How many People have changed careers to a second career in I.T.?
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If so what drove the change to do so?
Started studying Law - met a lot of lawyers, didn't like any of them so switched to Science - a much better class of party. Did a combined science degree in Astronomy, Mathematics (stats and computing) and psychology (just for fun/filler). Got a PhD in Computer Science - became a professor of same for three years! Second career: Got a real job as a developer - never looked back.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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I used to be a clown. When the circus closed quite a long time ago, given my skills and experience, I got several opportunities as world sales manager or main product developer for big software companies, but I turned down the offers, and being a funny guy with a witty humor, started programming in Visual Basic for the financial industry.
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Started as a mechanical engineer, then moved to IT (networking, DB management, etc...), then C++ development, then PLC and HMI development - now I manage an electrical engineering department and keep my hands "in the game". All at one company over nearly 33 years. :-O
Mike Mullikin wrote:
Started as a mechanical engineer...
So you've been designing you're new knees and hips.
Mike Mullikin wrote:
...then moved to IT (networking, DB management, etc...), then C++ development, then PLC and HMI development - now I manage an electrical engineering department and keep my hands "in the game".
So the next upgrades will be including what exactly?
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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If so what drove the change to do so?
I put in 10 years making cardboard boxes before going back to college at 30 and rediscovering computers. Before I quit school in the late 80s, I had been a comp sci major with a part-time janitor job at a local box plant. I started picking up extra time helping the crews working late and started missing time in the computer lab...then they started a second shift and that started a 10 year career across two different states. The last box plant I worked at tried to work me to death...12 hour shifts with one Sunday off every other week. I did that schedule for almost two and a half years which destroyed my relationship and gave me an opportunity to move away from it all and go live on a farm with my grandparents and finish college at a local university. Well, I could go on and on, but actually have work to do...as I'm sure we all have. :laugh: One last thought I'd like to share is how amazed and elated I was when I bought my first Windows 98 system and fired up Visual Studio 6 for the first time! :) Kind of like meeting my wife! :laugh:
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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If so what drove the change to do so?
I always liked working with computers, that's why. Started as student, programmed mathematical models for my Doktor-Ingenieur. In Turbo Pascal. Then an Israeli guy wanted to make a start-up in Sofia and invited me to join. Learned for 2 years from the best hackers in town and then moved to Canada. Nobody ever asked me to do anything related to my Mechanical Engineering degree :)
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If so what drove the change to do so?
Good question. My first career was programming. So is my third (and current). But for 12 years I was in animation and visual effects for film/TV/advertising. My desire to become a filmmaker drove me first. My slightly painful insight of my artistic shortcomings drove me back... :sigh:
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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If so what drove the change to do so?
I was in Sales and got way too burn out, sacked it in and went back to University to learn about computers, and sort of got the bug for programming!!!
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I put in 10 years making cardboard boxes before going back to college at 30 and rediscovering computers. Before I quit school in the late 80s, I had been a comp sci major with a part-time janitor job at a local box plant. I started picking up extra time helping the crews working late and started missing time in the computer lab...then they started a second shift and that started a 10 year career across two different states. The last box plant I worked at tried to work me to death...12 hour shifts with one Sunday off every other week. I did that schedule for almost two and a half years which destroyed my relationship and gave me an opportunity to move away from it all and go live on a farm with my grandparents and finish college at a local university. Well, I could go on and on, but actually have work to do...as I'm sure we all have. :laugh: One last thought I'd like to share is how amazed and elated I was when I bought my first Windows 98 system and fired up Visual Studio 6 for the first time! :) Kind of like meeting my wife! :laugh:
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
From 1969 through May of this year, I worked in I.T., lastly for a mental health facility (queue the puns, jokes and comments.... :-D ) Unfortunately, I was forcibly retired due to the seemingly imminent adoption of a third-party Electronic Health Record (EHR). Guess what? That still has not happened.
I miss being "in the game." However, on the bright side, I am working harder than ever, and am now in better physical shape, working on my wife's ranch. Here, I fix fence, haul feed, move livestock and so forth.
As you can tell, I live in a rural area. I have found that finding a nearby I.T. job at my age is akin to "Mission: Impossible." No one wants to hire an "old timer." At the same time, they bemoan that all the recent I.T. graduates are moving to the cities. :confused:
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock
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If so what drove the change to do so?
> How many People have changed careers to a second career in I.T.? It feels like I do that every time I change jobs. Within I.T.!!! :laugh: Explanation (a sample of jobs): Learn about IT in voter registration and ballot counting. Learn about IT in satellite design. Learn about IT in boatyard management. Learn about IT in gentlemen clubs. Learn about IT in casinos. Learn about IT in the insurance business. Every one of those IT "experiences" was a whole different ball of wax -- different information, different tech, different processes and workflows, etc.
Latest Article - A Concise Overview of Threads Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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From 1969 through May of this year, I worked in I.T., lastly for a mental health facility (queue the puns, jokes and comments.... :-D ) Unfortunately, I was forcibly retired due to the seemingly imminent adoption of a third-party Electronic Health Record (EHR). Guess what? That still has not happened.
I miss being "in the game." However, on the bright side, I am working harder than ever, and am now in better physical shape, working on my wife's ranch. Here, I fix fence, haul feed, move livestock and so forth.
As you can tell, I live in a rural area. I have found that finding a nearby I.T. job at my age is akin to "Mission: Impossible." No one wants to hire an "old timer." At the same time, they bemoan that all the recent I.T. graduates are moving to the cities. :confused:
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock
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If so what drove the change to do so?
You're all pussies, some of the jobs I have had before I started programming. Milkmans offsider Type Fitter Bowser Boy Truck Driver Jackaroo Surveyors Offsider Factory drone (not the flying ones) Then I tried Sales Encyclopedias Computer timesheet plans Roof Tiles PC (286-486) Software That is when found out I was better at coding than selling Excel Macros (from Lotus 123) Superbase - Consultant Access (1st contract) SQL Server VB5-6 VB.Net - Winforms C# winforms C# Silverlight - I am still pissed it was canned C# WPF and now C# Xamarin Forms - just like WPF but for mobiles
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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From 1969 through May of this year, I worked in I.T., lastly for a mental health facility (queue the puns, jokes and comments.... :-D ) Unfortunately, I was forcibly retired due to the seemingly imminent adoption of a third-party Electronic Health Record (EHR). Guess what? That still has not happened.
I miss being "in the game." However, on the bright side, I am working harder than ever, and am now in better physical shape, working on my wife's ranch. Here, I fix fence, haul feed, move livestock and so forth.
As you can tell, I live in a rural area. I have found that finding a nearby I.T. job at my age is akin to "Mission: Impossible." No one wants to hire an "old timer." At the same time, they bemoan that all the recent I.T. graduates are moving to the cities. :confused:
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock
I'm 2 days away from final retirement from 30+ years as a developer, it is weird feeling that I won't have targets and deadlines and meetings and all the bullshit that goes with the job. I've been working 10 days in a month for the last few months. I retire to Cairns where there is no IT industry to live on an acreage, not quite a farm, but there is lots to do outside. Looking forward to it.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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> How many People have changed careers to a second career in I.T.? It feels like I do that every time I change jobs. Within I.T.!!! :laugh: Explanation (a sample of jobs): Learn about IT in voter registration and ballot counting. Learn about IT in satellite design. Learn about IT in boatyard management. Learn about IT in gentlemen clubs. Learn about IT in casinos. Learn about IT in the insurance business. Every one of those IT "experiences" was a whole different ball of wax -- different information, different tech, different processes and workflows, etc.
Latest Article - A Concise Overview of Threads Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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Marc Clifton wrote:
Learn about IT in gentlemen clubs.
Tell me something... How would you go about learning IT in gentlemen's clubs? Asking for a friend.
I'm retired. There's a nap for that... - Harvey
It is all about creating fake meetings in calenders and clearing browser history automatically.
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If so what drove the change to do so?
Dropped out of studying law Admin clerk at medical aid Secretary Shop assistant Secretary/personal assistant Project administrator Personal assistant Embedded C developer on PIC and AVG (no one saw that coming, not even me! :omg:) Project administrator Embedded C developer (upgrade to embedded Linux OS) iOS developer (still)
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If so what drove the change to do so?
I was a professional chef for over 20 years. unfortunately my knees gave up. :(( Now I am a software developer for 24 years. now I only cook for my wife, and she loves it.:cool:
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If so what drove the change to do so?
Money. I started in mech/aero engineering, but there is sod all career in that in the UK really. So, list of jobs goes: Buyer in company making ice cream making machines Estimator/designer, steel work for stone cladding industry (some of my metal is in Canary Wharf, Stanstead airport...) That company folded, so I ended up running my own garage and doing odd jobs, private investigator was an amusing one. Started scouting around for something more long term/better paid so... Studied C language on a correspondence course so got a job as a welder, then in a company making turbine blades to tide me over. Then first job in IT, correspondence courses from the OU in software design, and the career took off. Second IT job was doing windows drivers for the military, worked mostly in the kernel since for companies around the world.
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If so what drove the change to do so?
I started studying Architecture. I left it after 2 years, because making buildings is not what I wanted. After that, in 1982, I began working for a company as a truck driver and spent 2 years doing that. On December 1984 the company bought a Commodore 64, and nobody knew a bit of how use it. I was young and decided to study it, and after a few months, one of the engineers talk to me for we, both of us, make a software for calculate steel structures. He did the civil engineering and I coded it. After that I been working in IT for 33 years, passing through Amiga (using AmigaBasic and C), DOS (dBase III and IV, QuickBasic), Windows in the 90's (Visual Basic, C++, Visual FoxPro) and now Windows in 2000's (C++ and C#). Everything in the same company, and at this time I've developed all the software it is used inside (Except AutoCad, MS Office and Paint programs). I've never drove trucks again!
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If so what drove the change to do so?
I was a chemist by education and worked as a chemist from 91 to 99 before leaving for IT. I took a job as environmental database manager at an engineering firm. My family had relocated to the DC metro area for my wife's work and I had trouble finding a good job as an experienced BS level chemist. I have actually been a programmer \ developer now for most of my it career. Never looked back, never regretted move, and certainly making way more money than reasonably could expect to make as chemist.
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If so what drove the change to do so?
I flunked out of college during Vietnam "Police Action". Joined the Navy. Was sent to Tech school for Computer repair. Worked repairing weapons system on aircraft (controlled by a digital computer - very primitive), and left when my enlistment was up. Went back to college and got my degree in business. I had one course in programming. It was BASIC, and I discovered I was good at it, and that I enjoyed it. Worked as a computer operator/programmer to support myself and my new wife (she has put up with me for 45 years and deserves a medal). My goal was law school and I completed it, got my J.D. and practiced law for 2 years. Had to deal with too many lawyers, so I went back to programming and have never looked back. :cool::cool:
Take responsibility for your actions and failure to act when you should have.