How long is too long?

Soldato
Joined
16 Nov 2003
Posts
5,776
Hi guys

So I'm sat here wondering if its time for a job change. I'm 33 and have been in my current job for around 10-11 years. Before this job i worked at Staples for 6 and a half years. 2 years part time and then 4 and a half full time. With my current job i started on the helpdesk and have worked my way up through the levels to Datacentre Supervisor. I have no interest in managing people and if I'm honest i don't enjoy the non technical aspect of my current job. (Licencing and Datacentre stuff like contracts for fire suppression, AC etc..)

Before i became Datacentre Supervisor i was a European Infrastructure Engineer so would look after SANs, VMware, Citrix etc across our European entities and i found this a lot more interesting. However when you are offered a promotion and more money you take it i guess? I always thought if i didn't I'd basically be saying I've hit my limit and this is where i want to be. The new job was pretty much created specifically for me too!

Most of the morning I've been sat here wondering whether its time to look for something new or just stick out what I'm doing. As its my only IT job i don't know any better. I've been told by people who have moved to my company that its a good company to work for but they are going to say that aren't they.. Lol

As a sidenote which may or may not influence your answers i'm also son to a 1 year old and a wife that looks after him so we only have my wage coming in. (By the time childcare would've came out of hers there would be nothing left..) Also, we started our own business a few months back creating lasercut items for various local craft businesses. This is going well but it means that when i stop working here i then have to go home and start there and can be quite tiring. However, it would be something I'd love to expand in future if it ever became popular enough.

So, with all that in mind do i:

a) Look for something new, a fresh start doing technical stuff i like maybe with a pay drop depending on what i can find or how close to London i go.
b) Stick it out here and hope it gets better
c) Drop everything and push the lasercutting/own business and do that full time
d) //insert suggestion here//

Andy :)
 
To be honest i wouldn't mind going back to my old Infrastructure Engineer job but since the baby has come along i don't really want to travel abroad anymore. (My current job has extremely minimal travel as the Datacentres are UK based) Which was why i was thinking about doing the Infrastructure job elsewhere.

However I'd probably get a pay cut going back to my old job so it might not be possible with me being the only bread winner right now. Although saying that we've dropped to one car, dropped Sky etc so are better off to the tune of £200 a month now anyway. Decisions decisions...

edit: To answer your question they do like me and i believe even if i tried to leave they will try and tempt me to stay. My main boss is a good guy and has said before that I'm an important part of the team. (He had been drinking alcohol and he obviously has to be nice but still.. :D)
 
Thanks for the input guys. I know what you mean about changing. I'm not brilliant with change as it is and as much as I'd like to try it there's always that doubt in my mind that what if its worse?! I'm going to talk to my boss and see what i can do about at least dropping the licencing side of things and being 50/50 datacentre/technical stuff or something like that. They only chose me to do the licencing stuff because they know how anal/ocd i am about things... Lol!

In the meantime our magic number for the business is to make enough to pay my wife around £200-300 a month. Its not a massive figure but most of the stuff we cut right now are small cheap items so to make serious money requires shifting a lot of them. (Something our current laser wouldn't handle.) However saying that i won't do anything to purposely slow our companies growth if that's the way its going. :)
 
A little update...

So here we are 8 months later and I’m still really not enjoying myself job wise and need to find something new. :( However, I’ve dipped my toe in the new job market and have signed up with a few jobsites and putting my CV out there. I’ve had a few calls but nothing has really taken my fancy as of yet. Ideally I want a Citrix role or Infrastructure Engineer role. I’ve also started work on getting my CCENT as networking is my weakest area so once I plug that gap I’ll be able to support stuff all the way through. :)

I also have a couple of questions for you guys:

I was thinking about telling my boss that I’m looking to leave because I want to go and do something else, new challenge, something Citrix related. (We are winding down Citrix here so it isn’t an option he could offer me…) I read in another thread that a lot of people thought it was a bad idea? To be honest I’m doing it for their benefit as I have a 3 month contract so would like to give them time to find my replacement and in turn allow me to go earlier. Rather than waiting for an offer and then handing in my resignation out of the blue. (And then maybe having to wait 3 months to leave…) So should I wait for a new offer? Or tell them now?? I have good relationships with my bosses and don’t want to burn my bridges like some leavers have done before.
 
I never expected these responses until i saw the other thread but i can see where you are all coming from. To be honest i'm definitely a bit naieve here as i'm 34 and this is my second ever job! First in IT!! :) I was just worried that i'd get forced into working the whole 3 months or whether the prospect of a 3 month wait would put off companies of jobs i apply for. Although saying that the last guy who left went in 1 month despite having a 3 month contract. He did massively torch his bridges though and will never be back...
 
Back
Top Bottom