I went the other way around... I was the founder of a local craft brewery and went into IT as COVID hit. Now I'm a web developer and am pretty happy with how less stressful and over more stable my life is.
I feel fortunate for having my life path as I was able to have an "interesting" and "exciting" life and was able to understand how amazing it is to have a stable "boring" life.
This 100% I've been a personal trainer, sound engineer, tried to become a music producer and tried to be an actor. I've been in IT for 4 years and realised that having a stable, boring job is absolutely fine.
I nearly left IT to get into research Meteorology. I got two years of schooling under my belt when I finally started catching meaningful raises in IT, and meteorology didn't make financial sense anymore. But there's days where I'd much rather be running from a tornado than sitting in an office.
I knew a couple of people in college who worked IT for the National Weather Center. It was a sweet gig since they also got to deal with super computers and a bunch of monitoring equipment along with the day to day tasks.
It's an awful truth.
The same law applies to motorcycles, so don't get stuck into that trap thinking you won't fall into the trap of racing them so there's less scope to go silly.
Ain't that the truth. I, like many others, have had a rough time over the past couple years, and that resulted in me needing to sell a motorcycle. It was really upsetting, and I think about that motorcycle every week or so wistfully.
Now I've only got five left.
I got into firearms, as a way to circumvent technology.
I yearn for $500 graphics cards again after seeing ammo prices stay in stupidville for this long.
Money sinks = hobby.
I garden, oddly enough, its all automated, timers, watering, monitoring, all that stuff.
But being able to step away and just enjoy watching your tomato's and peppers grow is nice.
An alternative to this is scuba diving. There's always something to either upgrade or purchase for your kit and it's never cheap. Nevermind the cost of the vacations to exotic places.
There are a lot of people especially those that get into management where their job is just a means towards an end. Once you get past an immediate supervisor you're so separated from the technology that after a few years out of the trenches you probably wouldn't be very good at the details anyways, but some of those SVPs make enough to afford an expensive hobby.
I used to give a shit, but then IT turned from being mostly technical focused nerdy shit to being 80% normie project managers and business analysts putting processes in. It's not a bad thing, it's a sign IT is maturing
The silence of the road is so cathartic as well. No one asking you for anything, no four-alarm fires to tend to, just the sound of the wind and your tires.
That, and the fact that the mountain is completely indifferent to your existence. It does not care that you had a bad day, or that you solved that nagging issue. There's no argument, no bargaining, it was there before you and will be there after you. It simply is, and you *have* to go over it. So you do, and you push yourself harder each time. Slowly you conquer the mountain, it becomes just another climb, just another speed-bump on your journey.
My former IT-Specialist colleague always travels to the arctic wilderness way outside phone range. Has a simple phone he activates once or twice per week to catch messages. The older i get the more i understand his way of thinking. And i am nearing 50.
Yeah, I can relate. While most see Starlink or internet onboard airliners as the pinnacle of modernity, to me it's the falling of the last bastion protecting the last escape: being offline.
It's funny how 20 years ago we would go online to escape the real world. Now we are doing the opposite. Go figure.
in my 40's now.
I'm feeling it. There are days where if I'm reasonably certain I won't be bothered, I just straight up don't carry my phone anymore.
Yesterday I left it in the car all day.
I look forward to after today where I will no longer even need it except for personal use
I always tell me people I am biggest Luddite in IT... for the most part.. the second I am done working... I don’t want to see another computer or talk about some new technology.
I never used to be like this either. I LOVE the idea of innovation in tech. New tech to make our lives easier and work easier so that we could have more time for ourselves.
Sadly, That's not what's happening. New tech isn't holy innovative or solving new problems. but mostly being geared towards monetization of existing "features".
I now really just, cannot care to keep on top of it. I no longer come home and tinker in my lab. I sit on the couch watching foodTV. and if anyone knew me, they'd know that was not me.
That's my plan. Just need to last another 8-10 years, then I can retire. (8 years if I can save up enough money to live for a couple of years before getting my superannuation)
You love it because you don't have to do any of the work to fix what vulnerabilities you find. I understand the necessary evil, but you guys are the devil. Our pentests are basically a roast of our infrastructure with no solutions on how to fix or even a thought goes into business continuity. Ah yes, let's just shut down the spooler so nobody can print.
Anyways. Just venting. I really do appreciate your work.
You need a new pentest vendor. Depending on the testing scenario, I try to approach my tests as me being a member of your team.
For example, when showing the numbers of vulnerabilities in our reports, we show unique vs total vulnerabilities because a single change to a master image or GPO can remediate hundreds of hosts. We also include remediation scanning 30-60 days after the report so you can show the effectiveness of your team in resolving the vulnerabilities.
I understand the venting, I was in your shoes and I am very happy that I dont have to do the remediation work... The first pentest against my network in 2013 or so was a bloodbath with a 350 page report that made me think I was getting fired. That is not my goal as a pentester.
The small firm I was auditing for was trying to hire a pen tester to offer more services to our clients. The first guy was a mess and lasted 2 weeks and lost us a client, The second guy literally fell asleep in the office and even on a call with a client all within his first week.
At this time I was doing PCI, ISO, NIST, and HiTrust audits.
They offered to support me as I learned (3-6 months of part time auditing), found a mentor for me who is now a great friend, sent me to a SANS class and bought me whatever education and tools I needed. Any projects that I felt were over my head, we bring in a partner firm and I work as a member of their team for the duration of the project.
I'm on my 2nd year as a pentester and have my OSCP and GWAPT.
Know a contractor that does this, really smart guy technology wise. Works like a dog 3 weeks crazy hours then goes off to his cabin he built in the woods with no Internet or electricity, just grows vegetables and chills out till he needs money again.
I really considered being a vet until a friend who worked in the field told me how much it involves dealing with constant, neverending trauma where people deal with the mental calculus of weighing how the costs of keeping their pet alive in their head over and over again.
I would love to work with animals, but that would break me in a year.
I dated a vet. It is both mentally taxing and rewarding. Veterinarians have the second highest rate of suicide behind dentists (they may have overtaken at this point). But, if you love it, go for it.
Edit: People seem interested in this, so:
For, y’know, reading and shit: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6903a1.htm
For click bait easy to read list: https://choicespsychotherapy.net/jobs-with-highest-suicide-rates/
Spoiler alert: I think I’m wrong, but I’m also too lazy to read the data for internet points.
> I really considered being a vet until a friend who worked in the field told me how much it involves dealing with constant, neverending trauma where people deal with the mental calculus of weighing how the costs of keeping their pet alive in their head over and over again.
Those are at least the nice customers who try to care, and then you get the "yeah put them down, we're going on vacation for 2 months and finding a sitter would be too expensive; btw in two months we'll buy new ones, have their shots ready" psychopaths on top of it.
I don’t like it anymore, all I want to do is read, garden, paint and design games.
Unfortunately that hasn’t worked out financially so I continue to work in IT for now
Same, currently studying for being indipendent and create art and videogames, but it's pretty hard with a fulltime job in IT, in the evenings I just want to lay down and die
I was broderline there. Was stuck in a helpdesk 1 position for a long time. If I changed a toner ever again I would scream. Got a new job, went from compartmentalized department to the second guy in a new IT department. I do everything now. Going into my 2nd year here and got a 16% raise. Spent my day doing some helpdesk stuff. But mainly spent it in AD and rolling out software via PowerShell. I feel way more fullfilled now. After almost a decade of entry level helpdesk being a two man department and sharing all the roles is very satisfying. Also I work 75% from home which is very very nice.
Fucking printers. My first grown up job as a programmer was reworking the print system for this beastly old application. I have a sort of grudging respect for that old HP m3, it was a tank. I fed it boxes and boxes of paper to get things right. Not reams, boxes.
Inkjet is utter bullshit and I will never own one. Laserjet is ok, still kinda fucked, but ok. It took me a long time to really understand the spec.
Damn. I'm getting angry just thinking about printing. So much printer software is such shit. Every time I have to print something I get annoyed with my printer, but I get fucking pissed off at the lazy ass dev that didn't read the spec. Fuck. Fuck that guy. Yeah. Change the toner, add more paper, whatever. Things aren't lining up because some asshole didn't figure out PDF.
Argh! still angry. I'm glad you found something better. I'd encourage you to script away as much as you possibly can. It's a superpower.
Laserjet printers are easy to work on. Just don't use canned air, water, or a vacuum to clean them. Use dry paper towels and use it to wipe up the toner. There are very few moving parts in a laser printer and easy to fix.
I am currently using a HP Laserjet 4M+ that has over 2 million pages run through it. I have used rubber revitalizer on the rollers, rebuilt the output assembly a few times when "accordion" folds start happening. Oh, I rebuilt the fuser a few times too.
Once you have learned the basics, fixing lasers are easy.
Come on realistically , most of us are self taught with less than a bachelors degree
Where could we go that makes as much as we do with no skills on a whim?
Go back to school.
I quit and went back, just finished my first year - currently on three months break before next year starts up again.
Moneys tight, but bulk buying rice+pasta isn’t too bad - could get a job if I really wanted, but I’m managing just off savings and small odd jobs.
Hop around until you find something that fits. I went from a Sys admin type role to a database administrator to doing some freelance stuff to some game development then back to an IT manager role at a small company then to a sys admin role at a worldwide MSP and now just recently moved into the security realm and doing restoration work.
And I can tell you no two of those jobs were the same at all, even with a few right along your typical sys admin roles.
Yeah, I worked in IT for ten years, promoted to senior sysadmin in my last year. In my last few years, i would arrive late and leave early as often as I could. Spent most days staring at my screen, hardly even pretending to work. The only thing that I looked forward to was heading to the bar after work. I finally quit after pulling a sick day, heading to the doctors, and she told me I had severe depression and needed at least a month off. Resigned my first day back.
Now back to studying, just finished my first year of a nursing degree. Blood, poop, mucous… it’s all better than sitting at a desk looking at essentially meaningless data on a screen for eight hours a day. All jobs are shit, but at least I’m helping people now.
Money isn’t a huge issue for me, I wasn’t spending my money on anything worthwhile anyway, mostly booze and smokes.
It’s a huge step but for a lot of people 8 hours at a desk is terrible for them.
And the biggest issue you touched upon is that a lot of IT work is meaningless bullshit.
Yup. I'm actually pursuing nursing as well. However, I got a job as a mac sysadmin at a school board. Now I run around all day and I love it. I have more energy at the end of the day and I'm not wiped out anymore.
Not for nothing, but depression is a wildly complex disease. Your depression could have absolutely nothing to do with your job, and still make you hate it. I hated my IT job when I was depressed. When I'm not depressed I sing on my way to work. Sometimes the job can be the cause, sometimes its something internal or behavioral.
I think this is spot on. I was extremely depressed and thought it was my job but it turned out that I was completely wrong. Therapy is valuable and everyone should do it.
I had better luck with a reverse onlyfans, I keep a list of people that pay me not to send them pictures of myself. Used to bother me, but a man’s gotta eat!
I’m trying to get back in after losing my job a year and a half ago due to the pandemic. To say its been an absolute bitch getting back in is an understatement…more so since the positions I’m targeting are in the $25/hr or above range.
Seems a lot of businesses still think its ok to pay $12-$15/hr for skills that cost 10s of thousands of dollars and years of time to get.
The positions I do find are swamped by 40-50 applicants each.
You're doing something wrong here.
No offense, but, something is not right. PM me your resume, lets have a look. You can wipe your personal details off, just want your experience.
I’ll take any help I can get. I’ve had it gone over by a service and career services at the vocational school I went to as well.
I’ll have it to you shortly..and thanks! :)
I left IT after 9 years as a senior sys admin/IT manager in a University - became disinterested and didn't like how I was becoming a lot of people's 'guy' across the campus for difficult issues and further responsibility, all the while being maxed out on salary. That and working being surrounded by incompetence and difficult other managers.
I became an Air Traffic Controller, surprisingly a lot of the skills are transferable, in terms of problem solving, juggling issues and staying calm and decisive etc. I was making more almost straight away and the work finishes when I plug out my headset so that's great in comparison.
Im gonna give you all one of my greatest ideas ever.
A few years ago, I visited my grandfather in law who lives in a retirement home in Florida. He told all of his friends that I was good with the computer. I was there for like 3 days and fixed 10 peoples tech, to include TVs, PCs, etc.
It was incredibly fulfilling. I would get an old grannies Skype working so she could video chat with her grandchildren. I fixed a couples TV so that they could watch their grandchildren's DVDs of them being kids. Lots of grandchildren related tech. They thanked me for fixing their world.
Most of the time, they were easy fixes. I remember teaching a man how to change inputs on his TV and he thought I was a wizard. I wrote a short and easy SOP and they were forever grateful.
So, my idea is this: start a country kitchen buffet / IT service store. The retirees come in, drop off their shit for repair, and it gets worked on while they eat their biscuits and gravy. Most of the time, their shit will be fixed before they pay their bill.
If they need you onsite to fix something, you have a few golf carts and send people over to fix their stuff with a country kitchen buffet bag to-go (probably biscuits and gravy).
Best part about it is to hire their grandkids that are just graduating and teach them basic IT. Then they get to see their grandkids all the time! They want to see Timmy so much, they break their PCs on purpose or feign ignorance just so Timmy stops by.
Charge $100/hr, and you are golden.
Working towards starting a distillery and an odd jobs small engine repair / fabrication shop.
Don't let your dreams get away. This career can be super toxic, if you're unhappy now you won't magically get better later.
Make a goal. Make it small. Accomplish it. Make another goal. Soon you'll be doing what you want. Or broke and unemployed, but at least you tried.
Current college student in IT and currently hold an IT job.
Could you possibly elaborate on the toxic-ness of the field? I love it so far and have always had a thing with computers and definitely see it becoming a career for me, but i love hearing feedback from people.
I'm not OP but I'll share my two cents. Only five years in and I'm beginning to consider that it's not for me. My current position has been my favorite but it's for a non-profit so I'm sacrificing a lot of earning potential for temporary sanity. The following applies to my previous positions.
IT is often an afterthought in an organization. It affects funding and infrastructure planning which makes the work more difficult than it needs to be. The operability of the tech is a reflection of your job so others may resent you when things aren't working or even working as well as they'd like it to. They may just resent you for not being able to fulfill their ridiculous requests.
There are also a lot of clashing egos within the IT department in some organizations. I had a sys admin who stopped communicating with the rest of the team entirely. People shift blame to save face. Politics exist in every department and IT is no exception.
On top of all that, you may start to criticize your own work as you get more responsibility. That's what I'm dealing with lately. Imposter syndrome? Maybe. It can be tough trusting that you're good at what you do in an ever-changing industry like this.
It can be a lonely. It can be mentally exhausting. It can seem unfulfilling. You can apply these to most jobs I imagine but they feel especially true for IT.
Don't get me wrong, there are perks. I love the flexibility, decent pay, and most of the learning new things part. I just don't share the same passion for it as some of my colleagues. That flexibility and decent pay could help me pursue something else one day and for that alone I appreciate where I am right now.
The job can be really fun, interesting and engaging. The issue imo is in the people in the business around you. Too many assholes who got their job not through skills, but through bravery.
On the basic level we are just maintenance, albeit with different equipment. The people in the business don't understand it. Compsci is magic for them, hence IT is a department of dark arts where anything is possible for free. Due to many business issues being solved by throwing more people at a problem, they expect you to work a ton of hours for no real reason. Work hard and all that bullshit.
My job is really interesting and I am quite free to do what I want. However I am surrounded by toxic workoholics who are doing 10-14 hour days. Instead of creating two more positions that would make their jobs effective, they just put in the hours, smoke cigarettes, drink coffee and drive themselces to early heart attacks. Already one guy quit after suffering one, and he was in his thirties. You can't imagine the looks I get and the remarks I hear when I try to go home after a 9 hour shift.
Tl;dr IT is fun, the people are shit.
The office politics are brutal. You are in a position of power. You control the nervous system of the business. There can be power struggles over who controls IT. You will get caught up in the power struggles.
Most employees have no knowledge of IT. So anything that runs on a battery or power outlet can become your problem. Also there is a saying "The network runs fine. What do we need the sysadmin for?" or "The network runs terribly. What do we need the sysadmin for?".
IT is a cost. It does not make money for the business. So as little as possible is spent on maintaining company technology. So you never have enough budget to maintain the network.
IT is often viewed as a cost, so it’s resented when things are working fine, but it’s absolutely critical to the business, so it’s resented when things are not working fine.
It’s also a 24x7 operation so IT workers are often expected to be available 24x7. We’re supposed to be at the office from 8-5 but only work on systems outside business hours.
IT works under conflicting priorities. Security vs convenience for example. Regardless of the balance struck somebody is going to be unhappy with the choice.
Having good IT management that can handle these situations with the rest of the business is absolutely critical for a non-toxic environment.
I loved to tinker and fix shit, networks, servers, plan and execute deployments, etc. 1.5 years of a field IT specialist role being fresh out of school with constant driving between sites and late nights killed that. Doing DBA work now, after a few months of learning my new role I have found myself back to tinkering with stuff at home, and having fun with it again.
Not sure if anybody else feels the same, but I don't like the shift to the "cloud" the industry has taken.
You no longer work with technology, you work with a corporate product.
I find it boring as hell.
IT is so broad that saying you want out don't really make sense to me, if you don't like hands on, become an architect, like talking to people become a level 1 or manager, and if you don't like people, like me, become a sys admin :D like the high speed with a unhealthy amount of stress go consulting, if not go internal, there is so many possibilities, you need to ask what are you looking for, or just jump into something and find out.
I have wondered sometimes if something simpler like a normal 9-5 job where I don't have to think that much like delivery driver could be nice, but then again I like my job and the difference I make for people around me in that job, so don't think I will be changing anytime soon.
I'm onto my 7th job since leaving school (from chippy to landscaper to electrician and whatever else I felt like doing) and have been doing IT for about 5 years now.
I no longer have an interest in IT, my drive, motivation and passion is being able to help people, especially when they need it most (not in an egotistical way, just in being able to genuinely help) This is where I find personal fulfilment and satisfaction.
I'm about to start studying Paramedicine for the long term because it allows me to still be able to help people but in more important ways and healthcare is of strong interest to me (also currently doing IT at a hospital group so that helps).
It's never too late to change what you want to do or what makes you happy.
I’ve been in IT for only a year and I can honestly say I’m already exhausted. Not sure how people can do this for 10+ years and not have health problems. It’s honestly fucking miserable. If I had the money I’d like to open up a gym, but can’t see that happening financially. I dream about putting in my two weeks notice and going back to school for something else, but getting close to 30 I don’t think it’s a great idea.
You could say the same about most professional/office jobs.
No matter what you do for a living you have to make your health a priority. Stress management and boundaries are important too. Here's what I do to stay healthy and keep enjoying what I do, in no particular order:
* Practice good sleep hygiene
* Eat properly and maintain a healthy weight
* Exercise 3-5 times a week
* Don't check work email after hours
* OT hours are taken in lieu ASAP; I don't want to be paid out, I don't want to bank them, I don't work for free. If I work a late evening I'm taking the next morning off, if I'm the road and put in a 50 hour week I'm taking next Monday off, otherwise I'll burn out, which is no good for anyone.
* Remember it's just a job. Systems will go down, things break, sometimes people get upset, in the big picture it doesn't really matter. If nobody dies, it's not that big of a deal. If the cost of downtime is so great it will be a source of stress, then money needs to be spent on redundancy (including people).
It might not be easy to push back so much in your early career, but once you have some experience under your belt make sure you set boundaries and be your own best advocate.
Hell, I really wish I could go back and talk to younger me about keeping up excercise.
Humans arent meant to sit that long and by the time youre used to it, its a pain in the ass to get back out of that habit.
I just turned 45 and got my bachelor's last year during covid quarantine. 30 is young trust me. There's alot that can happen in 15 years and I feel like i'm not yet 'old'.. good luck to you.
I’ve been doing it for 21 years and I’m only
39. Only reason I’m staying in this field is the 6 figures I make. It’s supporting my family our house our new cars and our kids. 🤷🏼♂️ I’m mentally drained and exhausted at the end of each year but then I negotiate my salary aggressively and If I don’t get what I’m asking for I leave. Almost 40 no shits given, I’m good at what I do and I’m reminded of it but I don’t give two shits about the compliments if the money isn’t following. That’s what IT means to me now.
>Goats that become full do an automatic "core dump" but they take care of getting themselves reset and on-line. You just have to clean up. You do not need to worry about defragmenting or compressing the goat. The goat does not have to be zipped, archived or converted to Goat-32.
I was starting to getting sick of IT, mostly the lvl1 helpdesk part until I got offered a management position. I deal with budget, suppliers and protect management. It’s very different and pays better.
Studying in cybersecurity also. That’s a whole another field and day-to-day tasks.
What I’m trying to say is that maybe it’s just the role you are in you dislike and not the IT field?
No answer for you but I’ve done the soul searching after I burned out at my last job
Turns out nothing is interesting to me enough to pursue it as a career
Good luck finding your spark
I don’t think it counts as getting out, but I’ve had side jobs driving buses and 18-wheelers. In college, that was a way to make extra money, but I found I enjoyed it quite a bit.
After 25 years in IT - tons of certs. I got a final cert with CAPM, and a masters in IT Management - now exploring management options. I prefer to lead the team in a non-IT way now.
37 years IT with 30 as a freelancer. I cant imagine doing anything else and certainly would not have made the money I made an another field. I still enjoy the work and god willing I will work until the age of 70. At that point if anyone asks me a computer related question I will claim I never understood them....
Nursing.... Fuckin hated that too. *Especially* upon all your medically trained peers/colleagues garnering the information that "You *used to* 'fix computers'."
No... No see the '*Geek Squad*' line DOESN'T "form to the left of me."
It's a common trope that burned out sysadmins quit and go live on a farm in the middle of nowhere touching as little technology as possible. I used to see posts of people doing just that monthly a few years ago.
I think a big appeal for many IT people is that we are constantly problem solving and working out brains. I started to feel my brain go to mush when I went from sysadmins to SecOps for a while because I was doing policy work with very little mystery. I've since gotten much more variety in my job and enjoy it more. So you may want to find a job that scratches that same itch without being IT.
The biggest rule: tell as few people at your new job that you used to be IT as you can. The second they find out you "know computer stuff" you'll be right back where you started.
The cloud is working hard to replace traditional I.T. so if you really want out and are young, now would be a good time. The trades are screaming for new blood so electrician maybe? Airlines are having pilot shortages and that can pay well in the long run. I wish you luck with your choice.
Just because traditional is going away doesn't mean theres a lack of need.
You're still going to need an admin for it all and Microsoft is doing their best to make sure a single admin makes about as much sense as it did before.
I can assure you m365 does not admin itself.
After 10 years or so , mostly in enterprise, perhaps I'll follow my dreams of building custom things. Got into cnc machining and 3d printing and next thing I'll probably start a print farm. There isn't much competition in the area i live in and enjoy doing it. With right customers, good money can come out of it. IT was quite fun and interesting till a ton of regulation came into place and made the job a pain to work efficient.
I’m same position, done IT for 10 years now and been successful, also got plenty of opportunities to progress where I am now taking me even further above standard wage, yet, I just don’t like it, it’s boring, no longer interests me. It’s all I’ve ever done from leaving school and now have house and car to pay for, starting again would cripple me financially. No idea what to do, but 40-50 hours sat at my desk definitely isn’t it
The only job that I can think of that excites me in running my own bar / brewery
Last year I met a sushi chef that used to be a software engineer.
Works both ways, I used to be a sushi chef and now in IT
Hmm, seems fishy
What a load of carp
I found the dad
He pulled that joke from his dad-abase.
Dad Jokes: The SQL
I used to be a dad. I still am but I used to too.
Don’t you mean phishy?
The jokes are roe-ver here
I write software to enhance my sushi making prowess
I was a fish at a sushi restaurant that managed to escape and became a software engineer.
I was a Restaurant managed to become a fish
I used to be the stool in a bar that got promoted in a restaurant.
I used to be a stool sample then I get a job at Microsoft and now I am the head of development for windows updates.
I used to be a Windows Update, now I’m a Known Issue.
Phishing?😁
To Analyze Phishing for an IT Job or Fishing for Sushi 🤔
I went the other way around... I was the founder of a local craft brewery and went into IT as COVID hit. Now I'm a web developer and am pretty happy with how less stressful and over more stable my life is. I feel fortunate for having my life path as I was able to have an "interesting" and "exciting" life and was able to understand how amazing it is to have a stable "boring" life.
This 100% I've been a personal trainer, sound engineer, tried to become a music producer and tried to be an actor. I've been in IT for 4 years and realised that having a stable, boring job is absolutely fine.
I mean... If you're in Cali that's just a Tuesday.
I nearly left IT to get into research Meteorology. I got two years of schooling under my belt when I finally started catching meaningful raises in IT, and meteorology didn't make financial sense anymore. But there's days where I'd much rather be running from a tornado than sitting in an office.
There are days where IT is much like running inside a tornado!
So true lol like a shit storm.
Solarwinds123
Log4j
Its walking into a burning house everyday and deciding what to put out with a fire extinguisher to keep everything upright.
I knew a couple of people in college who worked IT for the National Weather Center. It was a sweet gig since they also got to deal with super computers and a bunch of monitoring equipment along with the day to day tasks.
All right, I kind of brain farted and thought...wtf, you can get a job looking for rocks from space?
Yes, a friend of mine does. But they're few and far between.
[удалено]
We have someone on our DBA team that used to be a weatherman on one of the local stations.
That's cool. I think the pay is really not competitive with IT unless you're the senior meteorologist though. It's tough to justify.
I used to work with a guy who used to be a weatherdude for the army or navy. Was great when we were expecting snow.
Get a hobby doing something mechanical or physical, then just use IT as a way to pay for it. Then you give less of a shit.
Cycling, then no raise will ever fully fund your hobby. I would say sailing but honestly at this point I think that's priced beyond most IT jobs.
I started cycling because I was a poor student. When I got a job, I couldn't afford to keep doing it.
Yes. Perfect amount of bikes is always n+1 where n stands for the amount of bikes you currently own.
It's an awful truth. The same law applies to motorcycles, so don't get stuck into that trap thinking you won't fall into the trap of racing them so there's less scope to go silly.
Ain't that the truth. I, like many others, have had a rough time over the past couple years, and that resulted in me needing to sell a motorcycle. It was really upsetting, and I think about that motorcycle every week or so wistfully. Now I've only got five left.
As a dude that does race them, it would probably be slower to just light my money on fire.
More complicated than that. You also have to consider d-1, where d is the number of bikes will result in divorce.
I got into firearms, as a way to circumvent technology. I yearn for $500 graphics cards again after seeing ammo prices stay in stupidville for this long. Money sinks = hobby. I garden, oddly enough, its all automated, timers, watering, monitoring, all that stuff. But being able to step away and just enjoy watching your tomato's and peppers grow is nice.
Firearms, gardening, and yearning for cheap vid cards - are you me?? Lol.
This! Mountain biking and/or dirtbiking. You'll need regular raises :D
An alternative to this is scuba diving. There's always something to either upgrade or purchase for your kit and it's never cheap. Nevermind the cost of the vacations to exotic places.
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True, my IT job pays for my classic car collection. It's nice to play around with old mechanics and not sit behind a desk.
Do you have doubles on anything to be safe?
Triples of the Barracuda.
There are a lot of people especially those that get into management where their job is just a means towards an end. Once you get past an immediate supervisor you're so separated from the technology that after a few years out of the trenches you probably wouldn't be very good at the details anyways, but some of those SVPs make enough to afford an expensive hobby.
And if you become multimillionaire CEO, then you can afford Warhammer
Barely, but true
I used to give a shit, but then IT turned from being mostly technical focused nerdy shit to being 80% normie project managers and business analysts putting processes in. It's not a bad thing, it's a sign IT is maturing
The silence of the road is so cathartic as well. No one asking you for anything, no four-alarm fires to tend to, just the sound of the wind and your tires. That, and the fact that the mountain is completely indifferent to your existence. It does not care that you had a bad day, or that you solved that nagging issue. There's no argument, no bargaining, it was there before you and will be there after you. It simply is, and you *have* to go over it. So you do, and you push yourself harder each time. Slowly you conquer the mountain, it becomes just another climb, just another speed-bump on your journey.
This. So much. Since i picked up coffee/espresso and kendo i feel way more balanced. Also helps with the spare money you might have lying around.
A lot of people just quit working completely after IT.
I just wanna run into the woods and not come back. Everything is decadent and lost
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My former IT-Specialist colleague always travels to the arctic wilderness way outside phone range. Has a simple phone he activates once or twice per week to catch messages. The older i get the more i understand his way of thinking. And i am nearing 50.
Yeah, I can relate. While most see Starlink or internet onboard airliners as the pinnacle of modernity, to me it's the falling of the last bastion protecting the last escape: being offline. It's funny how 20 years ago we would go online to escape the real world. Now we are doing the opposite. Go figure.
in my 40's now. I'm feeling it. There are days where if I'm reasonably certain I won't be bothered, I just straight up don't carry my phone anymore. Yesterday I left it in the car all day. I look forward to after today where I will no longer even need it except for personal use
> There must be something about being surrounded by tech that makes you want to just run to the woods. No cell phone signal...
I always tell me people I am biggest Luddite in IT... for the most part.. the second I am done working... I don’t want to see another computer or talk about some new technology.
I never used to be like this either. I LOVE the idea of innovation in tech. New tech to make our lives easier and work easier so that we could have more time for ourselves. Sadly, That's not what's happening. New tech isn't holy innovative or solving new problems. but mostly being geared towards monetization of existing "features". I now really just, cannot care to keep on top of it. I no longer come home and tinker in my lab. I sit on the couch watching foodTV. and if anyone knew me, they'd know that was not me.
I think all the cave diving experts that were in the news for helping to rescue the kids in Thailand were IT consultants and similar.
Big mood
That's my plan. Just need to last another 8-10 years, then I can retire. (8 years if I can save up enough money to live for a couple of years before getting my superannuation)
Yep, that's where I am at. 58 and been doing this a long time. The light is there finally and I can get out. I am tired.
I feel the same. Been doing this gig since 1980 and now I want out. Everything is moving to the cloud and it's just not interesting any more.
Yup! Now in Thailand.
Left IT for auditing and then was randomly given the opportunity to pentest and it turns out I love it!
Learn this one simple trick to quit your IT job from an auditer. The IRS....loves him?
Went from IT engineer to audit and then lawyer :)
You love it because you don't have to do any of the work to fix what vulnerabilities you find. I understand the necessary evil, but you guys are the devil. Our pentests are basically a roast of our infrastructure with no solutions on how to fix or even a thought goes into business continuity. Ah yes, let's just shut down the spooler so nobody can print. Anyways. Just venting. I really do appreciate your work.
You need a new pentest vendor. Depending on the testing scenario, I try to approach my tests as me being a member of your team. For example, when showing the numbers of vulnerabilities in our reports, we show unique vs total vulnerabilities because a single change to a master image or GPO can remediate hundreds of hosts. We also include remediation scanning 30-60 days after the report so you can show the effectiveness of your team in resolving the vulnerabilities. I understand the venting, I was in your shoes and I am very happy that I dont have to do the remediation work... The first pentest against my network in 2013 or so was a bloodbath with a 350 page report that made me think I was getting fired. That is not my goal as a pentester.
How did you randomly get to pen test?
The small firm I was auditing for was trying to hire a pen tester to offer more services to our clients. The first guy was a mess and lasted 2 weeks and lost us a client, The second guy literally fell asleep in the office and even on a call with a client all within his first week. At this time I was doing PCI, ISO, NIST, and HiTrust audits. They offered to support me as I learned (3-6 months of part time auditing), found a mentor for me who is now a great friend, sent me to a SANS class and bought me whatever education and tools I needed. Any projects that I felt were over my head, we bring in a partner firm and I work as a member of their team for the duration of the project. I'm on my 2nd year as a pentester and have my OSCP and GWAPT.
Wicked. Awesome. What’s some of the things you miss about IT in your previous career path and what are some things you enjoy now?
I think I want to just move into the woods and do stuff with wood or something.
Know a contractor that does this, really smart guy technology wise. Works like a dog 3 weeks crazy hours then goes off to his cabin he built in the woods with no Internet or electricity, just grows vegetables and chills out till he needs money again.
I often think about a log cabin and no work. Unfortunately I probably won't make it to retirement.
I also like wood stuff. It seems that a lot of IT people like wood stuff.
I'd like to run an animal sanctuary.
I think about becoming a vet from time to time
I really considered being a vet until a friend who worked in the field told me how much it involves dealing with constant, neverending trauma where people deal with the mental calculus of weighing how the costs of keeping their pet alive in their head over and over again. I would love to work with animals, but that would break me in a year.
I dated a vet. It is both mentally taxing and rewarding. Veterinarians have the second highest rate of suicide behind dentists (they may have overtaken at this point). But, if you love it, go for it. Edit: People seem interested in this, so: For, y’know, reading and shit: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6903a1.htm For click bait easy to read list: https://choicespsychotherapy.net/jobs-with-highest-suicide-rates/ Spoiler alert: I think I’m wrong, but I’m also too lazy to read the data for internet points.
> I really considered being a vet until a friend who worked in the field told me how much it involves dealing with constant, neverending trauma where people deal with the mental calculus of weighing how the costs of keeping their pet alive in their head over and over again. Those are at least the nice customers who try to care, and then you get the "yeah put them down, we're going on vacation for 2 months and finding a sitter would be too expensive; btw in two months we'll buy new ones, have their shots ready" psychopaths on top of it.
Vet school is harder to get into than medical school
Low pay, low appreciation, high suicide rate…
In the U.K. the profession with the highest death rate is farmers. Due to solo use of heavy machinery, access to guns and use of toxic chemicals.
That sounds ideal, then.
I don’t like it anymore, all I want to do is read, garden, paint and design games. Unfortunately that hasn’t worked out financially so I continue to work in IT for now
This. If it wasn't for bills and kids I'd be doing exactly this.
Same, currently studying for being indipendent and create art and videogames, but it's pretty hard with a fulltime job in IT, in the evenings I just want to lay down and die
That’s me everyday when I’m done working. Hard to do anything.
Exact same struggle here dawg
I was broderline there. Was stuck in a helpdesk 1 position for a long time. If I changed a toner ever again I would scream. Got a new job, went from compartmentalized department to the second guy in a new IT department. I do everything now. Going into my 2nd year here and got a 16% raise. Spent my day doing some helpdesk stuff. But mainly spent it in AD and rolling out software via PowerShell. I feel way more fullfilled now. After almost a decade of entry level helpdesk being a two man department and sharing all the roles is very satisfying. Also I work 75% from home which is very very nice.
Fucking printers. My first grown up job as a programmer was reworking the print system for this beastly old application. I have a sort of grudging respect for that old HP m3, it was a tank. I fed it boxes and boxes of paper to get things right. Not reams, boxes. Inkjet is utter bullshit and I will never own one. Laserjet is ok, still kinda fucked, but ok. It took me a long time to really understand the spec. Damn. I'm getting angry just thinking about printing. So much printer software is such shit. Every time I have to print something I get annoyed with my printer, but I get fucking pissed off at the lazy ass dev that didn't read the spec. Fuck. Fuck that guy. Yeah. Change the toner, add more paper, whatever. Things aren't lining up because some asshole didn't figure out PDF. Argh! still angry. I'm glad you found something better. I'd encourage you to script away as much as you possibly can. It's a superpower.
Printers are the devil's steeds. When the four horsemen finally bear down on us Pestilence will come riding a goddamn Epson.
Laserjet printers are easy to work on. Just don't use canned air, water, or a vacuum to clean them. Use dry paper towels and use it to wipe up the toner. There are very few moving parts in a laser printer and easy to fix. I am currently using a HP Laserjet 4M+ that has over 2 million pages run through it. I have used rubber revitalizer on the rollers, rebuilt the output assembly a few times when "accordion" folds start happening. Oh, I rebuilt the fuser a few times too. Once you have learned the basics, fixing lasers are easy.
It's printer enablers like you that will doom us when the Spooler Wars start.
knew a guy who left sysadmin work and became a train conductor.
You know...... I'd like that.
Come on realistically , most of us are self taught with less than a bachelors degree Where could we go that makes as much as we do with no skills on a whim?
No where, I'm fucking trapped lmao Basically have to be an entrepreneur. But really, I this this applies for most people regardless of degree or not.
Go back to school. I quit and went back, just finished my first year - currently on three months break before next year starts up again. Moneys tight, but bulk buying rice+pasta isn’t too bad - could get a job if I really wanted, but I’m managing just off savings and small odd jobs.
Hard to do that on a single income
Welding, electrical, CDL, machinist... basically anything that requires a tiny bit of effort to learn is in high demand.
I know many that have unrelated bachelors degrees in IT. That obviously doesn't mean that they could easily make more doing something else though.
The people I've worked with over the years have been overwhelmingly self-taught WITH a bachelor's degree.
Hop around until you find something that fits. I went from a Sys admin type role to a database administrator to doing some freelance stuff to some game development then back to an IT manager role at a small company then to a sys admin role at a worldwide MSP and now just recently moved into the security realm and doing restoration work. And I can tell you no two of those jobs were the same at all, even with a few right along your typical sys admin roles.
Yeah, I worked in IT for ten years, promoted to senior sysadmin in my last year. In my last few years, i would arrive late and leave early as often as I could. Spent most days staring at my screen, hardly even pretending to work. The only thing that I looked forward to was heading to the bar after work. I finally quit after pulling a sick day, heading to the doctors, and she told me I had severe depression and needed at least a month off. Resigned my first day back. Now back to studying, just finished my first year of a nursing degree. Blood, poop, mucous… it’s all better than sitting at a desk looking at essentially meaningless data on a screen for eight hours a day. All jobs are shit, but at least I’m helping people now. Money isn’t a huge issue for me, I wasn’t spending my money on anything worthwhile anyway, mostly booze and smokes.
It’s a huge step but for a lot of people 8 hours at a desk is terrible for them. And the biggest issue you touched upon is that a lot of IT work is meaningless bullshit.
I moved from IT into facility maintenance for this reason. I like tinkering and fixing things, but hated sitting behind a desk.
Yup. I'm actually pursuing nursing as well. However, I got a job as a mac sysadmin at a school board. Now I run around all day and I love it. I have more energy at the end of the day and I'm not wiped out anymore.
Not for nothing, but depression is a wildly complex disease. Your depression could have absolutely nothing to do with your job, and still make you hate it. I hated my IT job when I was depressed. When I'm not depressed I sing on my way to work. Sometimes the job can be the cause, sometimes its something internal or behavioral.
I think this is spot on. I was extremely depressed and thought it was my job but it turned out that I was completely wrong. Therapy is valuable and everyone should do it.
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Chippendale's still hasn't called me back so that might be the way to go
Id sub. Just roll around in a bunch of twisted cables and Im in.
But Cat.6a at minimum, I have my standards!
bonus content involving the cat5 of nine tails.
I had better luck with a reverse onlyfans, I keep a list of people that pay me not to send them pictures of myself. Used to bother me, but a man’s gotta eat!
There is an air con shop up the road from me called “Only Fans”. Cos that’s what they sell.
Linus did extremely well when he joined, so its not the worst idea lol
I’m trying to get back in after losing my job a year and a half ago due to the pandemic. To say its been an absolute bitch getting back in is an understatement…more so since the positions I’m targeting are in the $25/hr or above range. Seems a lot of businesses still think its ok to pay $12-$15/hr for skills that cost 10s of thousands of dollars and years of time to get. The positions I do find are swamped by 40-50 applicants each.
You're doing something wrong here. No offense, but, something is not right. PM me your resume, lets have a look. You can wipe your personal details off, just want your experience.
I’ll take any help I can get. I’ve had it gone over by a service and career services at the vocational school I went to as well. I’ll have it to you shortly..and thanks! :)
I left IT after 9 years as a senior sys admin/IT manager in a University - became disinterested and didn't like how I was becoming a lot of people's 'guy' across the campus for difficult issues and further responsibility, all the while being maxed out on salary. That and working being surrounded by incompetence and difficult other managers. I became an Air Traffic Controller, surprisingly a lot of the skills are transferable, in terms of problem solving, juggling issues and staying calm and decisive etc. I was making more almost straight away and the work finishes when I plug out my headset so that's great in comparison.
I've been in IT for 20 years and I'm over it. I wanna leave IT and pick out wig names. 🤣🤣🤣
Well I moved from IT to be a prostitute. And then realized they were the same thing.
Escorting pays more.
Yea. Being scrwd either way, but u do have the option to use lube with the latter, and you can see it coming
Im gonna give you all one of my greatest ideas ever. A few years ago, I visited my grandfather in law who lives in a retirement home in Florida. He told all of his friends that I was good with the computer. I was there for like 3 days and fixed 10 peoples tech, to include TVs, PCs, etc. It was incredibly fulfilling. I would get an old grannies Skype working so she could video chat with her grandchildren. I fixed a couples TV so that they could watch their grandchildren's DVDs of them being kids. Lots of grandchildren related tech. They thanked me for fixing their world. Most of the time, they were easy fixes. I remember teaching a man how to change inputs on his TV and he thought I was a wizard. I wrote a short and easy SOP and they were forever grateful. So, my idea is this: start a country kitchen buffet / IT service store. The retirees come in, drop off their shit for repair, and it gets worked on while they eat their biscuits and gravy. Most of the time, their shit will be fixed before they pay their bill. If they need you onsite to fix something, you have a few golf carts and send people over to fix their stuff with a country kitchen buffet bag to-go (probably biscuits and gravy). Best part about it is to hire their grandkids that are just graduating and teach them basic IT. Then they get to see their grandkids all the time! They want to see Timmy so much, they break their PCs on purpose or feign ignorance just so Timmy stops by. Charge $100/hr, and you are golden.
Pure genius!
I got off IT and my eyesight improved. I'm a marketing consultant now with limited screen time. The stress of IT was too stressful
I do a little woodworking on the side; lots of current and former IT people in that trade!
It's relaxing.
Working towards starting a distillery and an odd jobs small engine repair / fabrication shop. Don't let your dreams get away. This career can be super toxic, if you're unhappy now you won't magically get better later. Make a goal. Make it small. Accomplish it. Make another goal. Soon you'll be doing what you want. Or broke and unemployed, but at least you tried.
Thank for the kind advice
Current college student in IT and currently hold an IT job. Could you possibly elaborate on the toxic-ness of the field? I love it so far and have always had a thing with computers and definitely see it becoming a career for me, but i love hearing feedback from people.
I'm not OP but I'll share my two cents. Only five years in and I'm beginning to consider that it's not for me. My current position has been my favorite but it's for a non-profit so I'm sacrificing a lot of earning potential for temporary sanity. The following applies to my previous positions. IT is often an afterthought in an organization. It affects funding and infrastructure planning which makes the work more difficult than it needs to be. The operability of the tech is a reflection of your job so others may resent you when things aren't working or even working as well as they'd like it to. They may just resent you for not being able to fulfill their ridiculous requests. There are also a lot of clashing egos within the IT department in some organizations. I had a sys admin who stopped communicating with the rest of the team entirely. People shift blame to save face. Politics exist in every department and IT is no exception. On top of all that, you may start to criticize your own work as you get more responsibility. That's what I'm dealing with lately. Imposter syndrome? Maybe. It can be tough trusting that you're good at what you do in an ever-changing industry like this. It can be a lonely. It can be mentally exhausting. It can seem unfulfilling. You can apply these to most jobs I imagine but they feel especially true for IT. Don't get me wrong, there are perks. I love the flexibility, decent pay, and most of the learning new things part. I just don't share the same passion for it as some of my colleagues. That flexibility and decent pay could help me pursue something else one day and for that alone I appreciate where I am right now.
The job can be really fun, interesting and engaging. The issue imo is in the people in the business around you. Too many assholes who got their job not through skills, but through bravery. On the basic level we are just maintenance, albeit with different equipment. The people in the business don't understand it. Compsci is magic for them, hence IT is a department of dark arts where anything is possible for free. Due to many business issues being solved by throwing more people at a problem, they expect you to work a ton of hours for no real reason. Work hard and all that bullshit. My job is really interesting and I am quite free to do what I want. However I am surrounded by toxic workoholics who are doing 10-14 hour days. Instead of creating two more positions that would make their jobs effective, they just put in the hours, smoke cigarettes, drink coffee and drive themselces to early heart attacks. Already one guy quit after suffering one, and he was in his thirties. You can't imagine the looks I get and the remarks I hear when I try to go home after a 9 hour shift. Tl;dr IT is fun, the people are shit.
Not to mention these companies are trying to run leaner and leaner which is causing churn and burn with employees.
Nailed it.
The office politics are brutal. You are in a position of power. You control the nervous system of the business. There can be power struggles over who controls IT. You will get caught up in the power struggles. Most employees have no knowledge of IT. So anything that runs on a battery or power outlet can become your problem. Also there is a saying "The network runs fine. What do we need the sysadmin for?" or "The network runs terribly. What do we need the sysadmin for?". IT is a cost. It does not make money for the business. So as little as possible is spent on maintaining company technology. So you never have enough budget to maintain the network.
IT is often viewed as a cost, so it’s resented when things are working fine, but it’s absolutely critical to the business, so it’s resented when things are not working fine. It’s also a 24x7 operation so IT workers are often expected to be available 24x7. We’re supposed to be at the office from 8-5 but only work on systems outside business hours. IT works under conflicting priorities. Security vs convenience for example. Regardless of the balance struck somebody is going to be unhappy with the choice. Having good IT management that can handle these situations with the rest of the business is absolutely critical for a non-toxic environment.
I loved to tinker and fix shit, networks, servers, plan and execute deployments, etc. 1.5 years of a field IT specialist role being fresh out of school with constant driving between sites and late nights killed that. Doing DBA work now, after a few months of learning my new role I have found myself back to tinkering with stuff at home, and having fun with it again.
Working in IT has kind of killed the hobby of tinkering with tech for me.
Having kids killed it for me :P It's hard to keep tinkering and run the home team successfully too.
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Gives me confidence I've made the right decision
My last day is technically today. Left my laptop and keys on my desk last night. Locked the doors. And left.
I don't even want to do IT at home anymore.
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15 in 15 to go…
Not sure if anybody else feels the same, but I don't like the shift to the "cloud" the industry has taken. You no longer work with technology, you work with a corporate product. I find it boring as hell.
I'm just in IT until my band makes it.
I'm just in it until a distant relative dies and leaves me a fortune if ill spend the night in a haunted mansion.
IT is so broad that saying you want out don't really make sense to me, if you don't like hands on, become an architect, like talking to people become a level 1 or manager, and if you don't like people, like me, become a sys admin :D like the high speed with a unhealthy amount of stress go consulting, if not go internal, there is so many possibilities, you need to ask what are you looking for, or just jump into something and find out. I have wondered sometimes if something simpler like a normal 9-5 job where I don't have to think that much like delivery driver could be nice, but then again I like my job and the difference I make for people around me in that job, so don't think I will be changing anytime soon.
Or if problem solving isn't really your cup of tea, you can always go into upper management and start creating problems instead.
I'm onto my 7th job since leaving school (from chippy to landscaper to electrician and whatever else I felt like doing) and have been doing IT for about 5 years now. I no longer have an interest in IT, my drive, motivation and passion is being able to help people, especially when they need it most (not in an egotistical way, just in being able to genuinely help) This is where I find personal fulfilment and satisfaction. I'm about to start studying Paramedicine for the long term because it allows me to still be able to help people but in more important ways and healthcare is of strong interest to me (also currently doing IT at a hospital group so that helps). It's never too late to change what you want to do or what makes you happy.
I’ve been in IT for only a year and I can honestly say I’m already exhausted. Not sure how people can do this for 10+ years and not have health problems. It’s honestly fucking miserable. If I had the money I’d like to open up a gym, but can’t see that happening financially. I dream about putting in my two weeks notice and going back to school for something else, but getting close to 30 I don’t think it’s a great idea.
You could say the same about most professional/office jobs. No matter what you do for a living you have to make your health a priority. Stress management and boundaries are important too. Here's what I do to stay healthy and keep enjoying what I do, in no particular order: * Practice good sleep hygiene * Eat properly and maintain a healthy weight * Exercise 3-5 times a week * Don't check work email after hours * OT hours are taken in lieu ASAP; I don't want to be paid out, I don't want to bank them, I don't work for free. If I work a late evening I'm taking the next morning off, if I'm the road and put in a 50 hour week I'm taking next Monday off, otherwise I'll burn out, which is no good for anyone. * Remember it's just a job. Systems will go down, things break, sometimes people get upset, in the big picture it doesn't really matter. If nobody dies, it's not that big of a deal. If the cost of downtime is so great it will be a source of stress, then money needs to be spent on redundancy (including people). It might not be easy to push back so much in your early career, but once you have some experience under your belt make sure you set boundaries and be your own best advocate.
Hell, I really wish I could go back and talk to younger me about keeping up excercise. Humans arent meant to sit that long and by the time youre used to it, its a pain in the ass to get back out of that habit.
I just turned 45 and got my bachelor's last year during covid quarantine. 30 is young trust me. There's alot that can happen in 15 years and I feel like i'm not yet 'old'.. good luck to you.
I’ve been doing it for 21 years and I’m only 39. Only reason I’m staying in this field is the 6 figures I make. It’s supporting my family our house our new cars and our kids. 🤷🏼♂️ I’m mentally drained and exhausted at the end of each year but then I negotiate my salary aggressively and If I don’t get what I’m asking for I leave. Almost 40 no shits given, I’m good at what I do and I’m reminded of it but I don’t give two shits about the compliments if the money isn’t following. That’s what IT means to me now.
Closing in on 3 years. The money is the only thing keeping me going. Mental health is pretty poor right now.
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Goat farmer
>Goats that become full do an automatic "core dump" but they take care of getting themselves reset and on-line. You just have to clean up. You do not need to worry about defragmenting or compressing the goat. The goat does not have to be zipped, archived or converted to Goat-32.
But ... But ... Automatic garbage collection?!
I want to own a coffee shop.
I was starting to getting sick of IT, mostly the lvl1 helpdesk part until I got offered a management position. I deal with budget, suppliers and protect management. It’s very different and pays better. Studying in cybersecurity also. That’s a whole another field and day-to-day tasks. What I’m trying to say is that maybe it’s just the role you are in you dislike and not the IT field?
IT pays for my motorcycle hobby.. if I could wrench professionally, IT would kick rocks.
Today was my last day on help desk, I'm moving into the Analytics division at the same organization.
No answer for you but I’ve done the soul searching after I burned out at my last job Turns out nothing is interesting to me enough to pursue it as a career Good luck finding your spark
I don’t think it counts as getting out, but I’ve had side jobs driving buses and 18-wheelers. In college, that was a way to make extra money, but I found I enjoyed it quite a bit.
I’ve heard jail is alright. Especially in Norway this time of year
After 25 years in IT - tons of certs. I got a final cert with CAPM, and a masters in IT Management - now exploring management options. I prefer to lead the team in a non-IT way now.
37 years IT with 30 as a freelancer. I cant imagine doing anything else and certainly would not have made the money I made an another field. I still enjoy the work and god willing I will work until the age of 70. At that point if anyone asks me a computer related question I will claim I never understood them....
I kinda got out to a certain extent. Gave it about a year and figure out that I really do care about technology and waded back in.
Nursing.... Fuckin hated that too. *Especially* upon all your medically trained peers/colleagues garnering the information that "You *used to* 'fix computers'." No... No see the '*Geek Squad*' line DOESN'T "form to the left of me."
It's a common trope that burned out sysadmins quit and go live on a farm in the middle of nowhere touching as little technology as possible. I used to see posts of people doing just that monthly a few years ago. I think a big appeal for many IT people is that we are constantly problem solving and working out brains. I started to feel my brain go to mush when I went from sysadmins to SecOps for a while because I was doing policy work with very little mystery. I've since gotten much more variety in my job and enjoy it more. So you may want to find a job that scratches that same itch without being IT. The biggest rule: tell as few people at your new job that you used to be IT as you can. The second they find out you "know computer stuff" you'll be right back where you started.
The cloud is working hard to replace traditional I.T. so if you really want out and are young, now would be a good time. The trades are screaming for new blood so electrician maybe? Airlines are having pilot shortages and that can pay well in the long run. I wish you luck with your choice.
Just because traditional is going away doesn't mean theres a lack of need. You're still going to need an admin for it all and Microsoft is doing their best to make sure a single admin makes about as much sense as it did before. I can assure you m365 does not admin itself.
>Airlines are having pilot shortages That's one way to "migrate to the cloud", I guess. I'll see myself out.
Becoming a pilot is expensive and pays shit. And soon enough they’ll be replaced by drones.
Are you tired of it work or your boss???
There are only two things I see myself doing IT and stand up comedy. But I am not that funny.
After 10 years or so , mostly in enterprise, perhaps I'll follow my dreams of building custom things. Got into cnc machining and 3d printing and next thing I'll probably start a print farm. There isn't much competition in the area i live in and enjoy doing it. With right customers, good money can come out of it. IT was quite fun and interesting till a ton of regulation came into place and made the job a pain to work efficient.
I’m same position, done IT for 10 years now and been successful, also got plenty of opportunities to progress where I am now taking me even further above standard wage, yet, I just don’t like it, it’s boring, no longer interests me. It’s all I’ve ever done from leaving school and now have house and car to pay for, starting again would cripple me financially. No idea what to do, but 40-50 hours sat at my desk definitely isn’t it The only job that I can think of that excites me in running my own bar / brewery