Advice on Retraining After Brain Injury

BigWig

I'm an IT professional with 15 years experience in systems support, infrastructure planning and implementation, and project management. I have old MCSE certifications and a Solaris admin certification. I'm also a certified PMP (project management professional). I'm not a developer.


I was in a bad car accident last year and suffered a traumatic brain injury. As a result I can no longer work in a noisy open office environment or data centre. If I work for more than half an hour in such an environment I suffer terrible headache symptoms similar to migraines. Otherwise, I'm the same as I always was cognitively. I'm stressed about being able to take care of myself and my family. I'm looking at having to retrain so I can either work from my home office or work solo in a quiet, private office. I'm currently in rehab and have some time for retraining and preparation for a career change. I'm open to taking new certs.


Ideas? Suggestions?


Cheers,
BW

scaredoftests

Acupuncture..ear plugs near noisy equipment?

MSP-IT

It sounds like you'd have enough experience to find a remote/work-from-home position. That would be my goal if I were you.

da_vato

I had TBI from Iraq, it took me a while to come back to a normal(ish) state. I still can't be around flashing lights and lasers plus certain frequencies can drop me to my knees. You can adapt as scaredoftests pointed out or you can switch to something like Auditing or possibly Infosec. The industry you do IT for can play a major part in the noise factor; I work in an R&D community so they are fairly quiet. Previous jobs were really noisy and I did the same job.

Plantwiz

How is your current employer handling this situation? Are they willing to try to accommodate your new needs? Or have they found that you no longer fit their structure? (and either situation is fine, just would like a better picture if you can provide it). Some employers are able to make adjustments to retain employees with new disabilities, and some simply cannot.

The noise deadening ear plugs like musicians wear might be a viable solution, though I would have hoped your rehab folks already offered this solution to you. These ear plugs can suppress the sounds that bother you most, while allowing you to still hear to communicate. Even for people who don't think they need such a device, they lessen the stress of the day simply because that 'buzz' isn't always there.

Similar to this:
Earasers Musicians Plugs | GuitarCenter

However, the folks I know who use them, went to an audiologist and had them made for their ear canal. Nevertheless, there are a variety of options for ear protection if this interests you.


Otherwise, you'll likely want to consider a change completely, but going on your own may not be the solution in this instance. I suspect you will want an environment that is consistent and being a consultant or such on your own will put you into unknown server rooms on a regular basis (until you can establish a relationship where you merely remote into the server, but even then, this is not a 100% solution...there will be times you simply need to go on site).

What sort of work can you remain doing? (And this includes with your current limitation)