Stuck in a rut regarding my IT career, advice needed :(

Chronictank

Chronictank

Chronictank

Soldato
Joined
12 Jan 2006
Posts
2,547
Hi all,
I know there are a lot of these posts but i cant seem to find quite the advice i am looking for by searching various threads (could well be i am just not searching for the right things)

I rescently finished my degree in computer science part time so have felt somewhat bored of my current job, rescently i have been applying about but seem to have hit a wall so thought maybe its time for a change.

Now i am in a stable, and very dependable permanent post working for one of the top flight uni's IT departments so in the current climate it is a huge risk to change careers i know but i think i have gone as far as i can go in my current employment.
Now the job is very relaxed and there is not really that much pressure on me, and i love the enviroment i am in but the problem is that i am only on roughly 28k with a very good pension (final salary), which really is not a lot considering how hard it is to get onto the property ladder lately but seems to the average around the type of role i do. But i am coming up to 24 and i dont seem to be going anywhere quickly

My job entails developing windows images for deployment as well as integrating new hardware and services as they are required, the problem is however (as with a lot of unis) while most my skills are transferable almost all the system is built using in-house tools making it very difficult to swap jobs to the private sector. I do some scripting and minimal vb programming (mainly to make interfaces)

I have been looking around and it seems databases and programming is the way to go for the better paid jobs.
My worry however is that if i have no real world experience doing real organised programming projects and i am a bit scared i am jumping into something out of my depth
I have taken up learning c# and am pretty grounded already in the concepts of programming, but most the mini projects i have done in work/uni revolve around series of if statements and class/subroutine calls. Maybe i am just naive enough to think that there is more to programming than that?

Ultimately i want to double my salary in a couple of years but have no idea of what to do or where to go
Jumping ot of my little safety bubble is a bit of a daunting prospect, so maybe i am just looking for assurance but there you have it


Any advice is much appreciated whether its from more experienced members of this forum pointing me towards developing my current job into something where i can earn reasonable money or advice on how to progress and get a feel for what it is like doing software development in the real world

Thanks again in advance
 
Your salary is actually very good for a first job in IT so you should be thankful for that. Also, unless you are very lucky or very good you will not double your salary as a programer in a couple of years. I work with people with 7+ years experience and they are only just cracking 50-60k.

If your after a big salary then software development is not the right job for you!
 
I'm a little confused as the what the "rut" is you're referring to...

What exactly are you bored of?
 
I'm a .NET software developer, my advice is stick where you are for the time being but in your spare time why not contribute to an open source project or try to develop something for work. You need to get experience in tools like Visual Studio Professional. Get some experience in SQL Server or Oracle because often or not you need to store the data somewhere. Also, read up on versioning, etc.
 
Ladforce said:
Your salary is actually very good for a first job in IT so you should be thankful for that. Also, unless you are very lucky or very good you will not double your salary as a programer in a couple of years. I work with people with 7+ years experience and they are only just cracking 50-60k.

If your after a big salary then software development is not the right job for you!
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i absolutely am thankful, but i have been on about the same wage for a couple of years now (started on 11k at 18 and worked my way up)
I am of the attitude that i dont mind doing a hard job for good money for less time than a easy job for little money for a longer time (if that makes sense)
I know it sounds a little ungrateful but it is so easy to rest on your lorrels when you are in a comfortable position and stop progressing i jst want to keep moving forward rather than having the feeling i am standing still which is why i did my degree (and soon hopefully start on a path to a BCS qualification)

Perhaps i have a case of the grass is greener, but i was looking around and it seems programmers seem to be very much in demand whatever sector you look into

Skyfall said:
I'm a little confused as the what the "rut" is you're referring to...

What exactly are you bored of?
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I basically just help grease the wheels essentially, performing overhauls and maintenance on a system already in place with little/no room for progression (so basically i will get the yearly increments but no real advancements in my pay grade/skillset).

RockLobster said:
I'm a .NET software developer, my advice is stick where you are for the time being but in your spare time why not contribute to an open source project or try to develop something for work. You need to get experience in tools like Visual Studio Professional. Get some experience in SQL Server or Oracle because often or not you need to store the data somewhere. Also, read up on versioning, etc.
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cheers for the advice, i have a reasoanble grasp on SQL through my university dissertation where i created a program to pool logs from wireless access points and store them into a database so that the stats can be queried (written in perl)
I will do some reading up to see how it differs on .net :)
Is it worth starting this in c#? reading about it seems this is the language of choice due to having the best of c++ and java rolled into one
 
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you want 56k a few years after getting a degree?
wake up will you. IT roles are being dropped all over the place.

only way you will have a chance of getting what you want would be to go contracting, but thats very risky at the moment.

you are 24, not 40. you have a long time to yet to earn very good money and 28k isnt to be sniffed at, especially in your current position which sounds rather easy.
 
Chronictank said:
i absolutely am thankful, but i have been on about the same wage for a couple of years now (started on 11k at 18 and worked my way up)
I am of the attitude that i dont mind doing a hard job for good money for less time than a easy job for little money for a longer time (if that makes sense)
I know it sounds a little ungrateful but it is so easy to rest on your lorrels when you are in a comfortable position and stop progressing i jst want to keep moving forward rather than having the feeling i am standing still which is why i did my degree (and soon hopefully start on a path to a BCS qualification)
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fella, you have raised your salary by 17k in 5 years, that is hardly stuck in a rut.
 
Morba said:
fella, you have raised your salary by 17k in 5 years, that is hardly stuck in a rut.
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I'll have to agree here.

If I take the OP at face value, that amount is twice what I earned in my last job, so for something different I'd say you start learning programming languages in your spare time as has already been suggested. I wouldn't be in a rush to leave the department though.
 
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Not that it's at all relevant, but this thread seems done so I'll throw it out there...

Have you considered the armed forces?
 
Zefan said:
Not that it's at all relevant, but this thread seems done so I'll throw it out there...

Have you considered the armed forces?
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this is going to sound really bad but is not meant with any offence to those in her majesty's finest but i wouldnt want to join the army
I dont like the idea of being directly responsible (even if in a small way) to getting other people killed for causes i dont believe in

I am no anti-war fanatic but i dont like the way those that run the country are taking us at the moment so it would be in direct contradiction to my beliefs to contribute to it

I will do some looking into open source projects and a MCSD :)
 
Chronictank said:
Either way we are straying a little offtopic with that discussion :p
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Kinda with the war talk...

Chronictank said:
how so? :)
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Well thinking 28k isn't a good salary and thinking there is a difference from sitting where you are now to being on "the front lines" responsibility wise.

It helps to have a little lateral thinking and perspective when thinking about what you want to do with your life.

Though maybe I'm not one to talk, I have no clue what I want to do...
 
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