Career transition away from IT

Chevel

Anyone make a career transition in their mid 30s?  Keeping it short I'm getting tired of my career want to go into something with more stability.  Anyone out there make a jump? 

Jon_Cisco

I suspect there is a limited number of members that have moved away from IT since most of this form is gears towards training for IT exams.

However I would say lots of people move away from careers. The question you have to ask is what are you interested in? Does it need to pay your bills or do you have investments for that? What are your goals in your next job? Do you want to buy and existing business or start your own. Do you want to go to school or already have employable skills?

Almost everything involves IT is some way so some of your skills are going to benefit you in your new endeavor. I know someone who started a landscaping business. He hired people to do the actual work but used his IT background to make modern marketing, billing and quoting.

Chevel

Yeah I understand but was just curious anyway. 

Definitely would need to pay the bills but my biggest concern is stability. I'm tired of the concern whether or not I'll have a job every year.  

I am considering starting my own business but not sure what I can do.  Since I am not working at the moment I'm brainstorming ideas.  Along with learning a bit a coding in between job hunts.

mikey88

Chevel said:

Yeah I understand but was just curious anyway. 

Definitely would need to pay the bills but my biggest concern is stability. I'm tired of the concern whether or not I'll have a job every year.  

What field of IT are you in? and are you contracting? I find IT to be somewhat stable unless it's contracting. Do you have savings/investments? as that will take a pressure off you as well if the particular job is unstable. 

Chevel

mikey88 said:

Chevel said:

Yeah I understand but was just curious anyway. 

Definitely would need to pay the bills but my biggest concern is stability. I'm tired of the concern whether or not I'll have a job every year.  

What field of IT are you in? and are you contracting? I find IT to be somewhat stable unless it's contracting. Do you have savings/investments? as that will take a pressure off you as well if the particular job is unstable. 

DoD contracts, I've worked my way from help desk all the way to cyber security analyst over the past 9 years.  No savings or investments now all gone.  Outside of constant applying, I do odd gigs here and there, in conjunction to learning some programming languages.  

JDMurray

I made a jump from software development to information security in my 40's. It took years of schooling and finding an InfoSec company that didn't want me to write software too. I have friends that abandoned IT altogether for completely different professions, such as private pilot and audio/video editing.

UnixGuy

There is always consulting firms, you can join them and then move to another department. They have stability and are always looking for experienced people.

DatabaseHead

I went from IT Support, Application Support to IT Management then transitioned over to Business Intelligence, which uses tech but in reality is a business function.  However I start a new job on the 25th which is back into a IT role.  

I don't regret making the jump.  

tedjames

JDMurray said:

I made a jump from software development to information security in my 40's. It took years of schooling and finding an InfoSec company that didn't want me to write software too. I have friends that abandoned IT altogether for completely different professions, such as private pilot and audio/video editing.

I transitioned from technical writing to security. When employers find out I have writing/editing skills, they always ask me to write something for them. In a couple of cases, they have tried to talk me into becoming the staff technical writer. While good communication skills are essential in any business, that's not where I want to be anymore. Done that!

DatabaseHead

@tedjames Gone through the same situations with this......    I'm okay with the data piece of course, but sometimes the request get weird.....  

I've moved on to a tech BA role so we shall see what they have in mind.  They already know I have SQL skills so I have a feeling my role with be much different than the others, even thought he job req was the same.

Chevel

UnixGuy said:

There is always consulting firms, you can join them and then move to another department. They have stability and are always looking for experienced people.

Wish I had the experience I know next to nothing about consulting. 

Besides finding a new thing no one wants to train its like IT field all over again.  I would love a remote job but those unicorns are hard to catch even more so with no experience.  At least it would solve " we would love to hire you but you live too far" rejections.

Dakinggamer87

I am actually transitioning away from IT within the next 1-2 years is my plan. I started a new business in financial services and I am growing multiple offices around California. I have started building a team and getting my licenses/certs required. 

I love being a business owner, setting my own schedule, and controlling my income as an entrepreneur.

Chevel

Dakinggamer87 said:

I am actually transitioning away from IT within the next 1-2 years is my plan. I started a new business in financial services and I am growing multiple offices around California. I have started building a team and getting my licenses/certs required. 

I love being a business owner, setting my own schedule, and controlling my income as an entrepreneur.

Congrats man! Best of luck!

I hear you about being an entrepreneur, on my second or third layoff I tested the waters with eCommerce.  Despite its challenges it was fun and quite rewarding.  If I had the funds I'd take it to the next level.  

paul78

@Chevel - I think your experience with DoD contracting may not be a good reflection of the stability of an IT career. Have you tried private sector? There could be other factors as well such as your locality or perhaps your resume needs a little work. 

Good luck in whatever you decide. 

Chevel

paul78 said:

@Chevel - I think your experience with DoD contracting may not be a good reflection of the stability of an IT career. Have you tried private sector? There could be other factors as well such as your locality or perhaps your resume needs a little work. 

Good luck in whatever you decide. 

I live around a heavy military area, I don't see many private sector positions.  I'm starting to think me living in the boonies is playing a role. I've had employers tell me I live too far out. Which I don't understand as I've worked with individuals who live in other states.  

I agree with you regarding my resume, I strongly believe that due to the instability of the contracts I've worked. It gives the impression on my resume that I'm job hopping.  I've also had to explain this in quite a few interviews.  The frustrating part is explaining this to potential employers who work in the public sector.  

Thanks man I appreciate it just taking it one step at a time.

EANx

Chevel said:I live around a heavy military area, I don't see many private sector positions.  I'm starting to think me living in the boonies is playing a role. I've had employers tell me I live too far out. Which I don't understand as I've worked with individuals who live in other states.  

That could be an easy reason to turn you down for the role or it could indicate a concern for how long you'll stick around if you have to do a commute of X miles. If you live in a region prone to adverse winter weather, they could be afraid you'll take more time off during weather events. If you've heard it once or twice, it's not a big deal but three times or more means it's something you need to address or accept you'll likely hear it more often.

NetworkNewb

JDMurray said:

I made a jump from software development to information security in my 40's. It took years of schooling and finding an InfoSec company that didn't want me to write software too. 

As someone in security, I always think it would fun to learn programming more and do some software development... But then I feel like I've seen a bunch of people who are in software dev that want to go, or have gone, into security.  Then I rethink my position.   

Thankfully the other people on my team aren't interested in scripting so I get to create a bunch of little apps for my team to make things easier.   

But as far as the OP, I'm little surprised in hearing that IT isn't stable... Feel like there are a ton of jobs out there as long as you are interested in IT and have the skills being desired.    But, if you're aren't interested in learning those skills people are looking for I definitely would leave IT and find something that interests you more!  Endless options out there and life is too short!

Chevel

EANx said:

Chevel said:I live around a heavy military area, I don't see many private sector positions.  I'm starting to think me living in the boonies is playing a role. I've had employers tell me I live too far out. Which I don't understand as I've worked with individuals who live in other states.  

That could be an easy reason to turn you down for the role or it could indicate a concern for how long you'll stick around if you have to do a commute of X miles. If you live in a region prone to adverse winter weather, they could be afraid you'll take more time off during weather events. If you've heard it once or twice, it's not a big deal but three times or more means it's something you need to address or accept you'll likely hear it more often.

I understand and situations like inclement weather have happened before.  However I usually come in but make of my hours.  The only time I've stayed home is if they shut down the bases.  

Chevel

NetworkNewb said:

JDMurray said:

I made a jump from software development to information security in my 40's. It took years of schooling and finding an InfoSec company that didn't want me to write software too. 

As someone in security, I always think it would fun to learn programming more and do some software development... But then I feel like I've seen a bunch of people who are in software dev that want to go, or have gone, into security.  Then I rethink my position.   

Thankfully the other people on my team aren't interested in scripting so I get to create a bunch of little apps for my team to make things easier.   

But as far as the OP, I'm little surprised in hearing that IT isn't stable... Feel like there are a ton of jobs out there as long as you are interested in IT and have the skills being desired.    But, if you're aren't interested in learning those skills people are looking for I definitely would leave IT and find something that interests you more!  Endless options out there and life is too short!

I've only worked in public sector DoD contracts so I can't say about private.  I just know that no matter what IT field I've come across in the public sector employees didn't last long. It was sad to see good folks go.  Met one guy I used to work with, very sharp man, working random jobs to make ends meet.  He wants to leave the area but can't afford too.  

Then the opposite spectrum folks who do nothing but social media all day still have the job they have worked for years.  These same people complain about the amount of work they do for little pay but refuse to get certifications.  I swear is backwards. 

Still hunting but nothing, reached out to a few staffing agencies hopefully something will change getting depressed.

paul78

Chevel said:

I live around a heavy military area, I don't see many private sector positions.  I'm starting to think me living in the boonies is playing a role. I've had employers tell me I live too far out. Which I don't understand as I've worked with individuals who live in other states.

Yeah... That's certainly sounds like it could be the biggest factor. In my experience, tech in general is an extremely stable career choice in private sector. Pretty much every company, regardless of size uses technology in some way.

Chevel said:

I agree with you regarding my resume, I strongly believe that due to the instability of the contracts I've worked. It gives the impression on my resume that I'm job hopping.  I've also had to explain this in quite a few interviews. 

Perhaps it's the way your you structure your resume. I've only ever worked in private sector so I have little government experience but as a hiring manager, the concept of contract IT work isn't particularly unusual or novel. I think we even had a recent discussion on this topic in the forum. You may want to consider structuring your resume differently.

Chevel

paul78 said:

 Perhaps it's the way your you structure your resume. I've only ever worked in private sector so I have little government experience but as a hiring manager, the concept of contract IT work isn't particularly unusual or novel. I think we even had a recent discussion on this topic in the forum. You may want to consider structuring your resume differently. 

Thanks I'll do a search :-) I tried listing by year rather than months we'll see.