Job in remote IT as career change at 28 yo?

413x

413x

413x

Caporegime
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Basically a job has come up at my gfs work in remote service desk
I haven't seen the full job spec yet but it's definitely something I could do especially as training is provided

My current career position is doing data modelling and, as per a few previous threads, I find I really struggle with. To the point where I do not feel they employed the right person (I fitted the job description but feel that the job requires more)

So atm I dare not make any long term plans as I feel insecure in it
The new job would basically be erasing the last 10 years of work and wage
It would effectively be a 10k pay cut before tax is deducted

If I knew I was doomed in the job I do now I would try for the new lower paid one and struggle on with the wage.. But i dont feel doomed.. But worried.

I'm sure many of you lot have had/still have this job.
Is there much progression in it?
What can it lead to?
Is it worth the pay at my age?
 
Yes they seem to be. But Tbh I don't know why. I certainly am not happy with my performance.

Half my job until now has been programming GUIs, macros etc in vba and a similar custom platform. This part I really like and have basicly taught myself on job from nothing to the point where although it may take me a while I can almost do anything I can think of.

This is gradually going to reduce. And more of my job will be statistics. I do not feel comfortable with this part at all. It does not help that is see errors in things my supervisors have done.
I also have no clear progress path as I feel it is being decided as I go along.

This is a new venture for the company and thus I don't think they know what to expect or what they want.
 
I took a 50+ yo on in a remote infrastructure support team 2 years ago from a helpdesk role.
 
Surely if you have got so far already then it's just a matter of continuing to learn?
Data modeling sounds like a hard topic but people walk out with entire degrees in three years.

Can anyone you work with act as a mentor?


Basically, don't do IT if you can do maths, anyone can do IT.
 
Gilly said:
I took a 50+ yo on in a remote infrastructure support team 2 years ago from a helpdesk role.
Click to expand...

That's really interesting. So it can be done (even at a late age). I will look into potential career paths tonight. I do like problem solving most of all which is why I am considering this

bitslice said:
Surely if you have got so far already then it's just a matter of continuing to learn?
Data modeling sounds like a hard topic but people walk out with entire degrees in three years.

Can anyone you work with act as a mentor?


Basically, don't do IT if you can do maths, anyone can do IT.
Click to expand...

This is it. I don't think I can.. Tbh this is the first time I have actually thought something is too hard for me. I'm not good at just accepting things and without pure maths when I look at explanations of what I'm doing all the abstract concepts become hard to grasp

There is no one I can really go to for help internally which is very difficult
 
al4x said:
Yes they seem to be. But Tbh I don't know why. I certainly am not happy with my performance.

Half my job until now has been programming GUIs, macros etc in vba and a similar custom platform. This part I really like and have basicly taught myself on job from nothing to the point where although it may take me a while I can almost do anything I can think of.

This is gradually going to reduce. And more of my job will be statistics. I do not feel comfortable with this part at all. It does not help that is see errors in things my supervisors have done.
I also have no clear progress path as I feel it is being decided as I go along.

This is a new venture for the company and thus I don't think they know what to expect or what they want.
Click to expand...



I would never a leave a data modeling and statistics role for a bog standard IT job in million years. I've talked to you in a few of your jobs and I know it is something I would love to do. I work in a Similar area but tbh, what I hate the most is I get stuck doing bog standard software development (making a web server, fiddling with some GUI, writing JavaScript yuck) rather than data mining and machine learning which were the reasons I applied to the job.



You have lots of options within the data modeling side of things if you want a change of scenery. Finance, marketing, trading (esp. Quant trading), census mining for the government, investment banking, business analyst, etc.

And as other have said, if you have survived this long and don't have terrible reviews then your managers must think you are both coping and have potential. While you are employed then I wouldn't stress over how you perceive your ability in stats -stats and maths are hard and it is unlikely other will think you are talentless if you produce something. While working you will be slowly improving your skills and understanding, things will get easier and more exciting rather than scary. This sounds like a great opportunity to learn and become highly skilled in the numerical and analytical side of computing, which is really where you want to be. With even a modicum of math behind you you shouldn't need to be in an IT support type role.
 
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Yes always appreciate your input dp

I just am not sure if I have the grounding in advanced stats to do it
I for example cannot tell if the data I am getting is responsible for lack of model or if it is me.
This is something (I feel) is due to my education

If I was more confident I would absolutely not change job (and would see myself in finance eventually)

In response to your edit
I think I'm still here because no one really has the ability to question what I am doing.
FYI I have a grade B in a level maths but pure was my weakness
 
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Stackoverflow and some other sites can also be a good source of help. If I have statistical questions I sometimes ask online but we used to have a guy on the team with and in stats and most of the rest of the team are fairly gifted mathematically. I'm the maths dunce of the team but I have a much richer understanding of other topics like metaheuristics, stochastic algorithms etc while the other have classical analytical backgrounds and prefer closed-form solutions with guarantees of convergence in their algorithms, I like funky stuff that happens to work better but offers no guarantees.
 
I have found that often the questions I ask on there are answered in too complex a way.
I have found fly example I am missing a rather importantuunderstanding of matrices. I obviously was not my degree or a level maths.

It's like I'mmmissing some fundamental building blocks or the amount of abstract concepts is simply too much.
I have always felt I should have done engineering as the maths is very much more real and the concepts relate to physical things that I can quantify.
 
Actually I'm really quite jealous of people doing jobs where they are stretched academically,
some of the stuff I've done in IT was complicated but honestly didn't require the second brain cell to get out of bed.

Isn't data modelling mostly building on previous work? Sounds like s self solving problem if you stick at it.
Oh and £10K, that's quite a lot.
 
al4x said:
Tbh this is the first time I have actually thought something is too hard for me. I'm not good at just accepting things and without pure maths when I look at explanations of what I'm doing all the abstract concepts become hard to grasp
Click to expand...

This rings true for me too. So much of what we learn is by analogy with the material world - most things behave roughly like things we've seen before and that's reassuring.

Mathematics is initially taught in the same way. Sam has four apples and gives Jess two apples, how many applies does Sam have? This is rather a disservice to people who go a bit further in the field. Most of mathematics has no grounding in the real world at all so understanding the theorems by analogy doesn't work very well.

I've come around to the idea that mathematicians don't see their work in this way. You don't need to relate maths to reality to make any progress with it. It is hard, but it's not difficult because it's conceptually intractable, it's difficult because the established toolkit just doesn't help.

Making the happy jump from engineering to pure mathematics is still causing me difficulties, but progress is better since accepting the above. That is to say - you'll be able to learn the stats - and will probably greatly enjoy your job once you have done - but no-one finds the change easy.
 
If you're doing modelling can you see a route into Analytics? I know I touched on predictive modelling in the past but wasn't for me so carried on with Analytical career path (Inisghts, Marketing, Pricing/Promotions) etc.

If you're any good at SQL (or would be interested in being good at it) then it's worth looking into SAS jobs, massive growth area atm :)
 
al4x said:
Yes always appreciate your input dp

I just am not sure if I have the grounding in advanced stats to do it
I for example cannot tell if the data I am getting is responsible for lack of model or if it is me.
This is something (I feel) is due to my education

If I was more confident I would absolutely not change job (and would see myself in finance eventually)

In response to your edit
I think I'm still here because no one really has the ability to question what I am doing.
FYI I have a grade B in a level maths but pure was my weakness
Click to expand...

Stop winning, if you are still there it is because you are better than you think.

I had an interview today as a project manager in data modelling, half way through my 7 man panel they started asking me technical questions in French!
 
i guess i cant see me getting my head round it. The software i use at work is very GUI orientated in that it is designed for non maths people. This is fine for easy data sets. Mine are not like this and tbh it feels like i am practically guess at the boxes i have available sometimes.

the reason i think i am still there is because no one knows really about it and i am pretty much on my own in a technical sense
I feel they are too willing to just accept a model works and get very excited by outcomes which i dont trust
 
al4x said:
i guess i cant see me getting my head round it. The software i use at work is very GUI orientated in that it is designed for non maths people. This is fine for easy data sets. Mine are not like this and tbh it feels like i am practically guess at the boxes i have available sometimes.

the reason i think i am still there is because no one knows really about it and i am pretty much on my own in a technical sense
I feel they are too willing to just accept a model works and get very excited by outcomes which i dont trust
Click to expand...

Exactly. Sop whining, you're doing fine :D
 
al4x said:
i guess i cant see me getting my head round it. The software i use at work is very GUI orientated in that it is designed for non maths people. This is fine for easy data sets. Mine are not like this and tbh it feels like i am practically guess at the boxes i have available sometimes.

the reason i think i am still there is because no one knows really about it and i am pretty much on my own in a technical sense
I feel they are too willing to just accept a model works and get very excited by outcomes which i dont trust
Click to expand...

Have a look at learning a language like python (and the numpy and other stats libraries) or Octave.

I would never want to do any data modelling in anything GUI based. Get closer to the data. These languages are very, very simple to learn with lots of resources out there and you can exactly what is going on. E.g.:
Code: 
A = [10, 200, 7, 150];
B = [0.001, 0.450, 0.007, 0.200];
cor_value = corr(A, B);
 
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