Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: How Do I Change Tech Careers At 30?
First time accepted submitter possiblybored writes "I'm 30, and I am a technology teacher and the school's technology coordinator. I like my job, but I have been having thoughts about switching careers and focusing more on technology in the private sector. I like Microsoft products and would head in that direction, probably. Is it too late for me to think about this? What is the best way to get started on this path? I'm not so much interested in programming (though I'd like to learn a language some day) as much as I am intrigued by topics like setting up e-mail servers, reading about cloud stuff like Office 365, and looking at information on collaborative technology. I'm a good teacher and excel at explaining things as well. Any advice the community could offer would be greatly appreciated!"
Submission is very clearly a troll. Please don't post this kind of crap.
yes, yes it certainly is
Whatever you love doing, do more of it. Then just be sensitive, and maybe a little aggressive, about pursuing leads that naturally arise from your avocation.
You're talking about breaking into the IT industry, not politics.
Start applying for help desk jobs. Yes, it really is that simple.
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
Look for a consulting gig.
I've done a lot of work that boiled down to "tell us if and how this will work for us, before we spend all this money"
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
If you're thinking of moving from teaching to industry, I'd suggest getting a job teaching adults for a firm that specializes in teaching/training employees of corporations. And, given that you are impressed with Microsoft, that's probably the best you can do. If you were mainly interested in tech, not Microsoft, I'd advise otherwise. Good luck.
Sounds like you still want to teach so why not teach in the private sector? http://www.microsoft.com/learn...
My Hello World is 512 bytes. But it's also a valid Fat12 boot sector, Fat12 file reader, and Pmode routine.
hadoop, cloudera, etc
email and traditional databases have peaked out long ago. the future is having to search huge amounts of non-relational data. its still in the early stages where the software is immature and you need to do lots of legwork to search the data.
You're 30. You can do whatever you want. Figure out which jobs you're interested in and start applying.
System Administration needs people the customer can understand. But do you really want to compete with 22 year old junior sysadmins? Have you been running a data center out of your basement they way they have?
There's also value in the sales engineer. But do you have enough of the engineer part? The customer has to be able to understand the sales engineer, that's pivotal, but the sales engineer also has to rough out the system design with the correct company products and come up with a credible cost estimate.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
I'm not so much interested in programming... ... reading about cloud stuff like Office 365...
i would say your are asking to the wrong ppl....
Whatever you do, do it as an independent consultant. DO NOT take a job with a boss. You will be fired when you can least afford it. American "employers" are not grown-ups. They are not emotionally or mentally capable of employing adults.
Have many clients so if one becomes a douchebag, you can fire them and rely on the others until they are replaced.
Be aware of the fact that if you ignore my advice and take a job, you will be fired, and it will be done in such a way so as to maximize your hardship.
Be your own boss. It is the only option in 2014 America.
If I was in your situation given your experience and passion, I would focus more on private home and SMB side of things. Consulting, sales, and perhaps some end-user support. I doubt system and network infrastructure administration is your thing. Perhaps later on, but now.
Life is not for the lazy.
Bwha ha ha ha ha!!!
Just how old do you think you *are*, sonny boy? 30 is just barely dry behind the ears! Truth is that there is lots of room for anybody in the tech field who is *competent*. So be competent!
It does help to be somewhat charismatic and hygienic.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Liking microsoft products and being proficient with there are different.
Get a certification or two, be prepared to be questioned as to why you're doing this and then go for it. Just remember tech support is first cut and last hired that goes for most sys-admins too
What part of:
"Those that don't -- Teach"
do you not understand?
Good tech teachers should always be contact with industry. Talk to them about part-time consulting work. Being a head hunter might be a good sideline too.
Think about the fate of dinosaurs that were replaced by smaller more agile mammals when difficult times came...
Try contracting through staffing agencies. I made a pivot from support to development by working several 2-3 month contracts in my late twenties.
What can I say but start sending job applications. :) You might make a fine Microsoft-specialized sysadmin somewhere.
But I do know ...
It's easier at 30 than at 40.
Which is easier than at 50.
Which is easier than at 60, since no one has done it at 60 yet.
I currently work in user experience testing, and never worked in tech until I was 32.
Getting in the door is the hardest part about consulting work - and it is VERY difficult. And Microsoft stack consulting is saturated and most companies will not work with one man shops - let alone someone who has no experience in the area. They want companies that have a name and plenty of references.
The folks who go back and "consult" with their former employer have just changed their tax status and saved the employer money.
Your goal as described would indicate you want to be a teacher!
With your limited skillset without programming or intermediate sysadmin, but given your background in teaching and familiarity with concepts i'd say you'd be a good fit for training and/or documentation within a tech company. Training can include on-boarding new hires and getting them familiar with internal systems, or even training customers on using the software. I've worked with many people in these roles at companies i've been with. Documentation also might be a good route: writing manuals, online specs, and online training stuff. Theres lots of people doing this at the larger software shops.
Great news: even entry level IT or sysadmin jobs pay better than teaching! Look for jobs, find one that looks like a reasonable place to be, and get to work. It'll be drastically different than a public sector job, but if you are good, you'll adjust quickly and find it is a lot of fun. Once you've done something for a year or so then you can look at other places in the company to help out or transition in to (but again, if you are good, this will probably just happen naturally).
Good luck!
Just do it! Tech is one of those areas where you can gain experience and knowledge on your own with minimal financial outlay. So, study up. Play with things. I'm not sure what the climate is like in your district, but perhaps you can also take on some more technical responsibility in your school district? Through reading, tinkering, and applying your learned knowledge, you'll eventually get to a point where you can legitimately do this sort of thing full time. It's a process, but it's totally doable.
izm
Plastics...
Employee Of the Month - Cyberdyne Systems Corporation - September 1997
they changed the name of the mcse to make it harder for joke acronyms to be created.
lose != loose
I'd recommend buying these three books and reading them cover to cover - they give you a wide range of exposure to sysadmin duties.
http://www.amazon.com/Practice-System-Network-Administration-Edition/dp/0321492668/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0AHNSDD28FSJES3QTGCE
http://www.amazon.com/Linux-System-Administration-Handbook-Edition/dp/0131480057/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-CFEngine-Automated-system-administration/dp/1449312209/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=094W00T4135N2YWH3VB9
Pick at least one scripting language and learn it, two if you can. Powershell and Perl, perhaps.
Get a MSCE certification or whatever the current equivalent is. At least you'll know the "official" way to do things. Which will help you learn over time or Google-foo the ways that actually work much faster.
And you'll be on more level ground with most of the other entry-level people too.
Setting up a server or two at home, getting a feel for virtual machines, Active directory, etc. will help too.
For windows admin programming? Learn Powershell, WMI and ADSI.
Since you're the "tech coordinator" at your current employer, try to ingratiate yourself with the other IT techs who implement the things you coordinate for them...
The hard part is getting some basic tech (of any kind) experience under your belt. You have that.
Go get up to date Microsoft certifications, understand the product to a significant degree, and you will be able to find a decent sysadmin job somewhere. Maybe not something above 50k - yet - but you will find something good. Then, once you get more hands on experience with business support scenarios for a few years, you can move on from there to the higher paying world (and higher stress typically lol).
Start at helpdesk, hate yourself, and figure out a career path that you enjoy that gets you off the helpdesk. Ingratiate yourself to that team that is in the career path you wish to pursue. Study, take, and pass the applicable certs for said career path. Simple as that.
" Is your job running? You'd better go catch it!"
Curiosity was framed; ignorance killed the cat. -- Author unknown
Maybe become a gigolo who specializes in masochism. If you like setting up Exchange servers, you'll love it the first time a woman steps on your balls.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Learn Linux if you want to setup mail servers and do stuff with the cloud. It'll be fun, too.
what a POS
Now, having been in IT for 9 years, I can say this: Best move I ever made . I go to work everyday and work on cool technology, solve complex problems, learn constantly - and get paid for it.
After reading your question this one came to my mind. Those who can do, those who can't teach. But it does makes me wonder what you are teaching these kids if you have to ask us how to get a job in the tech-world. I hope your pupils won't have to ask that same question.
Man, there is no hope for you!
Like someone else said, you need to start in "the trenches" - for IT that generally means helpdesk. Most places realize that helpdesk is not a place to finish your IT career, but to start it. On your resume trump up your technical skills and in the interview trump up your interpersonal skills and your ability to use "common sense" (hint - it aint that common). A lot of IT people didn't start in IT. The Citrix expert here was a reporter into his mid-30's. I'm a 20 year SysAdmin and I have a degree in music.
The stories in the trade papers are misleading about the current state of affairs in the rank and file IT dept. And you have about 15 year before age discrimination hits (age 45+). You will have trouble changing jobs after that. And Microsoft is not the answer for the larger IT departments/solutions. Keep working at a school system you like, invest your 401k, and work at what you love in the summers. Avoid being worked to death in your 30s, 40s, and trapped in a job in your 50s, with an unemployed period before retirement.
I am going thru disability / unemployment with a stress related nerve disease. in my late 50s. without some savings and support from friends I would really be in trouble.
Life is too short to work for a**hats driving death march after death march.
Sounds like the perfect PM, any of them (Product Manager, or Project Manager, or Program Manager, or whatever), or Business Analyst. Project Manager especially with your experience dealing with children...
My general advice would be to ask these questions of recruiters and hiring managers, not the mostly non-hiring community of slashdot. There's tons of really bad advice in these comments. Having switched tracks a few times, I can tell you that in my experience it generally involves choosing an area to specialize in, taking some classes and/or getting certifications, trying to get some hands on experience if possible, and then marketing yourself well.
At 30, you're young enough to do pretty much anything. But I'd caution against tying yourself too closely to a specific software vendor. You may still be in the workplace 30 years from now, so try to cultivate skills that will remain relevant.
It sounds like you're working in the field already. Have you tried applying for private sector jobs?
If once you start down the Microsoft path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will...
Seriously, Microsoft is in decline, and already has a bunch of people trained up in it. You should consider learning mobile development for Android, iOS, or both. If you want to learn server-side stuff I would learn the open stack: Linux, MySQL and/or Postgres, maybe Hadoop.
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Most hiring is by or at least through people who have absolutely no clue about the technology of the job they are hiring for.
Consequently, the only way they have of judging your ability is by a piece of paper that says you can do something.
The good news is that there are many 2 or 3 day seminars/certification courses that you basically just have to pay one or two grand and basically as long as you show up and demonstrate a level of intellegence that puts you anywhere above clinically braindead you will get a credible-looking piece of paper saying you are certified in something or the other, that will impress the know-nothing employment agents and HR clowns every time.
Most medium (and up) sized businesses have a training group (usually a subset of HR), and have a real need for people who both know the material and know how to teach it.
Breaking into "real" IT at your age, without in-field work experience, would mean working the helpdesk - If that appeals to you, great, but it doesn't tend to pay all that well.
And run with it. I currently would look into Cloud control decks like OpenStack or Azure Cloud Infrastructure Standup or even some sort of CloudERP programming like Salesforce. Any competence at all in these will easily land you a job quickly.
Almost all work can be done remotely, with the exception of being "remote hands" in a data center. In that case, ensure the trunk of your vehicle has cold-weather gear. Best bet is to focus on jobs that require a physical presence or national security (no H1-B). Even H1-B are being outsourced to native country of origin. Pretty soon a robot will be the "remote hands" in the data center.
Microsoft technologies are becoming less and less popular, and less and less relevant. If you do make a move - aim for Open Source technologies. Also - 30 is WAY WAY young. I 're-invented' my career at age 45, and I bet many do the same when much older.
I switched technology careers at 30 myself; I went from help desk technician and system administration to web development, and I'm quite satisfied with the results. Of course, it probably helps that I'd already been trying to get into web development for the better part of the preceding decade... but that's not the point. The point is that it can indeed be done, if you have the skills and the drive to get where you want to be. Most jobs outside of the education field and higher sciences aren't nearly as difficult to break into, as people usually think.
My advice to you would be, very simply, just apply for the job you want, and see what happens. It'll most likely take more than a few interviews before you find someone willing to take a chance on you, and of course, you'll probably have to start out at an entry level position... but if you're coming from the educational field, then you probably won't take too much of a hit to your paycheck.
Frankly, Nike's advice actually works, here: if you want to get a different/better job... just do it.
IMO, at 30, you're right in the "zone" as far as the age group companies like to hire for computer support or network/server administration.
(Honestly, I think there's greater interest in hiring younger for software development, due to the mentality that you can hire talent cheap if you catch them shortly after they're out of school. Plus, they haven't been in the field long enough to be "old dogs that know a bunch of tricks you have to get them to un-learn" for your particular environment.)
It sounds like part of your question relates to which technologies you should focus on learning? One trend I have noticed is that mail servers are becoming more and more centralized. Most growing companies want to eliminate the in-house mail server(s) and sub-contract that out. With the growth of mobile devices that get attached to corporate email, it's nice to offload that bandwidth usage to a 3rd. party, among other things. This has the side-effect of making knowledge of setup/configuration/maintenance of mail servers (like Exchange) a skill-set that gives you a full-time job working only with email. If you really like email and mail servers, great. Go this route and get hired on at one of the cloud-based email services out there! Otherwise, I'd only worry about knowing it from the client side.
Every company I've ever worked at could stand to have more I.T. people on staff with good training skills and an interest in doing it. The "gotcha" there is that usually? It boils down to a situation where you won't really get to do as much of that as you and your co-workers would like because management has other ideas about what's the most valuable use of your time and company resources. (Remember, if you decide to schedule a "training session" for a big group in one of the conference rooms? Now the productivity of ALL of those people attending just dropped to 0 during the time you've got them as a captive audience in there. You're also occupying the room, which may also pose at least some level of inconvenience -- especially if employees regularly book the room to pitch a service or product your company makes to its clients. You'll probably also find that without providing some food and drink, it's tough to get people to show up for such things... so again, another expense for the company.)
I've always found that good communication skills and ability to teach the software is a really valuable skill, but you'll primarily wind up using it randomly, when assisting people by phone or "one on one" at their desks with issues. If you're lucky, a hiring manager will give you more consideration than "the next applicant" because of a background teaching technology. But it will become "just another thing you do that's kind of taken for granted" once you're hired.
Especially if you're getting hired via a recruiting firm, they're overly fixated on industry "buzzwords". Certain items are considered "hot" at any given time. For the last couple years or so, "virtualization" was a big one. If you could say you had experience using VMWare ESXi or any of the other products allowing virtual servers, it was a big plus. "Cloud" knowledge is another one. IMO, this is really a bunch of nonsense, because almost ALL the cloud-based services have easy to use web based control panels. Anyone with good general I.T. skills and knowledge can master any of them in short order. Mastering virtual server products is a little more difficult and useful as a real skill .... but again, many places just treated it like it was a big deal, only because of a one-off desire to reduce the number of servers in a server room. Once somebody moved all 7 or 8 of those outdated physical servers onto one virtual server and got them running well? There wasn't a whole lot more to do or know to maintain that.... so other I.T. skills become more important again.
just do it
He's teaching children that it's ok to ask questions when you don't know the answer. A teacher's goal is not to "prepare children for a job in the tech-world". What is a teacher's job?
I hate to be the Curmudgeon..however with a school you are guaranteed a pension. In the private sector, no matter how much you make, you will never make up the difference. At some point, you'll get tired of bits & bytes and just want to play with grand kids or go fishing. Stay with the school, and you'll be doing that by the time your 55. Leave for the private sector and 55 becomes a hard to reach retirement age.
Is it too late for me to think about this?
It is never too late. I have known people that have jumped into unrelated careers, successfully, at 35, 40, 52, and 65.
How much effort are you willing to put forth? Are you willing to temporarily forgo some of the pleasures in your life to which you've become accustomed?
Are you willing to immerse yourself in the new career, both at work and after hours? Ask yourself and answer truthfully: do you truly want to make a change, or are you just thinking... "wouldn't it be nice if"? The answer may be painful, and sometimes you won't know until you're there- Are you willing to take that risk?
Are you willing to risk the possibility of having to start at a lower level on the pay scale in your new field? I have a cousin that graduated from the Air Force Academy, flew F-15's for almost 10 years, and after accepting an engineering job at a defense contractor, quickly realized that he couldn't stand that type of job. With a wife and 3 daughters to support, he left to start a career at an airline.... at the time (mid-80's), he had to start as a flight engineer, at about 20k / year. With his love of flight focusing his resolve, and with the support of his wife (she took a second job), he persevered in a boring, low-paying job, staring at a panel of guages in a jet... but he stuck to it, and over a number of years ended up as a 747 long-haul pilot for Northwest, making just under 200k / year.
You must decide if you're ready to commit, with all that that implies. If you feel drawn to whatever it is you're thinking of doing, and you're ready to commit, there are few legitimate reasons to hold back- I would say that if you have no legs and desire to win a ballroom dancing championship, you may have a legitimate reason not to compete, but you could still find a way to excel, in some role, in this activity if you truly had the desire.
Get into consulting, easiest way to get experience (by fire). Volunteer for every project you can, even if you are just asking to shadow others at the start so you can learn.
Study things like Puppet, OpenStack, VMware vSphere, Hyper-V (along with SCVMM), KVM (part of OpenStack) etc. Be aware of app platforms (e-mail, SQL, etc) but don't make them your career as hosted/cloud based services are a serious threat to onsite stuff (privacy issues aside).
Find all the key blogs for each of these things I've mentioned, and read them often. Follow the authors of these blogs on Twitter if you really want to keep up to date.
Oh, and LEARN TO RECOGNIZE WHEN STUFF IS CHANGING and adjust your skills accordingly.
Remember your users/customers have needs, and your job is to give them what is best for them regardless of your own bias. Despite what vendors tell you, no solution is best for everyone.
Ever feel like you are driving the getaway car?
In theory, if you are going to be a private consultant, you can save a lot in taxes by becoming an S corp.
In practice, it is illegal in the specific case of software development. The government can and will disallow all your deductions and take all your money.
The American government doesn't want software developers to be private consultants. They want software developers to have employment as their only option, so they can be paid less and pushed around more.
All talk about fostering innovation is prevarication aimed at winning hearts and minds.
Don't do it, stay happy and sane!
I wonder how many of those using this as a chance for more MS bashing are posting from their Windows machines?
Sent from my TARDIS
I attended a Agricultural collage (not common in the UK) and qualified as a Gamekeeper, couldn't get a job so I took a job in a local computer store then 2nd line support, etc, etc, and now I am a Systems Support analyst, however I haven't really enjoyed my time in IT (met some great people, had a few good laughs, conversely I met some real shits and had moments that rank in the top 10 worst events in my life) but I just don't enjoy it so I am going to the OU http://www.open.ac.uk/ and doing a degree in Environmental Science (geology & oceanography) and I am looking forward to getting out I am only 28 and have no commitments beyond a few basic necessities no family to take care off etc, you situation might be different but it's never to old to make a change.
Look into Microsoft Virtual Academy (microsoftvirtualacademy.com) and Microsoft's freely available demonstration downloads. (If they hadn't killed TechNet, I'd say that is very worth it.)
Get your hands dirty and play with the software. Consider getting some spare hardware and download the freely available demos of their Windows client and Server. If you install the infamous Windows 8.1 consider installing client Hyper-V to run virtual machines.
Collaboration? SharePoint or Lync would be the things to look at. Email server? Go look into Exchange. Office 365? There is a free demo ( http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/try/ ). Cloud stuff? Check Azure platform and its free demo (http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/).
Start listening to podcasts. I follow RunAs Radio and have enjoyed their work. http://www.runasradio.com/
I'd like to take a moment to agree with other posters on getting a Help Desk or consulting job. The experience in those positions are a good start where you will learn a lot. Stay away from head-hunters, contracting, 1099 employment, and call centers if you can; they are the four horsemen of your IT career apocalypse.
Slashdot isn't the right place to start if you want to talk about Microsoft. The vocal majority would love to argue platforms instead of answering you.
Posting as AC for ten years because i'm not actually in the tech field, and would rather listen than talk about shit I don't know about. This is a topic I know a little about.
Spend your free time for the next few years in college. You will not fucking regret it, I swear, for whatever that's worth. Yes, it's expensive. Yes, you can learn many things online. The things you're interested in aren't really things you can dive into and contribute in open source. If you do go back, you'll find it's not very hard to be an outstanding student, college doesn't seem to be taken very seriously by my fellow students. Take honors courses if you can, avoid needless class-treadmill traps like writing certificates that require six extra English courses.
I'm 38, and been in various retail positions for the last 20 years. Management and moving up the ladder is not for me, and I can gain no further skills without accepting much lower paying positions. Last summer I went back to college, starting over from the beginning. I could have an associates' in science by fall, assuming I don't fail any courses. I just accepted an engineering co-op with a large, international manufacturer, destroying things with robots and liquid nitrogen. If I can do this with three children, and a full-time job, you can. I am not better than anyone. I am nobody. The only thing I have is a willingness to reinvent my skill set by any means possible.
I lied, I'm not speechless, but if you think you're too old at 30 you need an attitude adjustment. Or to hang out with some olds who aren't as limited in their vision as you are.
No sig? Sigh...
Apply for IT jobs that fit the description. Help Desk positions are the easiest to get into, but the hardest to get out of. I suggest you just apply for other positions that talk about stuff you know.
Expect a written test, expect a hands on test, and expect an interview.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't change careers - but look at the business end of IT in the education market. I work for a large university and I just switched roles from a SysAdmin to a Business Analyst for our Office of IT and I'm 33 years old. I moved from the front-facing tech side of things to where I am basically the interface between the engineers/technicians and the "customers" (deans, departments, students to a much lesser extent). I get the project requirements from the customers and work with the engineers to provide what the customers need. I'm still in IT, but I'm in a position where I'm having a large impact on the infrastructure and our service quality (we have 32k students). Being already in education you'd be at least basically familiar with some of the unique things that occur with licensing, purchasing, etc. We tend to get better/cheaper terms than corporations and individuals. It's a challenge, but it can be a fun challenge. You don't sound like an engineer, but you DO sound like you can at least be conversant with them. Being that translation layer between engineer/normal person can be a lot of fun.
This space for rent...
I'm 29, turning 30 next month. I have been in school for 2 years thus far, at a 4 year accredited college...going for computer engineering.
It's tough. It will be long and gruelling. I'm counting the days right now because it's so difficult. Changing careers is hard, but for me, it's worth it. I've wanted to do this for years and now have a chance.
The practical side of me says don't change careers unless it's something you absolutely *need* to do.
Those who know, do. Those who understand, teach.
- Aristotle
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Talk to the local carpenters' union, they train.
It's easy enough to change careers. I've done it a couple times when I got bored of my previous role.
But....
Finding a career that pays what you're getting now, as an established worker in your current profession, is not going to be easy. Now many folks will disagree, but I go into any new field with the assumption that the established folks in that field are at least reasonably competent in what they do. This may not actually be true, but it gives you a particular mindset that forces you to be 1) humble, 2) willing to learn, 3) able to excel.
Now you mentioned Microsoft products. At one point the MS certificate was something of a joke among Unix folks. I had more than a few MCSEs with a focus on Internet/Networking that didn't know how to calculate a subnet. Seriously. But that's changed. The pay for MS technicians was decent enough that many folks got certified and this meant the weaker ones dropped out as competition grew (or got promoted into management). Now I can say that the MCSEs that I personally know that are still in the field are reasonably competent.
They are the folks that will be your competition.
I don't know your particular reasoning for choosing Microsoft products, but keep in mind that all tech has a similar curve. When new, the few people who know that tech are in high demand. The wages for that skillset is high. People see this and learn the skillset. Eventually that skillset is no longer a specialty and the wages level off.
I switched directions at 40. If you have chops as a programmer, there is work out there for you, regardless of age.
- Look around for a good software/hardware consulting company in your area that will put you on a lot of diverse short term projects.
- Get you feet wet by contributing to open source projects that interest you online.
- Get a cheap Android phone or tablet and learn Java / Android development for the fun of it. Here is a good starting point on that subject: http://cs76.tv/2011/spring/
TLDR: Dont be afraid to jump in over your head and try out a new programming languages or software technology on a project. Dont be afraid of feeling stupid again once in a while. Its been a great ride so far and I've learned more than I ever imagined I could!
Ask Slashdot: How do I change my diapers at 80?
Consulting. 10 hour work weeks (plus meetings). Couple hundred an hour billable at 40hours/week.
I'm the exact opposite of you. I'd love to get out of my IT shop and get into working with kids. I'm 29. Trade? Haha
I was help desk, then a developer from 27 to 31. After the dot com crash, I lost my job and couldn't find development work. I went to work as a techco like you. I did that for eight years. I earned a Masters in Software Engineering at a decent university. At 41, I had no problems finding a job as a developer when I looked in 2011. I landed the first job I applied for at a fantastic software company. I am still with that company, extremely happy, and have recruiters constantly calling / emailing. My pay is significantly higher and my benefits are far better than working for the public school system in one of the largest cities in the U.S.. I even have better health insurance and it's completely FREE. I feel that my career is also a great deal more secure. My experience is that most IT people in the public school system I was at are not very good to put it mildly. They have to constantly worry about their jobs due to budget cuts and the fact that they really don't have relevant experience for the marketplace. Many of these jobs are obtained because people know people. It took me getting a Masters to get any shot at coming back. I love my career and my work. There is nothing I would rather be doing. Do not listen to these unhappy people posting all this nonsense about age discrimination and bad bosses. Does it happen? Probably, but it certainly hasn't been my experience.
jokes aside, the most obvious thing is for you to:
a) Do enough consulting/hands on work to get a firm grounding (do that in the summers even if you keep your teaching slot)
b) Move up to community college, vocational school, private tutoring, etc If you are a great teacher, focus on that. But expand your turf so you can teach more
I suppose if you are tired of the actual teaching, then this isn't very sound advice ;>
It is always a bad idea to try to tie yourself to any one corporation for a career in software technology. Any skills you have will be outdated very quickly and will require a constant treadmill od relearning how to do the same things with a new interface. Any technology skills that will serve you well over time are the ones that don't care what the particular vendor is.
Tech writing, testing, and business analysis are good choices if you lack programming skills, although all of these benefit from good programming backgrounds.
If you learn to program you should learn to program on Windows, Linux, Mac and Unix and never tie yourself to one platform. If you do you will need to constantly update your skills. You may end up working on only one architecture, but if you have the kind of basic skills that run accross a
If you do want a tech career that is tied to a corporation or vendor, get into the hardware side. Learn to service several manufacturer's models of photocopy machines and you will have a job for life. It also won't be outsourced. Regardless of where the machine is manufactured someone will have to be on-site in order to fix it. That is until they get so small they can be shipped to wherever to be fixed.
I am 38 and love coding, probably you were never meant to be. I go to work and get paid for something that has become part of me, comes naturally and with least effort. I could easily be a sol. architect, however this passion for coding keeps me here and makes me better every day.
Why did you stop reading there?
Did the same thing when I turned 30; switched from Aerospace Engineering to Structural Engineering (i.e. buildings). I got a masters in the field I wanted to switch to and applied for jobs based on the new degree. Took me 2 years of evenings. And a 50% pay cut. Hey, I didn't say it was easy. (Oh, 15 years out I now gross 3-3.5x what I made when I left Aerospace, run my own consulting firm, and get to post on /. whenever the fuck I want.)
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Whatever you do, do it as an independent consultant. DO NOT take a job with a boss. You will be fired when you can least afford it.
Everyone has a "boss". The only difference is whether they work for your company or for the customer. Customers can and will fire you even easier than employers can.
A lot of people are assuming this is a troll or some sort of joke. That says a lot about how helpful people are! It sounds like you have familiarity with a number of software products, most likely all Microsoft. To strengthen that, you could take some courses at a community college. You could also volunteer some of your services for your local church or other nonprofit to build a resume.
However, you might want to consider that instead of IT support, in the private sector, going the training route. With your teaching background, many corporations would hire you. In addition, with your current computer background, they could hire you to teach software classes to their employees. Even if you are wanting to get out of teaching and into support, such a path would get your foot in the door and allow you to establish connections, gain experience and pick up additional skills before making the switch.
Find a small project and make sure that you can deliver on it. There is a serious shortage of people who can perform decent business analysis and educate management on technology trends. As much as I hate to throw them a bone given what they are doing here, Dice.com is a decent source of consulting gigs.
What exactly do you teach? How much technology knowledge have you got in any real world tech job at age of 30? I am guessing very little....sorry.
Get up!
Look for a role involving evangelism - you can teach, so you can present. Your enthusiasm will be infectious. It's a great way to grow through self-learning.
Serious post here, I work for a K-12 school district in Texas. We have a number of teachers who moved from the classroom to a technology-forward position. We have two areas: Information Technology, and Educational Technology. The educational technology moves you from teaching students, to teaching other teachers about adopting technology in the classroom. They do things like professional development on white boards, online learning management software, office productivity suite training, etc.
If you looking to go the more nerd route, our information technology department sets up VMware environments, SANs, domain servers, email servers, SQL servers -> down to repairing laptops and desktops that the students/teachers use. We are a pretty tech-forward district with 500 servers, two SANs, and about 40,000 computers on our domain (which include an aggressive 1:1 program at our four high schools). Total, we have about 50 technology employees.
I would recommend picking a direction (educational or informational technology) and go from there. If you want to be in IT, you need to interact with your campus and district technology people. Get involved in meetings, since you are a technology coordinator (my sister does the same thing at her campus, same district). Get to know the players, and ask a LOT of questions. Ask to help out. Ask to get involved. You can say "I just want to make sure the new systems take instruction into consideration" but show your interest in the technology. When a position opens, apply for it.
I've been in K-12 technology for 6 years now, and the experience is like none other. You get to have your hand in EVERYTHING because it is grossly understaffed. Want a million dollar storage array? Done, bond money pays for it. Want someone to set it up and maintain it? Nope. Have the phone guy do it. So with that in mind, it's not long before you understand technology from all aspects, and how it plays together (or doesn't).
Then you get to my position where you have big tech companies looking to recruit you, because you have such a widespread knowledge of all the latest equipment and how it all comes together. Just my 2 cents.
TL;DR: Get involved (buddy buddy) with your current school's IT department and learn from them. Apply for every opening they present. Use that experience to then apply for outside K-12.
I like Microsoft products
my honest, professional opinion is, fuck you.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
I've reached that crossroads where I don't want to do IT (sysadmin or any of the various offshoots) anymore. In fact I wanted to stop five years ago but couldn't due to $$$ as the spouse was in school. I've had a pretty easy time with bosses over the years but my last on-site boss was the worst. He's been gone two years but my unbelievable co-worker is still here. I'm at the point where the spouse is done school and money will be flowing in soon so I'm just going to bite the bullet and apply for some non-IT jobs in industries that I have an interest in. I've never been able to get an IT job in an industry I feel strongly about. Either the jobs are scarce or non-existent.
30 you say? Well that's hardly over the hill now is it?
I have to say there are some pretty poor responses in the comments, many are very discouraging. Don't listen to them. Let's look at some factors:
- There's an IT skills shortage, worldwide.
- As a teacher you must have a degree so you've a proven ability to learn.
- As a teacher you've proven that you can train people, and speak to groups confidently.
- As a non-geek originally, people should be able to relate to you better than your average Slashdot troll (sorry, couldn't resist)!
- You don't need to learn to program to be a sysadmin. Scripting skills would be a big advantage though.
- Tech is a wide and varied area, you have lots of options for entry, from going back to school through to starting with a small business and doing helpdesk stuff to work up to sysadmin duties.
- It will take time and effort (be prepared to 'live' IT for several years). But I've seen other teachers do it (I work as an IT Manager at a school).
Finally, like I said, you can do it, you're by no means over the hill. I wonder if a side-step might be a best first move. Buddy up with some companies that do tech in schools at the same time as doing some out of hours study and you might find you can move over as an educational tech. consultant or a techie with a welcome educational background, and then use that as the foot in the door.
Anyway, best of luck. Like I say, I've certainly seen teachers do this, I know a former school teacher who works for Microsoft.
My final words of advice.... prepare to give up the long holidays, forever! ;)
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
A good idea might be to just send your CV and what you expect for salary to your local auditor firms, those companies are usually full of old dorks with ridiculous salaries that spend 20% of there time trying to get the printer to work.
How about finding a company that is big enough to have it's own internal training section? Maybe one were you learn and or implement a technology and then teach other employees about it.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
I like Microsoft products
Well, nobody's perfect. Try and work on this weak spot and, maybe someday, you'll learn to appreciate good software, too!
I am intrigued by topics like setting up e-mail servers, reading about cloud stuff like Office 365
Yeah, I know what it feels like. At this point you should try and take up more challenges like LaTeX and CVS.
I'm a good teacher and excel at explaining things as well.
Hmmmm... This changes things. I mean, it's fine with you being an n00b and all, but please don't transmit your insecurities to our kids! Think of the children!
Go to Business School. It's a huge investment, but it really lets you go anywhere that you want. Also it will allow you to build a pretty good network that you can leverage in getting that next awesome job.
I'd advise you to look into becoming a security consultant. Plenty of jobs and more interesting that the typical IT job. Attend Black Hat and DefCon.
I also teach technology, both in a prison as well as an ordinary senior secondary school. Fortunately, I work in a country where we have a fair bit of freedom to choose what and how we teach. My focus is on product design. Normally, I begin by asking the pupils to focus on their interests, and have them learn the theory and at the same time apply it to a product of their choice. I begin with ergonomics. Then we go on to programming and electronics using Arduino microcontrollers. From there we make printed circuit boards. This is followed by building prototypes starting with Rhino 3D, then using a Ultimaker 3D-printer to print many of the parts. Once this is done it is time to assemble and test everything.
I enjoy teaching, and couldn't think of changing my profession. I don't quite understand why you want to leave teaching, but I think you should consider seeing technology as something more than just software inside a computer.
You don't change tech careers at 30, they change you.
You must be new around here.
I think I fear for our children's future... (and mine)
> I'm 30, and I am a technology teacher [and]
> I like Microsoft products and would head in that direction, probably.
Is that what you teach? I mean, I realize Microsoft is a HUGE company making billions and billions every year. Amazes me people STILL buy their crap. The software they produce has pretty much always been bloated, slow, buggy, and a complete waste of my time. Thus I don't use them anymore.
> Is it too late for me to think about this?
YES. Apparently so. Go learn UN*X. Try BSD, learn to love Linux. Understand UN*X compared to Windows. Once you do you'll laugh at Microsoft.
> What is the best way to get started on this path?
Go to http://linux.org/ -- click on everything. Download and install Ubuntu (just my choice :) -- then once you "understand" ... go buy a Mac.
I started as IBM System 34 operator, moved on to programming RPG. Then Oracle PLsql, ProCobol. Then moved on to Unix Admin. Now doing sharepoint development. So yes you can do it.
I changed careers at 30. It's pretty easy. Trying to change careers at 45 on the other hand...
Thanks so much for sharing this detailed list--it was very helpful and is a great start. I appreciate it.
The Good News is your skills as a teacher will translate well to training or documentation roles in commercial IT.
The Bad News is Microsoft's market share is in decline , with a large pool of trained acolytes available already, and many of them in countries where human resource is much cheaper than you. The growth in IT is around mobility and cloud services, not Microsoft's stacks and historical focus.
They aren't going out of business any time soon, but competing for scraps in a shrinking pool when you are an expensive , expendable asset isn't the best long term career plan for growth - its ok if you are comfortable sitting within certain bounds and knowing full well there's a practical cap and downward pressure.
It sounds like you are where I was twenty five years ago. You have some interest and enthusiasm and maybe a certain knack. You are probably a local expert, the guy other teachers turn to when they get frustrated with technology. A career in IT -- that's what you are describing when you say you want to set up email servers -- sounds like more fun and money then teaching.
But, unless your "knack" is a true gift and you are willing and able to put all your mental power into acquiring the deep knowledge you will need to operate at a high level in your new profession you will end up frustrated, stressed, and frequently out of work.
I.T. is a dead end. Fewer and fewer mid-level jobs; more and more automation, consolidation, and out-sourcing.
And believe me, you don't want to be crawling under desks and tracing network connections when you are fifty.
Or maybe you do. My 2 cents. Good luck to you.
I work in a job where I do systems programming in C and Ruby (and sometimes Python) and rarely am in a situation where I am just "beating a framework".
How the heck do you do this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
In an interpreted language like Ruby or Python?
You have some background in the tech fields, and that's going to help some, but if you go the traditional route, there's always going to be the "why should we go with this guy when there's someone else who is younger/has more experience/has worked in the private sector". Getting a recommendation sidesteps a lot of that.
Start talking to people who are working in the area you want to get into. Use your contacts you already have to develop the sort of contacts you want. See if they know of any opportunities ... and when you apply for those opportunities, name-drop like crazy.
Yes, you've probably heard advice like this before -- but the thing about it is, it does work.
Hi,
No it's not too late.
You seem to be looking for an IT job and since you're young you should not be too rusty on the current stuff.
Perhaps get a certificate/few classes in what you like best, research what's out there, fix your resume and go for it.
Regards,
Philippe
If you can't do it teach
if you can't teach do curriculum
Go well
There goes your odds of getting much in the way of help from this crowd...
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
All I could think of when I saw the question is you'll be fine, I'm almost 30 and I haven't even been able to start a tech career yet despite getting myself a degree a few years back, all you gotta do is decide what to do and you'll be good.
First off - if you're happy with your current role, why leave? Greener grass, etc. Talk to people in the area of activity first to get an idea of what it's like. The "private sector" (if there is much distinction) may work at a different pace with different imperatives than what you're used to, and the difference will be more business politics than actual technological differences/merit.
Secondly, what industry do you want to work with? I've worked 2nd level and 1st level support, mainly enterprise and some helpdesk, in a variety of industries; some experiences were enjoyable on average complex tech, some tech was amazin but for dull projects or industries... Make sure you're iterested in what the technology is applied to, and not just the technology itself. Applying great server products to manage a ball-bearing packing facility is not necessarily the most enriching experience after a few months, since most of the time it will just be maintenance.
Thirdly, if you want to learn about Microsoft products, you'll either need to shell out for them yourself, or find a job that makes use of them. Most likely is indeed tech support, from an entry level perspective. I can tell you that some support jobs teach you little by way of actual tech, some teach you lots, depending on the support level, and whether you're supporting users or integrators. Be on the lookout for technologies that interest you within the job descriptions, and go after those.
Finally, to learn about the underlying technologies before you can buy the software licenses, you would still do well to have a look at setting up enteprise Linux systems. I know you said you like Microsoft products but hear me out - administrative skills, troubleshooting, and many network-related tasks translate directly across platforms. You could be on CentOS, Ubuntu Server, Windows 200x server or OS X Server; from an administrative, and infrastructure and maintenance point of view, it's the same difference. Examples are setting up such things as web servers, SSL, LDAP, network troubleshooting, data migration, backup, SMTP server setup, database configuration, app server clustering, etc; and some non-technology stuff like change management, some minor project management, requirements gathering, system design, etc.
You can't teach yourself Enterprise stuff straight on Microsoft products on a hobbyist budget. Or you can, but it's an expensive hobby, which is why the normal route if you really want to pursue Microsoft tech, would be to change job. Your other option would be to convince your employer to invest in Microsoft.
But if it's specifically for your spare time, Linux is definitely what you want to look into.
-- "Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability." --Dijkstra
After college I worked in retail management for a few years. At age 30 I left that field and took a job working in tech support for a large software firm which shall remain nameless. Using that as a springboard, I launched into a career which has included both support and operations type positions and coding positions. I'm currently a senior level software developer/architect leading distributed teams on major projects, and am tracking toward management as I get older and can see where the bread is buttered. It was a bumpy ride getting it going, but some of that was due to macro-economy events outside my control, and some was due to not having all the right buzzwords and HR search terms on my resume at first.
The one bit of advice I can give for sure is this: work your tail off becoming really freaking good at both what you do, and what you want to do next. If you don't have the depth of resume, you'd better be able to perform in an interview in a way that leaves no doubts that you know your stuff. Then when you land that gig, hit the ground running, and never let up.
WALSTIB!
if you think 30 is getting older, then do it right away -- don't wait until 35 or later.
honestly though 30 is really pretty young and you could easily start a rewarding career much later than that.
I had a strong IT background in the past. Didn't exactly get burned out on it, but fell into the controls field by happenstance and I love it. Many of the same principles apply (networking, protocols, programming), but without the monotony that I feel you might be experiencing. Do some googling on building automation, temperature control, or system integration. -Mike
Or gathering a swath of information via posts from a vast amount of people in one place.
Regardless of some of the asinine comments, there is actually some useful advice in this thread. While it isn't as a "swath" of info yet. With enough input the OP should be able to take that information, process it, and then decide how they want to proceed. The person may be the type to take information from all sources (in their mind) then process a decision rather than form one on their without external input.
If you haven't taught yourself programming by now, there isn't much point. Just move on.
While the demand for good developers and engineers is strong and well publicized, demand for UI/UX people and tech writers is also pretty strong.
It also doesn't hurt you to know multiple spoken languages in those fields.
None of that is appealing? Create a YouTube channel of explaining the topics that you like. If you really are good at explaining and demonstrating, someone will offer you work. The ad revenue makes a nice bonus.
did you already have a degree in Aerospace Engineering? The two fields may be in different sectors of business and fields to some degree however they are linked together by the base engineering sector. Presuming there are degrees involved the base classes for both sets are usually the same (4 years-ish of maths).
Transitioning from one to the other shouldn't be too much of an issue, for someone devoted to maths/geometry/science/engineering.
How many classes per evening? Were you married at the time? Did you have a family? Did you have a mortgage? These are all things that factor into such a transition and could also complicate such a transition (not to mention strain a marriage).
I love the idea of going into business for myself and building up my own client base. I've heard it's best to do it while young when you can take the risks. I've also heard the first 2 years will be grueling but after a little while you'll be "more successful now than I ever was in a corporate job.".
Thanks Cat!
I'm in my early 40s and I've changed IT fields and technologies a few times. In the end, each successful job switch has been about handling an interview well, knowing the technology, and being able to point to successful projects.
That being said, as time goes by, I've started to notice "age issues". The last round of interviews 18 months ago included a shop where I was a great fit on paper, did a great job on the phone, but when I showed up on person, I could sense a shift in the chemistry. After going through a few interviews in their office, it turns out (according to the team lead) that they had concerns about my age. I'd be the oldest person there and they weren't sure how everyone else was going to handle me being there. It wasn't a lack of knowledge or having a kid, since a few others had kids, but it just came down to having an 'old guy' (41-42?!?) around the office. Sigh.
I went through all that to say if you come across something odd like that, just roll with the punches and move on to the next place. I definitely didn't make a 'thing' about it or demand to see their HR person, the industry is way too small and everyone seems to have 1 or 2 degrees of separation, so word would get around if you're considered a trouble-maker. Besides, I still see them around the area tech talks and you never know who we'll be able to help each other out in the future.
I'm an eight year veteran math teacher. I graduated cum laude in computer science (BS - 80+ credit) with a minor in business and have my master degree in education. I'm 30, too. I freelanced for 1-2 year after college to travel then I was offered a position to teach with a full salary and full tuition for graduate school (2 year contract) but I'm still teaching now.
With the recent political maneuvering to demonize teachers, take away tenure, to fire teacher to get two teachers for the price of one, etc. Our union contract has expired for over four years and they are still finding ways to take away our livelihoods. These are hard working people who invested a lot of time, money, debt and schooling to have a career. It's not somewhere I want to be right now. Crazy what Bloomberg did to nyc. However I would only take a higher salary. Tagging a long. However I can program- but not the best due to lack of real experience.
I think a lot of people have a problem in the tech world because they reach certain "platforms" and decide they aren't going back. Let me break it down: 1) You worked for company A for 10 years and got promoted to Senior Software Engineer. Unfortunately, unknown to you, company A didn't actually know anything about software engineering so you're actually not much of a software engineer. 2) You try to find another job. You probably won't find another job as a software engineer if you don't actually know how to do that job; even if you had the title. 3) There are jobs available. However, they have titles like Analyst or Specialist and those are so "beneath" you, right? You were an ENGINEER for gosh sakes. You couldn't possibly bring yourself down. My advice: Get over yourself and let your skills speak for themselves. Your title and current position don't define you or your capabilities. When you start understanding that, you start developing real skills and enjoying your job.
career sabbatical
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
I am 58. Now that i am being forced (financially) to go back to work, i have been having to use the term "failed early retirement".
I like the term "career sabbatical" much, much, much better.
Program management is another skill that is an absolute essential in tech field. Being able to talk to customers, gathering requirements, translating it to specs that developers can build products on etc are skills that are hard to come by. Being able to talk and explain concepts are crucial skills in such fields.
If you are interested in the Microsoft offerings, particuarly those widely used in the private sector, I would suggest the following starting points:
* Learn powershell. You need to know at least one scripting language to get stuff done effectively and this is the best one for Windows administration. It has modules for manipulating Exchange, Active Directory, Hyper-V etc: Learn Powershell
* Understand virtualisation. Virtualisation and "cloud computing" are the current buzz. I like Citrix Xenserver or VMWare but you will find HyperV deployed in many Windows houses. The MS Azure platform is built on top of Hyper-V: Hyper-V
* Understand Active Directory. MSAD is widely deployed, where ever you find Windows workstations in significant numbers you nearly always find AD: Active Directory
* Learn Sharepoint: MS Sharepoint is a "private cloud" type colaboration product, again it is widely used: Sharepoint
* Learn Exchange: MS Exchange is the Microsoft Mailserver. It may not be as prevalent on the internet as Exim or Postfix but most Microsoft centric businesses will be running exchange in house even if their public MX for spam filtering etc is running an opensource alternative: Exchange Server
* Learn IIS: Get a basic understanding of administering IIS, the webserer that is included with Windows Server.
If you can acquire a basic understanding of the above technologies then I think you could confidently demonstrate knowledge at interviews and become a member of an IT team in a Windows centric environment.
For full disclosure; I prefer working with Linux and typically use the following alternative technologies (ordered as above):
* Python / BaSH
* Citrix Xenserver
* OpenLDAP + MIT Kerberos
* Alfresco
* Postfix + Dovecot
* Apache2
There's some horrible posts in this thread to a fairly good question. How do you make that break into industry, and what might you want to do there?
My background: nearly 20 years in IT, started whilst at University doing helpdesk work, moved into industry. Been 1st line, 2nd line, 3rd line support. Have delivered global projects for variety of companies both as employee and contractor.
I currently work Microsoft UK as a senior Technical Account Manager within Microsoft Premier.
First off, working in IT does NOT require ability to code. I know it's against hivemind groupthink here, but it doesn't. Sure, if you want to be a developer you'll need it but if you're an architect, working in support, working in implementing projects, it's not necessary.
Look at what you're strong at. You're good with people, explaining technical concepts to them, listening to their requirements and probably quite good at interpreting those conversations into relevant IT concepts. Think about something like an IT business analyst, or someone who implements solutions - e.g. turning on O365 for a customer isn't trivial, and needs careful management for successful deployment. You might find a support job is a good entrance to industry but you would be having to learn your chops from 2nd line upwards. Thinking at more of a business relationship management/IT business analyst etc might be helpful if you've not considered it before.
Anyway, if you'd like some honest advice, feel free to PM me and I'll see what I can do. I'll probably go back to lurking now as I expect the trolls will be along again shortly...
If you like Microsoft and you don't want to program but you like teaching/training. Why not become an expert at Excel, Word, Powerpoint, etc. I'm sure a ton of small businesses might need help and training in that area. You could also learn Windows Server inside and out and maybe train people at small/medium companies how to setup email servers, web servers, FTP, Firewall's etc.
Just some ideas.
Research components and build a computer from scratch. You should have an loose grasp on what computation costs, from SoCs to supercomputers, and more specifically in the desktop and server worlds. Get familiar enough with computer hardware to understand the processes of computation. It's very worthwhile to know approximately how many nanoseconds, miliseconds, and/or clock cycles it takes to e.g. access a register, add two numbers, round-trip to any of: on-die cache, main memory, disk, network, display.
Set up a BSD server as a local gateway and firewall. Register a domain name and run your own local DNS. Hopefully you will break things doing this; this will give you a practical understanding of the network stack.
I am not going to go so far as to recommend learning the command line, but you should be aware of its advantages; the disadvantages are of course far more readily apparent. At the OS level, you should primarily be concerned with security: ACLs, group policy, etc.
If you want to know specific software, buy a book on the topic. The above items will give you a good grounding for your further education.
You don't have any technical skills... so you will be perfect and fit right in!
Wow, if I knew the answer to that I would proceed to try to figure out how to do it at 55.
First, shit your pants. Then have someone fuck you in the ass with a cactus. Then have someone punch you in the face until you pass out. Finally, jump off a building that is a minimum of 30 stories. Do not use a parachute.
I got my software engineering degree when I was 40. It was the best decision I ever made; love my job!
You're 30. Get over it. You're never going to have that cool job with that great start-up that goes public for a gazillion dollars. That ship has sailed. Even if you could find that company, convince them you're great, and get hired - the hours will kill you. Have a house? Say good bye because you'd have to move. Hope you don't have a wife and kids - because they don't last long with a startup work schedule. Are you independently wealthy or have a fully funded retirement- because otherwise you'll be screwed in 30 years. Working for startups that fail to launch means the stock options or ESOP plan is worthless. Do that for a few rounds and you'll be asking Slashdot: I'm 40 with nothing what can I do now?
Don't want to work for a startup? Going to try and work with an existing large corporation? Good luck with that. Those soulless bastards will fuck you over to make the next quarter's EBITDA. Look at all of the other posts where people are asking: " I've been in tech for 15 years. Who the hell do I have to fuck to get out?"
You want advice? Keep your 9 month a year jobs with pension and benefits. Use the summers to run a training/consulting business teaching people in local small business that they can use a VLOOKUP in excel instead of hand typing values into Excel 100 rows at a time. Use the extra money to buy a convertible. Go out and bang a 19 year old aspiring actress. Hell, bang two.
Truth: If it's not one thing, it's another
You will leverage your existing skills and experience, yet still take a different career path. Both let you play and experiment with technology. The fact that it's non-production environments means less stress.