Help with a new direction IT wise.

[Mercutio]

I'm about... 10 years in on a database admin role that... while perfectly fine, pays the mortgage/etc isn't really going anywhere. Same stuff, different day. It also wasn't really where I intended to go direction wise coming out of uni but... it fell in my lap, I've run with it but definitely feeling rather "stuck in a rut" at the moment.

Taking 10 years working in... probably one of the biggest server + database estates (BT) with general interest in all sort of bits of IT (mostly interested in storage and networks, good bit of 'nix experience) and with a mate trying to nudge me towards the agile project management track, I'm basically just after some suggestions.

What's a good way into something like systems architect or IT consultant from where I sit? Trying to put 10 years in a high end production support role to good use but struggling to find a direction.

Some opinions from those "in the know" with what's a growth area there's a skills shortage in I could start pushing towards would be good.

Sorry it's a bit of a random collection of thoughts and questions, finding myself a bit rudderless at the moment and struggling to pick a direction. Even suggestions of the sorts of folks to talk to would be helpful

 

[DarkHorizon472]

In a large organisation like BT it can often be easier to make the move internally. Express an interest to your manager and see if they can start giving you more of a workload in that direction. You may need to wait for the right projects or opportunity to develop the skills you are interested in. Also ask if there is any training you could do as large organisations tend to have extensive training resources.

To give you an example I went from service desk, 2nd line, desktop support / third line, project engineer , project manager and now run a project function involving various projects / programs in the UK and Europe. As well as experience attitude and delivering results are important.

Just be careful to appreciate what you have and don't make any rash choices.

 

[HangTime]

Dependent on what experience you've gained you could potentially transition from a DBA role into a Data Architect or similar. Data / BI is a fairly buoyant sector at the moment although you may need to skill up in related emergent disciplines to stay current.

 

[Felon]

Learn to code.

There's been a huge push into automation and "make it yourself" in the last couple of years, Amazon, Facebook, Google etc have all been doing it for a long time, but now everybody is following in their footsteps. If you're interested in things like storage/networks/etc, in the next couple of years we'll see more "infrastructure as code" if you learn to code now, (Python preferably) and use stuff like containers, docker, etc - and learn to deploy infrastructure at the touch of a button - that's where stuff is going. It's also really interesting and fun to learn once you get going, it's also worth it's weight in gold in the industry.

 

[Ayahuasca]

For the forseeable future there's obviouisly going to be huge demand for programmers but imo it's not one of those things you can just learn to do well, if you aren't mathematically minded and at ease with problem solving then it will always feel like a grind rather than getting genuine enjoyment from it. It's strange as the best coders I've seen, which is in limited numbers mind you, all have aspergers syndrome, baring in mind I'm talking codemonkeys here who spend the majority of their time purely writing code, I think the traits of aspergers just tend to go well with what a role like that entails.

 

[opethdisciple]

Learn to code.

There's been a huge push into automation and "make it yourself" in the last couple of years, Amazon, Facebook, Google etc have all been doing it for a long time, but now everybody is following in their footsteps. If you're interested in things like storage/networks/etc, in the next couple of years we'll see more "infrastructure as code" if you learn to code now, (Python preferably) and use stuff like containers, docker, etc - and learn to deploy infrastructure at the touch of a button - that's where stuff is going. It's also really interesting and fun to learn once you get going, it's also worth it's weight in gold in the industry.

This.

You already say you have *nix experience then I think your golden.

Try and find a role which utilises your current DBA skills but allows you to branch out in to coding. DevOps stuff, Python, Java/Scala etc...