IT Career Over The Long Term

[cderow]

I was on the Monster.com forums recently and I saw a question that caught my eye. It was something along the lines of, "Is it possible to have a 30-40 year career in IT and be able to retire comfortably in IT?"

A lot of the responses seemed pretty pessimistic, mentioning all of the offshoring that is going on nowadays. Others said management would be the only way to survive in IT over the long term. But what about for survival for people who are not in management? People who are programmers, network admins, PC techs, database admins, consultants, etc? Do these people have a chance? Just wondering what some of you out there thought.

 

[jimmmaaa]

Finally another perspective!!

Matthew, Thanks for the links to the articles!!

-James
I love it when a difficult problem is resolved....

 

[AIXSPadmin]

Bospruell is thinking in the right direction. If money is a motivator for people, then they should be aware that working for someone as a W2 employee is not going to make them rich; with the exception of sales and earning from commission no other field offers such high compensation.

Owning a business is how most people make their money and become wealthy. Outside of money, the benefits are that you are the boss, which can also be the downside.

My Dad owned his own business for 20+ years and did extremely well, with Mom not working outside the home and raising 3 kids, and when he sold the business made a VERY large sum of money.

If I had the money I would sink it into owning my own business, such as a fitness club or gym, or maybe a small bar as mentioned above. Lawn care does seem to do well with many people having a business, which I assume is because of the relatively minor outlay of cash, however, it is seasonal.

Becoming enormously wealthy is not my motivation. I just want to live comfortably now and in retirement, help my nephew with college expenses and later on setup need-based scholarships for high school students so they can attend college and give to a few worthwhile charities.

I was laid off 6 weeks ago and have been thinking of other directions to go other than IT. After 8 years in the field I really don't have such a strong desire for it that I had even 2 years ago; it really started to decline about a year ago. There are other things that I may try - reinvent myself I guess you could say.

Anyway, those are just some random thoughts as I sit here pondering my future.

 

[jack1955]

No- the money in IT is owning a company. Why would anyone want to be a project manager? Hunt down people, harass them to code, come to meetings, test the programs, agree on ANYTHING? I could have been a project leader, project manager, or a manager of people at my last job. They made it so unpalatable. Those people are totally responsible for work other people do and those other people couldn't care less. I lead a few projects- I had the bottom of the barrel. New programmers (arrogant, too) and contractor programmers who thought their code was the best. One couldn't read my spec. I rewrote it 5 times and actually went over it with him word by word. Wrote diagrams. I actually wrote the code in the spec. At the end, the project was late. I gave him back to the person I borrowed him from. I removed his mods, added mine from the spec, tested, debugged (a little) and it worked great. I was a week late.

Ahhh, why bother?

 

[AIXSPadmin]

Owning a business would be okay - maybe. The part I would have problems with is the management. I would never want to be a manager, at least working for a large company, or probably a small company where you are caught in the middle of getting the work done from those above you and motivating those below you to do it. Guess that is where leadership comes in, as well as the ability to influence.

Maybe being the owner would be different where the pressures would not be from both sides. My uncle is in infosec for the government as a director of the office he is assigned to. He has spent 30 years working in the bureau he works, and probably has more red tape and bureaucracy than I would ever care to imagine.

I guess some are cut out for management and others are not. Not everyone is motivated by the same thing - which is good! But as career progression everyone always thinks you start out as say a programmer, then prog/analyst, system analyst, then onto management. In my case, in the Fortune company I worked for, I had no desire to move beyond a sysadmin to a sr. sysadmin. Would I have wanted to be a sr. unix admin - YES; but not there where they say you do no more hands-on, just meetings and paperwork and take classes that are specific to the industry. Above I mentioned considering other careers, and maybe it was burn-out that I was experiencing. The thought was the same at the small company I was with for 4.5 years and when I started work with the Fortune company I was learning new technology and getting training from SUN and IBM - and then a year ago my desire plummeted. Maybe it was I was no longer learning anything new and had nowhere to go there; I would be doing the same thing for the next umpteen years. Maybe it is just a change I need.

But I don't think realistically that would ever be management for any company - unless I was my own boss.

Random thoughts from boredom. Being laid off does that
Well, "King of the Hill" is on.

 

[CajunCenturion]

jack1955 - I have to wonder that if you find being a Project Manager such a headache, then what do you expect when you move higher up in management, being the president and owner of your own company? Unless you work for yourself AND by yourself, management issues become more and more pronounced as you move up the food chain.

The notion that being the owner reduces the pressures to coming from only one side is not valid. The "other side" is the pressure from within to succeed, to make payroll, coming the realization that your employees are dependant on you to successfully lead the company so they can collect paychecks and feed their family. It's a whole different set of pressures and responsibilities. Not to mention, that in addition to all the IT issues, you also have to manage the non-IT aspects of the company including sales, accounting, admin, and many, many other issues on your plate. You may delegate tasks back down, but the ultimate responsibility for everything, rests on your shoulders.

Good Luck
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[mmorancbt]

Ah yes, I must agree. When I started my own company, I worked my schedule so that I could spend time and my children's school on Friday mornings. I used to have a mixed reaction (laughter and wanting to choke someone) when they said, "You're your own boss so you have a simpler schedule."

Running a company with a staff of 6 had me up at 3:30-4:00am and had me preparing the next day or week of projects well into the night.

Certainly there were rewards and as time goes on you, if effective, you are able to free up some of that time. But, even when you own the company, the client becomes your boss. And you have to be an effective boss. The pressure (if that is what you call it) is increased. The idea that you "delegate" everything and "make money off your employees" is the ignorance of those who have never been in that position.

The fact is, no one cares about your business the way you do. No one has the vested interest and when they walk away in the evening, they walk away. When you leave at the end of the evening, you still have to be concerned with next weeks backlog, personality issues in the company, the unpaid invoices, and all other aspects.

I wouldn't change that for the world but the fact is, the work, responsibility, and pressure is increased.

Matthew Moran

 

[jack1955]

Sorry CajunCenturian- I didn't say I wanted to be a IT company owner. I just said those people are the ones making money. If you have an IT company and your clients want to pay less, fire your US staff and hire an Asian Indian staff.

I did complain about the 2 contractors I had to use when I was a project leader. They were bad and I couldn;t fire them. I complained to my boss- she said to deal with it. I guess that meant live with it. I should have just done the work myself and told these 2 jokers to sit there and be quiet.

 

[CajunCenturion]

Sorry if I misunderstood you.

Good Luck
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein