Transitioning out of IT?

Off Topic
21

[quote]isdatnutty wrote:
It’s not that I don’t like my job. I have no issues with it because of the place I’m working and my team is great, but it’s just I can’t see myself in IT for the next 20 years.

I love working and putting in work, but IT (every aspect about it) is just boring to me. Nothing about it excites me. Now this is weird because I’ve always had a thirst for knowledge. Love learning new shit all the time. The only reason I ever got into it is because of the income it can generate and I happened to be good at it.

I’m only 29 and don’t plan on having kids for at least 5 more years, so I have time. A few of my family members were telling me I should just stick with IT for a few more years and then see how I feel about it 3-5 years from now. They were saying a management or consulting position would fit my personality better, so I just need to keep working to get the experience to land a role like that.

It seems a lot of people don’t even leave the IT field until they hit a “burn-out” stage. So well see what happens![/quote]

You could transition into a business analyst role. Your field expertise would be very valuable.

One of the posters here is a business analyst and he’s talked it up before (blanking on the name right now…).

22

Here’s one of the posts I was thinking of:

[quote]twojarslave wrote:

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
Thanks twojarslave. I just might grab access for dummies. I can’t see a career change for myself now, but we do employee a number of Business Analyst so you never know (they’re mostly in our Corporate HQ in NY though). What do you do with SAP if you don’t me asking? We use SAP where I work (like a lot of places), but I use it from an informational stand point. No data entry for me; although, I do create journal entries for entry that General Accounting will process. I wouldn’t mind learning more about the inner workings of SAP if it’s not mind numbingly difficult. [/quote]

Depends how “inner” of workings you want to get to. I don’t touch code, except if I’m feeling frosty and want to get an idea of what a program might be doing. I do some work with SQL, but I don’t consider that to be overly technical. I’m more “middle layer”. Not quite “inner”.

What I (and most who go by the title “Business Analyst”) do is something of a bridge between the business process side (management, user support) and the technical (developers). To put it in plain English, your business software must model your business process. Sometimes the software does this out-of-the box. Sometimes the software does not. When it doesn’t you can either change your process to match the software model or change the software to match the process model. It is my job to make them meet.

I maintain the configuration that comes with SAP. If a business process is not supported by SAP standard configuration, we may do custom developments. In cases like this, I will write a functional specification document that explains how the development should work to solve the problem and then work with ABAP developers to refine those specs and deliver a solution.

It is usually about 50% screen time (testing, maintaining configuration, more testing, some extra testing after that and testing to figure stuff out I’ve never touched before, and then some testing), 50% human interaction (meetings, training, requirements gathering, etc). This can vary wildly week-to-week.

I’m presently THE business analyst at a small company, so I support all aspects of the business. Finance, Controlling, Manufacturing, Shipping, Sales, Planning, everything falls to me right now. I will soon be on a support team, where I will be specializing in Materials Management and Production Planning. This specialization is more typical with software like SAP.

Having good understanding of the business processes you are supporting is just as, if not more important than having any real depth in your understanding of SAP. An accounting education and experience is absolutely ideal for this.

Pay is generally quite good. Sr. Business Analysts can top out well over $120k/year, which isn’t bad for a job with no direct reports and the bullshit that goes along with it. Project management can be a next step and managing a team of business analysts is another path to a bigger paycheck.

I’d like to continue building up my body of knowledge and experience and get into consulting in my 40’s. That’s where you can make some really big bucks. The most ridiculous invoice I’ve personally seen was one miracle worker’s hourly billing rate of $250.

Keeping on-topic, I’ve known several BA’s with degrees in Computer Science as well. There is not necessarily a single path to getting into this line of work. Technical and business knowledge are both important to have.[/quote]

23

[quote]isdatnutty wrote:
I decided these are the key qualities I want in a career:

  1. Wake up without an alarm clock.
  2. Be on my feet more and not sit at a desk all day.
  3. Interact with external people and not just internal clients.
  4. Helping people/clients achieve their goals
  5. A great work life balance.
  6. Do something that can benefit people/society
  7. Be able to work from anywhere.
  8. A career field that I don’t have to worry about job security, always a need.
  9. 90K+ Yearly Salary
    [/quote]

I’m “in IT” (ie. Software/DBA/System Architectures)

I have all these things.

  1. Except for the occasional early call or onsite customer travel, I get up whenever (usually by 8AM though).

  2. I stand all day with my workstation. I hardly ever sit except when I’m driving to the store/gym, or occasional appointments.

  3. I’m not really sure what this means, but I interact daily with people who are not colleagues or clients.

  4. To the extent that my solutions do this, I do this.

  5. I work 40-80 hours a week between real job and side jobs, still have time with family and lifting and hobbies.

  6. I guess I could claim this. Software that I’ve developed has been geared toward keeping the electric on, managing transportation systems, remediating environmental issues, etc

  7. I can work from whereever I can get an intermittant Internet connection

  8. I’m specialized in a technology that I’ll be somewhat in demand for the foreseeable future (ie. decade(s))

  9. Yep.

24

I would look into the IT Security Risk space. You should have a bunch of knowledge which is applicable as a system admin, soit isn’t a huge leap.

You will be more focused on the business side of things which means lots more client interaction.

It won’t get you all your requirements but you have to sacrifice something for the higher income jobs…

25

[quote]isdatnutty wrote:
I mean being in any of those fields, but transitioning out of IT as a whole. Like going from IT to Marketing, Finance, HR, etc.

I’m currently a System Administrator in a Windows based environment, but I’m starting to think I made the wrong career choice.

I decided these are the key qualities I want in a career:

  1. Wake up without an alarm clock.
  2. Be on my feet more and not sit at a desk all day.
  3. Interact with external people and not just internal clients.
  4. Helping people/clients achieve their goals
  5. A great work life balance.
  6. Do something that can benefit people/society
  7. Be able to work from anywhere.
  8. A career field that I don’t have to worry about job security, always a need.
  9. 90K+ Yearly Salary

So I’ve thought of things like personal training, professor, architect, and also maybe staying in IT (since I have all this knowledge) and doing some consulting of some sort instead. I’ve only been in the career field for 5 years (started as an intern to helpdesk to sys admin). I’m only 29, so I’m thinking if I’m going to make a change, now is the time to do it.[/quote]

You’re 29 and only have 5 years experience in your career. You’re chances of EVER making 90k a year are basically zero if you leave IT at this point. If you stay and work really hard for at least 10-15 years you might have a chance of making 90k before you retire. The rest is just pure fantasy.

26

[quote]isdatnutty wrote:

I decided these are the key qualities I want in a career:

  1. Wake up without an alarm clock.
  2. Be on my feet more and not sit at a desk all day.
  3. Interact with external people and not just internal clients.
  4. Helping people/clients achieve their goals
  5. A great work life balance.
  6. Do something that can benefit people/society
  7. Be able to work from anywhere.
  8. A career field that I don’t have to worry about job security, always a need.
  9. 90K+ Yearly Salary

[/quote]

I don’t intend to be sarcastic, seriously, but this list made me chuckle. What percentage of Americans do you think have all these at once?

Items 1, 6, and 7 are tall, TALL freaking orders, especially 6, I believe, considering this day and age, and the nature of most work.

27

To OP

  • it’s rather simple (not necessarily easy, mind you): treat yourself as a product and market yourself
  • ofc, you need to know the unique selling point(s) of that product and the target market
  • so: prioritize your job requirements, know the market, derive a list of suitable jobs
  • assess how far your current resources (education, job experience, job-related interests, finances) can take you
  • tailor / recombine your skill set to the aforementioned list of suitable jobs
  • don’t overthink it - go out and have some job interviews - at worst, you might gather some useful intel
  • that might take a few iterations (interview-wise and job-wise): each iteration will provide you with new insight
  • use that insight to inform the next iteration

If you take me for a marketing geek: I’m not. But I respect marketing (which is naught but requirements analysis, stakeholder analysis and solution engineering in sexy clothes) as a valid tool and added it to my toolbox.

My down-to-earth opinion: fun; analytical prowess (I picked up Polya in high school - yes, and also banged chicks and lifted weights); pragmatism; communication and the desire to improve by learning and applying are key. In retrospect, I was (and still am) a strong believer in classical education. See The Benefits of a Classical Education - The New American for more information, but I digress.

But the work/life balance thingy? Don’t want to burst your bubble, but most satisfying AND high-paying jobs will make maintaining a healthy work/life balance tricky. Sometimes due to external expectations, but mostly due to one’s own expectations.

As much as I’d like to describe myself as an independent spirit, I had to compromise. Let’s pick two examples:
(1) although I like wearing suits, they make me sweat. I’d rather not wear them all day long, on business trips, you name it, but only on special events. No such luck.
(2) I had to become good at politicking , but I detest it. I’d rather voice my unfiltered opinion and receive unfiltered feedback. This is my MO and imho a good approach to improve human systems (when applied incrementally). Works in my private life and speeds things up. But ofc, that’s a no-no in every line of work that requires lots of interaction, espcially in corporate settings.

Some facts about me

  • I’m mid 30s and never laid out a career plan until three years ago (apart from deciding what to study)
  • I work as a management consultant in IT Strategy where I head my own team - think strategy, business development, process and tech optimization, streamlining/consolidating - if need be, I can run the whole gamut from managing managers/projects to doing code reviews in 3 programming languages (not counting SQL and NoSQL dialactes, ofc), put in a refactoring session or whip up a functional prototype
  • I don’t forget my roots - use it or lose it, as they say
  • I have Master degrees in CompSci and CompEng
  • my motivation for picking up these studies: fun, curiosity, intellectual stimulation (I’m very passionate about problem solving), future work flexibility and good pay
  • fun fact 1: these are also the req’s that led me to my current engagement
  • I’m also a published author both in science and industry pub’s (marketing, remember? Put your name out there: you could start with blogging, for instance)

What did I do before?

  • started software dev freelancing in the 90s, well before the dot com bubble burst and continued doing that throughout my studies
  • fun fact 2: until that point, I had no special interest in maths, nor did I ever touch a programming language. I loved physics (still do), but knew of enough unemployed/underpaid physicists (little did I know back then that their lack of imagination and marketing skills might be responsible for their situations). It just so happened that I needed money, got an opportunity, was curious, took the job and learned the programming language on the fly.
  • during my studies, I worked for a science consulting firm: think enabling/optimizing cross-disciplinary use cases in science with algorithms / software
  • worked as science consultant: 1/3 consulting, 1/3 software dev, 1/3 publications and conference talks (IEEE, ACM but also industry-stuff) - pretty cool stuff, learned and did a lot, saw the world
  • did IT Consulting: cool job in general, but boring firm with boring clients and boring projects - still, could refine and extend my skill set
  • did IT Management as a Software Development Director - refined my managerial skills whilst sharing my knowledge about software development and project management

@Steely
Glad things are going well for you, bud.
But I think you should’ve pointed out a few things, such as:

  • you’ve been at it for quite some time now (as opposed to 5 years such as the OP)
  • you had a prior career doing something related (but not as IT-heavy, if memory serves)
  • you combine that prior domain knowledge with software/systems dev and consulting
  • salary-wise, I make 90K+, but I have nowhere near the freedoms you’ve got (and I still have way more liberties than ever before, work-wise)
  • in my experience, your kind of job doesn’t come along all too often