Farewell IT !

binarysoulbinarysoul Member Posts: 993
Wow, in my wildest imgination, I didn't think one day I would write this.

Today I handed my resignation and thus saying goodbye to IT as a career icon_sad.gif And the decision wasn't abrupt, but a long-waited and overdue one. I'm bringing the ship to shore next Friday and will sail in new waters.

My first encounter with a computer was in 1992 with WordPerfect 5.0 and then the game began. I went to school, worked part-time in IT, did a bachelor degree in Busiess, a posgrad diploma in IT, but never wanted to work in business, so worked in IT, mostly in system admin and support.

In recent years I witnessed the erosion of IT system admin as a viable career and I'm sure you know what I'm talking about: System admin was outsourced and/or moved offshore and companies consolidated technologies and system admins suddenly found themselves under undue stress, and told there was no choice but to remain competitve. I decided, wait a minute, maybe I have a choice.

I no longer wanted to be burn out. Certainly, new waters won't be an easy sail, but I was really up for a change and as I said it's not an abruption decision.

The good news is I will be on this forum as I will be involved with IT at my new career and this is a great community, so i won't put my resignation here :)

I found out that most IT folks to be very intelligent, fun, easy going, so I miss all that. But through all these years, I learned some in Management lacked common sense and a sense of understanding when it came to understanding IT personnel. But overall, it was a nice ride and I have no regrets being in IT until now, but change is the meaning of life.


Don't undersell your skills, don't give in easily, fight back for your value and skills, but do it with integrity and professionalism. Enjoy what you do, because that's important.

Let me bow down and salute

Comments

  • N2ITN2IT Inactive Imported Users Posts: 7,483 ■■■■■■■■■■
    What will your new adventure entail?

    and good luck!
  • earweedearweed Member Posts: 5,192 ■■■■■■■■■□
    Good luck with whatever you do in the future!
    No longer work in IT. Play around with stuff sometimes still and fix stuff for friends and relatives.
  • varelgvarelg Banned Posts: 790
    Enjoy your next ride and don't forget to send us a postcard! :D
    I hope you chose to pen a few books on the subject. Looking forward for them...
  • TurgonTurgon Banned Posts: 6,308 ■■■■■■■■■□
    binarysoul wrote: »
    Wow, in my wildest imgination, I didn't think one day I would write this.

    Today I handed my resignation and thus saying goodbye to IT as a career icon_sad.gif And the decision wasn't abrupt, but a long-waited and overdue one. I'm bringing the ship to shore next Friday and will sail in new waters.

    My first encounter with a computer was in 1992 with WordPerfect 5.0 and then the game began. I went to school, worked part-time in IT, did a bachelor degree in Busiess, a posgrad diploma in IT, but never wanted to work in business, so worked in IT, mostly in system admin and support.

    In recent years I witnessed the erosion of IT system admin as a viable career and I'm sure you know what I'm talking about: System admin was outsourced and/or moved offshore and companies consolidated technologies and system admins suddenly found themselves under undue stress, and told there was no choice but to remain competitve. I decided, wait a minute, maybe I have a choice.

    I no longer wanted to be burn out. Certainly, new waters won't be an easy sail, but I was really up for a change and as I said it's not an abruption decision.

    The good news is I will be on this forum as I will be involved with IT at my new career and this is a great community, so i won't put my resignation here :)

    I found out that most IT folks to be very intelligent, fun, easy going, so I miss all that. But through all these years, I learned some in Management lacked common sense and a sense of understanding when it came to understanding IT personnel. But overall, it was a nice ride and I have no regrets being in IT until now, but change is the meaning of life.


    Don't undersell your skills, don't give in easily, fight back for your value and skills, but do it with integrity and professionalism. Enjoy what you do, because that's important.

    Let me bow down and salute

    Sorry to see you go but it's symptomatic of IT eating itself the last ten years. The erosion and stress for those left in that space will only continue. Hopefully you stay tuned on the boards and can offer support to those looking to position themselves away from there into more rewarding IT roles, ones that have a future. I hope this is situation you find yourself in with the new job. The writing has been on the wall for operations staff for many years now. In my own company a SP we are seeing increased work as our customers continue to whittle down reliance on their own IT staff and infrastructure.
  • za3bourza3bour Member Posts: 1,062 ■■■■□□□□□□
    Good luck for you, I hope I have the courage to take the same decision one day I'm not planning to stay in IT till I retire.
  • rogue2shadowrogue2shadow Member Posts: 1,501 ■■■■■■■■□□
    Good luck with your future endeavors!! I'm excited to see what new paths you take.
  • genXrcistgenXrcist Member Posts: 531
    Best wishes for sure! Every career contains pitfalls and problems so we'll never find a perfect field to work in...but from the intelligence in your post I'm sure you know that. :) Good luck in your new endeavors!
    1) CCNP Goal: by August 2012
  • brianeaglesfanbrianeaglesfan Member Posts: 130
    Congrats on your move, it's one I could definitely see myself pursuing at some point. Good luck in your new endeavors.
    Complete: MSMIS, MBA, EPIC certified
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  • RobertKaucherRobertKaucher Member Posts: 4,299 ■■■■■■■■■■
    Hope you grow rich and have fun doing it!
  • UnixGuyUnixGuy Mod Posts: 4,564 Mod
    +1
    turgon wrote: »
    .. In my own company a sp we are seeing increased work as our customers continue to whittle down reliance on their own it staff and infrastructure.
    .
    Certs: GSTRT, GPEN, GCFA, CISM, CRISC, RHCE

    Check out my YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/DRJic8vCodE 


  • the_Grinchthe_Grinch Member Posts: 4,165 ■■■■■■■■■■
    Good luck brother! I too am on my way out of IT so I feel your pain (though probably haven't worked in it nearly as much as you have)....
    WIP:
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  • SlowhandSlowhand Mod Posts: 5,161 Mod
    Good luck to you, binarysoul. I completely understand the need for a change from IT, it's the reason I'm back in school cramming physics and math. icon_lol.gif

    Here's to your new adventure, I hope it's both exciting and profitable. Let us know how you're doing, what you're doing, and how it compares to the likes of the IT pressure-cooker.

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  • PsoasmanPsoasman Member Posts: 2,687 ■■■■■■■■■□
    Good luck and best wishes to wherever you land.
  • mikedisd2mikedisd2 Member Posts: 1,096 ■■■■■□□□□□
    I really admire your courage and right can only dream of emulating it. A careering change must be really exciting. Plus you will have IT as a back up skillset.
  • binarysoulbinarysoul Member Posts: 993
    Wow, I would like to really thank you all for supporting me and encouraging me. In all honesty, it has been a tough move and some have wondered why I'm doing this, but this is a challenge I'm willing to confront heads on with both determination and preparation.

    One thing I forgot to mention is the disconnect I've observed between corporate management and IT personnel when it comes to agreeing to IT contracts. I now believe that it should be IT personnel who should have equal say in signing IT contracts and here is the reason why:

    In a meeting with with management who had committed to 99% uptime, I politely mentioned, wait a minute, we haven't written the code for Windows servers, nor do we manufacture server hardware, and nor do we build security appliances. And so, when the client's infrastructure fails, we must have those vendors' experts literally sitting in our data center, so we can hand off the complex and unexplained issues to them. This isn't to say we don't understand those technologies, but to say that understanding dependencies in signing contracts is crucially important.

    The lesson here is this. For those who work with clients who are sometimes unrealistically demanding, you MUST have clauses in your contracts that cover things that you neither can control nor can fix fast.

    Why should IT managers/personnel suffer because Management failed to negotiate a realistic and doable contract? Umm, am I being harsh on sales force? :) Of course this doesn't happen all the time, but I've seen it otherwise and I'm sure you too have seen it.

    In any case, next I will write about my plans as to what I want to do next :)
  • motogpmanmotogpman Member Posts: 412
    Good thread topic. I have been on both sides of the fence, as a field engineer supporting all the major players, and now an on site network admin. Both have given me a wealth of information and experience, but here lately I have asked myself the same question about whether or not all of this is worth it.

    It is amazing how companies can view their IT staff as the "pimply HS kid" who just happened to learn his trade, which can also be seen by the average compensation and status within a company. From my experiences, the HR and IT CEO's are typcailly UNDER compensated versus their peers. IT can either make or break a company, especially in the way companies operate now. The day of pen and paper is long gone.

    I often tell people at my current employer that if people only really knew how much a true "professional" IT person invests in training and knowledge, they would have a lot more respect for these people. I think at the end of the day though, the bean counters and the sales staff seem to rule.

    How many times have you had to support someone who is supposed to be so "educated," yet they can't even seem to know how to turn on their laptop or PC? Six figure employees who make my daughter ( 9 years old ) look like Bill Gates. The only real time IT is staff seem to be noticed, is when something major happens and you are then expected to save the day. This is a generalization of course, I am sure there are some companies out there who practice a different philosphy, but over all, I think IT still has a long way to go when being viewed as on the same peer level.

    I am about at the point where I want to start my own consulting business, not a complete career change like yourself. I am not at that "burned out" stage, at least not yet. I do want to do something where all my hard work pays ME instead of someone sitting on their rear collecting an insane amount of money for my technical abilities and time invested. I have heard the arguement about jobs going over seas, but rest assured, there still needs to be people HERE to get their hands on the actual problem. Out sourcing is probably a safe bet, you just have to be willing to make the jump and sell yourself and services.

    There are several people on this forum who have done just that, it would be nice to get their feedback on how they started out and experiences so far........
    -WIP- (70-294 and 297)

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  • davidspirovalentinedavidspirovalentine Member Posts: 353 ■■■■□□□□□□
    May your binarysoul rest in peace...

    Get it? LOL!!!

    But seriously, have fun with your future life!!!!

    Maybe one day I'll change career aswell... I'm having too much fun right now!

    Regards,
    David
    Failure is a stepping stone to success...
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