Friggen sick of IT work.....what else?
 

Man, I am sick of working in IT, staring at a computer screen all day, dealing with the same stuff day in and day out. Been doing it for 16 years. Caveat: It's what I know and pays well.

I feel empty at the end of each shift, like something is missing. My job is easy, too easy.....and boring. Some guys would drool at this opportunity, I guess I am more motivated to sit around and watch DVD's when it's slow. BTW, I work a 3/12's overnight shift at a major SW Corp as a Linux/UNIX/Network administrator.

What other fields could one jump into that could provide a quick ramp-up time and offer decent pay?

I'm in love with cars, but don't wan't to be a grease monkey at some low-life dealership.

Everyone is playing the real estate game....so that's out

And, to make things worse, at the ripe old age of 40, I have yet to figure out what my purpose or passion is. How screwed is that!!!

Maybe I just need to rant, who know, but if anyone has advice, I'd appreciate it.

Cheers
-B

I'm in IT audit and I love it. My IT background is not as strong as yours.

IT audit for external clients is a good area because you get to see a lot of environments, you get to use your expertise, and at the end of the day it's up to the client to solve the problem. I have some travel (about a week a month), but I don't have to work overnight.

Internal audit for a big company would be a good job too, but the internal politics could be frustrating.

Drawbacks are that after awhile it may become too much of the same thing after a few years.

Try going from PC's to the networking side of things (Cisco routers, switches, firewalls, etc...), similar work, but new stuff to learn/new challenges, and less of the crap to deal with as far as I can tell. It'd probably be fairly easy for you to slide into since you're already in IT and would give you a change. There's good money in it.

One word....Plastics.

"work to live" and not "live to work"

If the pay is good and the job allows you to live a life you want, don't fight it. Just need to find a way to accept the job as a job and not as something that defines your and your person.

Hmm, I can't agree with that 100%. If I don't enjoy my work I shouldn't be doing it. Work is too large a portion of your week to do something that you don't enjoy just because it makes you money.

Funny (or sad), I can totally identify with that post !

Not sure what the solution is, but a job change in the same field could do you good... Don't leave IT, It is easy money compared to practically all other fields... Just change job, IE from networking to programming or testing or desktop engineering, or DBA or something....

Personally, being on the same boat, I've decided work was work, I was never gonna be one of those lucky few "loving" their jobs. I get my kicks outside of work ;-) If it was fun they would not call it work ;-)

I have been in IT for almost 10 years. I can't say I feel particularly satisfied with what I do. After you have killed the same dragon 100 times, its not much of thrill. New dragons come along, but they all go down the same way....it can get boring.

I guess on the upside, I have a great work environment, damn nice offices (27th floor facing the Cascade mountains with views of Mt. Rainer), great boss.

You might have noticed my thread the other day about flipping real estate. Its because I have been looking at non IT opportunities as well...

Sell what you know. Sell IT for your company.

I was in field service (BS in MIS) then I moved on to sales for the same company. Love every minute of it!

Get into Education!

My wife a teacher, while fulfilling, the pay is not great. But heck, a little satisfaction could go a long way :)

Keep it coming!!

Sounds like someone has a cas of the Mondays!

You could always go with girl's clothes and media. I managed a custom media department for NetworkWorld magazine prior to G9Girl. Tons of money in that, not very fulfilling getting sales leads for Cisco, et al. who would just dump them anyway.

This is more fun, more rewarding, bigger future payout.

Been there, huh, Thom? :) I wish it were that easy. Maybe I should just have a few martinis and chill out....dunno.

The main driver of this is that I asked my manager if I could shift my schedule by ONE dang hour next Sunday so I can get to the AFC championship game on time. He said he could not do that because that would be condoning an activity other than sleeping, which he claims I should be doing so I'll be fresh for my shift at 10:00pm. I cannot believe he actually said that...*********. Guess he's never heard of Bawls and No-Doze :)

I've been in IT since 1990. Hmm - that's 15+ years. :eek:
First started doing systems assurance/QA/scheduling on mainframe sysetms. Shortly thereafter, I moved into storage management, and have been in storage since then.

I have been very satisfied with my career thus far. The key to my satisfaction is that my position has evolved from just a mainframe storage guy to a SAN (storage area network) administrator where I single handedly manage about 30 TB of storage for not just the mainframe, but open systems (UNIX & Windows) systems as well. I also manage the switches/directors on the SAN fabrics.

And the cool thing is that even SAN systems are evolving with stuff like virtualization, newer infastructures, newer DASD - so I'm constantly learning about new hardware/software and theories and trends. Keeps me on my toes.

Oh, and since working for Mercedes-Benz, USA, I've also been responsible for the mainframe disaster recovery processes, and I've got my fingers in change control and daily operations too.

Bottom line: so far, my field has been constantly evolving and expanding - without those, I'd be looking for a career change.

Just my personal experience,
-Zoltan.

You know what? You're right. I'm quitting my job. I'm gonna be...




...the next American Idol! :D

Hey Z-man! Mind if I ask a MB related question? It's about COMAND NAV

Is your question: why is it so complicated? The answer: 'Cause that way I-drive makes COMMAND look easy! :D

Ask away - I may not have the answer, but may have access to those who do.

Sorry for the hijack!

I have an '06 E55. I love everything about this car. It has exceeded all my expectations in every aspect but one. The NAV seems to have a bizarre deficiency. Let's say you are driving in an unfamiliar town and want directions to the nearest Home Depot. You are out of luck. Need to find Macys? Sorry. You may only search within NAV defined categories; RESTAURANTS, PARKS, MUSEUMS, AIRPORTS, etc. You cannot search for an establishment by it's NAME! Every other navigation system that I have seen, both OEM and aftermarket allows a search by NAME. What's up with that?

Perhaps you're thinking of the wrong level of education. Look and see what a college professor in IT or business makes. I think you'll be surprised.

All you need is a PhD...

To fund my track car habit, I'm planning on doing some teaching for one of the on-line universities. I couldn't do it all the time, but it may give me some job sat I don't always get at the day job.

I think this was one of the most enjoyable aspects of the employer before my current one. I worked a lot with the HP EVA5000 and Command View. It's pretty slick stuff. I like working with the high availablity stuff, RAID, etc..... Wonder if PCNA is hiring :)

I was just browsing the catalog of the local community college. They have a great machining program, CAD/CAM/CNC/Milling/Welding, etc I could apply my computer skills AND learn something creative. Maybe I could learn to do my own valve jobs and head work :) Anyone else in this line of work? I could be like that funky dood on that hod rod show (Coddington)....the one with no upper lip :)

Oh holy crap bb80sc, I've been feeling the same way lately! I'm so very sick of this industry lately as well....

This thread, it was like reading my mind....

I have been working in the network field for about 5 years now. About a year ago I fell into a job that deals with radio/RF

I find it quite interesting.

My perspective is a little different, mind you I do not work in the IT environment. Service industry - anyway - the job is certainly not a thrill. However, I can do it with some degree of proficiency and the pay is more than reasonable. So it provides the means to an end: whatever that may be. I understand that it consumes a large part of the day; and I would not have imagined 20+ years ago that I would be doing this (brought my 16 year old son to work: "Dad what a boring job you have"). But it allows me to spend quality time with my family, big boys have big toys, etc...
I did not have that opportunity before. Also, if you have your health, there is no limit to what you can do. Try something different and totally out of character. Take a sabbatical, while you are still young enough to enjoy it.
At the risk of sounding cliche: Life is worth living, so don't waster your time!

Sorry, dude, your just to old to start over so live with it. No crap about starting over with some grand occupation that is your live long dream, cause if you had such a dream you would already be living it. Your to highly paid to start a new occupation, ie no one will hire you at starting wages because you already make more than that. So unless you were lucky enough to have selected an occupation that paid you so much you can just say screw it to the world and you can start over, at your leisure, you are quite simply screwed and need to make the most of your fked up life. Learn to like at least some of what you do, its your only hope.

I have seen many people who were in your position, tough luck, really. Its a good reason to push, really push your children to find out what they like, as early as possible, and then to guide them into an occupation that accommodates those likes and dislikes. You only get one big chance for success and its all before approx age 25 or so.

I am one of the lucky ones. From age 4 or 5 I have always know what I wanted to do, and I did it and as a consequence I was very highly paid for it. It was a burning desire, that was just there, no one put it there, it just was. For those who do not have such inclinations I suggest knowing your strengths and weaknesses. Pick a strength and go with it. If possible pick the highest paying strength, as it offers the opportunity to screw up and try something else, unfortunately IT is not that highly paid.

On the other hand you may just be suffering from what is called a midlife crisis. You will get over it. Some need help doing so. So your not Bill Gates, most others aren’t either. You aren’t one of the lucky ones like me that always knew what we wanted to do and would actually pay to do what we are paid to do, well we to have midlife crisis, and its not a whole lot different than yours would be. We just have different perceived problems. And that’s the key, they are perceived problems, not real problems, no matter how real they may feel to us at the time.

So cheer up!!! We are all going to die someday!
someday!

Brad, I retired a few years ago and got into ranching. I have about 60 Alpacas and Llamas and have found the business very rewarding. I'm out in Elbert County, 30 or so miles from you. PM me if you have any interest in livestock. I love talking about my animals.

"I have seen many people who were in your position, tough luck, really..... You only get one big chance for success and its all before approx age 25 or so.......I am one of the lucky ones.....So cheer up!!! We are all going to die someday! someday!"

Let me guess, your a motivational speaker and live in a van down by the river.

Someday,

I want to have a few hundred acres. Stock my land with pheasant and whatnot. Then charge people like a grand for a "guided" hunt.

"I have seen many people who were in your position, tough luck, really..... You only get one big chance for success and its all before approx age 25 or so"

I hope, I really hope you are wrong. I am 27 and I have not made it big yet.

Wow, what a defeatist attitude! I'm glad you didn't give me words of "encouragement" when I was younger. I couldn't disagree more, it is never, repeat never too late to change everything. I happen to embrace change - obviously not everyone does. If you don't like what you are doing, do something else. Sure, you are paid well now and don't want to drastically alter your living situation, but that is what you may have to do to change and ultimately be happier.

Learn new skills, get a new degree, take a severe paycut and move into a smaller place, etc. - all those things might be what it takes, but to say you can't change your life and you are stuck in a career you hate is just taking the easy, lazy way out. If you want it - do it.

I've been in IT since about 1995 myself and worked in a variety of "support" roles and "money generating" roles.

Typically it's been network engineer position; the ones where I was a support guy sucked hard. The ones where my network made money rocked.

Find one of those and you will likely be in a different world. IT is very demanding either way...much more rewarding though if your network/systems generate revenue instead of support it.

Thank you snowman! Nothing like a good kick in the nuts when you don't need it. At this point, I own my house outright and have a nestegg, so salary is not the motivating factor. Besides, IT does pay pretty well, more than a lot of fields, and you do not have to have an advanced degree to be successful. What do you do anyway? I am glad you have found success and were able attain your goals. However, I do not feel what you are saying is true. IMHO, I am heading into my better part of life. I have family, decent financial stability, and wisdom, which most 25 year olds do not have. I have been in the trenches for the past 16 years and now I'd simply like to do something different. That's all.

Mikester, I think I tend to agree with you. Support, for the most part, sucks. Can you give me an example of a position that earns revenue? Part of my companys business is the ASP model, which does generate revenue, but I have to support the back-end, behind the scene pieces. I assume that is not what you are referring to.

What did I want to be when I grew up? I kid you not, from age 5 when I saw my first (green) 911, I wanted to be a Porsche engineer or test driver :)

Thanks for all the replies and comments.

Reminds me of this:

A network/system support system at say your amazon.com or Google or yahoo. Revenue generating networks; Previously I've worked at cable companies building and supporting broadband cable networks (Cable modems) which was seriously fun.

Right now I'm working at a compartive shopping web site and the network is key to being ON THE INTERNET and doing business. A half hours downtime in the middle of the day could equal a loss in revenue that would a significant chunk of my salary. No pressure...

SmileWavy

I know Google and Yahoo are hiring right now and if you've for a lot of good solid unix and network experience you'll likely qualify for something. But it looks like you won't want to move to one of these jobs so - I don't know what the market is like in that respect where you are.

snowman is wrong, you can change at any time and be successful, people do it, maybe not 90% of the people, and maybe not every day, but people on this board have done it.

Sounds to me like what you really need is to quit and go work somewhere else where the boss isn't an A$$ which it sounds like he is.

Wow my dad had a plant mechanic that worked for him - did a great job. He socked money away for his kid to go to college - kid got a full ride so he decided to go to school as well.

He was 43 at the time - When he finished up with school he was a medical doctor. Kinda sucks starting a new life at 53 but that is what he wanted and he did it.

Lots of IT old timers here.....who the longest?

Me? 1980. Comfortably Numb.

oldtimer
 

I've been in IT since 1975.

I started with punch cards and computers with no screen to look at. I've had several mini-careers along the way, developer, project manager, business analyst, consultant. I don't hate it. It's a big field and there's a lot of demand for our services. Don't let a slump or mid-life crisis make you do anything hasty. Build your nestegg and switch to a fun job when you are ready.

For sure Jerry.

I'm a long way from the Hollerith cards I used to feed into the hopper as a COBOL programmer.