Where to Go After a Lifetime in IT?

Pikoro asks: "I have been working in the IT field for the past 20 years or so, and after getting hired by the largest financial company in the world, I thought I might have finally found a place to retire from. However, after working here for almost a year, I find myself, not exactly burnt out, but longing for a complete career field change. It's not that doing IT related tasks aren't fun anymore, but they have become more 'work' than 'play' over the last few years. Since all of my experience has been IT related, I'm not sure where I could go from here. What would you consider doing for a living, after being in a single field for so long?"

Where to go after a lifetime ?

To Hell, of course !

Re:Where to go after a lifetime in IT?

Insane?

lumberjack

I suggest becoming a lumberjack. Or something exciting, a lion tamer.

Doesn't have to be 'hell'

To Hell, of course !

Not necessarily. I made a complete switch away from IT 12 years ago (this month), and haven't looked back. Here are some keys to success:

1. Re-organise your lifestyle drastically (and preferably quickly) to slash your financial outgoings - the lower your financial needs, the greater your freedom!
2. Pay off any non-mortgage debt ASAP, preferably yesterday - keep only one Visa/Mastercard, with a low credit limit
3. In your remaining days in the IT trade, save as much money as you can
4. Only work as you feel able, feel free to slack off here and there without guilt, stall your bosses for time if/when they start questioning your performance
5. If you have a sickness plan in your job, consider feigning some symptoms to prolong the paycheque
6. When you get totally fed up with going into the office, tender your resignation on health grounds, and seek the best severance package you can get
7. Sit at home for 2 weeks, take some long baths, keep intoxicants (booze, pot etc) and 'comfort foods' to an absolute minimum - feel your feelings - maybe take some long walks or hikes as well
8. Write a list of things you really enjoy doing - no matter how weird or wild
9. Choose about 3 items from that list, and for each item, ask yourself:
   • How can I mak an income from doing this?
   • What (affordable) training could I get to improve my earning potential doing this?
   • Is there a market for this? If not, could I create a market?
   • Could I sustain my interest in this area long enough to pay my training/startup costs, have some fun and save money?
10. When you feel ready and inspired, get off your butt and persue one or more of these options
11. Enjoy your goddam life!
12. (maybe even) Profit!

Re:Tenerife

That post is officially called Helpdesk ?

Limited options

If you expect anything like the same money, about your only options would be producing porn videos, politics, or some other life of crime.

Otherwise, get a job flipping burgers at your local McDonalds, and work your way up.

Re:Limited options

If you expect anything like the same money, about your only options would be producing porn videos, politics, or some other life of crime.

Otherwise, get a job flipping burgers at your local McDonalds, and work your way up.

He got modded down as a troll, but he's exactly right. It was just about the best advice offered here.

The worst thing you can do with a mid-life crisis is follow your impulse.

Do not change careers.
Do not buy an expensive sports car.
Do not leave your wife for a 20-year old bimbo.

They might all seem like VERY good ideas right now, but your rich, comfortable 60-year old self will thank you if you stick it out right now as you go through this "trapped in a life you hate" phase and keep cranking away.

Re:Limited options

If he can afford to retire now, why not get a job that he enjoys even if the pay is crap? Why spend 10 more years hating the job?

Re:Limited options

Being retired doesn't mean "never working again". It means "never needing to work again."

More specifically, it means "doing whatever the hell you want."

Re:Limited options

They might all seem like VERY good ideas right now, but your rich, comfortable 60-year old self will thank you if you stick it out right now as you go through this "trapped in a life you hate" phase and keep cranking away.

I disagree. Whether you're rich and comfortable or not, when you're lying on your deathbed, are you going to think back on your life and say "if only I had tried this" or "I may not have done everything I wanted, but I gave it my best shot?"

The only people who should ignore their dreams and stick with the lives they hate are people who believe in reincarnation. They believe they have another shot at it, they can try it again. The rest of us have to believe that we have to make it in this life or not at all. And while you may not make it if you try, you definitely won't make it if you just rest on your laurels and live in complacency.

Live your life, it's likely the only one you get.

Re:Limited options

'Whether you're rich and comfortable or not, when you're lying on your deathbed, are you going to think back on your life and say "if only I had tried this" or "I may not have done everything I wanted, but I gave it my best shot?"'

Bingo! I actually have a name for this: the Deathbed Rule. When faced with a choice in life, choose the path that will lead to good deathbed memories and no regrets.

By following this rule, I've done things that many might consider foolish - quit jobs to go travelling, spending months in other countries, and so forth. These days, I'm a contractor and I make it a rule to keep several months a year aside for fun stuff, even if that consists of just lazing around, spending time with my girlfriend and reading books, as I've done these past few weeks.

By not following the Deathbed Rule, I'd probably have more money saved, but an absolute dearth of worthy life experiences - I'd have lived a "normal" life until now. What a terrible thought.

Re:Limited options

"What you are doing now is pining for the chance to see if there's more to life than what you've already accomplished.

There is. And you already have it."

Bullshit. that is a contradiction. What kind of a superhero is so awsome that they can accomplish all there is to do in life and be simultaneously such a retard that they dont know it.

If you already have it, then kill yourself. why the hell would you want to just hold on and slowly watch the world crumble around you while you sit uselessly and smug in your knowledge that you HAVE it? explain the meaning of that? yes.. it would be great for your boss if you just kept on cranking away.. afterall.. thats what its all about right?

life is not about stagnation. Its not about HAVING. its about growing. Its about seeing, learning and teaching.. and in the end its about dying. And it doesn't matter if you die broke because in the end. YOU DIE. You may as well die right now if you've done all you are ever going to do.

Don't be a chicken shit. success is measured by challenges overcome, deeds accomplished, inventions and creations, not by dollars. I look at people 10 to 20 years older than me who have basically decided 'ohh.. my time to live is over' and it is beyond pathetic. It is the very definition of OLD. And the same time some people that age dont have that attitude.. and they dont seem old in any way. you can lose everything you have at ANY time. and in the end you WILL.

Perhaps you'll have an interesting tale to tell when you are 70 so you wont be completely useless.

if every man experiences a longing to find something MORE as they get older perhaps that is a clue. There *IS* something more.. and whoever tells you that you should just take it easy is killing you. They aren't a friend. They are a parasite holding you back.

lets say someone works their ass off then hits 65 and is staring down a whole wad of cash.. then what? go and pay people to shuttle you around like an idiot for the rest of your days? Why did you live at all if that was all you ever thought to accomplish? sit around and uselessly accumulate for your entire life, and not only are you destroying your own life.. but you are destroying the lives of everyone around you by being a horrible role model. you and all your loved ones are being diminished.. with that philosophy you may as well all be oxen, pulling the plow. nothing more.

Go live.. be human.

Re:Limited options

The commentors to this statement have it pretty right, but let me add my .02 worth. None of these are critical of you or your ideas, they are just good advice for many people in your situation.

1. Keep your job - stability is fleeting and you will be glad you stayed with it when you are finally outsourced or laid off
2. Start paying yourself from the nice salary you are making -
      a. if you are in debt, pay it down asap
      b. if you are not in debt, save money as much as you can
            1. set up a fund to go around the world and fund it decently - 15K or so should do the trick
            2. put everything in your 401K that you can ... the more the better ... when you are 59.5 you will be amazed how wise you were years ago
            3. pay down your house so you can save even more
      c. whenever you start feeling that everything is pointless, look at the progress you've made and congratulate yourself
3. Learn something new, maybe even pay for your own certs / classes -- once you have certs note how much better you are treated when they realize you are secure in your skills and knowlege and marketability
4. Focus on your family and spend quality time with them. They are really the reason you are working anyway. enjoy them - they are your reward for putting up with the crap
5. Remeber to look around and appreciate at least one thing each day. Whatever it is, it didn't have to happen and if you count your blessings you will find you have more than if you grump around expecting the world to conform to your perspective du jour.

New Horizons

When I started in IT, my mentor confessed to me that all he wanted to do was quit and open an ice cream shop. At the time, I didn't understand. Now I do.

After 15 years in IT, I quit (actually, not by choice. The dot-com meltdown of 2000 left me unemployed.) So, I started a toy company. You can see some of it at http://www.rlt.com/ [rlt.com]

Now that the waves of destruction from the internet big boom have subsided, would I go back to IT? No way! I'm a toymaker now and loving it. So do my kids...

As I've said before, programmers and sysadmins have some incredible advantages over most MBAs. You have LOGIC. You are CREATIVE. You have a propensity for
PROBLEM SOLVING. You can think through and visualize a plan of action from beginning to end. You can change course and re-program the system
when requirements change. You know that very few, if any, projects are ever really finished. You're a hacker who knows how to shoot from the
hip to get a job done on deadline, even if it isn't "elegant". You know that "Done" usually only means "it works at the moment and when
it breaks, we'll fix it". Guess what, these qualities plus a willingness to try and fail then try again (kind of like compiling) are what make entrepreneurs
successful. Another advantage you have is that you won't have to hire some expensive tech guy to do your programming/sysadmin/DBA stuff for
you.

You can do it. Just remember- there are a million reasons why you'll fail, and everyone will be happy to remind you of them constantly. But there's only one reason why you will succede- because you make it happen. So, ignore the naysayers and the critics, trust your instincts and go start a business.

Have fun!

Re:New Horizons

You know that very few, if any, projects are ever really finished. You're a hacker who knows how to shoot from the
hip to get a job done on deadline, even if it isn't "elegant". You know that "Done" usually only means "it works at the moment and when
it breaks, we'll fix it".

And you say you're a toy-maker?

Remind me not to buy my niece's next swing-set from you.

Me?

I'd become a fireman.

Re:Me?

Funny, I work with a guy who did the exact opposite.

Re:Me?

A fireman became him ?

Re:Me?

Apparently that sort of thing happens all the time in Soviet Russia.

Re:Me?

I'd become a fireman.

Yeah, they deal with fewer fires.

Careers

This seems akin to asking Slashdot what you should be when you grow up. There's no way total strangers could answer this for you. Take a look at your hobbies, interests and what you do well at. Look at the classifieds and see what kind of jobs center around those things. See what kind of experience and education they require. Go from there.

Re:Careers

The question is not what HEshould do, but what would you do. The guy's looking for personal opinions. Instead of telling him why he shouldn't ask people what they think, try telling him what you think. Think of it as a brain-storming session for everyone reading the discussion, not just the original guy asking the question. Lots of people may get ideas from it that they would have never considered on their own.

Re:Careers

You clearly dont understand how "ask slashdot" works. Someone asks a question, and then we all make fun of that person.

And don't open a comic/games/collectibles store!

You think I'm joking here, but it seems like every damn geek and his brother dreams of opening their own comic book, collectibles, or video game store--with absolutely no idea how to run a small business or how the market dropped out for these sorts of stores over 10 years ago (or how tough it is to compete with the big chains).

When people tell you to "follow your dreams" what they mean is "follow your dreams--as long as your dreams are reasonable and you have the qualifications and skills needed to pursue them."

Re:And don't open a comic/games/collectibles store

When people tell you to "follow your dreams" what they mean is "follow your dreams--as long as your dreams are reasonable and you have the qualifications and skills needed to pursue them."

Personally, what I mean is go out and do it. If that means you need to obtain skills to do it, then do that first. I say follow your dreams, not get ahead of yourself.

I also believe that there is nothing that you can imagine yourself doing (within certain realities of physics, of course) that you cannot conceivably do. Have you seen Ong Bak or The Protector? This guy Tony Jaa grew up watching pissed-off Kung Fu movies and no one ever told him that people needed wires to do these badass stunts where they run up the side of things and so on, and as a consequence he learned to do those things without wires. I don't mean the anime/kung-fu leap that sends you thirty feet up into the sky or anything here - again, reminders about physics apply.

But the point is, how many things could we have done if no one told us we couldn't? If we weren't constantly discouraged from our "fool dreams" by parents, teachers, society...

Re:Careers

Take a look at your hobbies, interests and what you do well at. Look at the classifieds and see what kind of jobs center around those things. See what kind of experience and education they require. Go from there.

That's good advice, as long as what you meant by "go from there" was "then stay in your current job that pays well, and have fun with your hobbies on evenings and weekends."

Do you want to live like a 22-year old again? In a tiny apartment with a roommate or two and an old beat-up car in the parking garage? Having to borrow from family to buy any big-ticket items? With no health insurance? Being on the bottom rung of pretty much everything? Only without as much energy, naive optimism, or potential for growth?

If so, then changing careers or starting a new business is a fantastic idea.

Otherwise, find the fun in what you are doing now. Being poor when you're fresh out of college is normal. Being poor as a middle-aged man is depressing.

Cars oddly enough

If you can get past the mess, I've found a lot of geeks are also good at fixing cars. Similarly complex systems that all work together, required trouble shooting of various systems, etc.

The nice part is it's a useful skill in every day life, and if nothing else you might know when someone is going to rip you off at the local auto shop.

Re:Cars oddly enough

I knew the car analogy was in here somewhere

Re:Cars oddly enough

You can get an ASE certification in automotive electrical systems by taking a six unit course and a $250 exam. If you know anything about electronics, and computer systems, you will find it trivial. Probably the two most lucrative areas in automotive work are electrical work, and the color matching/spot repair work in auto body. Difference is that if you go to work for a body shop, unless you're already a veteran you'll spend the first few months cleaning paint guns and sweeping up the shop, whereas with an ASE cert in auto electrical and a little bit of competence, you'll be making more than you ever did with computers. And you won't be on call. Unfortunately, I never got the cert, because I was too poor at the time :/ I did get an automotive heating and A/C cert, but who wants to do that shit for a living? That's actual work :)

Which IT?

If you have a great deal of project management experience - there is an ocean of opportunity out there that does not involve "IT". Construction / manufacturing / etc. all require project managers to keep new ideas on track and on budget.

If you have a great deal of experience with risk managemnt - there may be an opportunity for you in the stock market.

It's all about which areas you have experience in, and how comfortably you are at adapting your skills to a new environment.

Re:Which IT?

avronius is right - "IT" is a term so broad that it really doesn't accurately describe what _anybody_ does for a living. If what you're doing feels like more work than play, my advice is, look at what you do for fun when you're not working. Do you like to game? Like to build stuff? Like to run services out of your house? It may not be that you're burned out on technology in general, but rather on the particular aspects you've been stuck in for a while.

For instance: it would only take about a week of Windows desktop support to burn me out, but I'm pretty certain I'll be doing network/application architecture and hacking on UN*X and OSS apps until I'm permanently retired (and probably for fun thereafter). After all, this is what I was doing for fun before I figured out I could get paid for it ...

You might also look at getting out of the "world's largest" anything ... diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks notwithstanding, nothing makes me burn out faster than having to deal with the mind-numbing, soul-crushing bureacracy of most large corporations.

In summary: find something you like to do (might even be in tech), and find a company to do it for that's small enough to be flexible, fun and still concerned about the individual. Maybe easier said than done, but there are certainly a lot of places hiring sysadmins and programmers lately ...

You may actually want to stick with it

Sometimes it's simply a matter of finding the right company for you. There are so many different companies offering so many different career experiences in general. Finding one that isn't right for you may make you think you want to do something completely different when in reality you may just need a better boss, more flexible hours or more (or less) human interaction time. I'd look around at what else is close by before you make a leap in (potentially) the wrong direction.

Move to Paradise

If you have a nest-egg, like ownership of your house, you can consider moving to some 3rd world country. Like Costa Rica. The typical $400K American home can be replaced with an equal if not nicer $100K home in a lot of these countries. Then get a job teaching CS at the local university. I'm sure they will love to have a native english speaker with real-world industry experience. The pay won't be much, but combined with the rest of your nest egg you should be able to live comfortably with a low-stress, high-reward job in a really nice climate.

Bike messenger

I read this story on kuro5hin about someone on IT who went on to become a bike messenger. I'm not sure it would fit you, but it is a physical job and it is clearly not stressful. I am not sure how much someone like you earns, but I guess you probably have a lot of savings, so you could try anything you like. Other lame possibilities include "writing" a book, becoming a critic for some obscure thing that you always loved (say, a cheese specialist). For what it's worth, I like cooking, but I've heard it's stressful.

If you're looking for a complete change, try a physical job (not necessarily manual labor as in "construction worker"), one that requires you to use your body.

P.

Drive a Truck

Truck driving is becoming quite lucrative these days. Go find an outfit and have them train you. Many will pay for your CDL training if you sign on for X years.

You get to see the country and sit on your ass all day. I couldn't think of a much better job.

Re:Drive a Truck

Truck driving is not all it's cracked up to be, though. My friend recently quit his trucking job to go into IT. *Insert comment about the irony* Although you get to drive around the country it isn't like you actually get to do anything when you visit places. You just watch the scenery go by and continue to drive. It can also be very dangerous as trucks can be extremely difficult to handle, especially when the weather is bad. Although the pay can be good if you have done it for a while, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to get any type of loan if you have just started trucking because truckers are paid by the mile and the bank needs to have an idea of how much money you make in a year. This probably isn't pertinent in this case, but it is something to think about.

Bingo.

This is exactly why you're not supposed to choose a hobby as a career. Careers are meant to be something you're good at, and can stand doing, but not something you want to do for fun. What happens when you do something you enjoy over and over again? You stop enjoying it. You need to learn to separate your hobbies from your skills. Well, I guess it's a bit too late for that.

Hate Job?

OK most people actually quite hate their job, IT people are very lucky in the fact they generally do enjoy their job and it's also well paid. Your job is more work than play, well your still one up on most people, think _very_ carefully.

I didn't want to be an IT drone...

...I wanted to be... a LUMBERJACK!

MBA?

My friend left IT to become an MBA. He's graduating this quarter, and will be doubling his old salary. In his own words, he wanted to make the transition from the person writing the reports to the person requesting the reports. Of course, whether or not he'll achieve that as a consultant is debatable, but hey, he still doubled his salary and gets a change of pace. The two years he spent in the mba program served as a nice break from reality as well. Or as he would say, "Grad school is the snooze bar on the alarm clock of life."

I recommend poker

Poker makes an excellent 2nd career for IT personel:

1. You're your own boss.

2. No physical or athletic requirements.

3. Lots of probability math to wrap your head around.

4. You can work from home if you like, or from a variety of physical locations.

5. No retirement age.

6. If you're either very good or very lucky, you can be on TV.

I bet I get moderated "funny," but I'm perfectly serious.

Re:Teach

Why not become a teacher? A lot of kids could benefit from a teacher with life experience, not someone fresh out of college with a teaching degree.

Because he doesn't want to start out at the bottom of the pay scale?
Teaching pay scales are not based on merit, but on time served. He would be making the same as the aforementioned dipshit but with much larger bills to pay, regardless of much the kids might benefit.
Private school is not that much more competitive, either.

Re:Jeoparody

That's insane, if you can't live comfortably on at least half of that and save the rest then you need to investigate which bills are really needed and which ones aren't. Get a smaller house, move 2 miles down the road where the property values are 30% less, don't eat out 5 nights a week, whatever.

100k is plenty of money if you know how to spend it.

Re:Jeoparody

A $100k job in New York City is the same as a $25k job in Kansas- that's how different the prices really are.

If you live on 80% of your income in Kansas, you have $5k left over every year (to travel or invest for that early, tropical retirement).

If you live on 80% of your income in NYC, you have $20k left over every year.

This is a HUGE difference--it's the difference between being able to retire at age 45 and being able to retire at age 70.

And, only an incredibly poor or incredibly stupid person spends 100% of his income in the local economy.

Not to mention, $100k in NYC is more like $70k in urban Kansas.

Re:Jeoparody

You seem to think anyone would actually pay you $100k in Kansas. No, they'll pay you $25k, and say it's because the cost of living is so low.

It actually pays to take the higher-paying jobs in more expensive areas (up to a certain point), as long as 1) you're frugal, invest wisely, and save money, and 2) have an exit strategy. This is because you'll have some leftover at either place, but you'll have more leftover cash in the high COL place. Plus, there's more economic opportunities (such as the recent real estate boom) to take advantage of. The idea is, you make the most of the high-COL area while you're there, and save up as much money as possible, then you get the hell out and move to a lower COL area and retire/relax/take a lower-paying job etc., while enjoying a big pile of cash, paid-off nice house, etc.

You have to be careful, though, because you have to look at the pay versus the COL, and determine how much leftover money you'll have for saving and investment. Especially take into account home ownership, because buying a home in a moderately-high COL place which will appreciate greatly is a much better deal than renting an apartment in an insanely-high COL place (Silicon Valley, NYC) and having nothing when you move out. As long as the realty market is stable, home ownership can make a huge difference in your life, as many California refugees have shown recently. If you own a home in a high-COL place and stay there a while, even if you don't pay off much principle, the value will go up so much that you can take the profit and buy a whole house in a low-COL place.

If your plan is to stay in one place your whole life, then the high-COL place may not make much sense. But anyone should know by now that it doesn't pay to not be mobile. You want to earn a good living, you have to go where the money is. It's not going to come to you out in the sticks.

Re:Jeoparody

$25K in Kansas? If you can only pull down 25K, you are working at McDonalds or something. Heck, I work for a County Government (in Kansas no less) and make $43K, and that is way below private sector wages.

Not long ago, before I decided to be all civic minded and work for the government, I was making $70K managing a 4 person programming shop.

$100K/year is not that hard to find either. So, basically, you don't know what you're talking about wrt wages in flyover country.

Re:Jeoparody

What kind of industry is there in Kansas?

Tornado clean-up?

Re:Jeoparody

If you live in the major metropolitan areas (NYC, LA, Chicago, etc) where there are jobs that can pay higher wages (leaving out COL), its hard to imagine getting anything approaching that in other areas.

Due to lack of jobs, or lack of imagination?

Re:Consultant?

Talk about synchronicity, I was just thinking about this exact same question before I sat down and opened up /. I am a consultant, .NET / C# programmer, in Phoenix, AZ. I got bored with what I was doing, and thought that being a consultant and never taking more then a 6 month contract would be the best thing, as I would always have a new challenge on my plate. Been consulting for over 2 years now, programming for over 10. And am really bored with it.

What to do next is a huge question for me. I make > $100k/year, and have no college education. Unfortunately, I have become accustomed to the lifestyle that I lead, and my bills won't go away just because I take a job that pays less. While consulting was a quick 'fix', I find that no matter where I go, it's the same over and over again. *shrug* Just my .02

Been there, done that, not worth it.

A race car is a tool for turning money into smoke and noise. A LOT of money. Know how to make a small fortune in racing? Start with a big one.

And as you progress past a certain level, it takes cubic dollars to advance - and the people with access to that sort of money suffer from a reality distortion field strength that has to be experienced to be believed.

I had a lot of fun racing, and I met a lot of cool people and got to do a lot of cool stuff, but I also spent a metric assload of money with little to show for it save a website, a bunch of trophies, a Speed TV clip, and a bruised credit card.

I'd've done better to stay in the Army.

DG