Careers Advice - Please Read & Change MY Life 4

[Part2imepsycho]

Good morning everyone,

My name is Andy. I am posting here (no doubt in the wrong place!!) to seek advice from you guys. Before I continue perhaps I should let you know my background. I am 35, live in the UK and have been a middle school teacher for the last 14 years. Two years ago I was almost killed (shot in the chest 3 times) but survived, physically anyway. Upon my return to work I discovered that all my passion for this career had evaporated, plus I associate it with what happened to me and thus have decided to get out. This is not so easy, since I need to work to live obviously. So I did some soul searching and decided I want to do something else for which I have passion, not just any old job, as I can't handle the boring 9-5 thing at all!!

I have always been very interested in IT and it is my main hobby, so it would be great to get into this field as a professional. This is where you come in. I have contacted the Open University (distance learning) here and they sent me a great prospectus. I would like to study something that would help me get an interesting, challenging, well-paid job WHERE I WORK MOSTLY FROM HOME, since these days I am unfortunately still avoiding people somewhat, which is the opposite of who I used to be.

Anyway, the degrees offered are:

1.BSc (Hons) Computing
2.BSc (Hons) Information and Communication Technology
3.BSc (Hons) Information Technology and Computing (joint)
4.BSc (Hons) Computing and Psychological Studies

Any advice you can give me is definitely appreciated, since I have to take the jump shortly.

Best regards and thanks in advance

A

 

[Noway2]

Now here is a scary thought on that note. A friend of mine was near finishing his MBA (well known school) and multiple instructors and advisors at the university kept trying to convince them that they really should consider moving to China. They indicated that for many of them it would be a near necessity within their lifetime.

 

[DocVic]

Your life experience has just started. You've been given a second chance at life. Why not continue to teach every young person something new and be passionate about what you have been through and recover your challenge in teaching. I have learned something new in IT everyday, and have endeavored to pass on that knowledge to anyone who wants to learn. If you teach, and just two kids remember you, you have done a great job. Become memorable. Don't lose that.
Besides, where are you going to get a job that gives you 90 days off a year to travel and enjoy your life before you get old and die!?

Note: The IT industry has been devastated by companies that have outsourced Help Desk and Manufacturing in Asia. Made in the USA doesn't mean crap anymore.

DocVic
Dedicated to Nortel Products till the end.
Need help?

http://www.TSS-CO.com

 

[FredWagner]

for quick entry, a 'get your feet wet' possibility, get a book and learn about a new product - SharePoint - and find a way to get to use it in your current area - either the school where you teach, the district your school belongs to, or somewhere else in your community.
Don't go for something where there are already hordes of people with years of experience - try something new and do creative things with it. For a book possibility, I just got an advert - check it out yourself -

http://www.sharepointshepherd.com

-
I don't do Sharepoint myself, but it is in use by others in my department.
Let us know how things turn out for you!

Fred Wagner

 

[hinesward]

Andy,

I am looking over your post again. You had a very traumatic experience. This may not be the time to make any crucial life decision. You should make key decisions when you are strongest, not weakest.

It sounds like this shooting is somewhat connected to your job. My first suggestion is a change of scenery. Try teaching somewhere else, anywhere else. Make it a place that is different.

"I have always been very interested in IT and it is my main hobby, so it would be great to get into this field as a professional."

Hobbies are just that--hobbies. It so happened that I loved taking acting classes from one guy here in my city. Based on what people have told me, I think I would absolutely hate working as an actor though.

Turning a hobby into a job is like turning a friend into a lover. You may end up hating the hobby once you do that. Everything will change. It may work. It may not work. It's a big risk.

Have you talked to a therapist or a psychiatrist? YOU GOT SHOT THREE TIMES. Getting shot messes people up, big time. It's called PTSD. You are not the same person that you were before.

 

[JCreamerII]

hinesward,

Your right that acting can be very boring, I been on a number of sets and all you do is sit around and wait, then do & redo a shot over and over again. The big names get a trailer and all the perks, and the rank a file get what's left over. Which is alot like working at most companies.

You have two choices when you're young, work for love or money. Very rarely to you get both. If the money is taken out of the equation, what would be the thing you would like to do most. Just remember that working in the field that you have as a hobby is probably nothing like what you experienced when it was a hobby.

Jim C.

 

[hinesward]

JCreamerII--and when exactly did I say that acting is boring?

I think Andy needs to step back and look at everything that is out here. I also wonder if this is a good time for him to make a big decision.

 

[KE407122]

I'm sorry about your loss of wonder and admire your effort.

There are many teachers who remain long after they were any value to their students and I think I had most of them. As teachers have one class that stand out in their career, I hope you had yours before leaving. This one class can occur anytime in your career. Some have it early amd some not until the very last year of teaching.

Stage Acting...I was bitten at 8, I turned professional at 20. Yes, it's a catty, backstabbing, egotistical sham and I promptly starved to death. Didn't care, I love to act. Getting paid for it and work with actors I'd admired when I was 12 was incredible.
Film ----Isn't that what you clean off a bathtub?

Danny Kaye once said, "Life is a big canvas, throw as much paint on it as you can." A friend who admires Japanese minimal watercolours disagreed. I just said, "Your canvas is too small."

I'm sorry you lost the passion to teach but obviously you haven't lost the passion to learn. I just can't support your agoraphobic intent to work from home. None of us are the people we used to be; neither can we let it destroy who we are.


KE407122
'Who is this guy named Lo Cel and why does he keep paging me?'

 

[JCreamerII]

hinesward,

I must have been projecting based on the "hate" acting line. The reason I never got involved was the "boring part". It's a lot like watching paint dry. But being on stage, I would think, would have alot of energy do it.

Jim C.

 

[KE407122]

Most actors I knew, cry at paint drying.



KE407122
'Who is this guy named Lo Cel and why does he keep paging me?'