indeed, roll.
Can't be arsed to spellcheck the above.
Sheepy, you are young enough with few enough ties - again unless I'm wrong - get out there and live some. Local sales jobs are crap, think big.
Quote from: sheepy;165402The only people that get to do what they want are R&D / research.
...only if you can persuade someone to fund it!
...on that note if anyone knows of any R&D type positions suited to an almost-finished electronics PhD who is in need of a job I'm looking for something like that at the moment within an hour or so of Kings Cross. Wireless/audio/video/etc. So hard to think of good companies as many of them aren't in the mainstream jobsearches and don't advertise jobs much beyond circles of contacts...
Best I've found so far is out nearish Heathrow but the commute to the interview took almost 2 hours...:doh:
Hard going from DINK'ers SITCOM'ers innit?
i.e.
Dual Income No Kids
to
Single Income Two Children Oppressive Mortgage
:doh:
PEN
Thanks benny, your right on the money with your assesment of the situation.... flaming depressing feeling this way knowing I've got another 35 years of this assuming I'm not lucky enough to be hit by a bus :)
And yes, I can not afford a gap in my earnings.... although I'd not considered a move till now.... my kids are 3 & 5 so for a short while its def an option if needed.
Just not sure I know what I want to do.... all I'm sure on is I know what I dont want to be doing.
Here is an interesting thought. I dont fancy being an air traffic controller but it has given food for thought. ATC has to be a very odd career and thus is one where they look for people who simply have ability, then if you qualify they pay you a full wage while your put through ATC college and then there is a job at the end of it..... I need to find a career like that, one where I can re-train and be paid for the privilage..... any ideas?
A bit of a personal question. But what sort of pay are you looking for? 20K,30K,40K+++
Quote from: Stryker;165471Here is an interesting thought. I dont fancy being an air traffic controller but it has given food for thought. ATC has to be a very odd career and thus is one where they look for people who simply have ability, then if you qualify they pay you a full wage while your put through ATC college and then there is a job at the end of it..... I need to find a career like that, one where I can re-train and be paid for the privilage..... any ideas?
Air Traffic Control is generally recognised to be one of the most stressful jobs you can do!
but they do get paid well and have a lot of holidays
lawyers and teachers tend to have (badly) paid training/learning years?
Alternatively, if you spy the job you want but know you aren't quite experienced enough yet offer to work at a reduced salary for the first year or whatever until you're up to speed? usually they want free but that's not really an option most of the time...
To be a teacher you would need todo a 1 year pgce assuming you already have a degree.
(http://www.tda.gov.uk/Recruit/thetrainingprocess/typesofcourse/pgce.aspx)
If you can put up with long hours, ungratefull parents that have no clue what it takes to do the job (and think they can do it better), government that thinks paperwork is more important then the kids and wish to end all gaming time you ever had, then cool.
As for holidays.. my wife works for at least 50% of them, and considering she easily works 8:00 - 6:00 (gets home at 7) and does 2 hours every night, and at least 1 day at the weekend, they soon find by the time the holidays come they are exhausted.
What keeps my wife going? the kids do, she loves being in the class room teaching. But this leads to emotional blackmail as you don't want to let the kids down...
Money is ok once you've started to go up the pay ladder. Start on about 19K, top pay is about 28K (in lincolnshire for a general teacher), then you have to prove you are worth more to get over the threshhold.
/rant :taz:
and thats primary education.
Quote from: Jamoe;165568To be a teacher you would need todo a 1 year pgce assuming you already have a degree.
(http://www.tda.gov.uk/Recruit/thetrainingprocess/typesofcourse/pgce.aspx)
If you can put up with long hours, ungratefull parents that have no clue what it takes to do the job (and think they can do it better), government that thinks paperwork is more important then the kids and wish to end all gaming time you ever had, then cool.
As for holidays.. my wife works for at least 50% of them, and considering she easily works 8:00 - 6:00 (gets home at 7) and does 2 hours every night, and at least 1 day at the weekend, they soon find by the time the holidays come they are exhausted.
What keeps my wife going? the kids do, she loves being in the class room teaching. But this leads to emotional blackmail as you don't want to let the kids down...
Money is ok once you've started to go up the pay ladder. Start on about 19K, top pay is about 28K (in lincolnshire for a general teacher), then you have to prove you are worth more to get over the threshhold.
/rant :taz:
and thats primary education.
yup my mums a deputy at primary school and spends pretty much all her weekday evenings doing work then at weekend most of sunday afternoon and evening working, then various goveners meetings and staff meetings each week in the evening and the extra things like school shows and things that they are expected to put on. she does rope me into putting up and taking down wall displays though!!
and shes from lincolnshire strangly enough lol
Quote from: GRIM_REAPER;165584she does rope me into putting up and taking down wall displays though!
I've got rather good at that :D
I always seemed to get asked to go and fix the school's computers whenever I was visting my parents. That's down in Cornwall. My Mum was the same - loved the kids and working with them, hated all the paperwork the govt said she had to do that meant she didn't have time to plan lessons etc as well as she would have liked. Ended up being told by her doctor to take 2 months off for stress, then took early retirement and is looking for a simple job somewhere to pay the bills.
Without a guide to the sort of salary you'd be expecting it's nigh on impossible to come up with solutions.
I would assume that you have a fairly well paid job and therefore if you go public sector (police / teacher / fireman etc), then you're initally going to take a big hit in pay until you've worked your way up the ladder again.
That said if you're willing to migrate your IT skills to a different sector then at least you'll be changing the emphasis on your work without having to take a hit.
As Le Rouge says there's a lot for going independent / self employed. I'm been trying to help an IT friend do the same but you've got what he hasn't - a personality.
IMHO whilst helping him out (i.e. using my offices and address / staff etc) I can see that half of the battle of IT Consultants is being able to converse with a client on their level and be able to talk to them like normal people.
With my guy - I handed him several clients on a plate (I have good links with the local Estate Agents from property developing), and I got several of them to agree in principle to sign up for him to maintain their computers etc and sort out the inter office communications. I could also have got him some of the clients I have on retainer for my Architectural PR - but he was so goddamed inpersonable it made it a nightmare.
- So much opportunity gone to waste:ranting2:.
Consultancy? It's a possibility - little overheads to start with and big potential.
Then, as you grow, you've got the more interesting job of running and managing a business and having a few people (self employed preferably) working for you.
Dude, I only wished you lived in the South East - we could go into partnership and make a mint!!
PEN
Health & Safety.
Everybody hates H&S.
Nobody wants responsibility for it.
The qualifications range from easy and quick to get, to a 2 year course.
There are lots of jobs in this area with decent pay at the start, up to Director pay at the top end.
Look in to it.
TL.
Yes, might of been good penfold :)
TL, I'm yet to find someone who appreciates a H&S person... people seem to view them as time wasters with a comtempt thats usually the preserve for traffic wardens.... interesting idea though.
As for pay...... well to do a job I enjoy I can survive down to £25K. Less than that and I'd start slipping into debt. It sounds crazy but pay is starting to have less and less allure over other aspects such as enjoyment and job satisfaction..... I honestly think my current state of discontent is starting to affect my health.
i know exactlly what you meen stryker.
I was going down hill fast, constant headaches, searing stomach pains at the slightest bit of stress, constantly tired etc.
Literally the day after I handed in my notice all symtoms gone and i have more engergy than ever!
Quote from: Stryker;165872TL, I'm yet to find someone who appreciates a H&S person... people seem to view them as time wasters with a comtempt thats usually the preserve for traffic wardens.... interesting idea though.
That's the beauty of it. Nobody wants to do it, but by Law they all *have* to do it. Hence the pay people to do it for them. The Law mandates a Board responsiblity for H&S, so all you do is advise them to make changes needed to keep up to date with the Law and best practice. If they fail to implement it then it is their fault not yours. Mean while you get paid for doing an important (hence the pay is good) job that nobody else wants to handle - and you become known as an expert in the field. Worth following up imo.
TL.
Quote from: sheepy;165875I was going down hill fast, constant headaches, searing stomach pains at the slightest bit of stress, constantly tired etc.
weird, sounds just like the symptoms kids were complaining about getting at school - so they blamed it on radiation and banned wi-fi...:doh:
One of the secondary schools we provide a net connection to has just had some new kids come in, whose Dad is head of the 'parents against masts' group. He's convinced the PTA that it's affecting their kinds and managed to get them to insist that we remove all our radio kit from the roof (it was one of our core sites that we use to feed on to other schools. Out in the midst of Cumbria so fibre isn't an option), and that all the mobile phone kit up there gets taken down too.
Of course the headteachers and budgeting people are most annoyed, as they get a fair stack of cash from renting roof space to all those people. Plus of course if you actually pay attention to how these things work and one of the relevant physical laws (forget the name, as you move further from a source of radiation in a linear fashion it's effect on you exponentially decreases) then you only have to be a short distance from the antenna before your mobile phone in your pocket is doing more damage to your nads than the antenna is to any other part of you. And your phone is actually kicking out most radiation when it's reception is showing as the lowest (i.e. if the base station is a long way away/not in line of sight), as that's when it's having to try the hardest to reach a base station.
Sorry, rant over. Personal annoyance of mine. I bet this guy's kids still have mobiles.
Quote from: Carr0t;166026physical laws (forget the name, as you move further from a source of radiation in a linear fashion it's effect on you exponentially decreases) then you only have to be a short distance from the antenna before your mobile phone in your pocket is doing more damage to your nads than the antenna is to any other part of you. And your phone is actually kicking out most radiation when it's reception is showing as the lowest (i.e. if the base station is a long way away/not in line of sight), as that's when it's having to try the hardest to reach a base station.
I think you're after the inverse square law. radiated power received on a given surface decreases at something like the cube of the distance of that surface from the emitter. Rural transmitters put out something like 10W, urban much less, and they're typically something like 10m above the ground (there's a regulation of some minimum) and if you do the maths you'll find that your handset pumps way more radiation into your head than the mast would if you were standing directly beneath it at the bottom of the tower (ignoring the radiation pattern) In fact you'll find that what with tv signals, radio (as in radio1) signals, background radiation from the sun etc...
If you fancy fighting the fight, or helping the school to stand up to ignorance (I reckon they'd be happy from the financial angle if they can see sufficient arguments that make sense) then there's enough info out there to help combat these arguments. It's a kind of zealotry really. All real studies have failed to find any problems. I know people who spend their research pounds strapping antennae to fake saline-gel-filled body parts to test absorbance etc. My only advice is to avoid attacking the anti-wifi people. Rather state the facts, it's a game of politics where you have to sway the masses with reason before they become immune to it.
every time someone or some organisation gives in to the ranting mob who have no real facts there's another nail in the coffin
Sorry for jumping in to this serious thread with a not so serious reply, but this really reminded me of this:
(http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/3079/adlib5kd7.th.jpg) (http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?image=adlib5kd7.jpg)
Sorry, Im done now :)
I wish you the best of luck stryker.. Go get em tiger :flirty:
Funny comic while strangly depressing :)
Mate put me onto the new scientist website incase I fancied an I.T job within research. Pretty tempting playing with academic server clusters etc.... I fear it would burn out my IT fuse even faster though.........
Lol Nefertem,
That reminded me of this one:
(http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h284/mpppen/Web/stanleysmall.jpg)
:lmfao:
PEN