Career Change at 32!?

chris1012

chris1012

chris1012

Associate
Joined
31 Oct 2014
Posts
29
So for the past ten years (I am now 32), I have been involved in IT Support (service desk - 1st line and 2nd line) as a contractor. I have managed to work for big corporate companies, and I guess due to the good day rates, I haven't really excelled with my skill set and therefore have made no career progression as such....

It has got to a stage now that I am bored with support and would like a job that challenges me, I can gain career progression/climb up the ladder and doesn't involve the same repetition of duties every single day (like I am doing now).

I have no PM experience nor any qualifications such as PRINCE2 or Agile. I have little understanding of the insides of a PM and my only real exposure of PM has been working with PM's during support projects such as tech roll outs.

I can afford to take a month or two out of work to go on a full-time course if it means after successfully passing the exams I can find a suitable job.
I am more than happy to take an entry level role with the aim that within 1/2 years I will be making a leap with job prospects in terms of progression/salary.

My current Salary is around 40-50k net however I understand I may have to drop to around 25k to get the experience/training, which I am willing to do.

Any advice on what route I should take?
 
i went from service desk to a junior dba role, pays quite good and i'll get the experience and certs to move on should i wish.
loving the job so far.
 
Jamesyboyjim said:
Have you thought about moving over to infrastructure? My boss did similar to you and now he runs our companies network infrastructure and earns good money doing so.
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I have and its rare in London, to see 2nd line engineers progress through the ranks into infrastructure unless the company has a very good progression structure...
From what I have seen, those who have made that step up have had to self study and then only if they are lucky with an opening, they would be considered.

As my exposure to infrastructure is limited, it would literally be like a new job in a sense of training and knowledge gain anyway....
 
chris1012 said:
I have and its rare in London, to see 2nd line engineers progress through the ranks into infrastructure unless the company has a very good progression structure...
From what I have seen, those who have made that step up have had to self study and then only if they are lucky with an opening, they would be considered.

As my exposure to infrastructure is limited, it would literally be like a new job in a sense of training and knowledge gain anyway....
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Well what ever way you go you're going to have to study. Without being rude, and I'm honestly not trying to be, from the comments above it sounds like you expect it to be handed to you.

People spend years learning - the fact that you've stayed where you are does point to you not wanting to move forward. 10 years is a long time for you not to have moved on before now.

Self study is a way of life in IT. Whether it be practically installing VMware, then server VMs, etc. you're never going to learn without doing it and thus progress without doing it.



M.
 
chris1012 said:
Any advice on what route I should take?
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Like M above, without meaning to sound rude, I suggest what you should take is a GOOD look around at your situation...

chris1012 said:
I can afford to take a month or two out of work to go on a full-time course... I am more than happy to take an entry level role... My current Salary is around 40-50k net... I may have to drop to around 25k to get the experience/training...
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I'm guessing things are different in IT - Here in our corner of civil engineering, you'd need a good four years of full time split between Uni and apprenticeship before you could land something much above £25k.
I've spent 11 years working and training, with a number of quite specialist high-demand qualifications to my name and I'm still not above £30k gross... You actually earn more money NET than what my wife and I gross combined.

My job is un-boring, challenging, varied and offers quite the scope for progress if you want to drive yourself that way. In fact, if you want to forget about the in-depth technical aspects and focus on the bigger picture of a programme, you could be driving an Aston Martin before you know it.

So if ya wanna swap careers, I'm more than interested!! ;)
 
m4cc45 said:
Well what ever way you go you're going to have to study. Without being rude, and I'm honestly not trying to be, from the comments above it sounds like you expect it to be handed to you.
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What gave you that impression? I mentioned I wanted to take out time to study to up skill and I have also mentioned that I would be happy to change over to an entry level role for 1/2 years...
Maybe my expectations of a 2year turn around is due to having seen others manage to change things around within a 1 year mark of studding and an entry level role within London.
 
chris1012 said:
I mentioned I wanted to take out time to study to up skill
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Sounds more like a role change than a whole career one... Career changes usually require years of study rather than a couple months' upskilling... depending on the job, obviously.

chris1012 said:
Maybe my expectations of a 2year turn around is due to having seen others manage to change things around within a 1 year mark of studding and an entry level role within London.
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Or perhaps a misundestanding of how they were able to achieve it?
Again, I don't know about IT, but a lot of people get a lot of jobs because of who they know, not what they know... A very similar company to our own will only give you a high-paying job if you went to the right university, for example. It's very Old Boys' Club, but it still happens a fair bit.
 
chris1012 said:
I am more than happy to take an entry level role with the aim that within 1/2 years I will be making a leap with job prospects in terms of progression/salary.

My current Salary is around 40-50k net
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Currently you have the equivalent of ~£70k salary so to better that from a career change in under 2 years may be pushing it a bit. Realistically you'll need to stay contracting in which case an easier route may be to just diversify your skillset/industries a bit and get better contracts. As you are London based with 10 years experience in IT I would have thought £400/day+ contracts shouldn't be that far out of reach if you can just learn something other than standard desktop support.
 
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