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.

 

[guestgulkan]

I don't think that a long term career in ANY field can be guaranteed in the future.
Granted there will always be IT (in one form or another), but the old jobs for life days are gone.

Companies are now run by accountants and the stock market - and a quick way to shore up the bottom line is to offload a few workers.

 

[AIXSPadmin]

I think the biggest number of jobs for IT in the future, and currently, are going to be for contractors and consultants. Companies will not invest in training someone for 2-5 years and pay them a set amount of money when they can hire someone at lower wages to maintain everything and when the need arises pay contractors/consultants money for a short term to complete a project, then turn it over to be maintained by the lower wage worker.

 

[dogbert2]

I don't know if it is possible to have a 30-40 year career in any field. I'm approaching 21 years in information technology, and while I have a stable job, I find myself dealing with continuing education (keep up with the joneses), and other issues.

I like working in IT, but it can be a downright PITA

 

[vaoldschl]

On the telecom side, anyway, I know quite a number of people working up to their 30 years in. I'm 10 in now and have never left an employer that didn't offer incentives if I changed my mind. I've been saving for retirement for some time and I have every intention of living comfortably while I work and retiring a millionaire (God willing and we get the Republicans out of office).

The first thing I've done in every position I've taken is look for an inefficiency that I can quickly change which will save the company the cost of employing me on an ongoing basis. I've found that to be a hell of a justification for keeping me around as long as I feel like staying.

And, it's the constant education that keeps me interested in staying with IT. I was advised a long time ago to follow my skills as an accountant. The reason I couldn't is that tallying a balance sheet involves the same practice year after year, the numbers might change but the process doesn't, what fun is that?

 

[svanels]

I think that accountants also have to stay up to date to maintain their jobs, like every body else. If I look what I have done and learned in the 11 years with my current company, I think I will be around for some 20 years more.

Once I had a discussion with an "old goat" he: "Don't transfer all your knowledge to your subordinates, then you will be always superior"

Me: "Transfer all the knowledge to your subordinates, they will do the work, take the credits, be motivated, and I have time to be up to date and think ahead" Steven van Els
SAvanEls@cq-link.sr

 

[falban]

This question would have had a completely different answer 3 or 4 years ago. I'm on my 9th year in IT and I'm riding it's ups and downs. 4 years ago I was on top of the field working for a .com (.bomb as it turned out to be) after having worked my way up the ladder in a couple of other companies. As soon as the stock market turned, my company went bankrupt, and I ended up looking for work, but finding nothing but temporary contracts.

Even the contracts dried up to a certain point after Sept 11 happened. I wish there was a career I could switch to that would pay decent, but not be affected by the happenings of the world (I can dream can't I?!)!!!!!

Even as I sit here now I'm wondering how the new "war" in Iraq is going to affect everything. My gut feeling is that I'm going to have trouble drumming up more work as my current contract comes to an end this Friday!

 

[AIXSPadmin]

As I said above, I think contract work will be the most available for IT in the future. It seems that contract work is widely available and I think more companies will use it and hire low-wage workers to maintain "suff" after the contractor finishes the assignment.

As far as a stable job without ups and downs, I would have said teachers, but with most states having budget problems I am not sure that teachers will be insulated from budget axes.

Government workers tend usually not to be downsized, so that may be an area to seek employment. Then you have some people complain that goverment work doesn't pay as high as the private sector. These are probably the same who complain that they pay too much in taxes.

 

[jimmmaaa]

I have worked at a Healthcare company(pharmaceutical benefit management) for the past 3 years and really can not complain one bit. My pay has continued to go up all 3 years, not like a metor, but steadily. I have read that Healthcare is one of the best areas to be working over the next decade. I do telecom and a little bit of desktop support at my company. I think it depends on the industry you are in. In the area that I live, We have Intel, HP and Apple, NEC and few other tech related companies and I read an article in the newspaper over the weeekend that said that they went from employing about 16,500 to 12,500 in the past 3 years. But I have not seen that in healthcare, it has been one of the few bright spots in the economy. While my job is not perfect, I can honestly say most days I like coming in to work and that I am not looking over my shoulder worrying about my job going away. I know that this may not always be the case but I will enjoy it while it lasts!!!

 

[AIXSPadmin]

Healthcare is just another cyclical job field. This is because of the baby boomers. So as time goes on then healthcare will decline as a "great" area to be in. Granted, there is always a need for healthcare workers, but as populations increase/decrease so does the demand. Same as any other field.

 

[skiflyer]

Assuming jimmmaaa is going by the same stats as the ones I know of, that's not actually what it's in reference to.

The healthcare world (especially hospitals) are goliaths which move very slowly. However, they're also some of the businesses which IT can benefit most. They're also virtually recession proof.

What all that means is, over the next 10 years, hospitals and other companies in the healthcare industry are currently planning to spend big bucks upgrading everything from their software to their infastructure, making it a supposed hotspot for a decade or so.

-Rob

 

[Ntr0P]

Technology changes so rapidly, it isn't possible to predict what anyone would even be doing in the next 20-30 years. It's a trick question.

Don't lose the passion and stay up to date.

 

[ttkong]

Yes, those with the X years IT technical experience would be looking for management position due to the aging. Those with age of 40 may have more family commitment, higher salary, and may not be able to work longer hour than a fresh graduate that willing to learn and ambituous regardless of pay.

At some point of time, experience technician (applied to programmer, engineer etc.) should look for higher position which taking advantage of experiences gained to-date. A switch of nature of job is unavoidable - from technical to management, sales or leadership role.

If you were an owner of an IT company and looking for a programmer, which one fo you prefer - those with 15 years experience (with 10K salary/month) or those with 3 years experience (with 3K salary/month)?

 

[dogbert2]

The old adage goes 'you get what you pay for' is true in this field, and many others. I've consulted on jobs where the person who designed the network was completely stoned when he did it, and when it comes time to increase it's size, they can't, due to lack of scaling and some forethought on future needs.

Of course, that's why I charge $200 an hour to fix these messes

 

[Puterer]

What we need is another Y2K or similar, personally the 3 years leading up to that were the best I had in 15 years in IT.

Got out in 2000

 

[manarth]

keep learning, or else

<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? here's a good place to start: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[chiph]

&quot;If you're not learning, you're not earning!&quot;
is what I've always said.

Chip H.

 

[jack1955]

Keep learning... what? What cannot be oursourced to a 3rd world country? I was off for 14 months and many people said- go back to school. And my answer was- to do what? I am making x amount in salary and benefits. I go back to school, get x degree. I start working at my new career at 25% of what I was making. My new career is outsourced. I go back to school. I'm 47 years old. How many times can repeat this cycle of picking a new career only to see it outsourced?

Salaries are being reduced because of the third world export of jobs. A friend suggested that one of 2 things need to happen- salaries go up or personal expenses go down. That's in an ideal world. Some say that the job export is good for the third world, but how will our expenses go down in compensate? It won't happen automatically. I've cut to the bone my expenses and I still need about $1500 per month.

 

[DTSMAN]

I don't see myself in the IT industry 10 years from now. I plan to keep sinking money into my home and borrow against it to start my own brainless business. Such as lawn care or a small bar. No more retraining for me, I am getting wore out trying to learn at 35 yrs old. Lets see you out source lawn mowing. Just thinking outloud after a bad day with two crashed hard drives before lunch.

 

[mmorancbt]

I will, once again, post a somewhat contrarian message with a positive tone.

The I.T. industry correction, currently being experienced, was easily predictable and is a great thing for the astute professional. I posted a link to an article that mirrored the sentiments of a workshop I have provided and believe this message cannot be more pertinent.

Bridging the Gap on EWeek:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1023750,00.asp

Contrast with my article &quot;Why Technologists Must Learn To Speak Business&quot;

http://www.cbtoolkit.com/WhyTechnSpeakBusiness.pdf

There is work out there but very little in the way of high paying jobs for widget-commodity I.T. work. This is critical. Network Administration and straight maintenance or project coding are examples of a commodity of diminishing value. This has been the case since I entered technology. I used these as stepping stones to project development, project management, resource management, and other - more lucrative skills.

That is where the money is in I.T.

Also, in more than 15 years of career development I have never looked at an ad in the paper or posted to an online job board. All my opportunities came through my network of contacts and referral.

13 years ago was the last time I interviewed for a job where I was &quot;competing&quot; against another individual. Ever since then it has been a meeting to determine if it was a good fit - not to determine skills but to determine if we could work together.

I just read a study by Gartner group that says most jobs (80%) are found through relationships and referrals. Less than 7% are from job boards, 3% from want ads, and 10% from headhunters.

The numbers for ads, job boards, and headhunters have been declining for 4 years.

This is the single biggest issue facing the majority of technology professionals.

That's all. I hope someone can use this information effectively to aid in their career development.

Matthew Moran