I am wondering what kind of career moves I have available to me because I am over the bullshit of desktop support. I have been brushing up on my Linux skills, learning docker, and doing a whole bunch of networking-related things. At this point, I am 46 years old. Would it benefit me to go back to school to learn a skill to help me advance beyond this role? I just don’t know what to do. There are many options, none of them truly low cost and all of them involving a significant amount of risk.
I get that there is no avoiding risk when making a career change so late in life. I was looking at training for Java or Oracle and it isn’t cheap. Maybe given my experience I could teach A+ or Network+? I don’t know. I’ll welcome any ideas right now.
When I got burnt out I did a hard turn. I now manage a Turkey Farm and just do IT on the side. Most relaxing decision I’ve ever made
Users are definitely harder to train than turkeys
Users are so hard. Turkeys you just have to find any way they may kill themselves and fix it before they do
That’s pretty cool actually. Wish I were in a position to do something similar but I need my next step to parlay with the base skill set I already have.
If your under 39 and in decent enough shape (and US based) the Space Force is looking for recruits and has plenty of IT jobs available. When I’m ready to get back in to the service that is my plan currently
QA work has a fairly low barrier of entry, and from there I’ve known a few people who moved from QA into Developer roles. So there’s that route.
Okay, that sounds promising. By QA I believe you mean software QA, right?
Yep, correct
Different companies have different requirements, but generally if you know a bit of SQL and a bit of Linux terminal commands you should be good. Maybe have a browse through a testing framework like Selenium, though frameworks would vary depending on what the company does, so don’t fret too much about that.
When I graduated I worked for a big corpo as a “.NET/JAVA developer”. I was doing a lot of random different shit but mostly writing unit tests and doing performance testing using tools.
I left around 30 and interviewed for new roles. That was a big wake up call. I knew nothing about coding. Like honestly nothing properly. No idea what classes were, syntax like “static”, “strut”, “async”, “generics T”, “virtual”, “abstract” etc. Somehow during those 8 years I had coasted and knew absolutely nothing. I knew what “Repository” was, but I didn’t KNOW what it DID.
Make sense?
So I ended up watching YouTube videos, taking online classes (Pluralsight) and honestly it was the best thing I’d ever done. Took me 6 months of evening studying and I learnt so much. And it was cheap as well since it was just online follow through lessons.
Start with the basics, do a coding exercise, and repeat.
Currently still a .NET Developer but also Technical Lead/CTO in my late 30s.
With Docker and Linux you could check the opportunities in the field of IT operations.
There’s a lot of good advice here. I just want to add that you absolutely do not need to go back to school. It’s a waste of money! I’m 100% self-taught, work in “DevOps” and not a single employer in the last 6 years has asked me about my education or credentials. I enjoy it and it pays well. You don’t have to do DevOps though. Lots of jobs in IT and employers are competing for skills.
I don’t know why I am languishing as senior desktop support then. It seems I lack the ability to even get my resume in front of anyone, let alone an interview.
Believe it or not, with the right skill set (ie if you have skills that employers are looking for) you won’t even need to apply. Headhunters WILL find your linkedin. Right now the market is noticeably slow and thousands of IT professionals got laid off in the last few months alone. The economy will recover soon though so maybe get ready for when that happens by learning new skills. AI, big data, IaC, etc are all in demand.
This is why now it is a good time for me to hunker down and simply learn and get through this tough time. Much as I hate dealing with the over-privileged assholes in state government, I’ll do what I have to whilst learning.
DevOps?
Okay, I don’t really know what DevOps means or is. I’ll have to search on this one. Thank you for giving me something to consider. 👍
You are welcome, have a good day!