Experienced IT Pros: What are your regrets?

SixtyCycle

Maybe you thought you should've changed jobs every couple of years to gain more skills and income. Perhaps you wish you would've taken a different specialty (e.g. DevOps instead of Networking). Some probably wish they have taken certs or finish their degree early on. If you could go back, what would you change in your career and why?

networker050184

Just mentioned this in another thread, but I would have learned how to script earlier in my career. Knowing how to write scripts or small programs to make your job easier is very beneficial when you get to the higher level positions and you are working with huge data sets.

kohr-ah

I wish I knew coding/Linux better. Even if it was basic PERL or Python and I have learned Linux just helps you everywhere if you have an IT career in networking.

The other is I wish I took risks earlier.

Nobody told me to hop to a new place to get farther I was always under the impression of stay there for a long time and work my way up. This is because that is the way I saw it growing up. My grandparents and everyone else was at a place for a very long time. If that was the case I would of left the MSP earlier and advanced my career better than it is. But at the same time I am greatful because of working there I got my house I am in now and I have my daughter. Who knows how life would be if I didnt go down the path I did.

EngRob

Wish I had switched over to IT Security sooner. That and I wish also I had continued my Cisco studies.

PurpleIT

I have a very comfortable local government job that I should have left 5+ years ago. I am a one-man IT crew so not having peers to bounce ideas off of has caused me to do some things that while not bad were not optimal.

I have added a lot to my retirement account, but I never planned to retire and get a pension from here. I honestly think I would be making 50-70% more than I do now if I had been in the private sector and switched jobs a couple of times and with disciplined savings I would probably have the same or more in an IRA.

MSP-IT

PurpleIT wrote: »

I have a very comfortable local government job that I should have left 5+ years ago. I am a one-man IT crew so not having peers to bounce ideas off of has caused me to do some things that while not bad were not optimal.

I have added a lot to my retirement account, but I never planned to retire and get a pension from here. I honestly think I would be making 50-70% more than I do now if I had been in the private sector and switched jobs a couple of times and with disciplined savings I would probably have the same or more in an IRA.

Do you ever plan on leaving?

Qord

I'm not very experienced, but getting comfortable (lazy) is a regret of mine. Trying to get out of that now...

Akaricloud

My largest regret is letting my unix knowledge not get used for 4-5 years and forgetting most of it. Now I'm having to re-learn a lot of it and have trouble finding time to do so.

Chitownjedi

Not learning Code back in 2001 when I started learning computers...(Specially ignored because I thought it was too nerdy...smh)

Going back into Desktops in 2013 and letting ccna momentum crash from 2012... (at least it was only a year, and not 3-4)

paul78

My biggest regret is not finishing my bachelor's degree.

While the lack of the degree hasn't really slowed me down, the lack of that achievement has always made me very self-conscious. It's really a double-edge sword though. Because of this inadequacy that I keep in the back of my mind, I often find myself over-compensating to be an over-achiever in my career activities.

steve13ad

Banging out as many Certifications as I could when I was younger. Life's distractions have made me complacent.

ande0255

Biggest regret is waiting around for a company to hire me up the chain in their network team, rather than going out and finding networking roles outside of my company. I did such a good job, that my director was contacting the hiring managers in other departments, and telling them they couldn't afford to lose me on the help desk, cause I pulled so much weight there.

Best advice my last manager gave me was "Don't be loyal to your company, cause you're company will not be loyal to you," and it is 100% correct that the only person looking out for your best interest is yourself.

petedude

My biggest regret would be not obtaining my bachelor's sooner and starting my master's sooner as well.

Second to that, not working hard enough to obtain certain certifications early on (e.g. ITIL).

Lastly, not paying close enough attention to interpersonal communication and "managing up" better.

ShabazTech

Same regret as most other people in my age group (mid 30s), not learning certain stuff early enough, which would have made the job much easier. Personally I'm still trying to get a hold of scripting. I also regret not starting a blog earlier, where I could jot down my notes. ShabazTech » Notes of an IT Pro

Many others I know, regret not specializing in one technology, they feel having to keep up on several different technologies and have some sort of family life at the same time, can be quite difficult.

JDMurray

My biggest regret has been staying in several, "going nowhere careerwise" jobs for too long. I'm usually too monogamous with employers and stay in suboptimal work situations longer than I should. I wish that I had a couple of do-overs past employmentwise, but life isn't suppose to be perfection.

chopsticks

1. That I didn't switch to InfoSec field much earlier, and
2. That I didn't job hop as often as I could

Clem25

Wish I would have started off in IT, and not trying to make a career change at 29.

JockVSJock

Focusing on IT certs and IT experience instead of college. IMO, college has now become a big waste of time and money. Teachers spewing forth a bunch of theory from MS Powerpoint slides, with no real learning and knowledge happening. It will become more worthless because it hasn't kept up with the shifting job markets as more and more people with degrees will only fill jobs that don't require a college degree, which means they won't be able to pay back their student loans.

Not being afraid to jump from a company when you can't advance and continue to expand your knowledge and/or gain job satisfaction. And move into a different city where there is more IT industry.

Plow ahead on IT studies. For example back in 2000, I dove head first into Linux, because I loved it. However I soon gave up around 2004 because I couldn't find work in it. I tried to seek out mentors for help and guidance and those that I made contact with, just gave me generic advice, such as, "go work the help desk."

And not letting insecure co-workers and managers tear me down, destroy my self-esteem, belittle my knowledge and skillset to make up for their lack of skillset, knowledge, and self-esteem.

jeffgibbs

Nice blog. I just subscribed to it.

higherho

Jumping in the Windows bang wagon right after College. Should have jumped right into Network Security / Linux. Right now doing Linux and getting certified in both Networking / Linux.

IT / IS / IA degrees = waste other than being a required "check mark"

@jock

I so agree with letting others individuals get to you. I've been doing that and honestly I also fall for easy stuff and get frustrated because I'm working around individuals who have a lower skill level and require hand holding.

N2IT

When I was younger I was intimidated by the Computer Science program at my University and I ended up going into a business discipline. If I had that to do over I would of gone straight ahead into CS. It's really my only career regret that I can think of.

N2IT

JDMurray wrote: »

life isn't suppose to be perfection.

Excellent and couldn't be more true.

shodown

Taking the money early and not going to college when I had the chance. I wanted to be the guy designing OSPF/BGP/SIP vs implementing the technologies. I talked to guys that worked at cisco/juniper/digium and they steered me away telling me if I wanted the money to stay on the path I was on. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do, but I really wonder what I would be doing now had I gone to get the Engineering/CS degree. I have the money, but feel empty at times.

Cert Poor

I agree with a lot of the life lessons already posted (and can identify!)

* Don't let insecure co-workers tear you down. I called some out on it, but changing their character is their own responsibility. (They haven't changed. Not my problem.)
* Do NOT be loyal to a company. Do not sacrifice your time and health to a company. Do not work overtime on salary when you should just go home.
* Always negotiate salary. Also, just because the salary is "in writing" on a job offer letter doesn't mean it's set in stone, especially if you never negotiated. Negotiate salary anyway before you sign. After you sign, they "gotcha" and it becomes impossible to negotiate after the fact.
* Do not be afraid to job hop in IT for better opportunities. It's good to get promoted from within, but if your next promotion doesn't exist, promote yourself by looking elsewhere. You'll likely get a much larger salary bump too by changing companies every couple years.
* Just because you're in IT, don't let your programming knowledge wither away. Keep up with your Computer Science studies and hardcore programming on your own.
* Learn Linux, Unix, and BSD sooner rather than later. Specializing on Microsoft is fine, but don't ignore the *nix world for too long.
* Bring your lunch to work instead of always eating out. You'll be healthier and wealthier.
* Make time to get away from work and go to the doctor and dentist instead of never going. Otherwise you're throwing those premiums away.
* When you have a vacation day, turn off your work cell phone. Do not check your work e-mail because you're bored or out of habit. Truly disconnect.
* Don't let others try to take advantage of you or use you. There are self-serving human predators in every job it seems. Some workplaces are more toxic than others, and some workplaces have a lot of good people.
* Avoid the donuts and junk food at work. Bring your own healthy snacks like fresh fruit and nuts.
* Cut back on the cycle of coffee addiction. You'll sleep better at night.
* Exercise, even if it's just going for a walk.

stryder144

Not taking a job that would have been a minor pay cut, only to find out that three months later the pay more than doubled (they reevaluated the position). I wanted to take the job, as it was more traditional IT work than what I do now, but my family felt it might be a step back. Such is life.

W Stewart

I had a job that I left a little earlier than I planned to because I wasn't too comfortable with the office politics that were going on. I wasn't really the target of anything at the time but I can get very paranoid sometimes so I left for another job. I was only there for 8 months and I probably would have stayed at least a year if it weren't for that. I found myself out of work after the job that I quit for canceled on me. They made sure to wait until I put in my two week notice too just to make my life more difficult but I got back on my feet pretty quickly.

docrice

My regret is not having learned the OSI model much earlier. Understanding the encapsulation/decapsulation process would have helped me significantly more had I grasped this concept during my beginning years in IT as it would have allowed me to troubleshoot issues much, much faster. As painful as it is to realize these sort of abstractions, in the end this separates people who really understand network flows versus those who just know a bunch of commands on a router.

Going through certification-related training would have also helped quite a bit since that structured approach provides a good general framework. When I was starting my tech career, I learned a lot of things by Googling and knowledge-base lookups for tidbits of information, so I was solving the jigsaw puzzle while not really understanding what the larger picture was like.

I was sort of biased against certifications in general a long time ago since there was plenty of downplay on the MCSEs and CCNAs. A lot of people knew worthless MCSEs back in the NT 4.0 days.

wes allen

Wish I would have done a bit more with coding/scripting, but never really needed it before now.

Also, as a few others have mentioned, wish I would have made the transition to focused IT Security work sooner. I went to a SANS Course (perimeter defense, maybe?) in Sept. 2001 in Boston, but never followed through with seeking more security gigs, just stayed with the general networking and doing the security work as it came up.

And, while not really a regret life wise, at one time I had built up a decent consulting biz, but sold it for cheap so I could travel/hike/climb. So, career-wise, probably not the best move, but I wouldn't change anything today.

Lostpacket

Becoming complacent. Letting years go by without pushing myself to keep learning and instead just 'going to work' every day for the paycheck.

Spending money like an idiot in my younger years.

I wish I had worked harder and pushed myself to pursue certs when I was younger and had more time and less responsibilities. Now later in life it's much harder to find the time.

JDMurray

Cert Poor wrote: »

Do not sacrifice your time and health to a company.
Do not work overtime on salary when you should just go home.
Always negotiate salary.

For myself, I list these under a subcategory of Regret called "Lessons Learned."

gbdavidx

docrice wrote: »

I was sort of biased against certifications in general a long time ago since there was plenty of downplay on the MCSEs and CCNAs. A lot of people knew worthless MCSEs back in the NT 4.0 days.

this would be my regret too man, although some companies don't like them some do and I found getting some will open a lot of door for you, I am learning the hard way being stuck in the Help Desk realm of things for almost 3 years now and finally getting CCNA

I also regret not saving enough money during my early 20's and not starting a 401k/403b early enough, although I'm still young (2 i'm far away from my goals