Reply to post: Re: Don't bother....

Re: Don't bother....

@David Hicks

Folks, your problems are crappy jobs. Get some experience, become a contractor/consultant, rake in the cash and have a new workplace every few months!

Bollocks, I've been contracting for years, and right now I am on the same rate I was on in 1999. In the past 4 1/2 years I have been out of work for nearly a year, wiping out any gains I made contracting.

@Thomas 4

Like you, I changed careers after 15 years in one profession, I obtained an IT qualification, and changed to IT in the same company. The biggest problem you will face is that you will be competing with the PFYs from day one, you will be a 35 year old person competing with a 20 year old PFY with a diploma in some aspect of IT who is prepared to work for a lot less that you are.

As somebody has already posted, any sort of qualification is only to get you on the first rung of the ladder, after that experience counts, but you may still some IT qualifications to get past the initial box-tickers in HR.

Potential employers are also going to be thinking that you only want got get experience quickly and then move on to a higher paying job, after all, you're older, you may have more commitments than the PFY. And when you are a 55-year old IT worker you will be competing with a 40-year old IT worker with the same level of experience and skills as you do.

My recommendation to you would be to try and build on your current experience, play to your strengths, not your weaknesses. Is there any aspect of your current job that you could build on and push in the IT direction?

And forget the helpdesk work, my experience of helpdesks' is that they exist to prevent contact between customers and useful help. I also suspect that a lot of helpdesk performance management is not based on the quality of help given but on the number and duration of calls. Have a clear idea of what you want to do in IT, working on a helpdesk will not get you a job as a programmer or as a hardware technician.

Sorry if I come across as a hard case and cynic, 20 years in IT will do that to you.

Cheers and good luck