Who's escaped from IT and how did you find starting again?

[Totality]

I'm always seeing threads about how people are bored of working in IT and how others hate it and want to do something else but never do anything about it - so I'm interested in hearing from people who simply had enough of the politics in IT and decided to start a new career!

How did you fund your new career and how long did it take to get comfortable again? I've been looking to get out of IT for a while now but have a year left of loan payments then I'll be debt free. Don't think its worth the risk at the moment of trying something new incase it doesnt work out and I'm stuck jobless!

I'm looking to go back to uni when I'm loan free or doing a HND as I know the career path I want to go but as I'm getting older (nearing 30) I dont know how easy it is to start all over again... Wish I'd chosen a different career path back when I was 18 and at uni the first time but alas you live and learn Just wondering how others found it completely changing career paths?

 

[Zefan]

I've been saying this quite a lot recently, but have you considered the Armed Forces?

:edit: Ah ignore me, I didn't see the bit about knowing what you wanted to do

 

[ColdAsIce]

What are you hoping to get into after IT totality?

 

[platypus]

I've been saying this quite a lot recently, but have you considered the Armed Forces?

:edit: Ah ignore me, I didn't see the bit about knowing what you wanted to do

Didn't get the research job I was going for, Armed Forces are back on my horizon. The only problem being my life at the moment is too structured around being in Cambridge.

 

[bledd]

my mate quit his old job (won't go into it, but it wasn't IT)

he did 2/4 week tiling course (can't remember how long it was), now he makes about £800 minimum a week, and is his own boss

 

[Zefan]

Didn't get the research job I was going for, Armed Forces are back on my horizon. The only problem being my life at the moment is too structured around being in Cambridge.

How so? Family/friends?

 

[platypus]

How so? Family/friends?

I recently won a Music scholarship to the University (I'm at Corpus) which is part time (3 days a week). I've recently taken to acting in a big way, having had a few lead roles, and it's perfect for my sculling & running. And my girlfriend is here. My family all live in different countries, but since we don't get on that doesn't matter too much!

 

[colinuk]

I have started a side line in wedding and action photography as well as my IT job. As a contractor its ok, i am my own boss, i dont do politics and earn a decent enough wage for me. But if i could, id do photography full time, saving for the D3 at the mo so need another 2 months of work for that one hehe...

 

[Dugganator]

IT seems great until after the 4 year mark I think and then you cant take it anymore lol. I'm in the same boat but I think for my sin's Ill be suck in the politic's of IT and the crazyness that it is forever. Of course it depends on what your doing in IT but I agree the job I'm doing currently doing feels like I'm beating my head against a wall for no reason.

 

[jamief]

The thing about earning £800 a week being a tiler is - you will be tiling walls / floors for the rest of your life. And earnings potential isn't going to go up much more is it?

 

[Zefan]

I recently won a Music scholarship to the University (I'm at Corpus) which is part time (3 days a week). I've recently taken to acting in a big way, having had a few lead roles, and it's perfect for my sculling & running. And my girlfriend is here. My family all live in different countries, but since we don't get on that doesn't matter too much!

That's quite a lot of stuff you've got going on, however if you're serious about joining the forces then begin your research/preparation now. The more you're prepared for it the better, the best thing you could do would be to volunteer at the nearest cadet wing or join the universities forces organisations. You probably know this already mind

 

[philstanbridge]

I've done exactly that. I was in IT for the best part of 15 years. I worked my way up from second line support and ended up running my own IT business. I got sick of the pressure, and the cut throat nature of the industry I was in as a whole. I decided to get out whilst I could, and retrain. I'm now doing what I wanted to do originally, and going back to school! I never had the opportunity back then, so I'm happy to be able to do this now at 33. My life is restarting! It's a weird feeling.

 

[doublehelix2]

There seems to be a thread about this at least once a week, so we should get ready for the influx of eleventy billion OCUkr's any minute now.....

 

[JollyGreen]

Well I quit my IT career of 4.5 years (which is a while for a 21 year old) quite recently in order to go travelling.
Not sure what I'll get into when I get back, with the amount of work I've had to do on the bike lately I'm thinking of being a mechanic lol!

 

[Wicksta]

The thing about earning £800 a week being a tiler is - you will be tiling walls / floors for the rest of your life. And earnings potential isn't going to go up much more is it?

Less if anything, as more and more cheap labour arrives in the UK. £800 is only an average IT job wage as well (41k a year), I'd expect most people who has been in IT over 10 years to be earning more than that - well, around the London area anyway. Then you have things like sick pay, holiday pay etc to worry about. A friend of mine is a self employed plumber who unfortunately has 3 prolapsed discs in his back and a baby on the way. He'll probably be out of action for 2 months after surgery so he's having to wave goodbye to his 6 month old Focus ST.

It all sounds great until it starts to go wrong.

 

[ChroniC]

I left IBM because i hated the boredom, monotony and knowing the ladder was full of people waiting years to climb the next rung above me.
I quit, went round the world for a year and started uni when i got back (23) finishing now in a new job i love getting paid pretty much the same as when i left the IT industry, with lots of opportunities.

 

[Moredhel]

And here I was expecting a thread about evil evil clowns.

 

[riddler]

And here I was expecting a thread about evil evil clowns.

 

[doublehelix2]

^^ That's much more ghey than evil tbh with you.

 

[Vanilla]

IT is like the CIA.

Nobody leaves Mr. Totality, nobody.