Ever wonder if you took the wrong path in employment?

[Hobbit]

Oh I know there's opportunities, but when your employer hasn't sent you on training for 6 years and they are an investors in people employer it's hard to swallow when you go for jobs to get no return. Feedback comes back saying that you don't have the paperwork to back up the experience.

I can mess about in Hyper-V, Citrix, Exchange and anything else, but I don't have the paperwork to back it up because my current employer thinks everything is fine as long as they can get emails on their iphone or ipad in a meeting to show off.

We bit of a rant there, but that's essentially where I'm coming from on the issue. I identify training, oops can't afford it.

Maybe a very honest discussion with your boss is needed. Maybe he already recognises a need for the business but doesn't think he has anyone interested. Maybe you need to appraise him of that interest, and your current disquiet. I welcome that sort of thing from my staff - it shows they still care and are ambitious.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

I'm also in IT - and as I'm a Cloud/SaaS/PaaS/IaaS Project Manager I get loads of agencies and headhunters contacting me. But when considering any opportunity I ask myself - do I see myself doing this sort of job in 10yrs time?; what about 5yrs time? If my answer to the last is NO (it varies according to the way the wind blows and the projects I'm on) and I find that it keeps being No then I see no point in moving to another similar post. I might get paid a bit more - maybe not - but the move itself to a new company - new environment will have attendant stresses and pressures. Do I need that at my stage of my life - NO. And that's the truth of it. I've just about gone as far in IT PM as I want to - one more promotion would be OK - and in 2yrs I can achieve that if I want to - and let that be that for another 3yrs taking me to the 5yrs. I know my non-work personal circumstances in 5yrs time will be quite different from as they are today - and then I can look at the world of employment and what I want/need/like to do in a different light.

That said my lad - aged 23yrs - decided this morning that he'd had enough of his job of about 1yr. He's not been happy in the job since day 1 - it was a job for money's sake - and not much money at that. So he's quit - and has told them he doesn't want to work his notice. They've said OK - and the notice of him having left has already gone round internally. And that's it.

Thing is he has a side-line in Music Events and Band Management and Promotion that is his real passion - and so that's what he's going to do. And so he is off to the banks this afternoon seeking advice etc on small business start up. He's very nervous but very excited - he has no job, and no income - but as he said to me half hour ago - the glass is half full.

Good luck mate. Don't project into the future too negatively; the worse case situation very rarely comes about.

 

[Paul77]

I do enjoy it when I get a problem that I can get my teeth into. I go home happy on those days. Days like today when I'm completely re-doing the print server with new printers and drivers and pushing out printers via group policy at login is good to until someone phones will something totally daft. I'm tier 1,2 and 3 level support sometimes.

Jack of all trades and a master of none. I want to be the guy with the specialist knowledge going in to do a specific job. It's a bit tiring not knowing what you're going into every day. I can see the future of this job and I think if I am still here doing it in 5 years I'll eat my 7 iron.

 

[brendy]

Oh I know there's opportunities, but when your employer hasn't sent you on training for 6 years and they are an investors in people employer it's hard to swallow when you go for jobs to get no return. Feedback comes back saying that you don't have the paperwork to back up the experience.

I can mess about in Hyper-V, Citrix, Exchange and anything else, but I don't have the paperwork to back it up because my current employer thinks everything is fine as long as they can get emails on their iphone or ipad in a meeting to show off.

We bit of a rant there, but that's essentially where I'm coming from on the issue. I identify training, oops can't afford it.

In IT 19 years myself all told.
One thing that jumps out at me here is that you want a new job and you want the certification but only if your current job pays for it. My advice is to get out there and get the certs on your own time and it'll serve you well. A lot of companies don't want to overtrain because of exactly what you are saying.

 

[Rooter]

In IT 19 years myself all told.
One thing that jumps out at me here is that you want a new job and you want the certification but only if your current job pays for it. My advice is to get out there and get the certs on your own time and it'll serve you well. A lot of companies don't want to overtrain because of exactly what you are saying.

Yeh as per Brendy, they have probably been bitten in the past with paying for someone to bolster their CV and then leave.

What is in your contract about training? Its becoming more common to have a sliding scale of payback should you leave after the company have paid for an external qualification. Ie you leave after a year, you pay 50%, after 2 years 25% etc etc.. Maybe discuss this if you would be content in staying if the training opportunities are there?

 

[Paul77]

In IT 19 years myself all told.
One thing that jumps out at me here is that you want a new job and you want the certification but only if your current job pays for it. My advice is to get out there and get the certs on your own time and it'll serve you well. A lot of companies don't want to overtrain because of exactly what you are saying.

Could well be the answer. Anything Cisco I'll need to do on my own because we have a support contract for that so no need for me to train in it. We just seem to be buying in more and more support contracts and it's getting worrying. Perfectly happy to self train and my good lady said the same thing to me. Get your certs and get out. It'll show much more to an employer. If that's how it's done then I'll do it.

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

I've been in IT pretty much all my working life. It pays the bills (pretty well) so can't complain. I'd love to be a touring pro but nowhere near talented enough but I've played a lot of golf courses that I reckon I could have designed better.

I think my true vocation in life was golf course designer

 

[Rooter]

Could well be the answer. Anything Cisco I'll need to do on my own because we have a support contract for that so no need for me to train in it.

This is exactly why they should send you on cisco courses!! How big is the cisco estate? could you manage it on your own if you were qualified?

How much is the course Versus how much is the support contract?

Show management a business case of, for example : Training costs 10k, support contract is 25k per year, payback in under 6 months, maybe still need a backup support contract for out of hours, but the savings are potentially plentiful...

 

[Paul77]

We've got the best Cisco estate in any school here. Pretty heavy investment made. All N access points too with two wireless controllers, 10 gig links to everywhere too with 1 gig to desktop. We've spent thousands over the years on it. The lads that look after it all are a local comany and are spot on. My boss likes to tinker but very rarely lets anyone near it. I'm no bad on the Cisco ASA firewall and I'm always getting asked to change stuff on it. I've made it my priority to learn about it though.

I know basic stuff but configuring VPN's ACL's and all that, I'd be lost. Show neighbour is about as tech as it gets lol.

 

[DCB]

Been in my industry sector all my working life, all be it on both sides of the fence, contractor and client. Been fortunate to be able to have advanced my career with every employer I've worked for. I had 18 years on the tools, 6 years in sales, supervised or managed various teams of engineers. It's all been a learning curve. Moving has only come into it when I've seen a better opportunity elsewhere. The grass isn't always greener though. Back in 2004 I moved into what I thought was my dream job, good company to work for, good prospects and a varied and interesting range of work involved. Within six months the company had been sold off by the parent company and was bought over by another big player. Next stage was an acquisition of what looked like another strong company, but in fact was anything but. A lot of good engineers left and were snapped up elsewhere as a result of that. I moved on in 2009 and am in a role I enjoy and that suits my current needs.

As I've said, the grass isn't always greener on the other side. You need to carefully weigh up what you're after and what the job will offer. Only time will tell if you've got it right.

 

[guest100718]

I was a chef for many years, then re trained and work in IT for the last 16 or so years. It does get boring at times and I have to hassle the boss for training. Supposed to be doing vsphere 6 soon.

 

[davidy233]

Same here. For about two years there, I thought Photography was the way out. I was shooting news for an agency daily, and SPL football at the weekend. It's great to shoot until you want paid for it. Everyone suddenly starts saying there's no budget for pictures. Erm nope, well you can't have mine then. Gave that up quickly. Too much outgoing, and nothing coming in.

I have spoke to a few peers this morning in the IT circle. Hopefully making some noises about moving might prompt a wee sideloading to something else. Everyone just thought I was happy where I was.

I photograph top division SPFL football - would never for an agency unless I was on staff, have thought of going full time in the past but I've got a decent paid job (I'm a graphic designer) which I love - full time news or sports photography as a freelance is a hand to mouth existence in the vast majority of cases.

Sports photographer is a great job but I love design too and I'd miss my day job.

 

[Paul77]

I was a chef for many years, then re trained and work in IT for the last 16 or so years. It does get boring at times and I have to hassle the boss for training. Supposed to be doing vsphere 6 soon.

We were meant to get training on Cisco Meraki but I could now hold the training for it. It's been that long since it was last mentioned lol. Vsphere was on display the other day at a Hyper-convergence seminar. VMWare defo looking like the bigger player in the hypervisor sector.

 

[FairwayDodger]

Sports photographer is a great job but I love design too and I'd miss my day job.

Two jobs you love! Greedy!

 

[Paul77]

I photograph top division SPFL football - would never for an agency unless I was on staff, have thought of going full time in the past but I've got a decent paid job (I'm a graphic designer) which I love - full time news or sports photography as a freelance is a hand to mouth existence in the vast majority of cases.

Sports photographer is a great job but I love design too and I'd miss my day job.

I really enjoyed it. Sports more than the news. Last thing I covered was a Thistle v Celtic game and it was rammed with togs all getting the same shots. I thought that the industry had no room in it. I also didn't feel right about jumping in with guys who earned their stripes over years, and here's me just jumping in at the top level. Plus SNS Group tend to have it all wrapped up in Scotland with contracts to the media.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

We were meant to get training on Cisco Meraki but I could now hold the training for it. It's been that long since it was last mentioned lol. Vsphere was on display the other day at a Hyper-convergence seminar. VMWare defo looking like the bigger player in the hypervisor sector.

I worked in Satcomms both mobile and ground station for decades

Then became an IT systems engineer specialising in Unix ( HPUX ) and jboss

Then moved into server management and ventured into virtualisation - Vsphere mainly with a bit of Citirx App

Now moved into WiFi and Incident Management working on Meraki , Mikrotik and Cisco wireless as well as Solarwinds monitoring

Lots of different fields in the IT world beyond desktop support and highly recommend trying to branch out

 

[Paul77]

It's been good to make this thread. Lots of positive things coming out of the IT sector in general. Other stories are good to see too.

 

[Rooter]

Come to the dark side where all the action happens... The big world of datacenter. Thats where the guys make all your fancy vspheres work! Without the DC's the world would stop.

 

[la_lucha]

It's been good to make this thread. Lots of positive things coming out of the IT sector in general. Other stories are good to see too.

Reading this as a guy that's come to realise that any job is as good/bad as the next. You seem to be pretty excited to talk about IT and what you do. Ok it may be mundane and boring at times, but most jobs are.

Just appreciate that you're pretty good at your job and you must be interested in what you do, to have the knowledge that you do.

The grass is rarely greener on the other side.

 

[User 105]

Another long timer in IT here. 27 years with the same company.

I got lucky, I had an interest in computers very early on and got into the industry just as things started to kick off in the 80's.

Started off on the technical side, moved up and eventually moved into project management, service management and programme management etc.

Things are definitely not what they were but I've just about kept myself above the cut line as we go through a redundancy cycle almost every year where I am, and have done so for the past 10 years. It's just a way of life now.

I still kind of like what I do, but definitely not as much as I used to. It's a very different environment to work in these days and it's mainly down to the people. I used to work in teams where we were all based together, we had a team spirit, a camaraderie. When something went wrong we all mucked in and helped.

Now my team is spread all over the globe and includes suppliers, vendors etc. Most I've never even met and it's more like everyone is just going through the motions. They're a good bunch, don't get me wrong, but there's just not that connection there anymore.

I'd like to do something else, property development using my PM skills is attractive, but I have way too much time in to just leave. So just really hanging around as long as I can to get a package and then go do something else, maybe even retire if I can hang on long enough.

IT's been good to me and will hopefully get me to early retirement.

Anyone getting into it in the last 10 years it's a completely different prospect though and I do feel for you. It's a tough career especially with the big focus on costs as IT tends to be a really expensive area for companies and unless you are on the supplier side of things, it doesn't really bring any money in directly.