How To Change Careers

Not to sound like an old fart, but yeah.....21 and single? You've got a LOT of time to figure this out.

Don't really have any specific advice except to tell you not to sweat it too much. If you don't like your job, find another one. You don't have to justify it to anyone even if it pays less but makes you happier. You have that luxury right now because of your age and marital status.

Good luck!

 

Yes. They're two different worlds. But there are good and bad to either side. Working for a VAR at least you're a profit center. But that doesn't mean they'll necessarily treat you any better. They want you billable 100% of the time, etc, and that includes the training they 'promised' they'd give you when you accepted the job.
As for working in-house, you'll always be a cost center since you're doing support. But they're usually more lax in their expectations so work is a slower pace.
I've worked in both for an equivalent amount of time so ask any questions you have.

 

I'd love to change careers if I could. In high school and right out of high school I was prepping to be an engineer. I took a ton of drafting and CAD classes, was an engineer's assistant, CAD designer at a home manufacturer, taking college courses, etc. By the time I hit 19 I was making $15 an hour full time with benefits. But stupidly I moved out with friends, when I should have just stayed put at home and with my company and finished my degree.

However, the threat of Y2K hit and my friends and I all got jobs updating computers for the impending doom. I was 19-20 years old making $20-25 an hour... which made me forget all about engineering. I had no real education, and was making $50K a year by the time I was 21 in 2001 in a job that was simple... and I worked at NASA for Pete's sake. "IT is great!"

From there I worked my way up to over six figures. There have been some ups and downs due to the market, but I've always learned more and kept evolving, which is obviously key in IT.

Now that 3D printing is getting more and more popular I've rekindled the flame for CAD and engineering on my own in my spare time. I've been following 3D printing since the early days, and am extremely passionate about it.

I spend hours and hours learning more and more, and I know that in another year or so of self-learning I could score a decent job making 50-75k a year. I learn about everything from CAD, 3D design in SolidWorks, 3D Printing, metallurgy, CNC machining, smithing, welding and on and on. I watch countless artisan videos on YouTube daily and just think, "what if" I could do it over again?

Well, the problem is the money. I make so much now that it would be a gigantic pay cut to change careers, and it would take years more to get back to where I am. I'm also at the tipping point in my career where I could jump out of senior/lead positions and in to executive, which puts the salary discrepancy even higher.

I'm currently single with no kids, and just turned 35. My car is paid off and my mortgage is low, so financially I could easily live on less money without issue. In fact, if I was going to do it the perfect time would be now. I currently have a huge disposable income that I fly through, so I could continue to save for 4-6 months and then make the switch.

However, I'm at that age where I want to settle down in the next few years, get married and have kids... so would it be fair to them (and me) to take possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars away from them? Obviously they don't exist, but coming from a relatively poor family I know what that kind of cash could have done for me in my life.

In the end, I love my job. I love IT and technology, it is a huge passion of mine... it just isn't my first love. I imagine I'm far from the only person that has gone through stuff like this - and if I wasn't passionate about technology I'd probably walk away from this career and start another in a heartbeat.

But I can be happy where I am now, I'll "settle" with IT so I can have a ton more money in savings and for the future so hopefully my future wife and kids don't have to settle themselves. In the meantime, I'll keep learning more and more about my first passion - and sooner or later I'll be in a place where I can capitalize on it and when it makes financial sense I'll do so.

TL;DR - I'd love to change careers, but I make to much now to walk away from it.

 

Is it so much of a passion that you want to make a career out of it? I love photography but I wouldn't want to do it for a living.

 

DEFINITELY a people person. YES.

 

Im at a crossroads (more like a deadend) myself.... I'm turning 30 this year, I started out in retail management... lost my job there, went to another retail management job, lost my job there and now I'm at the bottom of the food chain in the retail industry and realize I'm not very good at this. My education stops at a GED (tried going back to school but had to pay out of pocket due to being kicked out of financial aid) so after failing the same class 3 times I was tired of throwing my money down the drain.

Only difference between me and you is our current jobs probably pay a difference of $10 an hour, my education has stopped, and i have no real training in anything. Good luck to you.

 

This is interesting to me, very timely.

I decided I needed to change careers after I was a few years older than the OP. I was working in IT and liked it, but things started slowing down and I stopped moving up and I burned out bigtime. After 8 years in Austin, it was time for a change, so I moved to Houston and went to law school. Law was supposed to be my so-called true passion.

Well, now I'm an attorney. I've been licensed for five years. I took a job at a small DA's office during the down economy and stayed too long, so recently I quit and started my own firm doing criminal defense work. My friends who stayed in IT make more money than me and I have six figures worth of debt.

I'd say I love being an attorney but I'd be lying. Being in a shrinking specialty (litigation) in a shrinking profession (law) sucks balls. Building a practice that I want is going to take starting over in a bigger market, which does not excite me. I'm not sure I want it anymore. I miss the fun I had in IT, and the personalities that I had to deal with then are nothing compared to the ones I have to deal with now.

So, guess what? I'm looking at going back into IT in a couple of years, after the lease at my office is up. I figure, eventually, a former prosecutor like me would make a hell of an expert witness in computer forensics. Even though it's been 10 years, I think my old IT work is substantial enough that a couple of certs will hopefully get me back into the field. It's going to suck to start over and walk away from my law practice, but I'm actually excited about something again.

So, my advice, be very careful to distinguish hatred and burnout from your job with making a mistake in your career choice. You're in a growing field and there are lots of opportunities to advance. Make double-darn sure that you can be better at something else before jumping into an old world job like I did.

 

If that was directed at me, I could easily make a career out of it I think. I loved it when I did it originally - I just chased the money because I was young. I'm also lucky that I like where I chased the money to. If I hated my current job, I'd bail in no time - because being happy is more important than money.

 

yeah, you're 21. You have plenty of flexibility to more around. When it gets difficult to change is when you have accumulated years of experience in a particular field and then try to change.

 

Don't give up. The community college teachers suck. Make sure you get a good teacher and check ratemyprofessor before signing up.

 

What's the difference between IT and computer science?

 

Have you considered IP law? Someone with your tech and law background would be great in there and it's a growing field instead of shrinking.

 

Computer science is usually the programming etc behind the scenes. They're the developers that make the systems and software. Information Technology are the guys that use and support those systems and software to serve a business need.

 

Ok. My coworker was telling he has a degree in computer science and he hated sitting behind a computer all day putting codes and stuff. He's a ultrasound tech. He was also being negative when I told him I wanted to be an engineer, telling me it's getting outsourced.

 

Truthfully you have a lot of avenues in to IT with your law degree. Most large corporations have data forensic teams that do data analysis for corporate litigation and internal investigations. I have a buddy who does it, and loves it. With a law degree and IT background, I imagine it would be extremely easy to get in to - and they generally pay well due to the sensitive nature and sometimes high stress.

Also, your law degree would shoot you in to the top of management/junior executive food chain pretty quickly.

Your friend is mistaken. Engineering will be one of the last things to ever be outsourced - and is a major growth industry because there simply aren't enough of them. Outside of Computer Science (which takes learning "more" beyond your degree to be relevant), engineering is the single biggest payday with a four year degree.

 

I have considered it. However, as I was told by multiple hiring partners during OCI in law school, you have to pass the patent bar to have any real shot at practicing IP, and I don't have the correct credentials to sit for the patent bar.

Also, the reason IP pays so much is because it's very difficult and very boring. It makes database administration and accounting look sexy.

 

That's comforting to hear that. Thanks!