Work is stressing me out.. hate my job lousy work enviroment cool co-workers left Schedule is flexible lots of pressure Just constantly worried and stressed about work I can sit back and not care, but it seems like I care too much about things not getting done the right way. While others are layed back and chill and take it easily. I do extra work so **** doesn't hit the roof and get back logged for the team. Should I say fck it and quit? Been in this job 14 years, personally we have enough we could last 2 years with me not working (my wife is working) but I foresee unhappy missus if I sit on my ass for more than 6 months. Anyone else been in this situation and what did you do? I really need to take a long break but worried about not having a job for too long. Thanks,
Thanks for taking this seriously. IT in a non profit. No chance of advancement and no desire either as it will only mean more work. I made this thread in a frivolous way but truth is I'm close to my breaking point. I've given myself a month to find something else and if not just do it anyway. It's a huge decision and scares the hell out of me.
14 years is a long time. Do you wish to continue working in IT, maybe for a F1000 or elsewhere? Is an MBA feasible for you so you can maybe work in MIS (hybrid between IT and management) instead? Or, could you do something entirely different like law school for 3 years or get a different bachelor's degree in science or engineering?
Find out what you want to do next, most practically something within the same field; figure out whatever grad school, second bachelors' or professional certifications and training are required for it, and find online or evening courses to pursue it. With a second income in the house, you could also look at relevant unpaid internships. If you can't find the answers to those questions, then you probably need to take solace in your daily leisure activities, so you have something to look forward to on evenings and weekends. Also, there are pretty much always opportunities for advancement: the higher you get up the org chart, the more your job is about budgeting, staffing, project management and/or making decisions based on other people's analyses. So MBAs, PMP certifications and the like could give you a lot more opportunities. If you're in a non-profit, you should probably be looking at an MPA degree.
I want to keep doing programming. It's what I'm best at. It's just that over the years I've accumulated so many responsibilities I'm doing very little real programming. I would like to just go to someplace where I all I have to do is be given a programming task and that's all I have to think about and nothing else.
Bottomline, what I want most for myself is to take a break. The thing that worries me the most is how this will affect my chances of getting another job later on. I would like to hear from other people who have done the same thing and how it went for them.
I have heard that some employers look down on gaps in the resume. Thankfully never been in that situation myself. What kind of programming do you do?
If you're a good programmer, then go check out the large school districts around you, they are always in need of good programmers, and once you get in, you are basically set for life. No you won't get rich, but they are also not as vulnerable to economic shifts when it comes to things like IT departments, since they usually are understaffed to begin with. Good luck.
Programming is a field that forces you to jump jobs to grow personally. Reason being that technology changes faster than the pace and needs of your work. You have a lot of marketable skills. After 14 years you're likely a lead or manager. Ever considered a downgrade position a few scales below and just jump into Java or C#? After a year, you can gauge how your skills have been and start formulating your next course of action. If you can invest in that, it could pay off more as you sharpen your skills with current happenings around the programming world (assuming that's the kind of environment you will choose) Check out salaries on Glassdoor.com, salary and indeed.com's informal salary search option. None gives a complete salary picture for your target job, but you'll at least get the baseline and market rate, which will help you plan your next leap better and help your salary negotiation skills. The company you choose is very important in the process. Bigger corporate houses might be more stable, less demanding and easier but they don't really thrive on new changes or embrace open source. Startups allow greater freedoms but will sometimes throw you into the fire. Also the downside of opensource is that you could be forced to spend a lot more time figuring out how to make it work to your customizations. Some people find that fun though. I'd just start picking up books and subscribing to blogs about what interests you and see into the minds of the writers who live in the moment of their domain. Reddit programming forums is a better spot to get feedback on this.
That's what I want to do. I've been trying to get into Java and web. Right now I know enough of the basics. I can do the work given google and a set of reference books. Getting into actual java jobs with my amount of experience has been difficult though. If I do take a break, I plan to spend part of the time building web sites. I already have a couple of ideas. That's something I wish understood earlier. If you see a job going downhill, get out right away.
Whatever you do, don't just quit. I would probably have another job lined up first and then quit. This would get rid of your unhappiness at this job and still have a job.
