Soldato
His journey to 50k is going well
Almost 40 and desperately need help with new career..
- Thread starter keenan
- Start date
Is also my situation to a tee (having hit the most senior techie grade that doesn't have a management component).There are down sides as well I should mentionCivil service jobs are one of the more secure ones and you do get perks. Plus from what I experienced it's a far more relaxed environment, once you reach the middle ranks you're expected to manage yourself and get on with it. As long as you are, no one bothers you. Personally I prefer a less stressful environment to more money, but that's just me.
That's ancient history now. Didn't you hear? I have a cat and a warm basement. And also a garden to take care of (although it's not my own).
The route to 50K is open to me, but to get there I'd have to move away from my sleepy Cornish village out into the cold, alien, heartless, real world. Scary. Or become a manager. Which frankly isn't happening - I don't have the people skills for man management, and I like breaking things (mostly software) in a small storage cupboard that doubles as my office.
Soldato
I'm confused. It's fantastic that a kindly forum member has offered the op a job opportunity, however op wants to move away from a manual job and has been offered another manual job??
I think there's a bit of a difference between some handyman work and being a warehouse packer / scaffolder / whatever.
Anyway, OP's coming to meet me next week and we'll go from there.
Soldato
Good for you Diddums.
Soldato
Fair point, nice one for offering to help out a fellow forum member.
Exactly warehouse workers can be constantly doing repetitive tasks, the handyman can walk around with a clip board and pretend to look busy, stop by reception and flirt with the receptionists, find excuses to do work outside when the weather is nice etc.. and reports to a (usually female) office/facilities manager who was formerly a receptionist/admin girl herself in her younger years and also receptive to flirting.
How much you on mate? What kind of work do you do/specialise in?
Soldato
I work for a small company (60 employees) and handle everything from changing toner and 1st line desktop support to server and network infrastructure and O365 administration to also managing the company’s IT and CapEx budgets.
Basically responsible for it all apart from application development and support, for £32k (not enough), I’ve been here over 10 years now too.
You are been underpaid there, where about do you live?
Soldato
North Hertfordshire.
Any chance of looking for roles in London or that's too far out?
Soldato
Expensive commute and the problem is, I don't want to work for a large company as i'd get pigeon-holed. I like working for a smaller company where I have a range of areas to work in, but unfortunately most small companies these days do not have an internal IT dept and outsource it as a service.
Therefore, I'm thinking of moving away from IT altogether. Just no idea what and how as I'll be taking steps backwards whilst my life is taking steps forward (marriage, kids etc).
*shrugs*
lol
Don
Generally the problem with not being pigeon holed, is you'll get the base rate or below for jobs; It's only when you find a specific niche or expertise, that's when you earn decent money.
Take me for example; I started work for a competitor against OcUK in 2001. I was building machines, RMA's etc. I was earning minimum wage basically. I then got a chance to join the internal IT Department - still building machines but internal rather than end user machines. But also dealing with AD, exchange, sales software (sage), printers, warehouse hardware etc etc. After a year of me doing that, my then boss had a huge upgrade (Sage 50 > 500) and I was then running the IT Department (was only me and him). But I earnt very little more for that role, and was massively underpaid.
So I left. I took a backwards step but went to a bigger company (one of the biggest i the world). I went from running an IT Department, upgrading and migrating to exchange, upgrading AD version, etc etc. To answering phone calls first line; I swiftly moved to second line and after a year I moved into Directory work (Identity and Access Management as it's called now).
That was the start for me really; I learnt double what I was previously on - but was still underpaid and then I got a bit of great advice which still rings true today:
"To move up, you have to move on"
That's not just in terms of seniority - as that's not something that ever bothered me. But that's also in terms of money. After 8 years I left to go to another company (Another massive company) and doubled my money. I recently left and went to another company (after 5 years) and also earns myself an increase.
My advice - find something you're good at and something you enjoy doing. Once you find that, get paid for it.
I think you'd be surprised, could get a decent jump moving into London and it should be enough to cover the commute.
I was thinking the same but if the OP doesn't know if they want to stay in IT then they are abit stuck right now.
My friend is in a similar position, works as an accountant in Watford but wants to do something else but not in accountancy. Plus he said the wages isn't very good either.
Soldato
Well he turned up early, was presentable, rather polite and friendly, and I gave him a task which he completed rather well and considerably better than most I could've given the task to, so no complaints here
I'm going to put him in touch with some agents to get him out of manual labour work and in to something a bit more relaxed and if played well, a bit of a career.