Career Advice

[Killswitch]

Now I realise it's probably stupid to ask this here, but I do honestly believe that behind the internet troll jackass personae displayed on FH are some real, honest-to-God people with relevant and instructional real-life experience. Please try not to disappoint me!

I have a job and I realise that I'm lucky to have a job. More to the point, I have a good job. I work <40 hours a week (plus some on-call, which I get compensated for pretty well) and in the main the work is pretty interesting. I wouldn't claim to be the greatest Systems Administrator in the world, but I reckon I'm pretty close to the top of the profession in the UK in terms of salary, which is essentially a *good* London salary but with West Yorkshire living costs. I'm only 32, so I'm not quite over the hill yet.

I'm just kind of stuck about what to do next...I can see three options and all three seem equally scary. What I'm hoping to find is advice from people who've taken these routes and how they went about doing it.

1) "More Technical" - I've got all the skills needed for stuff like "The Cloud" (I hate that term) and certifications in Linux, Windows and Networking. I'm working (slowly!) at the Certified Ethical Hacker and CISSP stuff for Pen-Testing. I've got a good degree (yay! ) and 10 years good experience. It's all been in small/medium companies though...how do I get from here to a senior tech position in somewhere like Fujitsu or BT or IBM or whoever?
2) Manglement - I've done my share of meetings, mentoring, team-leading, project-management and so on, but never actually had a role as "a manager". Obviously there's more money here, but less technical stuff. What would I need to do to make that transition? Is it the kind of thing I'm best doing within a company (ie take a technical role in a larger firm and then move to a management job in 2-4 years)
3) Consulting - this is the scariest of all. I'm currently paying off loads of student debt, car debt and "idiot young person" debt. This will be cleared in Jan 2014. What advice would people have for someone looking to move to self-employed status? I'd probably look for contracts initially and try to build up a business identity (website, portfolio, contacts) over time before hopefully moving to full-time consultancy work. Anyone managed to do this successfully?

Of course, another option is to quit whining and stay where I am, but I worry about stagnating, de-skilling and other things that boring career-types worry about. There's just nowhere left to go in this company and the demands on me and general stress are skyrocketing whereas the chances to learn new stuff or earn more money are vanishing.

 

[old.Tohtori]

One option is to stay where you are until you clear out your loans, then it's a lot easier to hop around and even have a 6 month break from it all.

At that time, 2-3 years, you can bring up interest in trying management positions in the company you are. Test it, see if you like it and have an option to go back into your old position. Maybe do some extra hours and do testwork at that time.

In that time, you should figure out what you like, where you want to go and at what risks.

Also durin the loanpayment grind, you can already set up all you need to start off your own business. Plan it properly and you'll be more certain to succeed.

Off the top of my head

 

[eksdee]

I'm not anywhere near as far along in my career as you (still in my first proper job), but I am in a similar position of worrying about stagnating. I don't really think it's a 'boring career-type' thing to think or worry about, but a real concern for any sensible person in what is an extremely competitive job market.

I do think you are in a great position though, having years of experience and a good skillset, I would imagine there are a lot of roles out there for someone like you. At least in my industry (graphic design/publishing), the majority of companies are on the look out for senior to management level, experienced workers because they don't want to spend time and money training young people with less experience but some raw talent (someone like me for example).

I think the most important thing to consider in all this is what will make you happy. In my opinion, from what you've written it's quite clear you will grow somewhat dissatisfied and unhappy in your job as you feel there is nowhere to go with the job. Easy for someone else to say but I think it's clear you need to move on - but obviously with your skills and experience you are looking at moving into management or perhaps going self-employed as you say.

Both management and self-employment come with a lot of pressure and I think you need to be honest with yourself and ask if that is really what you want and can cope with. I know for sure about myself for instance that I really don't see myself as a management type, it's not my nature. You seem to already have a lot of experience with managing style tasks, so perhaps you are suited to it. Self-employment I know little about personally, but I work with a lady whose husband is a Management Consultant and he works ridiculous hours (but also earns ridiculous money). Again, something you have to ask yourself is are you willing to put in all that time? I know I wouldn't be - which is why I'll always prefer working in an office where I know 90% of the time I work my 9-5 then go home.

Probably very little substantial advice, but hopefully some things to think on.

Whatever you decide to do, the very best of luck with it.

 

[old.user4556]

I know how you feel mate, I've been in the same "advanced technical" position. My options were:

- go contracting
- stay put
- move to another company but only as a sideways move
- look at moving into management

I moved into a more "technical lead" position, but I was also semi forced to do so because my employer has offshored all the technical positions. It's a double edged sword; on one hand I've had a significant pay rise and also have a company car, so I feel like I'm progressing financially but I'm managing Indians with horrific pigeon English and a lack of drive. I need to mop up behind they constantly. The bigger picture is it's a stepping stone into other forms of management; service management, incident management and perhaps project management with the right training.

You need to accept that you're leaving your technical job behind, that's one of the hardest parts for me; the feeling that you're not in control of the technical work.

 

[Wij]

KS - do you work for the same company as G ?

 

[Killswitch]

KS - do you work for the same company as G ?

Not that I know of! Perhaps if he coughs loudly at an agreed time and I'll listen in the main office!

 

[Wij]

I'm talking about the big one in Halifax but having re-read what you do and what you are paid I doubt it now

 

[Shagrat]

I went the management route, saw an interesting position come up during a recent restructure and thought I'd have a pop at it.

Moved from a tech role to Performance/App Support Team Manager, so im now dealing with contract negotiations and new app implementation (so still getting my tech fix) and also getting into performance management and using that to drive company decision making.

Like you, I thought long and hard about the direction to go, I suppose I'd been doing tech/admin work for years and only recently thought about the fact that it had been the same thing for a long time. Big G sums it up perfectly:

You need to accept that you're leaving your technical job behind, that's one of the hardest parts for me; the feeling that you're not in control of the technical work.

It's so weird relying on other people to do "your" work. But its also refreshing to be involved in the bigger picture of implementation and stuff, rather than just one specific tech aspect.

Prince2 seems to be the project management essential qual of choice atm (well from the few jobs I looked at).

 

[Killswitch]

I'm talking about the big one in Halifax but having re-read what you do and what you are paid I doubt it now

Nah, I work in glorious Bradford so I get the pleasure of the commute via Queensbury. It's especially scenic now they've dug up everything from Boothtown to Clayton and seem to be modelling the road on the "Baghdad Airport Runway Post-Invasion" look.