Am I too Old for a career change?

Sup08

Ok, so most of my working life has been retail, from the age of 15 up to present day.
In between jobs I have decided to up skill in an area I would have loving my career to have been, computers.
Through bad decisions in my youth, I took the wrong career path and went with an apprenticeship (not building related) and qualified. Eventually I ended up working in an office of a retail company and loved working with software systems, office programmes and trouble shooting user issues with same in a helpdesk environment.
I lost my job back in 2007 and have been through some different types of jobs but always seem to end up back in retail and never a computer related field.

Am I too old at 42 to continue to try and change my career and gain employment in an IT related company, software or hardware.
I ‘m qualified in CompTIA A+, Dreamweaver CS4, Microsoft Office 2003 and build, fix and troubleshoot PC’s regularly for people.
I am familiar with HTML and a little CSS although web design is just a hobby and I’m not up to scratch on the latest. I use a lot of CMS like Wordpress now for most of my web design but I am mainly self thought in this and use just the main features.

What would you do? Stick to retail (that I’m not really into) or continue to up skill?

Financially, as a married man with 2 very young children and my wife in a not so good paid job the cost of childcare and all other household expenses to continue up skilling is starting to take it toll, and maybe pointless on a career choice that may never happen.

daRobot

You get one shot at life, and if you're not happy make a change, that will make you happy.

It's the unknown that can be a bit scary, but I don't believe for one second your age is a limiting factor.

Do it, you'll thrive and succeed much more in the long term doing something you like.

gerarda

I'm 2 years younger than yourself and am also working at getting into the web development scene. Like you, I have 14 years experience in the IT support/admin field. Your previous IT experience should make your learning easier and don't let your age stop you (and dont listen to people who tell you otherwise) - best of luck!

boobar

gerarda wrote: »

I'm 2 years younger than yourself and am also working at getting into the web development scene. Like you, I have 14 years experience in the IT support/admin field. Your previous IT experience should make your learning easier and don't let your age stop you (and dont listen to people who tell you otherwise) - best of luck!

Completely agree with Gerarda

Dymo

What would you do? Stick to retail (that I’m not really into) or continue to up skill?

The state retirement age for you is going to be 68 that's 26 years away, so you have 26 years (long time) of your working life left to work at something that you can be happy with. I'd say go for it. Harder for the first couple of years but then when you'll have a bit more experience you'll thrive.

fasttalkerchat

At 42 you're too old to do better in retail! I would look at it that way and go for what you really want!

Fuh Q

Go for it, Im 43 and about to make a complete change and retrain for a new career. Ive only every had dead end jobs with no future so its time I got a real job.

Mr. Loverman

daRobot wrote: »

You get one shot at life

Exactly!

I would hate to know how many people hit 70 and realise "oh **** why didn't I live the life I wanted?".

doolox

I was 30 years in the computer hardware industry and personally would not recommend it to anybody except those who are very good at abstract things like maths, problem solving and like constant and challenging change all the time.

You are young enough to change but I would be VERY careful of the course choice and costs incurred in breaking into a new career in IT. There are a lot of chancers and charlatans out there ready to pick you clean on the promise of a job.

A lot of the study material is available online or in bookstores, do a lot of projects for low cost or voluntary to show your competance and get references and a possible entry to the IT field....if you can afford to do so.

unfortunately you will be competing with a lot of single graduates with lower costs of living who can afford to enter internships (Job Bridge etc...) where a married man with kids cannot afford to.

Tom Dunne

Can you do both?

Rather than simply walk away from your current job, could you build up a customer base before you leave retail? Set yourself up as a sole trader, do some web development/repair on the side and when you have a number of clients and/or repeat custom, then make the leap.

You are never too young.

NakedNNettles

Like a lot of these threads, a load of cliches being rolled out, you're never too old, you're never too young, you only live once, blah blah. None of these 'wise words' put food on the table.

Free, single, no ties or kids, hell yeah, go for it, but the reality is that the OP has a family to support.

If I was in a similar situation my kids would be no.1. so with that in mind I would continue in retail but also try to continue to upskill so that when that opportunity presents itself I could take advantage of it.

Along with Tom Dunne's advice, I think this is the best option moving forward. Going to be tough, a case of... how much do you want it?

Mr. Loverman

NakedNNettles wrote: »

Like a lot of these threads, a load of cliches being rolled out, you're never too old, you're never too young, you only live once, blah blah. None of these 'wise words' put food on the table.

Free, single, no ties or kids, hell yeah, go for it, but the reality is that the OP has a family to support.

So many people live in fear and use excuses to stop themselves living their lives.

If this guy gets a support job (not an impossibility by any stretch of the imagination) he will be able to continue supporting his family.

Even in a worst case scenario where he ends up on the dole for a while -- no one will die. They'll get through it.

Cuddlesworth

Aim for a helpdesk job in a multinational with a windows environment for two years. It might be hard, but with your current qualifications it should be possible. Prepare to be treated like **** by the users and possibly by the your team and management. Follow these next steps over the two years.

1- Learn Powershell over those two years. Incorporate as much of it into what you do daily, as you possibly can. Even if its slower then a manual action, script it and use it. Build a repertoire of scripts and knowledge for everyday tasks done. Put all of this into a basic powershell blog, explaining the scripts and how they improved x process.

2- Set a well defined study plan over those two years. Get a MCSE and CCNA. The study material is available online if you know where to look. You will need to budget about 1.5k in exam fees in total. Do not pay for courses. If you can't learn this stuff in your own time with training videos and books don't bother with a career in IT support. Its going to be a life of constant learning ahead of you.

3- While working, always question how things are done and how they can be improved. Make notes of how you planned, implemented and improved daily work or tasks. Powershell and a clever mind will help you with this. When in a performance review, remember its basically a argument between you and your manager. Prove your worth the top marks. Don't loose sight of this goal. Its easy to do in the long term.

4- If your going nowhere at the end of the two years, do up your CV. Drop in the qualifications listed above and emphasize your powershell blog. When talking about the helpdesk job, list the significant processes you changed and projects your were involved in. A good CV makes all the difference. Remember, you never have to mention your age on one so it doesn't become a factor untill you get that interview. You want to aim for Admin roles. If you feel that you don't have most of the skills listed, apply anyway. I've gotten most of my jobs that way.

5- Scan for jobs once a week. Its important that your are always looking for a better position. Those that stop looking, end up stuck in the same role.

jimmycrackcorm

As career change into IT very possible as IT constantly changes and those of us who spent a long time in this area have to constantly re-train ourselves to keep up with recent graduates.

Agent_99

I went back to college at 41 years young to change from working on Helpdesks and customer services to become a scientist . Two years later I am halfway through my degree and will be heading on coop in Jan to get some work experience.
I figured that when I finish my degree I will still have at least 25 years of working life ahead of me.
It's tough financially now but if I keep the head above the water I have a better chance to keep paying my mortgage without being made redundant every few years and be able to afford to send my own kids to college.

Go for it, Make yourself happy and everything else will fall into place.

[Jackass]

Of course you're not too old.

Particularly in a sector such as IT, where qualifications are evolving all the time. You will have to put a lot of work into upskilling. The more skilled you can get, the better you will do, but do also be prepared that there is a certain level of ageism out there, mostly relating to the fact that more senior employees tend to have higher wage expectations and once you hit the 50's it difficult as you are getting close to retirement age.

I know a man in his 50's who's having awful trouble getting a job, despite being highly qualified and experienced (financial services industry) and to be honest, it is largely down to his age.

But I say go for it, be aware of the risks, but don't let fear hold you back and work hard and you'll get there.

I'm back in college myself after a good few years working. It's tough going, but worth it.

wylo

Agent_99 wrote: »

I went back to college at 41 years young to change from working on Helpdesks and customer services to become a scientist . Two years later I am halfway through my degree and will be heading on coop in Jan to get some work experience.
I figured that when I finish my degree I will still have at least 25 years of working life ahead of me.
It's tough financially now but if I keep the head above the water I have a better chance to keep paying my mortgage without being made redundant every few years and be able to afford to send my own kids to college.

Go for it, Make yourself happy and everything else will fall into place.

Thanks for this post! Inspiring stuff.

phormium

Totally agree on the ageism thing, once you are older than most of your prospective bosses then you're in trouble. Another big problem with retraining is unless you have experience as well it is very difficult to get any job, experienced people will always win out. I know so many people that decided after redundancy etc to go back to college, I don't think any one of them has got a job since in the area they retrained for, it's great if you want to do it for self development but as a plan to get a job I'm just not so sure. Pessimistic I know!

knotknowbody

I'd definitely say to go for it, to be in a job you don't enjoy or are not happy with is as bad as being unemployed, the week really drags and it's hard to motivate yourself to go the extra mile that you have to nowadays.

Would it be possible to try and use your experience in retail to maybe get yourself a first I.T support job, a lot of EPOS systems used by retailers now are a software package ran on windows XP embedded machines with a touch-screen for user input, I'd imagine there would be support jobs in this area and someone with good I.T knowledge and retail experience would be ideal for them, just a thought could be worth looking into.