Career shift in your 40's

miss choc

Just looking for a bit of advice have a friend in her late 30's and is fed up in her IT job she has had nearly 20 yrs programming doing the same stuff and her dream is to shift career into something like doing mobile apps, digital media, etc cos IT has changed so much in the last 20 yrs she feels she is not up to scratch as all the graduates are coming out of college now with all the up to date IT stuff. The only thing in her favour I guess is her experience but it's not in the right field its basically stay on good pay for a software programme she works on that is now nearly out of date and hates doing for the next 30 yrs of her life or start new on a lower pay and no experience, cos she has bills and a mortgage it would be hard for her to adjust pay wise. I think it will seriously get her down if she is in a well paid job but hating it and the commute every day I think she has regrets too that when she was in college there wasnt the opportunity for IT grads that there is today probably feels life is passing her by esp in the IT world something new every minute.

boobar

miss choc wrote: »

Just looking for a bit of advice have a friend in her late 30's and is fed up in her IT job she has had nearly 20 yrs programming doing the same stuff and her dream is to shift career into something like doing mobile apps, digital media, etc cos IT has changed so much in the last 20 yrs she feels she is not up to scratch as all the graduates are coming out of college now with all the up to date IT stuff. The only thing in her favour I guess is her experience but it's not in the right field its basically stay on good pay for a software programme she works on that is now nearly out of date and hates doing for the next 30 yrs of her life or start new on a lower pay and no experience, cos she has bills and a mortgage it would be hard for her to adjust pay wise. I think it will seriously get her down if she is in a well paid job but hating it and the commute every day I think she has regrets too that when she was in college there wasnt the opportunity for IT grads that there is today probably feels life is passing her by esp in the IT world something new every minute.

Why doesn't she look into a post graduate course in her area of interest...she could do this part time.

She could ask her current employer are there any opportunities to apply her learning within the organisation. I'd imagine this type of initiative would be very well received.

She'd even get to keep her current salary. Her employer might even pay for her course.

She has to take some ownership of this herself though....it won't just happen by chance.

miss choc

Thing is she is contracting there at the moment love the people, environment but hates the job just that contracting pays better. She probably has two choices either start at the bottom building up experience on what she wants to do or go and do what she is good at abroad she fancies working in Europe (change of scene) more money too. I don't think she want to go permanent in the job she is in cos she will get stuck in a rut doing same ould same ould job in Ireland

boobar

miss choc wrote: »

Thing is she is contracting there at the moment love the people, environment but hates the job just that contracting pays better. She probably has two choices either start at the bottom building up experience on what she wants to do or go and do what she is good at abroad she fancies working in Europe (change of scene) more money too. I don't think she want to go permanent in the job she is in cos she will get stuck in a rut doing same ould same ould job in Ireland

OK to be honest it sounds like she doesn't really want to learn new stuff, that's common.

Whether it's Ireland or elsewhere in Europe she's still going to hate the work.

Even as a contractor I think my previous suggestion is at least a start and may help her to make up her mind about starting again in another area.

But look if she's on great money, it can help with the boredom! A little bit of boredom at work, a nice lifestyle in Europe, not too shabby am I right?

I work in IT myself and am always amazed at the amount of people that say they're looking to branch out but do nothing about it. And I've come to the conclusion that the money is good so they're scared to try. And it's much easier to talk about it and wait for something to change than do anything about it themselves.

miss choc

In fairness she had an online business when she wasn't working and set up her own website and tries to learn online stuff on making apps that's her dream but she know it would be a step down and less money. She finished Uni in mid 90's and the IT world has changed so much she just got stuck in programming AS400 and the like now she want to try her hand at web development but feels she might be too old and trying to catch up with the fresh young things out of Uni it's scary nowadays kids now more that me about techie stuff. I am not an IT person but I know she says she is trying to brush up on some Java and do online tutorials related to app development I guess it's harder to motivate yourself unless you go to a class and do it. She works 9 to 5.30 and just probably hasnt the time to do an evening class as there is a lot of pressure at work and she does be exhausted.

boobar

I hear you. The kids and I mean kids here 8 year olds scare me with their knowledge and appetite to learn. I've seen some of the projects coming out of Coder Dojo's ....really amazing stuff.

What impressed me about these kids is that they pretty much self learn and do all the other kid stuff, play sports, go to school, homework, bed early!

I'm in my mid 40s and have changed career three times, it's been tough and scary to change. But I still think your friend has options.

What advice have you given your friend? Not to be smart but do you think she just wants to talk about the problem with you and not really do much to change it? I hope this doesn't cause offence.

boobar

One final word of caution, eventually her skills will be totally obsolete.

She will have to start again then.

So best get ahead of the curve and press ahead rather than waiting for the inevitable.

If app development is her dream job, going to an evening class no matter how tired she is should be an enjoyable experience.

miss choc

True if you enjoy something with a passion you will do it IT world is changing so fast always have to be learning new skills

smcgiff

Just to echo what boobar said.

It's unlikely she'll spend the next 30 years working on something she considers obsolete now.

That she is on contract is a bit of a worry too.

Her problem is that she is not stimulated in work, but too comfortable to up skill.

I can see a thread in a year's time where she has been made redundant, had to re skill and is now very happy in her career, if a little poorer.

miss choc

I know I'd prefer to have enough money to keep me going in a job I enjoy that a stressful crap job with loads of money. There's more to life.

percy212

What would be a good switch for a person like this - completely out of IT - wondering what alternatives might be out there.

miss choc

Mmm not sure she has degree in IT think that field is her forte never wanted to go into another sector ie even IT teaching, manager etc just want to switch from doing the old stuff and get onto web developing, apps, marketing etc the cool stuff I guess Been doing AS400 in insurance for ever and she's stuck in a rut now.

percy212

as400 skills are extremely well paid particularly as a freelancer. If she was making apps she would be competing with guys in india who work for a quarter of the going rate here. She is actually in a very well protected and highly compensated niche at the moment. Mainframes won't ever go away. The data may be scraped or translated for display on a modern or web interface, but most large organizations can't risk getting rid of the old code, mostly because they can't be sure what most of it actually does....

She is golden money wise for a long time to come. However happiness wise, well maybe she could sock away some of that cash she is raking in and take a year off now and again to travel. There is a lot to see out there....