New career in I.T

bluesnake

Another problem with IT there is is always news stuff, and qualifications over a few years often expire, so you keep have to retrain yourself like a rat on the wheel. You have to chase certification and experience - it never ends.

However many people stay in a job till they are forced out, and many companies do not upgrade to the latest or greatest, so all ones experience tends to be on the old stuff, but often the better paying and more interesting is the new stuff.

IT is also quite ageist. I have seen over the years the more wrinkly people forced out, paid off, given retirement and much fresher faces appearing. Before I got to 50 I was also put down this path of being given the unwanted side of IT to do, hoping I would go. I am just over 50, and except for management I am about the oldest here.

At the moment the only jobs I often see are Developers, SQL and CISCO.

The trick in IT is to keep moving. Stay in a job for 2-ish years max as as a junior as it gives experience but often after the first year you are not learning much and anthing more than 2 is often a waste of time. Management is more like 5 years, as short term management often looks bad.

chuckalicious_2

bluesnake wrote: »

The trick in IT is to keep moving. Stay in a job for 2-ish years max as as a junior as it gives experience but often after the first year you are not learning much and anthing more than 2 is often a waste of time. Management is more like 5 years, as short term management often looks bad.

That is excellent advice - I wish I had known that. The stuff I worked with was way behind the times and there was no budget for training or new software/kit. This has made things far tougher now I'm out of work.

[Deleted User]

1. Learn something niche
2. Get good at it
3. Become a contractor
4. Profit!!

Joking aside, the money in IT contracting is stupid high

googler

ringo_24601 wrote: »

1. Learn something niche
2. Get good at it
3. Become a contractor
4. Profit!!

Joking aside, the money in IT contracting is stupid high

...and try and make it a niche that isn't routinely being outsourced to India.

[Deleted User]

googler wrote: »

...and try and make it a niche that isn't routinely being outsourced to India.

Thankfully, my little corner of IT (healthcare IT) seems reasonably immune from that.

bluesnake

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Thankfully, my little corner of IT (healthcare IT) seems reasonably immune from that.

ringo_24601, play fair, you are trolling sir!:) You are not the average IT guy, think from memory you said you had an MS degree in biomedical science, possibly a computer one too??, then did quite a bit of computer stuff including databases on the Cern system.

You have unique knowledge. The system contains patient data which is kept virtually forever. Due to job cross-over, it does give you unique skills and abilities to put you in a more secure position then most of us here.

The problem with niche markets, is when that niche becomes unpopular, and finding a new niche and gaining experience. Many IT people get pidgin holed, especially in the NHS and large business.

We have had good contractors that have had difficulty finding work. One of our desktop support team was even a qualified vcp, as that is all she could get.

[Deleted User]

bluesnake wrote: »

ringo_24601, play fair, you are trolling sir!:) You are not the average IT guy, think from memory you said you had an MS degree in biomedical science, possibly a computer one too??, then did quite a bit of computer stuff including databases on the Cern system.

You have unique knowledge. The system contains patient data which is kept virtually forever. Due to job cross-over, it does give you unique skills and abilities to put you in a more secure position then most of us here.

The problem with niche markets, is when that niche becomes unpopular, and finding a new niche and gaining experience. Many IT people get pidgin holed, especially in the NHS and large business.

We have had good contractors that have had difficulty finding work. One of our desktop support team was even a qualified vcp, as that is all she could get.

BSc Genetics and MSc Bioinformatics.. altough i consider myself self taught in programming. And I've actually ditched the world of Cerner in favour of learning a product called Intersystems Ensemble. If you know that, there's loads of NHS contracts to be had

Still, it's just one industry niche of many out there. There's big players like SAP out there that are good to learn

Moby_Tide

InsideInsurance wrote: »

I recall one project that went terribly wrong a few days after going live. 3pm the problem was logged. 5pm a senior stakeholder meeting held. 6pm Exec meeting called and all payments turned off. 6:30pm category 1 incident meeting held and the Head of Development said he was going home but would be back in at 9pm as was his daughters birthday... was told if he is going home then he isnt to bother coming back and his desk items would be posted to him. 8pm the business team go home. 3:30am the IT team go home. 7am incident meeting held with all IT expected to be there in person to explain cause of incident

If I restored a system to BAU at 3.30am and management expected an Incident Review at 7am I'd be clearing my desk at 4am as they obviously don't have a clue or any interest in the actual issue......

bluesnake

Moby_Tide wrote: »

If I restored a system to BAU at 3.30am and management expected an Incident Review at 7am I'd be clearing my desk at 4am as they obviously don't have a clue or any interest in the actual issue......

Our lot operate very similar to InsideInsurance, but the Insident review run every hour until everyone is happy. Then the day or two after, root cause analysis is done.

Our managers know very little about IT, just are professional managers (people and process manipulators), and we go outside to consultants to get ideas and studies done. Mainly because if it goes wrong in house the managers carry the blame. We do pay a lot for professional services.

Print_Screen

bluesnake wrote: »

Our managers know very little about IT, just are professional managers (people and process manipulators), and we go outside to consultants to get ideas and studies done. Mainly because if it goes wrong in house the managers carry the blame. We do pay a lot for professional services.

So how comes they need your team then? I am not being rude I am genuinely interested. If management get consultants in for major changes and projects do your team just look after the daily running of things and resolve any problems?
Does that not affect your development? So if you ask to go on a course say to implement and administer Server 2012, management will say no need for you to do that. We'll send you on the cheaper administering Server 2012 and get the consultants to actually do the upgrade.