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Ask Slashdot: In What Other Occupations Are IT Skills and Background Useful?
An anonymous reader writes "Here on Slashdot we sometimes see questions about how to get IT jobs while having little experience, changing from one specialty to another, or being (gasp) middle aged. And, we see comments that bemoan various aspects of IT work and express a desire to do something entirely different. This is what I'm wondering about, and I thought I'd put my questions to Ask Slashdot. Has anyone successfully applied their years of IT experience to other lines of work? Is the field that you moved on to entirely unrelated, or is there a more substantial link to your new (but clearly not IT) role?"
Okay, since you asked nicely.
I've been doing IT since I chose to become a programmer. As you can see, being a programmer didn't really happen, even though I had been programming and even went to school for it since I was a mere youth. Fast forward many millions of years later and I still manage some IT systems for a select group of high-end clients whom I know personally. That's a plus and it's easy work for me. This whole time that I've been doing IT I have been doing many other projects: building custom high-end servers and workstations; doing wordpress buildouts, and running some eCommerce sites on various platforms. Somehow this morphed into driving traffic and is changing into a lucrative business. I don't worry about where I will end up, so whatever I start digging my nails is where I go.
It's all tech-ish somehow.
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
Mostly campfire talk and bar speak. These skills always help me find a way to keep on talking while the drinks keep pouring.
professional resume consulting.
Perhaps none at all
Business skills are not actually applicable in business. Sure, like recognizes like, but that mostly applies in golf, accounting, and working on Cisco routers. Three completely separate skill sets. Once you are pigeon-holed as IT, there you will stay.
You can move to marketing and run reports and websites. But don't try to be creative, because you are IT.
Senior Management won't want you around, because IT are nerds.
HR? Well, that's a career for paid liars, so maybe you could work there.
Accounting? Get your CPA.
Sales? No, because you are IT.
Get it? Good. Now get a golf club and start making friends.
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
1. Dealing with a wide array sockets and dongles.
2. Freelancing more remunerative but far more risky.
3. Constantly worrying about viruses and having to conduct frequent screenings.
4. Coping with strange end-user requests.
5. Getting fucked by clients AND bosses.
There's a waning supply of automotive technicians, especially as demand rises for electronics repair and so on. As EVs become more prevalent, and it looks like they finally will do that this time, these skills will only be in more demand. Preparation for the ASE exam on automotive electronics can be done at a trade school or sometimes through a six-unit course at a community college. If you know your way around computers in a big way, and know which end of a soldering iron is which, you'll find it a doddle.
Granted, you'll still get your hands dirty, because all this electronic stuff still runs to and from grease pits at this point, but that's set to change. And meanwhile, it's some of the highest-billed automotive work. Generally speaking, only high-end performance, high-end body work (stainless, aluminum, metal finishing) or paint (whether custom paint or spot repair) can touch it, per-hour. You can get paid just to hook up a scanner and read out codes, at this point, mobile diagnosis is a business all on its own and it requires just a handful of stuff. If you want to do it non-hackishly you need a couple grand in scanners, but you can always work for a shop, or a dealer. Some body shops also have an electrical guy, but often that guy is also the A/C guy and that pretty much sucks. Compressor oil is hard on the skin.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
They already know how to dispense the fertilizer.
Jumping out of IT is difficult, but not impossible. One way to do it while still staying on 'technical' track is to jump into Information Assurance field. Most direct jump is to do network security audits, penetration testing, or security certification.
one of the basic IT Skills is ... "Troubleshooting". Yup that basic 101 skill that is used by every IT person that I know MUST know how to troubleshoot. You know by the amount of time the skills of a person when he applies is IT skills at work with troubleshooting. Someone who could of resolved a matter in minutes and does it in an hour, you know he needs lots of training. This troubleshooting skill can be applied in almost every field that requires some thinking.
Not that is a major career switch because I only had two years in IT, but I have been working in Finance for 7 years now after going to school, but not finishing, for electrical engineering.
I actually landed the finance job by selling my technical aptitude. You'd be amazed at the kind of elementary mistakes people make in other fields just because they don't know how to properly operate a computer, and how they can get hung up on the most menial tasks because they are scared of the system in front of them. It took a while to learn the finance side of things, but once I got rolling, I was able to double or triple the productivity of others with lower error rates. Add on to this that someone from IT understands enough to automate menial tasks, and you have a recipe for efficiency and process improvement. A lot of finance is simply getting the data into custom forms or formats for transmittal to the next or from the previous step, with 1 or 2 points where human intervention or review is required. The career change has worked out well for me.
It also helps to be able to liason between departments. I noticed that in meetings between IT and Finance managers, sometimes there's a 'language barrier.' You get rewarded nicely to solve these miscommunication issues before they show up at the end of a development project.
Yes. In science.
For mankind.
Over 50% of practices have moved to electronic medical records. Most doctors (all?) are woefully unprepared to administer their networks. Some run servers and host their own EMR; many are moving to hosted "cloud-based" EMRs. There are an increasing number of regulatory burdens such as HIPAA, meaningful use, etc. It's a growth industry.
There are quite a number of freelance consultants and IT providers. You can provide sales, installation, support at the local level or partner with a vendor. Or, work in a large hospital or clinic system.
They can't afford real CEO's. They can't afford real tech people. They need smart, analytically minded people that can perform a bunch of tasks. IT people are already well versed in begging for money, so you have that base covered.
There is a lot in common between IT and stage magic:
1: The tricks/act is secondary to entertaining your "customers".
2: If you reveal how you do stuff, you get replaced with someone cheaper.
3: You always have to gauge your audience.
4: Individual tricks/techniques seem easy by themselves, but it takes finesse and experience to make a decent presentation to your audience.
5: Your heels are always being nipped at by the up and coming.
6: You never what may go on during a show.
7: You always have to keep reinventing your new act. In IT, you have to learn systemd, or else RHEL 7 will kick you in the tusch. In magic, you always have to keep inventing to an audience who has access to thousands of tricks on YouTube.
8: You need to know when to end your show and move to another audience.
9: You always have to keep with the latest fashion. The days of doing "the great $1dini" where $1 is your first name or surname are long gone. Same with IT and still not factoring in IoS, the cloud, SDDC, and other buzzwords.
10: New tricks to buy are always expensive. Same with IT certs.
You can graduate from any IT field into IT Project Management if that's your bag. Just get the latest (ALWAYS the latest) PMBOK, some supplemental material (Tres Roeder's book, for example), and take a course and a test.
Your experience may lend itself to risk management, especially if you did computer security. Infosec doesn't automatically make you good at risk management, but it does give you a lot of functional knowledge. Grab a Project Management Practice Standard for Project Risk Management, grab some books about Operational Risk Management, do some other studies. It's not about eliminating risk, but rather analyzing and understanding risk. You apply your risk appetite to risk, then decide which risks to accept and which to mitigate or reject entirely, and how to do so.
Both of these benefit from knowing something about your subject matter. A good PM can run a project on anything; but a good PM also knows he's much more effective running a project centered around subject matter he's personally familiar with. Likewise, risk management is much easier when you can understand the shit you're trying to analyze, along with why certain actions are risky.
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I started with doing stage crew as a hobby, but I've also done it professionally and found that there's a significant overlap with IT, especially in smaller houses where the whole stage system may need to be rebuilt for each production.
If you're old enough to remember the old bus-tobology networks, you already know enough to rig DMX lights. If newer networks are your thing, you can probably set up a cat5e-based audio network easily enough. If you're more comfortable with object-oriented design, passing data between objects apply well-defined functions based on their internal state, then the processing chains in the audio rack will be easy for you to manage.
The most important skill in IT is the ability to keep track of many pathways and failure modes. It turns out that's also a useful skill when you're trying to figure out which parts of your 500-component stage are misbehaving.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
I made the jump, at 40-something, from IT to an engineer with that-cable-company, where I now get to play with thousands of Linux boxes, and never, ever have to get viruses off someone's damn laptop after they surfed too many pr0n sites. And, while my company has a not-exactly-sterling reputation from outside, inside, it's surprisingly fun: management really *does* "get" technology, and is doing its best to both back it and see it forward.
Bottom line: still a stressful environment with on-call, etc., but in many respects, a lot more fun.
there is always some new product coming out where you can make a lot of money selling it to sucker PHB's
get out of IT and get a sales job and use your skills to talk some technical nonsense to PHB's in a conference room to sell them on some software or some appliance or other
only problem is that today's money maker will be tomorrow's commodity crap so you always have to find new work with new companies as new products are released
I moved from IT into business development and now product management. My ability to use a computer and know the underpinnings of systems allows me to translate how it should work for everyone else has proven to be exceedingly valuable. It is nice to be able to talk to the IT department, speak their language and understand how/why they have concerns, and translate those into something the bosses on the business end can understand. It puts you in a really neat role, bridging the gaps between fields. It can also provide huge value to a company as it stops them from developing stupid crap, or taking approaches to development that minimize errors or redundancy. This of course assumes that you can speak to people and can understand the more business-side of things.
Kind of "mid-range" IT skills can be useful in almost any job (like programming your own tools and having enough knowledge to not require waiting helpdesk to do every little thing for you). "High-end range" not so much (like being able to configure SAN or understanding the inner workings of Struts).
However, there is one field where IT skills and background is very useful: Selling those things. There is a catch of course: A big portion of those who have IT skills/background do not want to be salesmen. But if you do (and have the skills required), it will be a lot easier for you to build the business case where your product can help. And if you have solid background in IT, your word can have higher weight than those who have only been in sales, especially in the eyes of the client's IT.
I've never made the transition myself, but I've seen others do it. You need a new profession that works closely with your current one, so you can be "The guy who knows how to talk to the techies". There are quite a few roles that can act as the buffer between management/customers and IT. It depends on where you currently work, but I've seen people do this with both Project Management and Business Analysis. If your boss is open to the idea of you filling one of these roles on a few projects, you can get the experience you need while still performing your current job.
Depends on what you did in IT. That is such a broad range that it's hard to say specifically.
If you were a business logic programmer, or some type of "analysts", or even just a tech that had to deal with business apps, you might look in the manufacturing industry. They are very numbers driven. Engineering documents, specs, CNC programming, etc. There is also capacity planning, scheduling, forecasting and other areas that are all very numbers driven. If you have SQL experience, especially in a traditional ERP environment, you will be able to make buds with the IT department and get read access to the DB to write queries. Those queries answer business questions and give you insight other managers could not obtain (at least not as easy). This makes you the better manager/decision maker.
I would imagine many other businesses are the same. If you have knowledge of general business systems to the depth that you can program them, then you have all the technical skills to succeed in business. You may not have the other skills needed...
To sum up, everything is going digital and computer system driven. IT is a great place leaping pad to many careers/industries and that is only going to become more true as computers and data driven system grow into any industry. Whatever industry you support, is a good candidate for moving into when you feel like you are losing that "techy" edge and getting too damn old for this crap.
Of course, if you were coding processor architecture and only have two buttons on your keyboard, the above may not apply.
I finally updated my sig, but now it's lame.
I was a salaried programmer until schizophrenia, hospitilsation and institutionalisation set in.
Fortunately I'm in England so I'm looked after by the NHS and Social Services.
So these days I help out (as a volunteer) at a mental health charity. I provide technical support, tuition. run a self-help group for those experiencing auditory hallucinations, make hot drinks etc. I'm still studying programming because all the above leave me with time on my hands.
There is a need for intelligent people who understand the management of information systems in the oil and gas industry, we're in a huge boom right now. It still falls somewhat into the realm of IT, but more. Understanding the management of lots of data traveling over lots of obsolete low-bandwidth serial networks is important. There's a shortage of people sharp enough to grasp both the information systems and the petroleum processes that are being monitored/controlled. Would probably need to relocate to Bakersfield, Houston, North/South Dakota, Denver, Pittsburgh or some other area with lots of drilling, thus the shortage (it's probably harder to get a job in Denver).
In addition to Auditing which was mentioned earlier, Accounting and Finance in modern organisations is currently organized as a large database. There is always an incentive in every organization to be more productive with less human resources and encouragement to leverage IT technologies. Knowing basic principles of Boolean logic, ability to write an excel formula, understanding indexing will put you among top 10% performers within technical knowledge criteria. This, also, also opens pathways to the management. As an additional benefit, in my experience, IT skills allows to find necessary data and analyze. In my experience significant amount of resources and time in every organization are spent communicating about the data and information.
I went from web development to process development to operational development to business development in a none IT fortune 500 company.
I have some other former colleagues that have similarly left IT to take up business positions.
Generally speaking, development is development is development. The core is the same even if it is traditional product development or business development,
Project Management is project management.
Leading a team, is leading a team.
Reporting is reporting.
Leadership is Leadership
If you can prove that you have done anything if this in IT, then you should be able to show an interviewing person that your knowledge is applicable in other fields as well.
What you need to think about is what kind of relevant experience do you have? Have you collected any specific subject matter expertise, such as product knowledge or production processes etc?
I have found that IT people are very good at adapting into new positions since we are used to do business analysis and come up with improvement plans.
Most occupations make use of the computer.
It is incredible how horribly bad everyone is at using computers when they are so ubiquitous and necessary.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Consider K-12 teaching. I did it for a while and am still on a mailing list of tech-heavy people in classrooms.
It's not an easy road at all. Low pay, horrible politics, etc. In many places, if you know tech at all, you'll be "the tech guy" for the school PLUS teaching 6 classes. But, in some states, you don't have to go through a full teacher-ed program if you have a STEM degree and can pass the PRAXIS tests and a background check. Kids can be awful, but a lot of them will grow to respect you (more than the principal ever will) when you geek them out. Particularly if you're a parent already and have figured out that you're okay at it, it has its rewards.
peripherally related to IT:
- electronic threater controls. Controlling lighting, animatronics, etc... Many controlling programs run on a PC. Many devices are controlled over a ethernet network.
- digital photocopying. Most of these multifunction machines are networked. Need a modicum of network experience.
- industrial controls
- environmental controls
PSIM, Physical Security Information Management. Per Wiki: Physical security information management (PSIM) is a category of software that provides a platform and applications created by middleware developers, designed to integrate multiple unconnected security applications and devices and control them through one comprehensive user interface. It collects and correlates events from existing disparate security devices and information systems (video, access control, sensors, analytics, networks, building systems, etc.) to empower personnel to identify and proactively resolve situations. PSIM integration enables numerous organisational benefits, including increased control, improved situation awareness and management reporting. Ultimately, these solutions allow organisations to reduce costs through improved efficiency and to improve security through increased intelligence.
Every. Single. One. Mainly, because nearly any job these days requires some level of computer usage, and having a background in software development/IT gives you better insight as to how programs may operate, as well as how to do a preliminary debug when creating a ticket/bug report.
Both these are becoming more and more about the computers that actually do the work and the production people have NO idea how to get the most out of their equipment. Even the engineering staff (that's Me), frequently has problems with networking and programming for various background functions.
I know it sounds strange, but there are a lot of skills that overlap:
I wouldn't recommend it as a career, though. I did 6 months as a town commissioner (while working full time) before I needed to take some time off.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
IT's encroaching on so many people's jobs these days. A lot of people need to learn to integrate IT into the regular jobs, e.g. customer relationship management, sales and PR, teaching, and training. These jobs tend to attract personality types that aren't good at figuring out how to use machines and tech. If you've got the necessary interpersonal skills and can handle working with groups of people who'll often try your patience (think of those wierd, non-sensical, and insistent end-user and client requests you get), you could try training people to use IT.
I recommend getting some training and experience in learning and teaching theory and practice first though. Teaching and training ain't rocket science, it's more complex, however, most attempts at teaching are successful to a certain extent, especially if their teacher is personable, kind, helpful, patient, and listens carefully.
I'm considering this as well. I think it depends on your personal skills. The past ten years I've been many times in a situation where nobody else could help me out with a particular problem (programming, sysadmin etc). The only help I got was from online resources, and to use those effectively I developed the skill to write good questions, to do basic research before asking, and to write everything out that I had tried, so people helping me wouldn't waste their time.
I can listen, explain stuff in a simple way (which is not always simple to do), and I think these skills can be useful in very different situations. The only catch: how to find such a job?! Tips are welcome! (Netherlands, Europe)
That depends on you. If you're having trouble applying your skills to things outside of programming then you likely should stick to programming. I can do anything. I could walk into whatever your business is and start doing something valuable almost immediately. My only concern when applying for a new job is the culture of the people I'll be working with. If I can get along with my co-workers and the management bureaucracy isn't too frustrating I'll do well. If it's a shop full of self aggrandizing jerks or management can't wrap their heads around how you could write a process doc in something other than MS Word, then no, I'll likely not do well.
What I'd recommend for you is that you go out and volunteer. It will let you know if you can handle work outside your comfort zone. I've worked habitat for humanity, worked at the red cross, fed people on holidays. If you can be content handing out cookies to annoying people low on blood, you can be content anywhere.
You can do the networking, programming (usually DB-oriented, superior to spreadsheets by far & fairly easy reporting for receipts etc.) & security related aspects, yourself. Want to do a job right? Do it, yourself. It's twice the headaches running your own show, but you get all the profits and can save those aspects noted above, in not having to pay others to do it for you. In fact - ask the people who started this site as a simple concrete actual example thereof.
Actually, IT skills are entirely useless in any kind of an apocalypse, unless other people with other skills manage to restore power.
Someone you trust is one of us.
I went from being a developer & manager of 10+ years back to graduate school for public health and social psychology. In my work then and now I was able to use my skills to design and build tools that would vastly increase the efficiency and rigor of the research projects I was involved with.
School was free as I landed an assistantship. Pay cut was a pain - only earned 25k/year + free tuition - but between savings and doing some consulting I was able to make it through without too much hardship. I was able to build a reputation while in school and had multiple offers by the time I finished my program.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
In larger libraries, there's often someone with the title of 'systems librarian. It might be the person who just configures the software packages that the library uses, but it's often someone with a bit of IT skills.
It might be an IT person who slowly picks up the librarian issues (and some will go and get a library degree if at an academic library), or it's a library person with a bit of IT skills.
If you're one of these people, and aren't already on the code4lib mailing list, I highly recommend it. (although be warned, occassionally threads get out of control).
You can also check the code4lib jobs board for what sort of skills libraries are looking for.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Having an IT Background whilst doing PR and marketing can be great, if you are able to handle the discrepancy between talk and knowledge by most of your collegues and customers. Being the only guy in a crew of 25 that has done web development and knows versioning and *nix CLI stuff and can help writing usecases that are actually implementable in the given timeframe and budget and helping agency folks actually organize their work can be quite rewarding. And the pay is nice too.
Doing wordpress plugin hacks is actually quite bearable, as long as people don't expect you to do it every day all day and also give you other assignment, such as requirements analysis and such.
I'm doing that type of work right now and it feels good. I can deliver value, the team is glad to have me and I get to learn new trends and technologies as part of my job. Customer politics can be quite anyoing though, but that's what PMs and Bosses are for. :-)
My 2 cents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
google is trying to dominate all internet new supports.
Home Tuition - Home Tutor - Tutor Singapore http://www.housetutor.com.sg/
Direct application to IT skills outside IT is going to be tough.
However if you have studied math in depth as part of your education you have a tool that with some additional schooling you can open a lot of doors.
dice wants your keywords
Sure I went back, finished my undergrad degree, got my masters in Forensic Computing but my 10+ years experience in IT definitely helps.
"We have these weird files, do you know what they are?"
"Oh that's from the same type of document management system this company I worked at uses."
"Oh Lotus Notes, does any one have experience with this?"
"Why yes I do."
Those are some small examples but registry locations, locations of where OS's and Applications keep their files, etc directly translates into useful info in Forensics/Security. We even had someone join my last company as an Associate (sort of entry level) that worked IT for 15yrs, no formal Forensics/Security training, but after a while, he was doing quite well. I think it'd be important to tailor your resume to show you know some of the requisite info and bring it home in an interview.
Supply Chain Management is a field that tends to be on the tech heavy side but unfortunately most people working in it do not have an CS/Programming background. Having that background would give you a leg up if you can get hired. There are some interesting problems in this field like linear optimization and forecasting to keep you busy.
I am a Controls Department Manager. Controls Engineering is that discipline that programs the Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and Distributed Controls Systems (DCS) that talk to all of the instrumentation in an industrial plants.
Our Operator Interfaces are typically Windows boxes, or vendor specific OS and are tied to a LAN so they can talk to the controls systems. In addition, we are starting to get more and more I/O that is Ethernet I/O (plug in an e-net cable and talk to it that way).
Add to the fact that IT departments at many companies don't get the difference between a business network environment and controls environment and many controls engineers have to learn enough IT to maintain their own network and hardware. At the 3 companies I have worked at in the past 14 years, each company I found few IT personnel who understood what I do enough to help and many more that wanted to do things on my network that would simply just shut down the production lines so I just learn to do it myself with help of those few that understand the production needs.
All companies are Information companies now. Any job that you can get will require some minimal knowledge of how to use a computer.
Right now things are at a "Determine logistics while IT pays the bills" phase for a poultry operation. We're wanting to move to a large enough operation of poultry and large animals that my wife can quit her programming job.
Depending on your state, having some IT/IS/Programming background can give you a leg up on determining local resources and regulations.
It can also give you better inroads for initially establishing the customer base.
Well.. Nowdays I think people having less skills applying more in IT. IT is not just developing android java or any other networking job.. From the Data Entry jobs to a developer in Apple computers . All requires computer skills.
It is something I have wondered about myself. I know quite a few people who have left their career in IT behind in order to work as builders or decorators, of all things, and I begin to see why: It is a reasonably high-skilled profession, but not really difficult. You just have to be able to use tools, understand complex systems and be able to learn and follow rules. Having worked in IT means that you probably have a systematic engineering approach to solving problems, so you are already half-ways there. And it pays very well, if you are good - how about £3000 for constructing a driveway? This takes about a week and that was 3 thousand GBP, probably cash. Or perhaps £10,000 to build a conservatory? These are prices I have actually enquired about, and you can probably look them up online if you want to check.
The first thing you should probably do is an honest skills assessment. What are you good at? What are you not so good at? What do you enjoy or not enjoy doing? Most of the IT people I know tend to be more on the analytical side, good at problem solving, meticulous, etc. If it's just programming that you don't want to do then you could maybe try your hand at IT Security, Systems Administration, maybe even teaching if you want to show others how to do what you no longer want to do :-)
If you are comfortable taking a leadership role, can talk in front of large groups and are a bit more outgoing then you might be good at IT Sales, Project Management or Technical Management.
On the topic of introvert vs. extrovert: if you are an extrovert you're going to have more options. It's that simple. Extroverts are generally seen as being better "management material", mainly because other managers tend to be like that. And they like to hang out with people that are like them. Nearly every Sales person I have met has been an extrovert - many of them annoyingly so.
Being an introvert doesn't mean that you can't do these jobs. Just know that the vast majority of your peers are going to lean towards the extroverted side. Most importantly, if you're an introvert don't try to pretend that you're an extrovert. In the end, you'll be unhappy. Embrace who you are and find something you enjoy doing. That's the most important thing.
Holding the entire process in one's head, visualizing a change and then back inferring what that change implies you should do right now in the middle of that process. Both being a chef and being in IT require this skill.
I volunteer at a non-profit 1x/wk, and they struggle with technology. They have a full time "CIO" on staff, but I don't think he really knows what he's doing, and basically manages a few contracts for their website, a file server, network management, and he spends the rest of his time driving social media. The rest of the staff (about 25) come to me for help anything and everything, and I'm only there 4 hours a week.
I'm to the point where I don't really enjoy the cube life and program management, I wouldn't mind working at the non-profit full time in an operations capacity, my skills would definitely improve their technology abilities, and make things more efficient.
My first "real job" was as an artist for a newspaper (even though my degree is in IT, I also do graphic & web design). Because of my IT degree, though, I was the backup for the IT person should he go on vacation/sick leave. Eventually, I became the systems manager there.
Years later, after working for a failed dot com and getting back into the trenches as a newspaper geek doing production work, my IT experience gave me a leg up in doing a lot of troubleshooting/automation, and I was also able to suggest upgrades to the production setup that improved our print quality by leaps and bounds. Now I'm working as a web/digital artist again, and still utilize my IT experience here in there (if not for anything else, then to make IT's life easier when submitting support requests).
Nearly any office job can be improved by some IT experience, especially in the realm of scripting/automation. The best part about IT experience? Understanding how and why something works (or doesn't). General logic skills combined with a little tech/scripting experience can go a long way to improving your workflow.
"Better to be vulgar than non-existent" -Bev Henson
I work for a software development company and our QA Engineers are integrated in with the IT department. Software testing is very similar to the same skills used in IT operations, but with a focus on Quality and not uptime or supporting others.
Most offices need a "go to guy" for IT issues. If you can "be that guy" it makes you much more employable.
Also, in you social clubs, religious organizations, etc. if you are known as the "IT guy" people can call when the church computer goes on the fritz, it can help you with networking for your next paid job or your next freelance gig.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Owning a pub or a restaraunt means you have systems like Micros and Aloha as your Point of Sale machines. Losing these during a night when you're expected to process $7,000 an hour in credit card transactions is basically game over. getting your PoS hacked means a sizeable number of regular customers will never, ever return. Working on the 1:8 rule (1 bad experience translates to 8 bad stories) you'll take an identifiable hit that might cost you a new draught line or a much needed walk-in freezer repair.
Understanding hubs, switches, and general network connectivity helps greatly. shaving 2 seconds off a credit card transaction because you know QoS and packet shaping translates into happier customers and faster sales...your bartenders spend more time slinging product instead of standing at the register. If you know how to run cat5 you can basically put a PoS anywhere, anytime. it helps during summer if you want/have a patio because your servers are now twice as quick as the competition next door. Learning to restrict PoS systems to local networks and how to segment and protect the customers who want free wifi and the luxury of a credit card transaction is something of a benefit as well. Speaking as a pub owner, when my neighborhood cable internet died and I knew how to configure my android tablet as a stand-in 4g router for credit cards, I watched two bars close early and had to call in an extra bartender to handle my friday night crowd.
Good people go to bed earlier.
I mean, duh. And someone who already knows computers who is learning how to program is invariably going to be more competent than those morons taking "Learn X in Y weeks" courses with dollar signs in their eyes.
Do aerial photography with my Quadcopter. I take a GoPro Hero 3 black in the air.. something shoot video of a resort, golf course, and also for fun.
I am seriously thinking about getting a bunch of chickens so I can sell organic eggs. There's a lot of money in eggs. And when a hen doesn't lay eggs.. I'll sell a farm fresh chicken. I'm thinking about starting with 25 hens and 1 rooster.
Went from IT for big multinationals to schools to churches. I now, after many years of non-profits, prefer them. Less hectic, far more laid back, no real rush, since there is no profit incentive. All-in-all a better situation for me. Yes, I make far less money, but I have my sanity and lots of time off. Being on call for someone else bottom line is not for me.
Hello
After 15 years I switched from IT to to Credit Risk. I have a datamart for myself and I'm learning a lot of the business. It has been a very very interesting experience at my 40+ years.
Regards.
There's a good deal of overlap here compared with network administration. More so the more mills and cutters you run/manage. If you like to work with your hands and you mind this might be for you. As a bonus, it's not hard to get into the field, but don't expect the same pay..
After all, working with computers, you're already used to dealing with other people's shit.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Thanks for this--I'm a librarian looking to get into the more technical side of things, and I hadn't heard of code4lib. It's a big help!
You never know where your career will take you. My cousin trained for IT, got a job doing programming for the IT accounting department of a rather large bakery firm here in Canada, and in 2-3 years was managing projects. From there he shifted to managing the department, which mean he now had both accounting and IT people reporting to him. Fast forward another 20 years and he's the director of the finance department, and hasn't touched a keyboard in over 15 years for anything other than email.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
If you've got an IT experience and want to transition to a growing sector, we sure could use some IT oriented people on the SCADA side. It is a constant struggle getting IT to understand the needs of SCADA access, security and data transfer.
I was a professional magician before I was in IT, so I enjoyed your post. A good sysadmin / programmer who knows how to use their shell and scripting language can also do what looks like magic. "You spend four hours every Friday doing that? Here, let me just type this in real quick ... done." You can accomplish in seconds what takes hours for other people to do. In other words:
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic - Arthur C. Clarke
I've certainly found this to be true in my experience being self-employed. Customers would buy whatever I recommended because my recommendations were clearly based on significant technical knowledge. Of course it was also important that at times I would advise them NOT to buy product X from my company. If the product wasn't a good fit, I'd definitely let them know. Sometimes I'd suggest that they add a calendar entry nine months later, to see if their business was ready for the product at a later date, because they didn't need to spend the money on it _yet_.
I've been a software engineer for 30 years and am now looking at the "twilight of my career". What I'm starting to do is to transition more into a technical sales job. It's a great job if you know the tech and have halfway decent writing and presentation skills. I do a lot of traveling and know how to walk through demonstrations, present before C-level and how to generally schmooze with decision makers. It's a fun job and I'm thrilled to finally be out of the closed off basement that IT can sometimes become. It really helps, of course, to work with products that you know inside and out, and actually believe in.
Suggestions from the c2-dot-com wiki (AlternativeJobsForProgrammers):
Technology Related:
- ProjectManager
- ChiefArchitect / TechnicalLead
- development team coach
- DBA
- TechnicalWriter or TechnicalEditor?
- consultant
- teacher/trainer
- OpenSourceDeveloper
- marketing (of software or development tools)
- test engineer
- system/network/web/database administration
- CTO/technologist/IT manager
- hardware designer
- technical recruiter
- technical/sales support
- web site design
- Ad-hoc report and/or query writer
Non-Tech:
- accounting/bookkeeping/controller
- insurance adjuster
- business owner
- Law
- MassiveAlgaeFarming
- T-shirts/humorist/cartoonist (Ex: Dilbert)
Blue-collar trades:
- Electrician
- Plumber
- Auto-mechanic
- Municipal equipment mechanic
- Cat juggler [tsk tsk jokers]
Table-ized A.I.
c/c++ for 10 years then back to school for veterinary medicine
because i can not afford another one soon, i thought i'd better let it tell me what's happening to its engine.
Craft brewing increasingly has IT bits and gadgets in it -- from tracking and delivery systems to cell counters (and even PCR widgets in larger breweries) to controllers on the brewing equipment (solenoids and the like), often controlled through what looks suspiciously like cheap Android tablets.
I don't know if you could make a living out of solely implementing an IT infrastructures at small breweries (seriously, I know of lots that get into trouble with the feds over poor record keeping), but it's something to consider. Ruggedized, waterproof tablets for brewers to enter notes and logs into. Tracking info for kegs and batches. Record keeping for tax purposes. Mobile connectivity for sales and delivery guys. Accounting. At your smaller breweries, all those systems are ad hoc, if they exist at all.
And, of course, your larger craft breweries may have some systems in place, but, like any other modern business, all those systems need tending to.
It's a growth industry (beer sales are, overall, down, but craft sales are still seeing double digit growth). A reasonably high good person to douche ratio. Beer.
Recipes require technical skill to follow. Words matter. Mincing is different than chopping. Internal temperatures, resting, and precise amounts are all very familiar concepts. Recipes are documentation. Anyone who can't cook simply can't figure out how to follow very precise directions in-sequence.
In my kitchen, I re-write/re-format recipes into documentation -- I lay things out in a manner consistent with technical writing, which makes things oh so much easier and faster to follow. None of these long-winded, yet abbreviated-to-shit method paragraphs, and long-listed ingredient columns which seven different units of measure. The funny part is that even though my programming is rarely object-oriented -- I simply don't care for it -- my recipes are almost always object-oriented! Well, bowl-oriented. Go figure.
y6 years in IT. now a pilot. pay sucks for the first three years, but $10k in schoolong beats college.
I have a pretty extensive IT background and also a Bachelors degree in a pre-law field. I work in Litigation Support for a large law firm. It's a lot of database and project management, with a little tech support and server management thrown in. It's certainly better than the Sysadmin grind because I can wear quite a few hats.
Yes, IAAL. I worked as a low-level systems administrator (not exactly years of experience though..) and then went to law school. Despite the general hatred towards lawyers worldwide, it can be an honorable profession. And, quite importantly, the problem solving skills and ability to understand complex systems of abstract thoughts learned while doing IT are very valuable for a lawer. Just my 0.02 Ã.
I can do pretty much everyone's job better than them at my entire company just on the basis of typing speed, internet information lookup speed, and MS Office proficiency. So you can basically get any job. I'm insisting to my HR department only hire people with moderate to advanced computer skills because we've hired some real winners that don't even have a computer at home. I am not kidding when I say they are incapable of doing their job because of it.
My #1 suggestion is importing computer parts from China in bulk and reselling them. After building and repairing thousands of PCs at my shop, I know that Crucial M500's would fly off the shelves if I put them on ebay but Kingston value line RAM would sit idle for all eternity until I sold it at a loss. No normal tech warehouser and reseller knows that.
I have worked mainly in various positions in IT operations, over many years. I have learned that my ability to work with management to develop, concisely state, document and communicate standard operations procedures in many environments, including manufacturing have been useful to me and my employer.
My wife is a bookkeeper for a small non-profit. She asked me to help her automate some reports, which required me to know Windows, Crystal Reports, how to use window's task scheduler, and a fair amount of Oracle skill to hack the back end. As I was working on it, she mentioned that she wished she new SQL so she could use Crystal Reports better.
While I was working on the system, I noticed that the method they use to backup Oracle isn't a good, solid method. I'm going to try to understand what they are doing a little better, and if I still feel it's substandard, I might try to implement a more acceptable method.
If my wife had more IT skills, she could do a lot of these things herself. I already have significant accounting skills that I've earned over the years working with accounting departments, so it wouldn't take too much for me to get an accounting technical degree and become a bookkeeper.
So while I think there are many places where IT skills come in handy, any person expecting to make an IT-like salary doing so will probably be disappointed. And I doubt if I would be very challenged in a job where many of the tasks are simple data entry tasks, with only occasional needs for higher levels of skills.
All that being said, I have contemplated getting an accounting degree and provide accounting services when I retire in 5-10 years. It's something that I can do part time, doesn't require the huge investment in keeping up-to-date like being in IT or being a CPA. But I doubt if I'll be able to maintain the same salary/benefit level that I do today. So it's a two edged sword, I can leverage my IT skills to provide better accounting services than some, but I'll never be able to justify the same salary unless I become a CPA.
Not a problem if I'm retired and have retirement income that I'm only interested in supplementing. Or I have paid off my house, credit cards, and any other debt and have reduced my income needs significantly.
I think whether or not someone can leverage an IT background into a new job depends on a lot more than just learning a new trade.
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
As someone who got sick of fixing a never-ending stream of broken PCs years ago, I can tell you: No one will let you out of the IT-nerd mold their tiny brains have put you into. Hiring managers seem to have all convinced themselves that us IT people are all social misfits who want to earn more money than we deserve just because we had the audacity to learn how those magic boxes actually work inside. If you apply for a lower paying job, people will assume you will jump at the first IT job that comes along because all the IT jobs pay "a lot of money." People don't understand that many IT skillsets can be very narrow and easily outdated, so it isn't as easy as they think to "just get some other computery job." Nor do they understand that some of us are just sick of the stress and the responsibility (but with no authority) that comes with IT work and wouldn't go back to it for almost any amount of money. So, they toss your resume in the bin as a bad risk for quitting before they have recouped their training costs.
Therefore, you have to hide your actual experience. Switch to a functional resume and rephrase all your skills to avoid references to actual IT work. Say you have "used" computers, rather than "worked on them." Say you "organized information" rather than "managed a database." Reduce your number of years of experience to just 1 or 2 more than they are asking for so they won't be intimidated.
Are you single? Does the boss have unmarried children?
Seen this route taking multiple times. They just make up a new job role suited only to you... I mean your unique skill set.
Ha! Fooled you! I never post short answers!
Seriously, I have used IT skills in archaeology. You are basically examining a system where some components are black-box and some are white-box, where you have fragments of state information at given points in time, a library of studies into systems containing similar components, and another library of studies into system dynamics.
Archaeologists trained only in archaeology have only recently started to grasp the importance of systems analysis and reverse engineering. They are still not too clued-up on how to perform rigorous testing of black-box environments, which is why most of them view the subject as a pure humanity and haven't quite figured out that pure humanities don't actually exist.
They are also not very good at understanding how to store, retrieve or correctly associate vast amounts of information. A rather essential skill, one might think, when you can be gathering hundreds - sometimes thousands - of fragments in a relatively small area. It's why reassembled objects tend to be rare, even though pieces that fit together are a lot more common. The data is incompletely collected or never examined for patterns.
I do not recommend barging in and telling them how to do their job. Even though sometimes I wish someone would. Not Invented Here Syndrome and the usual evil of Office Politics applies just as much to the Mediocre Outdoors as to the Even More Mediocre Indoors.
On the other hand, applying the skills, making the necessary observations, making the necessary records, installing a database with just a tad more oomph than Microsoft Access (though leave the basic card entry screen) - that will help you not miss the blindingly obvious.
Hardware Engineer? Pffft! It is not that complex to convert the Open Source hardware spectrometer into an Open Source hardware thermoluminescence ceramic dating device. Might not be as good as the high-end commercial rigs, but high-end commercial rigs are very expensive to buy time on and archaeologists don't have the cash to even afford a decent hat and bull whip any more. But if you can, through decent approximation, show that there's something interesting going on, cash will materialize.
Please bear in mind, though, that although it's not complex to do the conversion, it's not hard to screw it up either. Do test things and do use a better camera than the one the prefab kit comes with.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I began programming and messing with computers long before (elementary school) I decided (college) to become a mechanical design engineer. Played with BASIC, Pascal, Java, Amiga, PC, Mac, UNIX, Linux.
It has been useful, not mainly because of programming per se - but the structural framework behind a program is echoed throughout mechanics as well. Being able to see that the physics behind a machine is similar to the flowchart of information and decisionmaking in a program. Designing not only for what is there but also for what is not there (not only "if A=0 then X, if A=1 then Y" but also "if state of A missing, then Z").
Also, it allows me to predict a lot of cause and effect in projects, which makes me prioritize and anticipate better. So when the need occur, I have already prepared.
I am reknown to be one of the very best in the region, for whatever that is worth in my sparsely populated end of the world. I make almost 200k/y though which is about thrice the average in my line of work over here, so I don't think I'm deluded. And I attribute much of that to my education in IT.
Fiction. Although I primarily write science fiction, I've also dabbled in fantasy, horror, paranormal, and all manner of genres over the years. Sure, my sci-fi series has a sentient robot as an antagonist and my IT knowledge has been invaluable, but even in the paranormal and horror genres I can usually wiggle something in. "Approximate knowledge of many things" is by far the most useful skill for a writer to have, but it also helps to have a specailisation too.
Check out my sci-fi book "Lacuna" at http://goo.gl/MVxX8
"It's all tech-ish somehow."
Yeah its all IT. Way to fail answer
Ah, yes, what every IT "professional" loves to hate: documentation.
But fuck me, is there a LOT of it out there, and if you've a logical mind (common enough in IT), then it's an easy step in.
I had 20 years plus under my belt, all flavour of IT roles.
Technical Writer now at an engineering company is very cool - advanced electronics, manufacturing, product descriptions, certifications.
And the big bonus ?
You still get to type and mouse-click all day, in the basement if you so prefer, in your stretch pants and sweatshirt and dirty old sneakers, and no one gives a rat's.
You can plug in your soundz.
And you can use your IT skills to astound the other "documentalists", and manage the doc servers with one hand tied behind your back.
The subject matter varies - take your pick. The pay's not so good, but the job's a lot more stable than most IT shops I've seen.
There is no specific set of skills a politician needs to have. In fact, many will say any skills are wasted on a politician. I would disagree. I have met plenty politicians that are successful because of their specific education or experience, but there's no prescription - anything will do.
But it's rare to find anyone working in the political arena that has the ability to code. So I'm mildly surprised to find myself working as a policy advisor for an elected representative. Mildly, because I've always been interested in politics.
Turns out the law is definitely like a programming language. Logic plays a very important role. And specific IT knowledge can be of great help - many laws are currently being considered that have an IT angle. From data protection to net neutrality to copyright to the Snowden aftermath to international treaties like ACTA, I think I can say I put my IT background to good use.
You can use code to analyse data, help see patterns. The most important aspect though is that we are used to figuring out hard things, and know we must follow rules for something to work, and that giving up only means you don't get the thing done.
After ~20 years working in every area of IT, for a number of reasons I've recently transitioned over to "Online Content Developer" as a career track.
I'm just starting a new job with a major supplier of accounting / tax software. Most of the reason I was hired was my IT background, since a big part of my job will be helping manage the flow of information (internally and, eventually, to the public) from the tech support and consulting departments to other areas of the company.
In this new role, I use some of my technical skills just getting the most from all the internal systems and platforms here, but mostly I draw from my experience with helping people use technology. I understand tech support from both sides of the equation, and can help translate issues to people who don't. Later on I'll be tasked with helping interpret complex accounting software issues for the general public as well.
In the past I've done similar work for a vocational training company, and again my experience with developing helpdesk materials, Knowledge Bases and other forms of online training was a big reason why I was hired. (I also have a track record in writing and video production, with lots of exposure to online marketing methods as well - but many people have that without being techies)
FWIW!
Perfectly Normal Industries
It's the social OS.
Maintaining equipment for manufacturing facilities is usually well paid hands on work. The hours can suck but it is like IT in that work happens when stuff is shut down. That means lots if overtime pay. I know guys in their 20's pulling in over 100k a year in low cost of living places.
At the core troubleshoot and repair with preventative thrown in.
I started out as a mechanic worked in supply chain management and ended up in IT.
Good luck!
I went to do a Masters in Library Science after several years in IT and teaching. The IT skills and experience got me my first job out of grad school (granted, I was one of 2 students at the time who knew anything about computers beyond how to turn the darn machine on), and every one since. Now I manage a large academic library and an academic technology shop (supporting faculty who want to teach online or digitize materials or incorporate more interactivity in their courses, etc.) for the same college. Having the IT background has been exceptionally helpful in managing relationships with campus IT and other IT shops. I tell prospective librarians to get all the tech skills they can - they're in high demand for things like building digital collections, digitizing archival materials, building library systems, etc.