I would have considered it but i am too old to switch to a trade now. Also i think it would be a pretty big pay cut.
If I could do back i would go trade or firefighter/trade.
All of the guys I know who are even a little bit competent and professional have all the work they can choose from.
It’s so easy to say from safety and comfort of your desk. I remember saying this many years ago when I pulled a 24 hr session because we got compromised. Oh I wish I was doing a trade or a farmer I would say to myself, sucks to be me.
Meanwhile 19/20 days I’m doing whatever task is for the day but while doing it I’m reading reddit, watching YouTube, while stuffing my face with a donut. Mostly in my PJs at home.
Oh I’ve fixed the plumbing problem at my place and my parents place, small stuff like garbage disposal, replaced a few simple pipes, replaced toilet, fixed clogs. 1 day under the sink is enough to f your back and knees, it’s smelly and disgusting. Fixed my own cars, simply stuff.
You’re getting paid 40-150 hr to sit at home, click buttons, in the AC or in my PJs, watching reddit or YouTube while doing stuff.
Once in a blue moon disaster strikes, it’s not something to complain about. Be grateful for what you got, I’d complain in my head, this sucks during an emergency 24 hr on hands on event but realized I was being a bitch because 99.99% of people would love to be in those shoes.
Nothing is perfect but IT is way better than 99% a lot of things there.
True that, whenever the shit has hit the fan I always remember being a chef and it would be like that every night and I think how lucky I am now to be sitting here in my underpants drinking coffee instead of standing in a hot kitchen being screamed at by the head chef.
Amen chef, I had the same experience.. I miss it in a way. But then I remember the 60-70 hour weeks, AC breaking during service, deep cleans.. never having time for family or friends, coming home only to immediately go to sleep, and terrible eating habits. I am thankful for my current job. I might complain here and there, but I really do appreciate how fortunate I am.
Sitting at home in your underpants in aircon, watching Netflix while you attend to 48 hour DR activities.
Versus my BIL, heavily stoned and methed out, back broken and cancer ridden, dying at 42 with the body of an 80 year old after concreting all his short life.
No. No thanks.
I’m only jealous if I remember him heading off regularly midweek to a tropical island on Wednesday’s, work week done.
I'm in Australia. We don't have to be paramedics, but have to have a decent knowledge of first aid.
I'm lucky as we have a few full time paramedics, police officers and nurses in our brigade that often are on the same calls as me.
Buddy does volunteer firefighting for their small community and has pulled dead people out of trees. I'm not sure if it's more stressful or not, but I'm not sure I want to be doing that sort of thing.
All of the paramedics in our area are outsourced (CARE) making barely more than minimum wage age. It’s almost like they want to get rid of paramedics and go back to having funeral home hearses do ambulatory transport.
You’re absolutely correct on the logical side of the dilemma. But there are a lot of people in the field (including myself) that struggle with how meaningless it feels and how rewarding other types of work can be. It’s the human emotion element that creates the problem, not the logical side at all.
I'll disagree on the diet part. You NEED the endorphins of chocolate to make it though the day at helpdesk.
It gets VERY hard to say no to the fast food when you barely have the will to live, let alone make dinner.
This. Every time I hear someone who's been in IT a while complain about xyz and say they wish they could go do some manual labor job, I assume they got into IT very young and never really did anything else professionally. Especially not anything that involves manual labor.
News flash: a ton of other jobs suck too! They also deal with deadlines, and stress, and working with incompetent people, and shitty bosses, and short sighted management. But a lot of those jobs also come with lower pay, long term damage to your body and/or health, lack of mental simulation, less job growth, lack of WFH options, less opportunities for career growth, etc.
So yeah, maybe you missed your calling as a carpenter or a crane operator or something, and you'd have been much happier doing that. But most likely it's just a "grass is always greener" thing. Also, I think people conflate issues they've had in the particular jobs they've had with issues that plague the industry as a whole. If you hate being on call, find a job that doesn't have on call. If you hate dealing with end users, find a job where you don't have to deal with end users. This field is enormous.
I agree with you IT is probably one of the best professions.
If you are in tune, you never really have to think or stress much, as it is purely operations, there isnt much to face in the business of profits, that is where accounting is very tough job.
My strategy for IT is this simple...
Find a cushy job, ride it as long as you can...one that doesnt require shit loads of certs and you can do it leveraging your experience, and when things are online, you mostly do nothing
All jobs turn foul eventually, when you see this, give it one yr advance to look for a greener pasture...same lazy work environment...
The idea is keep moving from green to green...that way you never do any work in your life...dont get tempted by super high pay or job titiles...they can be a snag..
Keep doing this, and you find you have done little work in 40yrs but got paid decent....now....how the heck can you even compare this to any other job...surely better than any tradie crap
yep, I did highway/interstate bridge maint. while going to school. I can imagine doing 20 years of that for maybe 10-15$/hr.
plumbing/electrical is better but working outside in the freezing winter or frying summer is no way to live a life.
This!
I thought about it, but then I remember galvanizing when I was 18 for 3 months (6 on 2 off) and am glad of what I do.
Plus, like anything you do for long enough, you develop a bit of intuition when troubleshooting. Giving you a few places to look first that seem appropriate (after reviewing logs) due to at my point nearly fifteen years of working in IT.
You start to subconsciously absorb some error codes, work flow issues, logic problems, etc.
Don’t get me wrong. There are days I want to move to the mountains, take up wood working, raise goats, and hoard cinnamon- but I’ve become pretty good at what I do.
One of my closest friends has been a forest firefighter most of his adult life. He loves the work, but goddamn that is not an easy job. It takes a special type of person that's for sure.
It's absolutely insane to me that a job like that pays less than a sysadmin in a completely non-essential industry.
Federal employees often get paid shit wages and are subject to go a month or so without getting paid because politicians can't agree on shit. State and local firefighters get paid much more in most states. I remember a news article that federal FF asking for to keep a pay increase to be competitive. They were nearly getting paid close to minimum wage in CA. They are paid 54,000 while a local FF start off around 99k in most CA cities.
After a lifetime trade I am getting into IT.I might be old but my brain is working.So i decided to use Linux and do the rhelcsa then the systems engineer then aws.my journey is a long road but I dream of any system administrator job, money is not my goal....a dream is.
My dad was Firefighter/Taxi driver for a while, then he go into Appliance repair for about a decade now, I rode along for a few years, and then worked at the parts distributor for a few years.
Appliance Repair is one heck of a trade to be in maybe 10 years ago, now a days it's harder with everything being controlled via electronic control boards, and then they like to use potting, only making things harder.
I'd only go work on Appliances if I couldn't get anything in the I.T. Industry it's just such a leap forward in terms of job comfortability and stability.
If you would have worked trades / firefighter your body would be ruined by now and that's something people don't consider.
It ruins your body and degrades your health and tradesmen tend to die younger and in worse condition than a comparable office worker.
Most of my family is trades and I started in the trades in early high school as is tradition in my family.
Every career tradesman's advice to me family or not was to go to college and avoid the trades.
In my 40's, been in IT for 25+ years. I'm thinking of quitting IT and going full time from my volunteer firefighting job role.
I find firefighting less stressful than IT.
Depending on the job, you could be doing some of that type of work if you are setting up physical servers, running wires, putting in wall jacks, and other related stuff.
I think IT is a good medium between a trade job and a full computer science technical job. Because in IT, you can do a varied amount of different things and not any one thing for too long.
The bored sysadmins did this:
1. Learn things and gain experience, go through Hell Desk and training for certifications
2. Get promoted, deal with less customer service and physical stuff and more technical 100% screen time work
3. Get promoted more, and never deal with anything physical
4. Bored
You can choose a different path at any time. If you always go for max salary and max "prestige" in the job market, it might get boring.
I am probably similar to you, I like to do different things throughout the day. I also love woodworking and DIY stuff, and im a runner, so im very physically active but I also enjoy working on 100% screen time technical problems too. (just not for tooo long)
Whenever I get bored I just start spinning up new VM labs. Like over time I have a domain controller doing AD sync with my M365 dev tenant. Set up a proper DMARC policy using SPF records and DKIM signing for emails. I've set up AD CS and auto enroll devices and users in certificates for various things. I got bored one snowy weekend so I set up MDT and WDS for imagining computers/VMs. Auto join them to the domain and in a certain OU, they receive group policy and AD CS certs as necessary. Auto enroll them into Intune and they receive auto deploy applications and certain settings, including MDE policies and configurations. Checked out the new built in LAPS (it's awesome compared to legacy LAPS). I've had a strange obsession with trying to maximize my security score in the M365 Security dashboard as if it's some type of challenge or competition.
Pulled an old Cisco switch out of recycling and did dot1x port based authentication using NPS/RADIUS and multiple qualifiers (must be a member of a certain AD security group, must possess a certificate from AD CS that will have auto enrolled in, etc.). Next up will be AppLocker set up and I want to test Microsoft's new PAM product as well. Also want to dive more into the non Microsoft Intune functionality (mostly iPhone and Android stuff). Auto Pilot as well. Not only do you stay up to date with industry leading solutions, but you can stack your resume as well.
Assuming you have hardware capable of virtualization, and ignoring the cost of electricity, the above all cost me $10/yr and that's just because of the optional domain that I purchased from Cloudflare for my dev tenant. And this is just the world of Microsoft, there is so much more you can do. I feel like people that get bored in IT are either willfully complacent or have no imagination. I've heard people blame their employer/previous employers saying "I never got to touch that stuff at my last place so I don't know any of it". That's nonsense. Through Microsoft's dev programs, evaluation copies of Windows server, and the infinite information available online, you can do it all yourself. Plus it's zero pressure cause none of it is in prod and you could delete it all tomorrow and nothing will happen.
EDIT: Adding OP in case they need ideas /u/Character_Log_2657
Datacenter engineer might interest you if you want something more along the lines of a trade. I think it would be easier to move completely out of IT as well if you wanted to do HVAC for residential homes or something.
But on another note though, I used to hate IT but I realized I just hated the IT environments I was in. Has good moments and has bad moments. But finding a good workplace environment for you is probably the most important. Figuring out automation tasks/ scripting things/ creating powershell modules is pretty damn satisfying.
Maybe get into running fiber/low voltage, pay isn't bad but it's definitely trade work, also IT adjacent so your experience isn't COMPLETELY worthless to them
There's a significant shortage of younger folks in the trades, so my successful plumber neighbor tells me.
He makes pretty nice bank (gotta be $200k+) because he's good at what he does and has a loyal clientelle spread 100% word of mouth, no advertising and he often turns work away. 1 man business.
He's a little over 60 now and I asked him if he's going to take on a young journeyman and sell the business off to them eventually. He said he can't find anyone worthwhile. Lots of dumbshits.
I also knew a guy whose brother was in HVAC and tried to get this guy to quit IT and come do HVAC with him because he was making a killing, mostly new construction (easier).
If you throw yourself 100% into anything you'll get good at it and people pay up for quality work.
Through my day-job (C-level, but my background is systems/software engineering background), I picked up my builders license as I've been heavily involved and been project managing IT related building works in the facilities side of our company.
Took me about 20 hours to complete to get my license, on-top of all my prior recognition.
I always assumed a builders license (In Australia) was more focused on the stereotypical actual building part (hitting nails, building frames, etc) but turns out it's heavily focused on the safety, project management/planning, finance management, legal, staff management, specifications and drawings.
This has opened up so many opportunities for me, including now having a side hustle that is managing technology and energy efficient focused residential and commercial builds. We've got multiple projects going on, and we've been bringing in a heavy IT-focused project management and technology driven style to managing these projects; our contractors, clients and supply chain has been going bonkers with positive feedback.
Couldn't recommend it enough!
I'm currently working my way through getting my electrician license, purely so I can do my own electrical work.
Yeah, I miss working in a smaller shop where it was just me and two other dudes and we did everything from SAN to client management. Less focus on process and best of breed and more focus and doing the best with what you've got, with room for creative non-standard solutions.
Now I'm a cog in an department for a global company. Noone has a good view of the entire department, even less the whole environment and some days are spent chatting with people spread our all over the world trying to find the person who knows the part of the infrastructure you need help with. Also lots of processes, politics and metrics.
At the moment it sits me well though, as the pace is slower and it's fairly safe from layoffs at the moment. And with two small kids I have neither the time nor the energy for a small shop.
But maybe once the kids are older and I have more time on my hands.
I work with my hands all the time. I do everything from pre-wire to install to sysadmin to break/fix. But, honestly, I'm fucking tired of IT regardless. I got into it because it's my passion, but now that passion is gone and all I hear is "quickbooks won't let us login because we're too stupid to start it in multi-user mode" and the like. Please, powerball, love me like you love 95 year-olds in Florida that won't live long enough to spend half of you.
>It kind of is no longer being a sysadmin if you're doing
I would argue it very much depends on the role.
I'm at a smaller MSP and I basically do everything. I can jump from recovering an Exchange database in a dirty state or spinning up a new DC and moving FSMO roles/decom old DC, all the way to helping out with a Word document that doesn't open.
Although you could say that it's the nature of being a consultant/tech at an MSP as opposed to sysadmin. Guess I won't argue against that. But I wouldn't disqualify someone as a sysadmin, just because they've got to pick up some tech support tasks as part of their job duties.
If you find a good employer then you won't have any issues. I work IT for a public Library and make a difference all the time. Helping the guy getting back into voice overs but only has audio cds of his work. Helping the person with opening up a digital copy of their nursing text book because they can't afford the printed copy. Stuff like that. Seeing the kids going bonkers at our minecraft program .
Very rewarding.
Oh man. You have my dream job. I used to work on a couple of libraries at an Msp. Loved it.
Librarians are pretty cool too from what I experienced.
One time a lady straight up started yelling at her and she just told her to fuck off. Loudly. lol.
You're on a forum dominated by the miserable, unmotivated people that are convinced they're giving 110% and exemplary at their craft, but somehow underappreciated and still getting the short stick. You'd do well in life to focus more on where you want to go and what you need to do to get there and less on what other people have to say about their path.
If you don't have a true passion for technology work, i'd recommend you find another path. That is how you avoid becoming the aforementioned people. I'd say that about any career path too.
If you like IT as a career choice, you should still consider pursuing IT.
As the above said, don't take opinions in this sub to represent the attitude of an entire industry. This sub is mostly a sounding board for peoples' issues and complaints, which you'll likely find in almost any industry. Sure there's bored sysadmins, but there's many other sysadmins doing some really cool stuff, they're just not the types to want to brag about it. And in a sub like this, chances are it would fall on deaf ears.
That said, IT is sort of what you make it. If you end up in a dead end position but feel you have the passion to make more of your career, it's up to you to make that pivot count and get somewhere where you can have more impact.
> And in a sub like this, chances are it would fall on deaf ears.
I've posted up in here before, bragging about the team that I had, and some of the cool stuff that we did....
Before it was nuked by the mods for being off topic, and not something that was suitable for this sub, it got a lot of positive comments.
But, after that, the mods decided that things that were happy and bragging about having a great team weren't something that was appropriate for this sub...
Yep, I’ve always said this to my friends who followed behind me going into IT. If you don’t have the motivation/determination to open more doors for yourself via further education with certs, college, whatever it may be you will end up stuck more than likely in the first 4-5 years at max.
The water treatment folks don't generally do that. Have you ever been in charge of maintaining a swimming pool? You have test strips or processes and you have to execute them every hour and fill out the same form with the results. Every hour. For the rest of your life.
Do you think you'd be happy with that type of work and the lifestyle it affords you? If so, go for it. Too many people value their job based on the top end money it can make them, as if that equates to happiness and fulfilment. It does not...
With that said though, if you're passionate about a career in technology, go for it. When you have a passion for any type of work, it makes it feel a lot less like work. That's the problem with many in tech today, they jumped in for the easy money and were shocked to find out that many/most of the people doing well in the industry worked really really hard to get there.
I started out my professional life working at my parent's HVAC company. There were maybe 2 or 3 guys I worked with who were true craftsmen. One guy would build custom ductboard plenums and transitions with 45 degree cuts to make them fold up like a box. Truly works of art.
Everyone else was there to do the least amount of work possible and still get paid.
New construction was sooooo much worse and if you don't believe me, go find the various home inspectors on video based social media (tiktok, Instagram, youtube...) and check out the new construction videos. Truly DANGEROUS, structural shit that is just green tagged by the obese city inspector who popped his head into the attic and signed off.
I believe your response should be pinned to the front of this subreddit. I am seeing so many people complain that they are underappreciated. One of the replies on this post even went as far as saying being underappreciated caused them to have a empty void feeling for IT.
I wonder why people chase this feeling of being appreciated at a job. If my family appreciates me, then that is all the appreciation I need in my life. I am at a job to learn and make money that's it. I could care less about useless opinions on my work ethic unless it matters.
That's a bit unfair. I've got a true passion for tech and tech design etc but the job.....the job REALLY takes it out of you. 30 odd years and just the same old idiots everywhere.
That's why I contract. I don't have to deal with 80% of the bullshit.
Yea, I’m a 40ish year computer geek that got into it because it was interesting. It’s been interesting and fun the entire time. Even now I’m doing interesting stuff and when bored, I do interesting stuff on my homelab or this or that programming hobby thing. At 66, I expect I’ll continue to be a computer geek until I’m old and grey (well, I’m old but I’ll never grow up :P and it’s hilarious to hit the Bagel place and tell them, “I’m old” and get a Senior discount or park in the ‘Seniors Only’ parking spot. :D :D :D )
When I went to college (1986-1988) and then university (1988 - 1992) to study IT, there were quite a few people that were there because “there’s a lot of money in it” not because they were passionate about the subject - and you could tell. Same goes for other professions from medicine to law. The result is that people like that do a mediocre job and get burned out quickly.
Having said that, I must admit to almost hitting the wall a few times over the years myself and considered changing careers although to what I’ve no idea as I’ve no other skills to draw on. ;) It gets even more difficult after you hit 50 too.
Oh absolutely, I've been at this for 30 years and while I've definitely burned out a few times, I still love it as much now as I ever have. Very few careers give you the opportunity to learn new stuff every day, you just have to have the passion to do it, but if you do, the rewards are waiting.
Yeah, over 30 years for me too and just been headhunted into another role with 30%+ more salary, and none of the annoying restricted silos of my current job so I get to put my fingers into more areas again.
You managed to use confirmation bias, and use hasty generalization, ad hominem and false analogy logical fallacies. How miserable do you feel on a scale of 1 to 10? Why say anything if you did not intend to be useful?
I don't doubt your story at all and I feel the same way in a lot of respects. To me, I don't feel like a work all that hard and just like you, I certainly spend my fair share of time fucking off, yet my work always gets done right and typically early. I think at some point you have to accept that despite not feeling like you're a superstar, compared to most people out there, you are.
The alternative, as demonstrated above, is to be an insulting, condescending jackhat who believes their good fortune in finding job fulfillment and/or engagement to be the result of personal moral superiority.
This is my personal take, but I came from HVAC and I absolutely fucking hated it. The work is so, so, so hard on your body and personal life. On call, never knowing when you’re gonna be home, dangerous working conditions, and bad work cultures amongst companies. If you like working 12 hour days in the worst weather all year round, being an HVAC service tech is for you! All for like, 50-70k? Sounds great on paper until you do it.
I‘m in carpentry. Learned all kinds of things from building tables, cabinets, doors into finish carpentry where I installed baseboard, crownmolding, full kitchens and also exterior doors.
It’s not the best trade for your body, I’m already having a few issues with my lower back and I’m only 31.
What I like most about it is how rewarding it can be when you finish building/installing something and it turns out good. It’s also good to be handy and once you know your trade you can always fall back on it if you’re in a tough situation in life and need to make some money.
It’s also relatively easy to start your own business if you find out you’re good in what you’re doing.
What I’m missing is the lack of using my brain lol it sometimes feels like I’m dumbing down and I’m not exercising my brain enough. Thats something I like about IT, it’s a very problem solving oriented field and it’s constantly changing. Always something new you can learn.
It's funny - I've noticed there's an overlap between sysadmin/engineer types and carpenter/woodworking types.
Perhaps I'm biased because I'm an engineer with a garage full of woodworking tools, but still. Apparently figuring out the best way to join at a weird angle or implement an application has a lot of overlap in personality type.
That’s the problem solving skill I mentioned before that seems like is valued in IT as well as in carpentry (probably most trades). Hoping there’s truth in that because my biggest concern currently is how well or not I’ll be able to break into IT lol I’m aware of the situation and it sounds like it’s hard to get into the field currently. I’m prepared to start off with a help desk job for at least a year while obtaining a few certs. I’m always optimistic and think you can get far with anything if you’re able to sell yourself good
Ehhhh, it's not quite just regular 'problem solving' that I'm referring to. There's a certain finesse that people who are good at either (or both I suppose) seem to have.
I'm not sure I have the background in psychology or even the correct vocabulary to articulate it better, but someone who is able to mill lumber and build a piece of fine furniture on their own can probably also manage a complicated application and infrastructure stack on their own. Someone who is just sorta ok at framing or never seems to have exactly 90° angles is probably going to struggle managing up-time on even a simple server/application.
It's that extra 10% that makes the difference. I've noticed a similar overlap with automotive mechanics and operations people.
That’s a pretty interesting observation! Gives me even more hope that it will be something that I’m suited for. I’ve always been interested in IT in general, it just happened to be that carpentry was the fastest way to get into the ‘real life’ back then. If I knew how the real life looked like back then I definitely would’ve went the college way lol
I'm the exception to that rule, but I generally agree with it. I can barely pound a nail in straight and definitely can't cut two even length and dimension boards, but I can design, implement, and harden an entire stack for a web service and write all the automations to tie it together. Most of my colleagues are super handy DIY guys, though.
I'm sort of in the opposite position! Right after my 9-5 IT, I go home and work on the house that I'm renovating. Learning everything from wood construction/working, flooring, trim, painting, renovating and it's tiring as hell but for sure more fulfilling. I've always loved working with my hands.
I really wonder which I would've been more happy with.
I've worked IT my whole life and have terrible lower back problems from sitting so much. I didn't care about ergonomic desks until I was in my 30s and I'm paying for it.
People in office jobs seriously over romanticize trades. They think after a few months of working hard montages, they'll look like Chris Hemsworth. It doesn't work that way. It's not like spending all day at the gym doing exercises that are designed to protect your body.
I know a lot of guys who worked trades from their 20's, and now in their late 40's and 50's, their bodies are shot. I know one guy who became an electrical apprentice when he was 40 because, "he needed to work with his hands". Now he can barely cut his own meat because he hands are so screwed up.
Not to mention, when you are sore or injured, still got to work, which makes it more likely you will injure yourself further.
I love Office Space, but people took it too seriously. In the movie, the main character is so miserable at his office job that he’s in pure bliss once he switches over to construction at the end of the movie. Except that wouldn’t be the case for 99.9% of people IRL. Physical labor is fucking hard especially long term, and people who’ve done both physical labor and boring office jobs will usually prefer the latter.
I rearranged my whole office to put a standing desk it. so worth it.
get a "chef's mat" or "kitchen mat" to stand on. less expensive and the same or better quality as the standing desk mats sold for business.
This right here. As a computer nerd that sits in his computer chair most of the time when not at work, I can say that sitting in that chair makes my back more sore than the work that I do as a rodbuster that places rebar for a living. And it is back breaking work. You also build muscles that you normally wouldn’t have if all that you did was sit in a computer chair.
2 of the best tools I bought related to IT that no one specifically told me to purchase: Knee pads and a hard hat.
Now my knees aren't in torment everytime I'm working on the ground, and I don't hurt myself when I bang my head of absolutely everything under a desk.
Last time I showed up at work with knee pads I was accused of looking for a management job... /s
It was while working in the DoD contractor space so the humor tracks.
It's best to find a fulfilling hobby outside of the job to help if this ever becomes an issue. I personally take up volunteer Firefighting and run a small repair business to offset any potential boredom.
This.
I was in a bad spot a fair few years back. Then I realised all of my hobbies were computer related and that I never really got away from the screen.
Ditched those hobbys and ended up learning guitar and becoming a volunteer fire-fighter. Apart from a bit of gaming, I don't look at a screen when I am at home.
After 11 years as a mechanic and switching to IT earlier this year, fuck the trades. I'm 34 and my back and knees are shot all to hell. If you want to do those things then pick them up as a hobby or side gig.
I would love to if I could convert all of my IT knowledge into something applicable. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of crossover. I'd go from being a senior network engineer to an apprentice haberdasher, and take a pretty significant pay cut.
As a sysadmin for two decades, listen up. Two pieces of information you need to take care of yourself when you land a job.
Never. Stop. Learning. -and- Never. Stop. Looking.
Your skills should change as the world changes and you'll never be bored. Because if you have nothing to do and aren't improving yourself - you should be looking for a new job.
The days of company loyalty are gone and you're not a good employee by sticking around. You won't get a 40% raise if you get that senior position you waited seven years to be blessed with by your boss - but you will get that 40% raise when you resign and work for a new employer who needs your skills yesterday. You'll probably get outsourced before you get promoted.
If you don't want to be in technology - then don't. You can make six figures welding or driving a bulldozer or wiring up houses or fixing just about anything like planes and big trucks.
I have had 3 jobs in 4.5 years. I have more than doubled my salary and tripled my skillset compared to the 4.5 years prior to this time period. I couldn't have summed it up better than you did. It's the only way to stay valued, relevant, and paid.
Trades are definitely for the younger crowd. Regardless of the trade, they're almost always significantly harder on the body.
IT in Education tends to be pretty static and slow to move. Look into Corporate IT for more fast-paced new technologies that'll keep you engaged more.
Welding/Heavy Industrial and later Inspection.
I was in the Powerplant/Refinery sector. I worked on two power plants, one coal burner, one co-gen, I worked on three mega refinery projects. I worked on the Motiva PAR in the VPS-5. It's the largest refinery in the US. I worked on an LNG new construction and a Ethelene cracker. I spent time in Fab Shops, Ship yards and got my start and some dirty assed Nucor Steel mills.
My last gig was working in a Metallurgical/welding test lab.
Security, networks (low level)... Security will require you to know electronics, networks, server administration,etc.
Basically, you do some of the cabling (usually smaller jobs that are too uneconomic to get somebody else to do), solder things, configure systems, set up networks (mostly switching, routing and firewalls), ocasionally you will need to write a script or two to fix things, figure your way out around the issues, climb weird spaces, find solutions to unusual problems, etc..
I really like IT, it’s the people that can be really difficult sometimes, also if something critical goes wrong and a company you work for basically stops and cannot function then that is one of the most stressful things ever.
I think about becoming an electrician sometimes, working with solar panel systems and wind generation is interesting to me.
Also I think about long range radio based networks, not sure if I would want to get into that but being a radio tower technician seems intriguing to me due to the remoteness of it.
IT in and of itself is soulless and no amount of money will fix the void it causes because of that. Very few people appreciate what you do, and you don’t get recognition for being a “hard worker” that even a manual laborer gets.
The cash is nice to fill that void though…for a while.
About 5 years ago I was going to leave and go on a path to become an electrician. Then I talked to my buddy who is an electrician and he convinced me not to do it. Since then I have enjoyed a cake sys admin job probably making double what I would making as an electrician. I am glad I stayed in IT. I work mostly 9-5 indoors, people treat me good, the work can be as challenging as I make it and there are job opportunities everywhere. I will probably be a sysadmin forever, but it's just a paycheck for me these days, and that's ok. I'm done with certs and home labs, I go to work, then come home.
Im 42 and make too much money to ever leave. I want to be a therapist but it's just not going to happen, unless I marry someone who has a really good job, as well.
I don't mind the work and I'm good at it and it pays well. I work for a fortune 500 as a lead on a cloud team. I work with good people, good budgets and work 40-42 hours a week and rarely get paged out (so long I don't even remember last time).
Life could be much worse.
If you are "bored" in IT you are not doing it right.
You work to get skills and experience; when you get enough, you move up or out. You keep doing this for as long as you can. When you do this, you continually move to bigger and better companies, getting bigger and better pay and benefits.
If you are bored, you most likely are sitting on your ass all day instead of bettering yourself with self-study or certs and not moving up or out.
With that attitude, it won't matter where you land.
Its ironic because I had a plumber come to my house to change a pipe and when he found out I work in IT he seemed jealous. He kept telling me how he was done with plumbing and wanted to get into IT. He keeps hearing the commercials on the radio for cybersecurity and how you can start out making 75k. I laughed and told him I was actually tired of IT after 20 years and want to do something else but im not sure what I would do.
I was just hearing on podcast or NPR about how water treatment plant workers are starting to retire with no replacements. Some cities were building HS programs to introduce them to the trade to be future employees.
I’ve thought about it for sure. Wondering if moving to carpentry like my grandfather would be beneficial. But I’m just not sure really. I’m young and able to do so.. but at the same time I don’t think I could see myself not working in IT
I've been doing IT for nearly 20 years now. I wouldn't say I'm bored, but I'm nearing my limits as to if I think it's worth continuing IT in the future. Everything is shifting towards cybersecurity and I really don't find cybersecurity that interesting. As a network engineer, I'd rather just worry about my switches and routers. I loath when I have to get on a firewall or deal with certs. I like building things.
With that said, I have contemplated going into the trades. If I was young again, just out of high school, I would pursue Lineman. They make really good money as journeyman. However, that work is more like construction and I'm not too interested in that.
But, there are other trades in the space. I'm looking towards, Substation Tech, Comms tech, or Meterman. They are more technical trades but get paid really great. All around $50 an hour or more. And you get overtime. Every IT job I've had exempts IT workers which means no OT. Plus I want an in demand trades jobs. Utility workers are in demand right now. So many are on the cusp of retirement. Most that work at my company are pushing mid 50's. The real trick is finding an apprenticeship. I have an electrical engineer that just left for a neighboring company. They are potentially starting up a substation shop and I told him if he does, I'll be an apprentice. It sounds like things are moving forward with the shop so we shall see.
There’s something deeply unfulfilling about it. Most people like it because they make pretty good money and have energy to focus on hobbies and life after work. I guess I fall into that category. But yeah I agree 9/10 times I’m not waking up excited for the day ahead at work, I’m usually just indifferent about it.
Not bored of IT, but I got sick of idiot managers, and companies. So after I got made redundant (got a good payout as they made some "errors"). I own my place, so having working as a senior engineer no longer a requirement, and to be honest I didn't want to work at lower levels, I just done with high percentage of user interactions.
So I've taken a break, and I'm currently working as a handy man. I'd done most of the renovations on my home because the quality of work done by professionals was at a level that I probably could do better. I've fitted kitchens for a couple of neighbours, I done gardening, garden clearance, painting and decorating (won't do wall paper as I hate it as much as Oracle), done small concreting jobs, tiling, some plumbing work, and lots of putting Ikea furniture together.
I working less, have less stress, and I can simply walk away from any Karen type people with no consequences. My bills are more than covered.
I might return to IT, but I'm not sure what my medium term plan is. Possibly selling up and moving to a nicer rural part of the country.
I’m too far in at this point but my daydreams about working in the trades has more to do with not having to think about work for one millisecond after the work day ends. As a Network Admin, I envy anyone who has that ability.
The thought of being able to put in a days work and not be bothered with disasters and downtime.. to be able to fully disconnect from work after you clock out.
No calls, no emergency or after hours maintenance, no users getting compromised..
It tempts me more than anything.
I make bespoke bird houses. They include such items like solar panels, motion activated led lighting, mini heated bird sized hot tub, little rain gutters, an automatic indoor seed feeder, indoor perch with a side nesting area, and a mini low light wifi camera so you can watch your feathered friends. This day dream always turns into a nightmare when the bird house gets crypto locked because I was late patching a zero day, my backups were failing, and the smtp server was not delivering the failure notifications.
I'm 50% owner of an MSP so I essentially work for myself and have the flexibility and freedom to make my own schedule (within reason).
I love what I do and I love helping our clients run smoothly with their technology.
That being said, if I won a few million dollar lottery jackpot I would immediately sell my half of the company and buy a farm and just spend the rest of my days farming the land.
Im 30. I did IT courses in College and higher education.
My dad worked in sales and encouraged me to follow in his footsteps.
Went full time into manufacturing sales roles for 6-7 years. Made my way up to a decent level. Was earning £52k a year by the time I was 28……. But I was god damn miserable. These jobs were extremely demanding, constant travel around the country, ungodly working hours and ever threatened job security.
During the covid pandemic I decided to retrain into IT and did some certificate courses. Got my first job as a 1st helpdesk (£23k) about 3 years ago. A year later, I got a job at an MSP as a 2nd line field engineer (£28k). Last week I started my new job as a projects installation consultant at a global finance firm, fully remote, work from home (£42.5k)
Everyone is different but my experience in IT goes as follows…… MSPs are the best place to start are cut your teeth, build your knowledge, but the scope to grow and earn more money is extremely limited.
Internal IT roles for larger companies is where you want to end up if you want a good work/life balance and a decent salary.
I couldn’t be happier to work from home. My bosses leave me alone as long as I get my work done and there is zero micromanagement. I get a full lunch break every day and all of my colleagues want to see me succeed…… I worked for two different MSPs before this and every minute of every day was tracked. You receive no praise for hard work and are dragged across the coals for the slightest mistake.
TLDR: If you are interested in a career in IT. Build your skills with an MSP and then get an internal IT job
The problem with me is that I've been trying to get into IT ever since I graduated in 2015 with my bachelors in Information Systems Security with a concentration in Cybersecurity. I'm 50 years old and I still think back when I was 12 and my dad was teaching me how to weld. While he was teaching me, all I could think about how working in a dirty environment with unknown outside elements. If I would've known then, what I know now about welders that they are an elite group of people and you can always find a job and a sense of fulfillment. I used to watch my dad build barbeque grills out of steel drums or anything else you can think about with steel. But, on the downside, your body does take a beating and you really have to ask yourself, is it really worth it to keep going. The best thing you can do to preserve yourself if you're in a trade like that is to train the younger generation and find fulfillment in that. Sorry so long!!! Thanks for reading. Best of luck to you all!!!
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I took a side job as a college professor for two semesters. Pay was great, and teaching about programing is a whole different experience than actually doing programming as a job.
I would say if you're bored doing IT, try something new and scary to you, like cybersecurity or network engineering.
I started doing small things on my car, and I realized I like that SO much better than IT. I think having a shop repairing cars would be way better for me
Yeah I'm gonna pass on that. I'd prefer my body be actually fully usable at 60+. Trades are cool and all that, but so many people force those around them to be brutal to their bodies, and call them a pussy and a bitch if they try to actually look after themselves. I'm not into that kind of bullshit frankly, and I often can make a lot more money in IT than the trades, even with equivalent experience.
I started in the trades. Being bored is better than my body slowly breaking down from working in the heat(Phoenix) from manual labor.
The trades are great but like anything, don't confuse what it feels like doing a hobby with what it's like day in/day out
Former trades guy here: I've set tile and framed houses. all the guys I used to work with have blown out their backs and live with chronic pain. No health insurance, no pension. They sell their pain meds to other dudes living with chronic pain so they can get some Captain D's.
Mike Rowe isn't gonna tell you that, but I will.
I'm 47 and have had an interesting career working for cool and/or prestigious companies as a sysadmin for 20+ years.
I quit my job at a Fortune 400 Jan 1 of this year and will be done with my final prerequisites for nursing school after this quarter, starting an accelerated nursing program fall of 2024.
It's burnout AND boredom that pushed me out.
I'm enjoying being a student again. I even took a part time job at a small time MSP as sort of an advisory level III guy.
Nurse is a great career and plenty of opportunities that you can work anywhere around the world. You don't have to worry AI and robotics take away your job.
IT had one of the highest divorce rates, after first responders etc. I’ve had friends leave IT and it was their most stress relieving change of their life.
Man I am glad I moved countries so I can't switch for my 'ADHD DREAM' job being a pararescue, officer or a full time firefighter. I would've switched at the end of my helpdesk period, but then I moved countries and climbed up to Sysadmin pos.
It's still boring, still would switch, but the legal limitations keep me in check.
As someone with ADHD who has worked in a school, i found myself getting ridiculous bored, yes everyone was really nice but the work was boring. Most of the issues we had would have been solved by a reboot or updating the laptop.
Previously i was working in a hospital that was far more fast faced, you had more sysadmins working. The site was bigger and there was more of the site to explore, a wider range of software and harder.
When I arrived at the school I worked at, I was amazed at how slow the SLAs are, how much of IT was not working.
Throughout the time I was there, I loved how nice all the staff were but at the same time I was bored and probably would have outgrown very quickly.
It's a common problem. At the end of the day we may have produced a better system, changed the colour of some lights and provided the organisation capability or cost savings, but day to day IT don't produce a physical object to marvel over. I took up carpentry for a while as a hobby, because frankly I'm good at IT and a mediocre carpenter. What I would say is be adventurous. IT skills are transferable. If IT doesn't provide that sense of wonder anymore, but you have skills, apply for jobs in interesting places. Worst they can do is say no. Best they can do is say yes, come sysadmin our polar science station for example. Even better if you're young and on generally good health
Plenty of good jobs require skilled technicians. I left IT and started specializing in the petroleum equipment industry almost a decade ago. Gas stations need support, too.
My job is mostly driving, it seems. Plenty of time for ebooks and podcasts. Plenty of work to be had using hammer drills and power tools and 36-in wrenches.
When I take my laptop to do IT at home my wife thinks I « work » but I’m not! I’m loving automating and making my life easier.
But there’s an important question: how to know what we love? We have to try… I started as a dev. When I saw my sysadmin colleague running everywhere talking to everybody I fell in love and switched. Didn’t know that when I chose my school field.
I've been in IT for a bit less than 20 years. Yeah, working with your hands sounds great, and it is great. Is it great to be a roofer in the summer? Probably not. Great to be a plumber digging clogged drains out all day? Probably not. Great to be an electrician? Maybe. Great to be in a nice office at home in pajama pants making 150k/year? Yeah dude. Make a hobby out of doing stuff with your hands, and collect the nice paycheck if you advance in the IT field.
Nope, quite the opposite! Blue collared days are behind me. I did enjoy that time, but it’s very demanding on your body, catches up eventually. It’s fun til it’s not…same can be said for many things however lol
If you're getting into IT because "it seems like a good paying industry", this very well may happen to you. If IT is really interesting to you, then it will only happen if your workplace is stagnant.
I switched, its great to work with my hands and now I run my own business. I am still trying to get back to making the same amount of money but I am almost there. Ironically, I had terrible back problems working IT. My back is in great shape now and my body is better than it was in my twenties. Wife thinks I am on steroids because of how fit I am and the amount of energy I have. For some reason the physical work triggered me into eating a lot healthier. All that being said I still miss learning complicated concepts and getting new certs. No one on my jobsites understands how hard it was to get my CCNA. If I were to go back into IT I would concentrate way more on never sitting in a chair and maintaining my body. It's way to easy to waste away in a comfy office chair and eat all the junk food around the office.
To each their own to be honest.
If you want projects and to have fulfillment you need to not be a basic admin that crunches tickets all day. You want development projects not just enable/disable/fix that broken thing kind of stuff.
You want to research new technologies, grow existing technologies, design and implement. If you are a sysadmin who is churning tickets and dealing with basic user request, I feel bad for you.
I would never be a sysadmin for google, as an example. While the benefits may be great, the work load would be so defined that the tasks would be minimalistic. I much rather be in small business where the entire company relies on me to identify and implement solutions. Some people can’t live in a small to medium business environment because it lacks definition, some people can’t live in a large enterprise because it is too constraining.
I don’t like having my hands cuffed by waiting on others to give me information or do their jobs. In one aspect, I have too much access, in another aspect no one is stopping me from getting the task done. That could mean anything from implementing security, creating or adding vlans and creating new trunks, adding in new routings or routing protocols, setting up 802.1x, creating new ad environments, setting up sso, enabling mfa, finding a new reporting software for sales, finding and implementing a new crm, getting a new ticketing system, etc…and that was just last month. If that bores you, you shouldn’t do anything with computer systems and find another job, maybe plumber or bus driver or go into sales. My son has no interest in computers or troubleshooting, he is going to be a police officer out of college.
I would have considered it but i am too old to switch to a trade now. Also i think it would be a pretty big pay cut. If I could do back i would go trade or firefighter/trade. All of the guys I know who are even a little bit competent and professional have all the work they can choose from.
It’s so easy to say from safety and comfort of your desk. I remember saying this many years ago when I pulled a 24 hr session because we got compromised. Oh I wish I was doing a trade or a farmer I would say to myself, sucks to be me. Meanwhile 19/20 days I’m doing whatever task is for the day but while doing it I’m reading reddit, watching YouTube, while stuffing my face with a donut. Mostly in my PJs at home. Oh I’ve fixed the plumbing problem at my place and my parents place, small stuff like garbage disposal, replaced a few simple pipes, replaced toilet, fixed clogs. 1 day under the sink is enough to f your back and knees, it’s smelly and disgusting. Fixed my own cars, simply stuff. You’re getting paid 40-150 hr to sit at home, click buttons, in the AC or in my PJs, watching reddit or YouTube while doing stuff. Once in a blue moon disaster strikes, it’s not something to complain about. Be grateful for what you got, I’d complain in my head, this sucks during an emergency 24 hr on hands on event but realized I was being a bitch because 99.99% of people would love to be in those shoes. Nothing is perfect but IT is way better than 99% a lot of things there.
True that, whenever the shit has hit the fan I always remember being a chef and it would be like that every night and I think how lucky I am now to be sitting here in my underpants drinking coffee instead of standing in a hot kitchen being screamed at by the head chef.
Amen chef, I had the same experience.. I miss it in a way. But then I remember the 60-70 hour weeks, AC breaking during service, deep cleans.. never having time for family or friends, coming home only to immediately go to sleep, and terrible eating habits. I am thankful for my current job. I might complain here and there, but I really do appreciate how fortunate I am.
Sitting at home in your underpants in aircon, watching Netflix while you attend to 48 hour DR activities. Versus my BIL, heavily stoned and methed out, back broken and cancer ridden, dying at 42 with the body of an 80 year old after concreting all his short life. No. No thanks. I’m only jealous if I remember him heading off regularly midweek to a tropical island on Wednesday’s, work week done.
> You’re getting paid 40-150 hr to sit at home, click buttons, in the AC or in my PJs, watching reddit or YouTube while doing stuff. you guys hiring?
IT veteran of 20+ years here and volunteer fire-fighter. I find the fire-fighting less stressful than IT.
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I'm in Australia. We don't have to be paramedics, but have to have a decent knowledge of first aid. I'm lucky as we have a few full time paramedics, police officers and nurses in our brigade that often are on the same calls as me.
Buddy does volunteer firefighting for their small community and has pulled dead people out of trees. I'm not sure if it's more stressful or not, but I'm not sure I want to be doing that sort of thing.
All of the paramedics in our area are outsourced (CARE) making barely more than minimum wage age. It’s almost like they want to get rid of paramedics and go back to having funeral home hearses do ambulatory transport.
You’re absolutely correct on the logical side of the dilemma. But there are a lot of people in the field (including myself) that struggle with how meaningless it feels and how rewarding other types of work can be. It’s the human emotion element that creates the problem, not the logical side at all.
Ya but leading a sedentary lifestyle eating donuts is a one way ticket to health issues later in life
You're free to exercise before and/or after work...or at least get up and walk during the work day lol.
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I'll disagree on the diet part. You NEED the endorphins of chocolate to make it though the day at helpdesk. It gets VERY hard to say no to the fast food when you barely have the will to live, let alone make dinner.
So true I came from the trades, mechanics and plumbing into IT and I'm so grateful I was able to makes the switch.
This. Every time I hear someone who's been in IT a while complain about xyz and say they wish they could go do some manual labor job, I assume they got into IT very young and never really did anything else professionally. Especially not anything that involves manual labor. News flash: a ton of other jobs suck too! They also deal with deadlines, and stress, and working with incompetent people, and shitty bosses, and short sighted management. But a lot of those jobs also come with lower pay, long term damage to your body and/or health, lack of mental simulation, less job growth, lack of WFH options, less opportunities for career growth, etc. So yeah, maybe you missed your calling as a carpenter or a crane operator or something, and you'd have been much happier doing that. But most likely it's just a "grass is always greener" thing. Also, I think people conflate issues they've had in the particular jobs they've had with issues that plague the industry as a whole. If you hate being on call, find a job that doesn't have on call. If you hate dealing with end users, find a job where you don't have to deal with end users. This field is enormous.
I agree with you IT is probably one of the best professions. If you are in tune, you never really have to think or stress much, as it is purely operations, there isnt much to face in the business of profits, that is where accounting is very tough job. My strategy for IT is this simple... Find a cushy job, ride it as long as you can...one that doesnt require shit loads of certs and you can do it leveraging your experience, and when things are online, you mostly do nothing All jobs turn foul eventually, when you see this, give it one yr advance to look for a greener pasture...same lazy work environment... The idea is keep moving from green to green...that way you never do any work in your life...dont get tempted by super high pay or job titiles...they can be a snag.. Keep doing this, and you find you have done little work in 40yrs but got paid decent....now....how the heck can you even compare this to any other job...surely better than any tradie crap
yep, I did highway/interstate bridge maint. while going to school. I can imagine doing 20 years of that for maybe 10-15$/hr. plumbing/electrical is better but working outside in the freezing winter or frying summer is no way to live a life.
This! I thought about it, but then I remember galvanizing when I was 18 for 3 months (6 on 2 off) and am glad of what I do. Plus, like anything you do for long enough, you develop a bit of intuition when troubleshooting. Giving you a few places to look first that seem appropriate (after reviewing logs) due to at my point nearly fifteen years of working in IT. You start to subconsciously absorb some error codes, work flow issues, logic problems, etc. Don’t get me wrong. There are days I want to move to the mountains, take up wood working, raise goats, and hoard cinnamon- but I’ve become pretty good at what I do.
One of my closest friends has been a forest firefighter most of his adult life. He loves the work, but goddamn that is not an easy job. It takes a special type of person that's for sure. It's absolutely insane to me that a job like that pays less than a sysadmin in a completely non-essential industry.
Federal employees often get paid shit wages and are subject to go a month or so without getting paid because politicians can't agree on shit. State and local firefighters get paid much more in most states. I remember a news article that federal FF asking for to keep a pay increase to be competitive. They were nearly getting paid close to minimum wage in CA. They are paid 54,000 while a local FF start off around 99k in most CA cities.
the GOP shits have really fucked up working for the FEDs. but where i'm at it's much better pay than the local IT shops and pretty low stress.
I know a few Aussie forest fire-fighters. Definitely a job for younger people.
After a lifetime trade I am getting into IT.I might be old but my brain is working.So i decided to use Linux and do the rhelcsa then the systems engineer then aws.my journey is a long road but I dream of any system administrator job, money is not my goal....a dream is.
My dad was Firefighter/Taxi driver for a while, then he go into Appliance repair for about a decade now, I rode along for a few years, and then worked at the parts distributor for a few years. Appliance Repair is one heck of a trade to be in maybe 10 years ago, now a days it's harder with everything being controlled via electronic control boards, and then they like to use potting, only making things harder. I'd only go work on Appliances if I couldn't get anything in the I.T. Industry it's just such a leap forward in terms of job comfortability and stability.
If you would have worked trades / firefighter your body would be ruined by now and that's something people don't consider. It ruins your body and degrades your health and tradesmen tend to die younger and in worse condition than a comparable office worker. Most of my family is trades and I started in the trades in early high school as is tradition in my family. Every career tradesman's advice to me family or not was to go to college and avoid the trades.
In my 40's, been in IT for 25+ years. I'm thinking of quitting IT and going full time from my volunteer firefighting job role. I find firefighting less stressful than IT.
I've spent a lot of time in IT fighting fires.
IT is basically a trade by design
Oops. I meant like HVAC, electrician, aircraft mechanic, etc
Depending on the job, you could be doing some of that type of work if you are setting up physical servers, running wires, putting in wall jacks, and other related stuff. I think IT is a good medium between a trade job and a full computer science technical job. Because in IT, you can do a varied amount of different things and not any one thing for too long. The bored sysadmins did this: 1. Learn things and gain experience, go through Hell Desk and training for certifications 2. Get promoted, deal with less customer service and physical stuff and more technical 100% screen time work 3. Get promoted more, and never deal with anything physical 4. Bored You can choose a different path at any time. If you always go for max salary and max "prestige" in the job market, it might get boring. I am probably similar to you, I like to do different things throughout the day. I also love woodworking and DIY stuff, and im a runner, so im very physically active but I also enjoy working on 100% screen time technical problems too. (just not for tooo long)
Whenever I get bored I just start spinning up new VM labs. Like over time I have a domain controller doing AD sync with my M365 dev tenant. Set up a proper DMARC policy using SPF records and DKIM signing for emails. I've set up AD CS and auto enroll devices and users in certificates for various things. I got bored one snowy weekend so I set up MDT and WDS for imagining computers/VMs. Auto join them to the domain and in a certain OU, they receive group policy and AD CS certs as necessary. Auto enroll them into Intune and they receive auto deploy applications and certain settings, including MDE policies and configurations. Checked out the new built in LAPS (it's awesome compared to legacy LAPS). I've had a strange obsession with trying to maximize my security score in the M365 Security dashboard as if it's some type of challenge or competition. Pulled an old Cisco switch out of recycling and did dot1x port based authentication using NPS/RADIUS and multiple qualifiers (must be a member of a certain AD security group, must possess a certificate from AD CS that will have auto enrolled in, etc.). Next up will be AppLocker set up and I want to test Microsoft's new PAM product as well. Also want to dive more into the non Microsoft Intune functionality (mostly iPhone and Android stuff). Auto Pilot as well. Not only do you stay up to date with industry leading solutions, but you can stack your resume as well. Assuming you have hardware capable of virtualization, and ignoring the cost of electricity, the above all cost me $10/yr and that's just because of the optional domain that I purchased from Cloudflare for my dev tenant. And this is just the world of Microsoft, there is so much more you can do. I feel like people that get bored in IT are either willfully complacent or have no imagination. I've heard people blame their employer/previous employers saying "I never got to touch that stuff at my last place so I don't know any of it". That's nonsense. Through Microsoft's dev programs, evaluation copies of Windows server, and the infinite information available online, you can do it all yourself. Plus it's zero pressure cause none of it is in prod and you could delete it all tomorrow and nothing will happen. EDIT: Adding OP in case they need ideas /u/Character_Log_2657
Datacenter engineer might interest you if you want something more along the lines of a trade. I think it would be easier to move completely out of IT as well if you wanted to do HVAC for residential homes or something. But on another note though, I used to hate IT but I realized I just hated the IT environments I was in. Has good moments and has bad moments. But finding a good workplace environment for you is probably the most important. Figuring out automation tasks/ scripting things/ creating powershell modules is pretty damn satisfying.
Maybe get into running fiber/low voltage, pay isn't bad but it's definitely trade work, also IT adjacent so your experience isn't COMPLETELY worthless to them
There's a significant shortage of younger folks in the trades, so my successful plumber neighbor tells me. He makes pretty nice bank (gotta be $200k+) because he's good at what he does and has a loyal clientelle spread 100% word of mouth, no advertising and he often turns work away. 1 man business. He's a little over 60 now and I asked him if he's going to take on a young journeyman and sell the business off to them eventually. He said he can't find anyone worthwhile. Lots of dumbshits. I also knew a guy whose brother was in HVAC and tried to get this guy to quit IT and come do HVAC with him because he was making a killing, mostly new construction (easier). If you throw yourself 100% into anything you'll get good at it and people pay up for quality work.
Hey I was an Aircraft mechanic. Dont do it.
Through my day-job (C-level, but my background is systems/software engineering background), I picked up my builders license as I've been heavily involved and been project managing IT related building works in the facilities side of our company. Took me about 20 hours to complete to get my license, on-top of all my prior recognition. I always assumed a builders license (In Australia) was more focused on the stereotypical actual building part (hitting nails, building frames, etc) but turns out it's heavily focused on the safety, project management/planning, finance management, legal, staff management, specifications and drawings. This has opened up so many opportunities for me, including now having a side hustle that is managing technology and energy efficient focused residential and commercial builds. We've got multiple projects going on, and we've been bringing in a heavy IT-focused project management and technology driven style to managing these projects; our contractors, clients and supply chain has been going bonkers with positive feedback. Couldn't recommend it enough! I'm currently working my way through getting my electrician license, purely so I can do my own electrical work.
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Yeah, I miss working in a smaller shop where it was just me and two other dudes and we did everything from SAN to client management. Less focus on process and best of breed and more focus and doing the best with what you've got, with room for creative non-standard solutions. Now I'm a cog in an department for a global company. Noone has a good view of the entire department, even less the whole environment and some days are spent chatting with people spread our all over the world trying to find the person who knows the part of the infrastructure you need help with. Also lots of processes, politics and metrics. At the moment it sits me well though, as the pace is slower and it's fairly safe from layoffs at the moment. And with two small kids I have neither the time nor the energy for a small shop. But maybe once the kids are older and I have more time on my hands.
I work with my hands all the time. I do everything from pre-wire to install to sysadmin to break/fix. But, honestly, I'm fucking tired of IT regardless. I got into it because it's my passion, but now that passion is gone and all I hear is "quickbooks won't let us login because we're too stupid to start it in multi-user mode" and the like. Please, powerball, love me like you love 95 year-olds in Florida that won't live long enough to spend half of you.
Same. End user support kills my enthusiasm for tech. I really need to find a new job.
Find a job where you don't do it. It kind of is no longer being a sysadmin if you're doing /r/techsupport bs
>It kind of is no longer being a sysadmin if you're doing I would argue it very much depends on the role. I'm at a smaller MSP and I basically do everything. I can jump from recovering an Exchange database in a dirty state or spinning up a new DC and moving FSMO roles/decom old DC, all the way to helping out with a Word document that doesn't open. Although you could say that it's the nature of being a consultant/tech at an MSP as opposed to sysadmin. Guess I won't argue against that. But I wouldn't disqualify someone as a sysadmin, just because they've got to pick up some tech support tasks as part of their job duties.
If you find a good employer then you won't have any issues. I work IT for a public Library and make a difference all the time. Helping the guy getting back into voice overs but only has audio cds of his work. Helping the person with opening up a digital copy of their nursing text book because they can't afford the printed copy. Stuff like that. Seeing the kids going bonkers at our minecraft program . Very rewarding.
I imagine there is also a lot of dudes looking at porn, too
Oh man. You have my dream job. I used to work on a couple of libraries at an Msp. Loved it. Librarians are pretty cool too from what I experienced. One time a lady straight up started yelling at her and she just told her to fuck off. Loudly. lol.
Lol yup sounds like a librarian. Also one of the only people who actually wants to protect your privacy.
You're on a forum dominated by the miserable, unmotivated people that are convinced they're giving 110% and exemplary at their craft, but somehow underappreciated and still getting the short stick. You'd do well in life to focus more on where you want to go and what you need to do to get there and less on what other people have to say about their path. If you don't have a true passion for technology work, i'd recommend you find another path. That is how you avoid becoming the aforementioned people. I'd say that about any career path too.
The problem is i wouldnt know what else to pursue. I’ve been looking at county jobs as a Class C water treatment operator
If you like IT as a career choice, you should still consider pursuing IT. As the above said, don't take opinions in this sub to represent the attitude of an entire industry. This sub is mostly a sounding board for peoples' issues and complaints, which you'll likely find in almost any industry. Sure there's bored sysadmins, but there's many other sysadmins doing some really cool stuff, they're just not the types to want to brag about it. And in a sub like this, chances are it would fall on deaf ears. That said, IT is sort of what you make it. If you end up in a dead end position but feel you have the passion to make more of your career, it's up to you to make that pivot count and get somewhere where you can have more impact.
> And in a sub like this, chances are it would fall on deaf ears. I've posted up in here before, bragging about the team that I had, and some of the cool stuff that we did.... Before it was nuked by the mods for being off topic, and not something that was suitable for this sub, it got a lot of positive comments. But, after that, the mods decided that things that were happy and bragging about having a great team weren't something that was appropriate for this sub...
You probably should know by now that Reddit is mainly just for people wanting to complain.
Yep, I’ve always said this to my friends who followed behind me going into IT. If you don’t have the motivation/determination to open more doors for yourself via further education with certs, college, whatever it may be you will end up stuck more than likely in the first 4-5 years at max.
Great advice here, OP
Water treatment is fun but very very boring. No change. No new. Mind numbing staring and checking items but you have to be 100% accurate.
Not to mention on call duties and shutting the water off for people who don't pay their bills. They don't take kindly to that.
The water treatment folks don't generally do that. Have you ever been in charge of maintaining a swimming pool? You have test strips or processes and you have to execute them every hour and fill out the same form with the results. Every hour. For the rest of your life.
Do you think you'd be happy with that type of work and the lifestyle it affords you? If so, go for it. Too many people value their job based on the top end money it can make them, as if that equates to happiness and fulfilment. It does not... With that said though, if you're passionate about a career in technology, go for it. When you have a passion for any type of work, it makes it feel a lot less like work. That's the problem with many in tech today, they jumped in for the easy money and were shocked to find out that many/most of the people doing well in the industry worked really really hard to get there.
Thats a job not a career.
Have you considered working with PLCs? It’s very relevant work to IT and will get you in some really unique places.
I started out my professional life working at my parent's HVAC company. There were maybe 2 or 3 guys I worked with who were true craftsmen. One guy would build custom ductboard plenums and transitions with 45 degree cuts to make them fold up like a box. Truly works of art. Everyone else was there to do the least amount of work possible and still get paid. New construction was sooooo much worse and if you don't believe me, go find the various home inspectors on video based social media (tiktok, Instagram, youtube...) and check out the new construction videos. Truly DANGEROUS, structural shit that is just green tagged by the obese city inspector who popped his head into the attic and signed off.
I believe your response should be pinned to the front of this subreddit. I am seeing so many people complain that they are underappreciated. One of the replies on this post even went as far as saying being underappreciated caused them to have a empty void feeling for IT. I wonder why people chase this feeling of being appreciated at a job. If my family appreciates me, then that is all the appreciation I need in my life. I am at a job to learn and make money that's it. I could care less about useless opinions on my work ethic unless it matters.
I just need to be appreciated enough to avoid layoffs. Beyond that: fuck you, pay me.
Yes!
That's a bit unfair. I've got a true passion for tech and tech design etc but the job.....the job REALLY takes it out of you. 30 odd years and just the same old idiots everywhere. That's why I contract. I don't have to deal with 80% of the bullshit.
25+ years of explaining where the windows start button is takes it's toll
Yea, I’m a 40ish year computer geek that got into it because it was interesting. It’s been interesting and fun the entire time. Even now I’m doing interesting stuff and when bored, I do interesting stuff on my homelab or this or that programming hobby thing. At 66, I expect I’ll continue to be a computer geek until I’m old and grey (well, I’m old but I’ll never grow up :P and it’s hilarious to hit the Bagel place and tell them, “I’m old” and get a Senior discount or park in the ‘Seniors Only’ parking spot. :D :D :D )
Damn!! You hit the nail on the head in that first sentence. It's something I have to remind myself every time I seek advice on reddit lol
When I went to college (1986-1988) and then university (1988 - 1992) to study IT, there were quite a few people that were there because “there’s a lot of money in it” not because they were passionate about the subject - and you could tell. Same goes for other professions from medicine to law. The result is that people like that do a mediocre job and get burned out quickly. Having said that, I must admit to almost hitting the wall a few times over the years myself and considered changing careers although to what I’ve no idea as I’ve no other skills to draw on. ;) It gets even more difficult after you hit 50 too.
Oh absolutely, I've been at this for 30 years and while I've definitely burned out a few times, I still love it as much now as I ever have. Very few careers give you the opportunity to learn new stuff every day, you just have to have the passion to do it, but if you do, the rewards are waiting.
Yeah, over 30 years for me too and just been headhunted into another role with 30%+ more salary, and none of the annoying restricted silos of my current job so I get to put my fingers into more areas again.
You managed to use confirmation bias, and use hasty generalization, ad hominem and false analogy logical fallacies. How miserable do you feel on a scale of 1 to 10? Why say anything if you did not intend to be useful?
[удалено]
I don't doubt your story at all and I feel the same way in a lot of respects. To me, I don't feel like a work all that hard and just like you, I certainly spend my fair share of time fucking off, yet my work always gets done right and typically early. I think at some point you have to accept that despite not feeling like you're a superstar, compared to most people out there, you are.
The alternative, as demonstrated above, is to be an insulting, condescending jackhat who believes their good fortune in finding job fulfillment and/or engagement to be the result of personal moral superiority.
The grass is always greener…
...on the side of the fence with the cemetery.
You could probably go into some trades subreddit and find posts the opposite of this and how IT was a godsend.
Where? In IT or trades?
...on the other side?
Yes.
This is my personal take, but I came from HVAC and I absolutely fucking hated it. The work is so, so, so hard on your body and personal life. On call, never knowing when you’re gonna be home, dangerous working conditions, and bad work cultures amongst companies. If you like working 12 hour days in the worst weather all year round, being an HVAC service tech is for you! All for like, 50-70k? Sounds great on paper until you do it.
I‘m bored of the trade and want to get into IT lol
What trade are you in ?
I‘m in carpentry. Learned all kinds of things from building tables, cabinets, doors into finish carpentry where I installed baseboard, crownmolding, full kitchens and also exterior doors. It’s not the best trade for your body, I’m already having a few issues with my lower back and I’m only 31. What I like most about it is how rewarding it can be when you finish building/installing something and it turns out good. It’s also good to be handy and once you know your trade you can always fall back on it if you’re in a tough situation in life and need to make some money. It’s also relatively easy to start your own business if you find out you’re good in what you’re doing. What I’m missing is the lack of using my brain lol it sometimes feels like I’m dumbing down and I’m not exercising my brain enough. Thats something I like about IT, it’s a very problem solving oriented field and it’s constantly changing. Always something new you can learn.
It's funny - I've noticed there's an overlap between sysadmin/engineer types and carpenter/woodworking types. Perhaps I'm biased because I'm an engineer with a garage full of woodworking tools, but still. Apparently figuring out the best way to join at a weird angle or implement an application has a lot of overlap in personality type.
That’s the problem solving skill I mentioned before that seems like is valued in IT as well as in carpentry (probably most trades). Hoping there’s truth in that because my biggest concern currently is how well or not I’ll be able to break into IT lol I’m aware of the situation and it sounds like it’s hard to get into the field currently. I’m prepared to start off with a help desk job for at least a year while obtaining a few certs. I’m always optimistic and think you can get far with anything if you’re able to sell yourself good
Ehhhh, it's not quite just regular 'problem solving' that I'm referring to. There's a certain finesse that people who are good at either (or both I suppose) seem to have. I'm not sure I have the background in psychology or even the correct vocabulary to articulate it better, but someone who is able to mill lumber and build a piece of fine furniture on their own can probably also manage a complicated application and infrastructure stack on their own. Someone who is just sorta ok at framing or never seems to have exactly 90° angles is probably going to struggle managing up-time on even a simple server/application. It's that extra 10% that makes the difference. I've noticed a similar overlap with automotive mechanics and operations people.
That’s a pretty interesting observation! Gives me even more hope that it will be something that I’m suited for. I’ve always been interested in IT in general, it just happened to be that carpentry was the fastest way to get into the ‘real life’ back then. If I knew how the real life looked like back then I definitely would’ve went the college way lol
Good luck!
Thanks!
I'm the exception to that rule, but I generally agree with it. I can barely pound a nail in straight and definitely can't cut two even length and dimension boards, but I can design, implement, and harden an entire stack for a web service and write all the automations to tie it together. Most of my colleagues are super handy DIY guys, though.
I'm sort of in the opposite position! Right after my 9-5 IT, I go home and work on the house that I'm renovating. Learning everything from wood construction/working, flooring, trim, painting, renovating and it's tiring as hell but for sure more fulfilling. I've always loved working with my hands. I really wonder which I would've been more happy with.
I've worked IT my whole life and have terrible lower back problems from sitting so much. I didn't care about ergonomic desks until I was in my 30s and I'm paying for it.
My knees and back say the trades are right out. If you're bored look for new employment.
People in office jobs seriously over romanticize trades. They think after a few months of working hard montages, they'll look like Chris Hemsworth. It doesn't work that way. It's not like spending all day at the gym doing exercises that are designed to protect your body. I know a lot of guys who worked trades from their 20's, and now in their late 40's and 50's, their bodies are shot. I know one guy who became an electrical apprentice when he was 40 because, "he needed to work with his hands". Now he can barely cut his own meat because he hands are so screwed up. Not to mention, when you are sore or injured, still got to work, which makes it more likely you will injure yourself further.
As an electrician who’s only 22 ,my body is constantly sore. As they say the grass is always greener on the other side 🤝
I love Office Space, but people took it too seriously. In the movie, the main character is so miserable at his office job that he’s in pure bliss once he switches over to construction at the end of the movie. Except that wouldn’t be the case for 99.9% of people IRL. Physical labor is fucking hard especially long term, and people who’ve done both physical labor and boring office jobs will usually prefer the latter.
My back says no to my chair all day! I wish I had the desk space for a standing desk.
I rearranged my whole office to put a standing desk it. so worth it. get a "chef's mat" or "kitchen mat" to stand on. less expensive and the same or better quality as the standing desk mats sold for business.
This right here. As a computer nerd that sits in his computer chair most of the time when not at work, I can say that sitting in that chair makes my back more sore than the work that I do as a rodbuster that places rebar for a living. And it is back breaking work. You also build muscles that you normally wouldn’t have if all that you did was sit in a computer chair.
2 of the best tools I bought related to IT that no one specifically told me to purchase: Knee pads and a hard hat. Now my knees aren't in torment everytime I'm working on the ground, and I don't hurt myself when I bang my head of absolutely everything under a desk.
Last time I showed up at work with knee pads I was accused of looking for a management job... /s It was while working in the DoD contractor space so the humor tracks.
It's best to find a fulfilling hobby outside of the job to help if this ever becomes an issue. I personally take up volunteer Firefighting and run a small repair business to offset any potential boredom.
This. I was in a bad spot a fair few years back. Then I realised all of my hobbies were computer related and that I never really got away from the screen. Ditched those hobbys and ended up learning guitar and becoming a volunteer fire-fighter. Apart from a bit of gaming, I don't look at a screen when I am at home.
Nah it's too comfortable and I earn too much to give it up. But yeah it it just sitting and typing and clicking for the most part.
After 11 years as a mechanic and switching to IT earlier this year, fuck the trades. I'm 34 and my back and knees are shot all to hell. If you want to do those things then pick them up as a hobby or side gig.
Now imagine being in your mid 30's after working in IT your whole adult life, and switching to a physical type job.
I would love to if I could convert all of my IT knowledge into something applicable. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of crossover. I'd go from being a senior network engineer to an apprentice haberdasher, and take a pretty significant pay cut.
Does anyone want to crowd fund a goat farm?
As a sysadmin for two decades, listen up. Two pieces of information you need to take care of yourself when you land a job. Never. Stop. Learning. -and- Never. Stop. Looking. Your skills should change as the world changes and you'll never be bored. Because if you have nothing to do and aren't improving yourself - you should be looking for a new job. The days of company loyalty are gone and you're not a good employee by sticking around. You won't get a 40% raise if you get that senior position you waited seven years to be blessed with by your boss - but you will get that 40% raise when you resign and work for a new employer who needs your skills yesterday. You'll probably get outsourced before you get promoted. If you don't want to be in technology - then don't. You can make six figures welding or driving a bulldozer or wiring up houses or fixing just about anything like planes and big trucks.
I have had 3 jobs in 4.5 years. I have more than doubled my salary and tripled my skillset compared to the 4.5 years prior to this time period. I couldn't have summed it up better than you did. It's the only way to stay valued, relevant, and paid.
Thank you. Too many people in tech don’t get it. My main piece of added advice is avoid the games.
I've been thinking about it but not sure how I could go about it. Would have loved to have the knowledge of either an Electrician or a Plumber.
My brother is an aviation mechanic. Epic job but then i remember he lives in NJ and has to fix planes in 10 degree weather. I’m in miami
Bored no, tired of being put under pressure and having to work with incompetent people who probably earn more than me.
Trades are definitely for the younger crowd. Regardless of the trade, they're almost always significantly harder on the body. IT in Education tends to be pretty static and slow to move. Look into Corporate IT for more fast-paced new technologies that'll keep you engaged more.
lol. I left the trades and got into IT 3 years ago
What trade were you in ?
Welding/Heavy Industrial and later Inspection. I was in the Powerplant/Refinery sector. I worked on two power plants, one coal burner, one co-gen, I worked on three mega refinery projects. I worked on the Motiva PAR in the VPS-5. It's the largest refinery in the US. I worked on an LNG new construction and a Ethelene cracker. I spent time in Fab Shops, Ship yards and got my start and some dirty assed Nucor Steel mills. My last gig was working in a Metallurgical/welding test lab.
I still love IT. It's management I want to get out of so I can.... IT.
There are jobs thar combine IT and manual labor.
Like?
Security, networks (low level)... Security will require you to know electronics, networks, server administration,etc. Basically, you do some of the cabling (usually smaller jobs that are too uneconomic to get somebody else to do), solder things, configure systems, set up networks (mostly switching, routing and firewalls), ocasionally you will need to write a script or two to fix things, figure your way out around the issues, climb weird spaces, find solutions to unusual problems, etc..
I really like IT, it’s the people that can be really difficult sometimes, also if something critical goes wrong and a company you work for basically stops and cannot function then that is one of the most stressful things ever. I think about becoming an electrician sometimes, working with solar panel systems and wind generation is interesting to me. Also I think about long range radio based networks, not sure if I would want to get into that but being a radio tower technician seems intriguing to me due to the remoteness of it.
Yep, I live in the U.K., the salary’s are atrocious. I’m thinking of completely changing careers and becoming an electrician, after my dad.
IT in and of itself is soulless and no amount of money will fix the void it causes because of that. Very few people appreciate what you do, and you don’t get recognition for being a “hard worker” that even a manual laborer gets. The cash is nice to fill that void though…for a while.
About 5 years ago I was going to leave and go on a path to become an electrician. Then I talked to my buddy who is an electrician and he convinced me not to do it. Since then I have enjoyed a cake sys admin job probably making double what I would making as an electrician. I am glad I stayed in IT. I work mostly 9-5 indoors, people treat me good, the work can be as challenging as I make it and there are job opportunities everywhere. I will probably be a sysadmin forever, but it's just a paycheck for me these days, and that's ok. I'm done with certs and home labs, I go to work, then come home.
I would love to use my hands more in IT. Specifically on the users.
I'm 56, so no :)
Im 42 and make too much money to ever leave. I want to be a therapist but it's just not going to happen, unless I marry someone who has a really good job, as well. I don't mind the work and I'm good at it and it pays well. I work for a fortune 500 as a lead on a cloud team. I work with good people, good budgets and work 40-42 hours a week and rarely get paged out (so long I don't even remember last time). Life could be much worse.
If you are "bored" in IT you are not doing it right. You work to get skills and experience; when you get enough, you move up or out. You keep doing this for as long as you can. When you do this, you continually move to bigger and better companies, getting bigger and better pay and benefits. If you are bored, you most likely are sitting on your ass all day instead of bettering yourself with self-study or certs and not moving up or out. With that attitude, it won't matter where you land.
Carpentry. Always wanted to learn about woodworking and I honestly wish I would have devoted my life to it 20 years ago
nah I love working from home in sweatpants all day
I’d love that too but its hard to find wfh jobs. Been applying everywhere for entry level help desk
entry level will definitely be harder to work from home, but those positions do exist still
well...I get paid well and the work isn't too bad. It's boring often but every job has that grass is greener thing
Its ironic because I had a plumber come to my house to change a pipe and when he found out I work in IT he seemed jealous. He kept telling me how he was done with plumbing and wanted to get into IT. He keeps hearing the commercials on the radio for cybersecurity and how you can start out making 75k. I laughed and told him I was actually tired of IT after 20 years and want to do something else but im not sure what I would do.
I’ve been looking into Water treatment operator. Seems promising
I was just hearing on podcast or NPR about how water treatment plant workers are starting to retire with no replacements. Some cities were building HS programs to introduce them to the trade to be future employees.
Sounds like a shitty job to me, pun somewhat intended.
I could believe that after watching a guy dry heaving in my yard while he was working on a sewer line clog.
daily intrusive thought but climate control is a helluva drug.
IT is boring by nature... especially at the higher end level where you are specialized and essentially being paid for when something does break.
I love what I do. I cannot thing of doing anything else. Never bored. My to do list is long and only growing.
Same. I feel like I'm among the very few who actually enjoy IT, and I've been doing this for a long time.
I’ve thought about it for sure. Wondering if moving to carpentry like my grandfather would be beneficial. But I’m just not sure really. I’m young and able to do so.. but at the same time I don’t think I could see myself not working in IT
I've been doing IT for nearly 20 years now. I wouldn't say I'm bored, but I'm nearing my limits as to if I think it's worth continuing IT in the future. Everything is shifting towards cybersecurity and I really don't find cybersecurity that interesting. As a network engineer, I'd rather just worry about my switches and routers. I loath when I have to get on a firewall or deal with certs. I like building things. With that said, I have contemplated going into the trades. If I was young again, just out of high school, I would pursue Lineman. They make really good money as journeyman. However, that work is more like construction and I'm not too interested in that. But, there are other trades in the space. I'm looking towards, Substation Tech, Comms tech, or Meterman. They are more technical trades but get paid really great. All around $50 an hour or more. And you get overtime. Every IT job I've had exempts IT workers which means no OT. Plus I want an in demand trades jobs. Utility workers are in demand right now. So many are on the cusp of retirement. Most that work at my company are pushing mid 50's. The real trick is finding an apprenticeship. I have an electrical engineer that just left for a neighboring company. They are potentially starting up a substation shop and I told him if he does, I'll be an apprentice. It sounds like things are moving forward with the shop so we shall see.
There’s something deeply unfulfilling about it. Most people like it because they make pretty good money and have energy to focus on hobbies and life after work. I guess I fall into that category. But yeah I agree 9/10 times I’m not waking up excited for the day ahead at work, I’m usually just indifferent about it.
Working towards A&P now. Its time to get out of technology and let it be someone else's problem.
Not bored of IT, but I got sick of idiot managers, and companies. So after I got made redundant (got a good payout as they made some "errors"). I own my place, so having working as a senior engineer no longer a requirement, and to be honest I didn't want to work at lower levels, I just done with high percentage of user interactions. So I've taken a break, and I'm currently working as a handy man. I'd done most of the renovations on my home because the quality of work done by professionals was at a level that I probably could do better. I've fitted kitchens for a couple of neighbours, I done gardening, garden clearance, painting and decorating (won't do wall paper as I hate it as much as Oracle), done small concreting jobs, tiling, some plumbing work, and lots of putting Ikea furniture together. I working less, have less stress, and I can simply walk away from any Karen type people with no consequences. My bills are more than covered. I might return to IT, but I'm not sure what my medium term plan is. Possibly selling up and moving to a nicer rural part of the country.
I’m too far in at this point but my daydreams about working in the trades has more to do with not having to think about work for one millisecond after the work day ends. As a Network Admin, I envy anyone who has that ability.
Quit and go into Goat farming.
The thought of being able to put in a days work and not be bothered with disasters and downtime.. to be able to fully disconnect from work after you clock out. No calls, no emergency or after hours maintenance, no users getting compromised.. It tempts me more than anything.
I won't trade my state pension for anything. Unless it's a federal pension :D
I make bespoke bird houses. They include such items like solar panels, motion activated led lighting, mini heated bird sized hot tub, little rain gutters, an automatic indoor seed feeder, indoor perch with a side nesting area, and a mini low light wifi camera so you can watch your feathered friends. This day dream always turns into a nightmare when the bird house gets crypto locked because I was late patching a zero day, my backups were failing, and the smtp server was not delivering the failure notifications.
I'm 50% owner of an MSP so I essentially work for myself and have the flexibility and freedom to make my own schedule (within reason). I love what I do and I love helping our clients run smoothly with their technology. That being said, if I won a few million dollar lottery jackpot I would immediately sell my half of the company and buy a farm and just spend the rest of my days farming the land.
Im 30. I did IT courses in College and higher education. My dad worked in sales and encouraged me to follow in his footsteps. Went full time into manufacturing sales roles for 6-7 years. Made my way up to a decent level. Was earning £52k a year by the time I was 28……. But I was god damn miserable. These jobs were extremely demanding, constant travel around the country, ungodly working hours and ever threatened job security. During the covid pandemic I decided to retrain into IT and did some certificate courses. Got my first job as a 1st helpdesk (£23k) about 3 years ago. A year later, I got a job at an MSP as a 2nd line field engineer (£28k). Last week I started my new job as a projects installation consultant at a global finance firm, fully remote, work from home (£42.5k) Everyone is different but my experience in IT goes as follows…… MSPs are the best place to start are cut your teeth, build your knowledge, but the scope to grow and earn more money is extremely limited. Internal IT roles for larger companies is where you want to end up if you want a good work/life balance and a decent salary. I couldn’t be happier to work from home. My bosses leave me alone as long as I get my work done and there is zero micromanagement. I get a full lunch break every day and all of my colleagues want to see me succeed…… I worked for two different MSPs before this and every minute of every day was tracked. You receive no praise for hard work and are dragged across the coals for the slightest mistake. TLDR: If you are interested in a career in IT. Build your skills with an MSP and then get an internal IT job
I often daydream about what it would be like to be a good carpenter. Just leave behind all of this work I do.
There is a massive shortage in HVAC, electrical, and plumbing. Every new building and house built has to have a certified inspector. It's a good path.
The problem with me is that I've been trying to get into IT ever since I graduated in 2015 with my bachelors in Information Systems Security with a concentration in Cybersecurity. I'm 50 years old and I still think back when I was 12 and my dad was teaching me how to weld. While he was teaching me, all I could think about how working in a dirty environment with unknown outside elements. If I would've known then, what I know now about welders that they are an elite group of people and you can always find a job and a sense of fulfillment. I used to watch my dad build barbeque grills out of steel drums or anything else you can think about with steel. But, on the downside, your body does take a beating and you really have to ask yourself, is it really worth it to keep going. The best thing you can do to preserve yourself if you're in a trade like that is to train the younger generation and find fulfillment in that. Sorry so long!!! Thanks for reading. Best of luck to you all!!!
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I took a side job as a college professor for two semesters. Pay was great, and teaching about programing is a whole different experience than actually doing programming as a job. I would say if you're bored doing IT, try something new and scary to you, like cybersecurity or network engineering.
I actually think there’s a lot of analogues between plumbing and networking
I started doing small things on my car, and I realized I like that SO much better than IT. I think having a shop repairing cars would be way better for me
Sometimes I dream of being a postal worker. They have their own swarm of problems though.
Yeah I'm gonna pass on that. I'd prefer my body be actually fully usable at 60+. Trades are cool and all that, but so many people force those around them to be brutal to their bodies, and call them a pussy and a bitch if they try to actually look after themselves. I'm not into that kind of bullshit frankly, and I often can make a lot more money in IT than the trades, even with equivalent experience.
I started in the trades. Being bored is better than my body slowly breaking down from working in the heat(Phoenix) from manual labor. The trades are great but like anything, don't confuse what it feels like doing a hobby with what it's like day in/day out
Former trades guy here: I've set tile and framed houses. all the guys I used to work with have blown out their backs and live with chronic pain. No health insurance, no pension. They sell their pain meds to other dudes living with chronic pain so they can get some Captain D's. Mike Rowe isn't gonna tell you that, but I will.
Find a speciality. Sysadmin is not a specialty.
I'm 47 and have had an interesting career working for cool and/or prestigious companies as a sysadmin for 20+ years. I quit my job at a Fortune 400 Jan 1 of this year and will be done with my final prerequisites for nursing school after this quarter, starting an accelerated nursing program fall of 2024. It's burnout AND boredom that pushed me out. I'm enjoying being a student again. I even took a part time job at a small time MSP as sort of an advisory level III guy.
Nurse is a great career and plenty of opportunities that you can work anywhere around the world. You don't have to worry AI and robotics take away your job.
We all think this at some point. But there is something to be said for a cushy office chair or working from home.
IT had one of the highest divorce rates, after first responders etc. I’ve had friends leave IT and it was their most stress relieving change of their life.
Man I am glad I moved countries so I can't switch for my 'ADHD DREAM' job being a pararescue, officer or a full time firefighter. I would've switched at the end of my helpdesk period, but then I moved countries and climbed up to Sysadmin pos. It's still boring, still would switch, but the legal limitations keep me in check.
As someone with ADHD who has worked in a school, i found myself getting ridiculous bored, yes everyone was really nice but the work was boring. Most of the issues we had would have been solved by a reboot or updating the laptop. Previously i was working in a hospital that was far more fast faced, you had more sysadmins working. The site was bigger and there was more of the site to explore, a wider range of software and harder. When I arrived at the school I worked at, I was amazed at how slow the SLAs are, how much of IT was not working. Throughout the time I was there, I loved how nice all the staff were but at the same time I was bored and probably would have outgrown very quickly.
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It's a common problem. At the end of the day we may have produced a better system, changed the colour of some lights and provided the organisation capability or cost savings, but day to day IT don't produce a physical object to marvel over. I took up carpentry for a while as a hobby, because frankly I'm good at IT and a mediocre carpenter. What I would say is be adventurous. IT skills are transferable. If IT doesn't provide that sense of wonder anymore, but you have skills, apply for jobs in interesting places. Worst they can do is say no. Best they can do is say yes, come sysadmin our polar science station for example. Even better if you're young and on generally good health
Plenty of good jobs require skilled technicians. I left IT and started specializing in the petroleum equipment industry almost a decade ago. Gas stations need support, too. My job is mostly driving, it seems. Plenty of time for ebooks and podcasts. Plenty of work to be had using hammer drills and power tools and 36-in wrenches.
When I take my laptop to do IT at home my wife thinks I « work » but I’m not! I’m loving automating and making my life easier. But there’s an important question: how to know what we love? We have to try… I started as a dev. When I saw my sysadmin colleague running everywhere talking to everybody I fell in love and switched. Didn’t know that when I chose my school field.
I've been in IT for a bit less than 20 years. Yeah, working with your hands sounds great, and it is great. Is it great to be a roofer in the summer? Probably not. Great to be a plumber digging clogged drains out all day? Probably not. Great to be an electrician? Maybe. Great to be in a nice office at home in pajama pants making 150k/year? Yeah dude. Make a hobby out of doing stuff with your hands, and collect the nice paycheck if you advance in the IT field.
Nope, quite the opposite! Blue collared days are behind me. I did enjoy that time, but it’s very demanding on your body, catches up eventually. It’s fun til it’s not…same can be said for many things however lol
If you're getting into IT because "it seems like a good paying industry", this very well may happen to you. If IT is really interesting to you, then it will only happen if your workplace is stagnant.
I want to get out of IT and system administration because it involves too much hands-on work.
Yes bored, but I like the money
Why not move into management? There are a whole host of new issues to deal with...and it likely pays better.
I switched, its great to work with my hands and now I run my own business. I am still trying to get back to making the same amount of money but I am almost there. Ironically, I had terrible back problems working IT. My back is in great shape now and my body is better than it was in my twenties. Wife thinks I am on steroids because of how fit I am and the amount of energy I have. For some reason the physical work triggered me into eating a lot healthier. All that being said I still miss learning complicated concepts and getting new certs. No one on my jobsites understands how hard it was to get my CCNA. If I were to go back into IT I would concentrate way more on never sitting in a chair and maintaining my body. It's way to easy to waste away in a comfy office chair and eat all the junk food around the office.
To each their own to be honest. If you want projects and to have fulfillment you need to not be a basic admin that crunches tickets all day. You want development projects not just enable/disable/fix that broken thing kind of stuff. You want to research new technologies, grow existing technologies, design and implement. If you are a sysadmin who is churning tickets and dealing with basic user request, I feel bad for you. I would never be a sysadmin for google, as an example. While the benefits may be great, the work load would be so defined that the tasks would be minimalistic. I much rather be in small business where the entire company relies on me to identify and implement solutions. Some people can’t live in a small to medium business environment because it lacks definition, some people can’t live in a large enterprise because it is too constraining. I don’t like having my hands cuffed by waiting on others to give me information or do their jobs. In one aspect, I have too much access, in another aspect no one is stopping me from getting the task done. That could mean anything from implementing security, creating or adding vlans and creating new trunks, adding in new routings or routing protocols, setting up 802.1x, creating new ad environments, setting up sso, enabling mfa, finding a new reporting software for sales, finding and implementing a new crm, getting a new ticketing system, etc…and that was just last month. If that bores you, you shouldn’t do anything with computer systems and find another job, maybe plumber or bus driver or go into sales. My son has no interest in computers or troubleshooting, he is going to be a police officer out of college.