Who's Done A Career Change?

[rawsco]

I'm now knocking on the door of almost 20 years in IT, mostly in smaller organisations more recently enterprise. I'm starting to think that I'm developing some Charlie Sheen esque early indicators of meltdown/burnout and I'm starting to think about a career change. We seem to be a diverse bunch of mostly smart cookies on here... I was wondering if anyone has jumped from IT to something different? I'd be interested in hearing stories, thoughts and advice. I'd love to combine passion with work in some way but sadly I'm struggling to connect them... your thoughts would be interesting and valuable to me. Thanks.

[pete]

your thoughts would be interesting and valuable to me. Thanks.

Literally the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me, even if it was just to the group I'm in


A mate considered this, but ultimately didn't get round to it...

https://www.mi5.gov.uk/careers/applying-for-jobs

[David]

Over the last 40 years I've gone from 'hands on' engineering, to small company management, to a flying career, and then back to broadcast engineering. I think most of those changes were enjoyable short term, but a mistake longer term, and motivated by 'the grass is greener on the other side' mentality. If you've got a well developed skill then use it to the full. That's not saying stick with a job that gets you down, but it's probably going to be just as bad doing something else.

[campbell]

I have, Ross. Give me a call. 07768 813031.

[Lazydonkey]

The problem is that if you want a true change, a dramatic change, then you either need to grab it by the balls and do it by yourself campbell style or you need someone to take a punt on you.

I'm very fortunate in that the last 8 years in Sky have seen managers taking a punt on me and i've moved from data analysis, to VOIP telephony, to BI tech and then back to telephony. Each move has seen me become more "management" and less hands on tech but it's been due to people above taking a punt and thinking i can do it. On paper, with my degree and first few jobs i should never be doing what i'm doing now.

Without that atmosphere you're relying on someone outside of your current company taking a punt on you or you being able to rebrand your experience to make your CV appealing. Don't know your experience but it would probably be easy to rebrand as a PM / analyst / IT change or something. Recruitment consultants should help in this situation but they generally (there are exceptions) don't and they just want to match skills to a job advert

First thing you have to do is identity what you enjoy doing, or worst case what you don't hate and then take it from there. To truly make a change does take some larger than average testicles though.

[j2 lot]

I have had 1 major change forced on me by redundancy and 2 step changes where people have taken a chance on me based on work ethic and commitment rather than qualification. If you're making a change of choice you may need to go in at the bottom and work up unless you have someone taking the chance in putting a novice into an unknown environment or who accepts your ability to perform at a certain level based on a job in a different field.
Good luck whatever you decide to do but don't waste your life doing something that isn't fulfilling

[Sanjøy]

Pop over for a coffee, I know of an opportunity here you might be interested in.

S

[mwmackenzie]

Yup.....

I used to be a Health Club manager and personal trainer. I left that and went back to Uni at 28 to study a BSC in Architectural Technology which saw me with a Job at CR Smith in their drawing office. I was made redundant after 3 years. I thought at that point yay, 4 months salary and I'll have a new job next week... 3 years later I Started work as Lochinvar's Architect, been there 4 years now and pretty much love my work! I'm even being given the occasional sales lead which is proving pretty enjoyable as a wee change now and then.

In the 3 years I was redundant I worked on building sites Labouring which was a great craic but hard work for not much pay! Then I stupidly ventured into the garage trade by selling my Lotus and bailing out SLS (Worst life decision ever) after 6 month of that Andy G rescued me with a job doing marketing for AMP3 which was a welcome stop gap and I also was given the role of running the day to day running of his Supercar Driving business Experience Limits, I loved that but it was time consuming with a young family so I had to give that up after starting with Lochinvar.

All in pretty varied, Worked as a barman when I was first at college in Glasgow and as a Doorman the second time when at Uni in Edinburgh... Not sure I'd change anything, been hard times in there but that's made me apreciate the things I have all the more...

All the best mate what ever you decide to do

Mark

[rawsco]

Wow, thanks for the replies, some good advice in there . I always enjoy hearin about people's backgrounds and how they got to where they are. All part of the happy plan (see karting thread) great bunch of interesting peeps on here.

Sanj, Campbell I'll be in touch, thanks.

[renmure]

Yup..

A couple of years into training to be a teacher, I realised I hated teaching, hated school kids and that school dinner portions were tiny

That was a close call!!

[thinfourth]

On the other hand

We are looking for an IT developer to single handedly develop a web based version of our own inhouse valve management software

Which was written by our own inhouse developer who works in a oddball version of visual basic and SQL and he is quite distincty on the autistic spectrum.

It is the kind of job you would either love or you would end up in a rubber room

[Jam_s160]

My dad step away from the oil and gas sector as a project manager and spent a year retraining himself into driving instructor, setup his own company and manage his own time for a change rather than others.

[Ferg]

You can dramatically change your job and still be within IT. You should be able to find a new path leveraging your experience

[ryallm]

Leveraging! No, no, please . I work in IT and project managers who spout Americanisms like that, along with de-risking, learnings, SME, productionize etc etc are one of the things which make me want to get the hell out

[avdb]

A few times I thought you only live once and get out of IT to do something entirely different.

After various jobs in management have now gone back to developing database web application systems which I enjoy. When I have enough projects plan to do this full time working for my self.