career ups and downs

traw

Hey everyone,

I always here fairy tail stories here on how people are progessing but none shares sad stories or real life stores.

I have being working in I.T 5 plus years now.

I started in a company about 2 months ago as a Engineer and in my previous place i was a consultant.
I feel like goinng backwards however i got close to 40 percent salary increase when I changed jobs.

I am actually trying to take on addional responsibilities and trying to WOW everyone in the company.

If it does not pan out I will start applying and find a better role.
After working in 5 years in IT it is depressing doing things that you did in your first 3 years even though you got a huge increase.
Can someone share stores like this and how yall made your happiness come back.

traw

Any input

bloodshotbetty

I think it is perfectly normal to have those career ups and downs.

I went to school for social work- I spent 6 years getting my Bachelors. Turns out, I was terrible at it and ended up getting let go. This was a month ago. So, I decided to go into IT. Now I am scheduled to take my A+ exam in a month.

You are doing the right thing by taking on extra responsibilities and trying to "wow" everyone. Thats how you get ahead! I don't think everyone goes straight to the top- it's going to have ups and downs and plateaus. However, if you are not happy at your job- find something else. I find it's easier to deal with those ups and downs when you actually like what you are doing.

Iristheangel

Consultant can mean so many things and there are many levels of consultant. When I first got into networking, I was a "consultant" at first which doesn't imply I was senior. I was happy to become a FTE and get the "Network Engineer" title when it happened.

Don't stress too much about it Plus 40% salary increase? WIN!

shodown

Its normal for these types of things.

Ive been promoted, demoted, let go, changed responsibilities and more. Its just something you have to have to keep that fire burning inside of you to do better.

Always look to improve yourself.

kohr-ah

It depends in how you look at it.

I do stuff I did as a noc technician as they need a solution and there is no one to fulfill the work needing to be done.

Work is supposed to be somewhat enjoyable. In IT a lot of the dislikes are what give us the drive to make sure we don't find anything like this at our next place. Use it as a fuel to keep moving forward.

Take that 40% increase and do things you couldn't do before to keep sanity. Pay for hobbies and passions.

EVERY place has something you can take away from it. What you take away from it is up to you.

jibbajabba

Just get used to the fact that in IT, appreciation is the lack of complaints

Mutata

With Tech positions, I worry more about the responsibilities than the titles.

I have been a Specialist somewhere doing technically less than I was when I was a Support Tech somewhere else. There is no static list that defines roles and titles in IT.

Are you enjoying the work and finding it challenging?

E Double U

traw wrote: »

how yall made your happiness come back.

My happiness comes from within and being the natural optimist makes it easy for me to look on the bright side regardless of the situation. Not having expectations helps too

1st contracting position: hours were cut so I had to use vacation time to keep getting paid; got a better paying job closer to home

2nd contracting position: there were racial issues between mgmt & staff; got a better paying job w/ great benefits

NOC: offshored; applied for two positions internally and was offered both (took config job which allowed me to work remotely)

Config: offshored; applied and landed SOC role (security blew me away and I loved it)

SOC: offshored & laid off; got lots of quality time with my 1st born son who had just turned one; used my severance package to take my family to The Netherlands and landed a better paying job in less than 2 months

asa.gunderman

Can't really complain with a pay increase like that. I would suggest analyzing your network and coming up with a project that will increase efficiency for your coworkers and present it to your VP. Prove to them why it's valuable and how they will make money in the long run. Then you get to implement it and increase your skill set for your resume.

I went from being a network administrator >consultant > systems admin > and now a network administrator again. It's really hard to tell what someones skill level is by there title. I can tell you that my job today is nothing like it was in 2004, so just hang in there and wait 18 months for new tech to come around.

IMO I see "Engineer" as being the 2nd highest position in networking, the first being an "Architect."