Stagnant IT "Career" - change paths or make the best of IT?

Gary1885

If I’m guilty of one thing, it is pursuing a social life in my late teens/early twenties that was somewhat lacking by that point, as I always looked young for my age and was making up for lost time!  I am also the first to admit that my decisions at that time weren’t particularly good ones; I went to university on a course which turned out to be nothing like it seemed from the prospectus.  At first I elected to stick at it and try to leave with a degree, as I didn’t want to end up starting a year later and losing out on earning more money.  What actually happened though, was I ended up dropping out anyway.

By the time I was working in IT, I was more interested in earning money and trying to have my own flat.  The job I had meant I had to use my own car and pay for my own business insurance, meaning that at some point I had to buy another car, use it for work and pay the extra (and yes, it did cost a lot more) for business insurance, which was not reimbursed.  What was left by the end of all that was not very little, so it’s pretty annoying to hear someone say I could’ve invested in myself.

Not only that, but I never knew what I was supposed to invest in!  I repeatedly asked work for training – or some idea what I could do myself – and they were never forthcoming with information.  To this day, I still don’t really know what training is most important, but I do know one thing; pursuing a career in IT – or at least a technical role in IT – was a big mistake.  I'm just not interested in getting my teeth into a problem; in fact I hate it.  I'd rather do something a little more target-driven where there's a goal, be it commission or even just the satisfaction of closing a sale, for example.

Many of my friends went into other jobs with or without a degree and all of them ended up doing much better than me by their mid twenties; managers, team leaders, account managers, all on salaries that – ten years later – I can still only aspire to.

It’s annoying because before I joined IT, I proved myself to be very good at sales.  Now this was only in a branch of PC World and I was on minimum wage or thereabouts, with no commission.  However, it seemed that I was consistently smashing my targets and outperforming everyone else in the store.  I was the “go to “ guy for other members of staff when it came to advice on how to sell something; they came to me over the so-called “sales coach” or “shop floor manager”, but I was never paid for this.  I left all of that behind to pursue a better paying job in IT and have regretted not pursuing sales ever since.

My girlfriend has moved right to the top in sales and is earning several thousand pounds more than I am.  She’s managing a team and will be going for her boss’ job when she leaves.  I overhear her work conversations and it is so much more interesting than mine, which at the moment are mundane IT support calls, talking people through password resets or trying to fix a paper jam remotely.  I hate it, but to pursue a career elsewhere now would mean a pay cut of around £15,000, which was kind of why I created this post in the first place.  Even my girlfriend has said I would be good in sales, particularly in the motor trade.  However, as I'm in a band, weekend work is out.  There are opportunities to do something in the week, but whatever I went into at this stage would only be entry level.

Is there a way I can use transferrable skills to get a better position and still at least earn the money I do now – but with better potential to progress?

Alternatively, is there a way I can use the skills I do have – but never use - to move up?