Career Change?

Hey guys, just to give you a little back drop on my situation and a little advice would be nice.

I'm going to be 40 years old next month rain and I'm currently looking to make a drastic change in my life and am in desperate need of a career change. I'm a father of three kids and just put my wife through nursing school. I've been working for the same company for the last 20 years and I'm making 70k+ a year as a CNC Machinist/Programmer/Supervisor/Engineer and all around employee for a local company that has seen it's ups and downs the last few years. I was on the verge of a layoff in the beginning of the year and it really got me nervous and thinking of a career change. We are getting busy again but this isn't long term for sure! This is all I've ever done and the only trade I really know but as you're all aware this country is becoming a service country and we are not manufacturing anything anymore! (That's a discussion for another time) Most of out shops have closed here in the North East and my options are very limited especially for the amount of money I make. And to be honest I really want a change and I'm completely sick of production machine shops and want to try something new.

Now, I wanted to do this when I was 30 years old and ten years went by in a flash so it's now or never as far as I'm concerned! Got a couple of questions and I hope you experts can shed some light on this for me. I have three options but keep in mind I have to continue to work my 12 hour days while I go to school.

Option 1: I can go Here http://www.porterchester.com/ which is 20 minutes from my house and it's at night and it will take me 18 months to do so.

Option 2: I can go here http://www.neit.edu/index.cfm?pg=3 which is over an hour drive from my house and I'm not sure of the time frame with this yet.

Option 3: I could do the program online through New England Tech but not have any hands on training and I think that's a bit of a negative for me.

Now I'll have to weigh all the monetary costs of-coarse but one of my main concerns is the actual field I should get into? I really like the hardware end but the pay-scale seems to be lower than if I were to get into network administration or the software end. I really like both aspects of it but i have to choose which one and this is where I would like some input.

Should I get into software Engineering or Network Engineering? Sorry for the long post and thanks for any insight you can provide for a confused man!!

I heard the software end of engineering pays pretty well, but that's if you get into things like Microsoft OS's and Photoshop, etc.

But hey you're 40 and you're gonna retire in 20 or so years, do something that you like that pays pretty well.

Entrylevel IT will not pay anything near what you make now. It will take you several years at least to get back to that. Even longer to recoup the money you are planning to spend on education.

Otherwise, networking for sure.

SecrtAgentMan said:

I heard the software end of engineering pays pretty well, but that's if you get into things like Microsoft OS's and Photoshop, etc.

But hey you're 40 and you're gonna retire in 20 or so years, do something that you like that pays pretty well.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply agentman, actually I have 27 years to work so don't make me any older than I am!!

SteveLord said:

Entrylevel IT will not pay anything near what you make now. It will take you several years at least to get back to that. Even longer to recoup the money you are planning to spend on education.

Otherwise, networking for sure.

Click to expand...

Hey Steve, yeah you're right and that's a major factor in my decision. I have to be responsible in my choice and not put too much of a financial hard ship on my family. As it is, we are paying off my wife's loans right now and I have two kids in high school right now so they will be looking at school as well so it doesn't look too optimistic for me right now! Man, if I had it all to over again........

1 vote for air traffic controller. That's my backup job.

jediman said:

1 vote for air traffic controller. That's my backup job.

Click to expand...

That's a good plan but not for me as they prefer to hire people under the age of 31 for those positions, and under 31 I AM NOT!

I applied to a local pc shop here in my hometown yesterday from criagslist so I'm hoping they take a chance on me. It will be 1/2 of what I'm making now but I don't care at this point. I'll get two jobs for a while if i have to, I really need the change and this is something that I've wanted for a long time! Realistically I don't think they'll call me even though I'm a hard worker and completely loyal and dedicated. They would rather hire someone with the certifications and will give them 50%!

I'm not trying to sidetrack the thread...but have you ever thought of starting your own business? You never work another day in your life when you work for yourself...it's awesome.

Sorry for your plight, hope it all works out. This too shall pass sir.

xokeman said:

I'm not trying to sidetrack the thread...but have you ever thought of starting your own business? You never work another day in your life when you work for yourself...it's awesome.

Sorry for your plight, hope it all works out. This too shall pass sir.

Click to expand...

Not a sidetrack at all, thanks for your reply. I would love to work for myself but that's not really an option for me at this point in my life. I have to carry health insurance because my wife doesn't have that option with her employer at this time. Another five years or so my kids will be grown and things will be a little different but for now I would like to start working for a company and learn everything I can. I really excel when challenged and I'm very reliable and hard working and it pains me when companies won't give me a second look because I don't have the piece of paper that says I'm qualified. That's my own fault I guess for not going to college when I had the chance. I can chalk that up to a life lesson I guess! I won't give up and I hope someone will give me a chance to prove myself and I guarantee they won't regret it!

i guess i'll post another of my backup jobs. helicopter pilot, though getting the training is expensive and time consuming.

I love working in IT, but you should be aware that you may face some challenges - IT is a young man's game. Age discrimination can be pretty bad in this industry, as there is a stigma about older folks keeping current while the young folks are more agile with it, and the young folks are often cheaper up front. Not that you are old yet, but things don't always look brighter the older you get in IT.

If you are considering IT, you may want to consider what you are interested in - service delivery (helpdesk or field technician), infrastructure (system admin, network support, db administration), application specialty (oracle business suite), development (programming), project management, etc.

I like technical answers, making things work, troubleshooting problems - I got my foot in the door from being in college and found myself an internship for $12/hour, got hired a year or so later at under 40K (pretty average for entry level infrastructure jobs), did the internal helpdesk thing for almost 5 years which was a good mix of service and desktop administration background, and advanced to server administration. Been doing that now for a bit. Never did finish school, maybe someday but I doubt it.

If I were to do it again looking around, I wouldn't be as good at anything else, but I could see project management being a pretty cool gig, Oracle skills are in really solid demand, DBAs often start off making much more than your average entry level IT job and education/training seems to count more for DBAs than other areas of IT in my experience.

I think the outlook to hit the ground running and mitigate your pay differential is probably best in one of those focuses if they may interest you. If you see yourself as more of a infrastructure guy, there are plenty of entry level jobs for that too... 3-5 years of experience is a real sweet spot as a lot of places want to hire someone ready to roll without learning as they go, so getting your foot in the door is the kicker and finding ways to get legitimized experience like school and a related job could help.

Pumping your independent learning could also be good, the only thing relevant on my resume when I started out was OC Forums.

Thanks for the reply IMOG, I'm going to be 40 next week so.......... Yeah I'm old now! I completely understand what you're saying though, you made a lot of good points. I really like figuring out problems and finding a fix and I would love to get into some type of software applications of some sort. We use a lot of software in our industry and I would like to be one of those people who travel to the site and do the install and get things up and running. Not too sure how to go about this type of work but I have to say it's a bit intimidating at my age. I know this sounds cliche but I don't know where the last 10 years of my life went! I can remember being 30 years old and saying "If I'm going to make a career change I need to do it now." Somehow I set my life on FF and ten years went by in the blink of an eye!

I know what you mean about youth, I'm guilty of age discrimination myself when it comes to hiring people to work with me. And it has everything to do with how we operate as a company and the technology we use to program our machines. I've had countless people my age come and go and never adapt well but I recently hired a 27 year old guy and he has done VERY well. He's great with the CAD/CAM and all the other programs we use on a daily basis and it was very easy to train him, unlike the people my age! I like to think I am an exception but most people don't give me the time of day because I'm not certified or have a degree, but I can't really blame them either. I'm burnt out with my current profession and would love to start a new one but reality keeps kicking me in the face so I'm not sure what I'll do.

Like I said, you won't catch up to your current salary likely for several years. Then you'd still be paying for your wife's nursing skill and whatever you trained in to get where you are.

Maybe you should consider going to another job instead. A different environment might help, without taking a huge salary cut.

SteveLord said:

Like I said, you won't catch up to your current salary likely for several years. Then you'd still be paying for your wife's nursing skill and whatever you trained in to get where you are.

Maybe you should consider going to another job instead. A different environment might help, without taking a huge salary cut.

Click to expand...

I have been considering that heavily lately, not too much to choose from around here but i think I need a change of scenery! I take my job very seriously and personally so I let the stress eat me alive. I have more than a career path to change and i'm trying hard to change my ways.