What area will be relatively the same in 30 years?

Ie. What field can I go into and not have to worry about switching gears 20 years down the road when I'm in my 40s/50s. And I want the field to be relatively stable, not having to worry about going from company to company. I want to grow old with it. I'm thinking Cisco Security.

Another thing to think about: Innovations always change fields, things get easier or replaced.

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Plantwiz

There is not a single occupation that will not change.

Think back 20 years ago and look at all the positions that cease to exist today. Payroll, Accts Rec, Accts Pay are all handled differently than they were in the 60s and even in the 80s. In fact, by the 80s many of those positions were consolidated into Payroll and Accts Rec/Pay. Some businesses were able to slim down the department from two or three people in each role down to 1 or 2 total staff members.

IT has changed similarly. From the days of terminals and coax to Cat5 and wireless.

Truck driving has changed.

Construction has changed (different products, different code requirements, etc..)

So, I'm not certain what you are poking at with your question. But if you want to enter any field today and planning on dropping continuing education, you may find yourself dropped.

markulous

Off hand, I'd say software development. No matter how advanced things get, they are still going to have to write software and design drivers.

I'd think Security would be changing more than anything. New threats and innovations make it a really volatile field. That's not to say you're going to get laid off from it since good security guys don't come easy, but there's a lot to keep up on.

jesseou812

Prison guard
Politics
Cook
Stay at home dad

Very little in IT will remain stable/unchanging for 30-years.

Socom

Sorry should've been more clear, I'm not considering server 2003 - 2008 - 2012 big changes. I mean things becoming easier to manage, outsourced, requiring less human interaction. I don't want to be the guy that studies cisco or something and is then replaced or not needed anymore but something completely different.

This isn't very well thought out or explained, I was hoping some of the more experienced techs could take this thread there.

jesseou812

I only have 20-years in IT/computers/telecommunications so I would also like to see someone with more experience take this question also. I would love something more stable. However, I have already grown old and cranky.

cyberguypr

I've been doing this for 15 years, always evolving. Lot of folks fear losing their IT jobs due to a paradigm shift. I think some overreact and don't see where the industry is headed. Things have been shifting gradually forever. Nothing changes overnight. It's a chess game so you have to anticipate your opponent's move a plan accordingly. Nowadays, virtualization, cloud technologies, and software-defined networking are some hot topics that are driving change. The effect of those is just another shift. Engineers will go where those systems are. Nothing is self- deployable or self-healing (yet!) so systems need to be touched by us.

As IT techs it is our duty to keep learning new technology as well as broadening our skill horizons. This is the best approach to future-proof yourself.

shodown

I"ve been in tech since 99. I watched my gear go from Tubes, to solid sate, to Unix servers with cisco hubs, to linux servers with cisco switches over the course of 14 years. I agree it will get harder as you get older to move with the tech, but thats the reality when you get into this field. Not too many old timers unless you get into management. Your best bet if you want to do tech is to get your own consulting firm so you can control moving with the tech, then by the time you are older, you have a bunch of young bucks doing the new work while you work on vision.

bull313

When you enter the IT field, your must accept the fact that you will be learning, training, and taking certification exams for the rest of your career. The trick is to keep up with the technology. As soon as it changes, you must adapt to it. This doesn't mean sitting for beta exams as soon as they're release, but a need to delve deep into the new features of said product. After getting a firm grasp on Windows 7, I had to buy a touchscreen to learn the hand gestures of Windows 8.

As cyberguypr said, one needs to future-proof oneself. That's why I jumped back into the certification game.

f0rgiv3n

The best way to approach it is don't put all your huevos in one basquette (eggs in one basket). What I mean is don't just think "i'm going to go CISCO security" think more broad "I'm going to go IT Security". The reason why is because companies and their products are the things that change the most. The tech and theory itself evolves at a slower pace. Yes, get vendor certifications but have a variety of them so you are a bit more rounded out, this gives you resiliency.

gorebrush

Plantwiz

Socom wrote: »

Sorry should've been more clear, I'm not considering server 2003 - 2008 - 2012 big changes. I mean things becoming easier to manage, outsourced, requiring less human interaction. I don't want to be the guy that studies cisco or something and is then replaced or not needed anymore but something completely different.

And I do not consider those (software) 'big' changes myself. Not to mention Win2003-2008-2012 is not dealing with much more than mere software updates.

But I did ask you to take a look back into the 60s and 80s and notice the changes from the technical side that have evolved. The things I was supporting in the 80s are obsolete. So extreme the equipment doesn't exist today and while some can be found in 'museum type' settings and old labs, how many ditto machines are you supporting today? Zero? Thought so. How many microcomputers have you supported in the past 20 years? Since they were mostly gone by the mid-80s, I suspect none. And I haven't seen any lately either.

This isn't very well thought out or explained, I was hoping some of the more experienced techs could take this thread there.

The vagueness of the question falls to you. It was your question. As far as finding more 'experienced' techs, you should consider the population base here. A few of us are 'senior'. Some fall in the 30's range. A good majority are in their 20's. So keep that in mind. Many here have never seen a working microcomputer, or terminal setups, they have only read about them.

ptilsen

Every veteran computer scientist and software developer I've ever talked to says that once you learn the fundamentals of computers and coding, the rest is largely trivial. Tools, techniques, and paradigms have changed drastically within that line of work, but at the end of the day the jobs are still there and the skills are transferable. Just bear in mind that even there, just as with all areas of IT, you have to keep your skills updated. My only point is that it's relatively easy to do and a good situation to be in compared to, say, being a Netware expert as Windows NT takes over the market. Although, frankly, every area of IT involves constant enough change and enough transferable knowledge that a technology going away really shouldn't make your employment prospects too hard. Plenty of Netware people switched to something else easily enough and still work in the industry today.

pcgizzmo

Database administration. Databases have been around and will always be around. Learn them. Learn to manipulates them, massage them get what you want from them and you will always have a job.

GoodBishop

MBA with Finance. I'm 3 classes away!

That stuff will never change.

ande0255

Being unemployed

EDIT:

Just realized that it got answered by Plantwiz in the first line of the first reply

paul78

It's pretty healthy to think about the future. I think that it's always a good idea to have an idea of where you may want to be 20 to 30 years down the road. Even though I had some ideas of what I wanted to do 30 years ago, it's generally a winding path.

But as many pointed out - from a career perspective, its not realistic to think that you can be a "cisco security" tech in 20-30 years. In 30 years, Cisco may not even exist anymore. For example, today, you arent' likely to find too many jobs for hot-areas like COBOL programming or Netware admins like in the past.

It may be better to think about areas of IT that you may want to have longevity instead. It is likely that IT as a field will probably still exist in 30 years but in what form - it's hard to tell. Also, with globalization of jobs and innovation towards efficiency and scale, keeping an eye at the industry trends is also important.

--chris--

I have thought a lot about this. Continuing education for 20-30 years could burn some people out. So what to do?

Why not look at becoming an educator? I think this is the main motivation for me to work towards a BS then Masters. If I get tired of keeping up, move over to educating the next generation. Lower pay? Probably...but the satisfaction and structured down time make it an attractive option.

JaneDoe

Learning to work with new technologies, and making them work for your business's needs. The best part of working in IT is the constant learning process that's required.

Jon_Cisco

I have to agree with JaneDoe. One of the reasons I have decided to move into IT is because there is a constant need for learning. Something I enjoy, and a readily available structure to pursue new skills (Certs).

I don't know what I will be doing in 5 years let alone 30 but I am 40 years old and believe that my desire to continue learning can make me successful in networking. I have chosen to start with Cisco CCNA along with an associate's in computer science.

Good Luck