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Career complacency, what do you do to stave it off?

M

moddestmike

Senior member
While my job is neither stressful nor difficult (in terms or work, systems administrator), I feel as though I'm dying inside by working here. All of my employees are in their late 30's to early 40's, married and have children. They seem totally cool with just "going with the flow", I can understand this as they have no room to be impulsive with a family and all.

Here's what I want from you guys" Tell me what you would do if you were in my shoes.

27 years old, currently studying Geography part time at Uni of Houston.
Make a good living considering the economic climate.
4 Years Heldesk/Desktop experience, 3 years Systems Administration exp...
Have no family, girlfriend of 2 years and I called it quits 4 months (on good terms, but will remain just friends).
WANT TO TRY CAREER OUTSIDE OF IT.

Any of you guys ever been in my shoes? What did you do to help reverse this feeling as I feel it will only get worse if i don't move somewhere asap. Just worried about college creds not transferring (most California universities will require me to wait an entire year before enrolling).

FYI I hate school for the most part and would not go if I did not feel it necessary to even be considered for career progression (and if I wanted to stay in IT).
 
You call it career complacency, they may call it stability.

You never really got into why you feel like you are dying by working there. Is the job just boring to you now? Have you hit your ceiling in terms of promotion? Have you learned as much as possible without moving on?

If you really want to risk changing jobs or careers, now is the time with no family and very little to no obligations.

You are going to get the feeling to move on every 5 years regardless of job. I'm starting to get mine...there is nothing wrong with staying if you are happy with where you are at. Like I said, some call it stability.
 
Wouldn't say I feel as though I've mastered everything, but more so just becoming extremely bored with the monotony of my current role. I've made this quite apparent to my supervisor and team but because of seniority I'm forced to remain as I am. I agree that stability is what they (and I to some extent) desire but I'm just not sure how long I can last before I do something irrational like up and leave with no clear plan. I've never felt like this before and its quite strange.
 
moddestmike said:
Wouldn't say I feel as though I've mastered everything, but more so just becoming extremely bored with the monotony of my current role. I've made this quite apparent to my supervisor and team but because of seniority I'm forced to remain as I am. I agree that stability is what they (and I to some extent) desire but I'm just not sure how long I can last before I do something irrational like up and leave with no clear plan. I've never felt like this before and its quite strange.
Click to expand...

I kind of feel this way sometimes myself, but my wife and home ensure that I don't do anything stupid. 😀

You're young and single, so now is the time to take chances. You say you want out of IT, but what is it you REALLY want to do?
 
more then anything, it sounds like a lack of "satisfaction" with many aspects of your life; you don't seem to be getting the positive feedback, that makes any job worthwhile. However, rarely can you balance the positive feedback, with the economic requirements of living, and it's usually the job satisfaction that suffers. In today's economy, you can't be too picky about your work; ask the out of work people which they would prefer: job satisfaction or stable work environment.

Related to that, think of your hobbies. Which ones really seem to give you that urge to go the extra distance (gaming doesn't count)? If you have trouble thinking of at least 2-3, then you may not have a handle on what really does interest you and will give you that type of job satisfaction you are looking for. IE, if you can't define it in your private life, how successful will you be at defining it in your professional life? If you do find that job that merges both job satisfaction and viable economics, you won't be asking yourself about job complacency.
 
Just because your current job in IT isn't making you happy doesn't mean any job in IT would be the same.

I just got contacted about a job doing what I do but in Alaska just this week.

If I were in your situation, I'd jump on something like that instantly.

But I'm married with a kid and a mortgage, so I do want the stable long term high paying job.

You'll be hard pressed to find many other lines of work that pay better than the one you're in without having tons of schooling and debt for the rest of your life to get that schooling.
 
Buy a vineyard in Tuscany.

or...

I am guessing you do IT because it comes naturally to you, because you grew up in the computer tech bubble. If you no longer enjoy IT, it could just be because you are growing up and realizing that the 9 to 5 sucks. Join the crowd.

Why are you studying geography? What is that going to solve? Do you want to become a teacher? I know a guy who works for one of the large gps mapping companies as a sales guy, selling corporate mapping services. He has a geography degree and makes tons of money... but that's probably because he is good at sales more than his degree.

Maybe you're just unhappy that you broke up with your girlfriend.
Start hanging out with other people more often, meeting new people.
 
I doubt this is specifically job related. You've probably got a mild case of wanderlust. It happens to pretty much everyone and will pass.
 
Are they paying for your degree and how much longer until you finish it? If they are paying for it and you only have 2years or so it can be a waste to switch now.

Geography? Are you interested in working with GIS? I know a couple of my friends who make good money doing that, there's a wide range of fields where it comes in handy.
 
Please jump ship then, we need more system admin jobs to open up for people that actually love doing it.

So many people have jumped on the IT bandwagon because it seemed lucrative, now the ones that actually love the field have to fight for jobs and compete with people not even interested.
 
Work for a small/med company; 50-2000 or so, and hope to move up to CTO management type or owner position.


The problem is, once you leave IT it's very very tough to go back. 7 years of experience is a good bit
 
Go find something you enjoy, NOW! The pay, the tenure, whatever... None of it means jack sh*t.

I used to be an auto mechanic. It was cool for a short time, but it didn't take long for misery to set in. A little over 10 years ago, I dedicated myself to a career change and got into the semiconductor industry, and it's one of the best decisions I have ever made.

I truly feel sorry for people who have a job they don't like. I've been there, it's no way to live.
 
moddestmike said:
27 years old, currently studying Geography part time at Uni of Houston.
Make a good living considering the economic climate.
4 Years Heldesk/Desktop experience, 3 years Systems Administration exp...
Have no family, girlfriend of 2 years and I called it quits 4 months (on good terms, but will remain just friends).
WANT TO TRY CAREER OUTSIDE OF IT.

FYI I hate school for the most part and would not go if I did not feel it necessary to even be considered for career progression (and if I wanted to stay in IT).
Click to expand...

You kind of need to go to school if you are tired of it. You can always learn a trade.. but of course you will be competing with low-wage illegal labor.

What kind of work are you interested in?

http://www.daveramsey.com/store/boo...-48-days-to-the-work-you-love-i-/prod367.html

I agree IT work sucks... although it does provide a decent paycheck. I am under the philosophy that technology will render systems administrators obsolete within a few years. Large businesses and entities will alwyas have a need from some system administration... but where I work we keep losing people (whose jobs then get frozen), but there really isn't more work.
 
make a 5 year plan. where do you want to be in 5 years, then backfill it with milestones which will act as minigoals to measure and motivate yourself along the way.

also, if you are hanging out with these people who "seem totally cool with just 'going with the flow'", then stop immediately or else their attitude will rub off on you. worse, they will impede your progress as they see or notice you succeeding in other areas. find like minded (but not negative people). this is extremely important to safeguard against, there's a fine line between misery and ambition, most people who are miserable pretend it's their ambition but in actuality it's their misery.
 
I felt the same way.. I was really starting to get bored, but I had a hard time leaving a job with such great benefits.

What I ended up doing was picking up consulting work on the side. This gives me something else to focus on and makes me feel like I am striving to acheive something.

This way even during the boring patches at my day job I can still be mentally stimulated by my consulting work.

edit: Plus in this economy, consulting work is really easy to come by since nobody want to hire full time employees with benefits.
 
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Sorry for the wait guys, as far as Geography...well its my passion. GIS has always been a close option but my primary love is Physical Geographic research and studies (ironic considering how much I hate school, atleast the core requisites part).

A little background story, I started off as an Electrical Engineering major. The entire time throughout my studies I ran a small LAN Gaming Center, mainly because it was fun and convenient. This is how I learned systems administration and some network engineering (gained some certs also). My junior year I experienced 2 horrible internships which made me rethink my career as an engineering major, so I sat out a semester and ran the center. Had a lot of fun and learned more than what I could have ever learned at Uni so I opted to make it a career. Been fun up until this point. The girlfriend thing is a non-factor as we both realized we are not a good fit. Oddly enough I felt somewhat relieved to be separated from her.

I guess I may just need to man up a bit...make a decision as to weather I want to maintain the good income and deal with the monotony or "seek true happiness", if such a thing is tangible at this point. The 5 year plan doesn't sound bad at this point.

Just out of the blue, how many of you guys actually have degrees in the field that you work? (I'm going to assume most, if not all are employed in the technology sector.)
 
Life is too short to worry about carreer and stuff. As long as you have a job you like and you are making enough money to be happy, I see no point in wanting to move out, especially if it's a stable position.

I'm going from level 3 server to NOC, people think I'm crazy, but if I'm happy at the NOC, then so be it. It's the same pay, less stress, and shift work, which will give me more time at home.
 
If you don't want to jump ship (having no money and need to eat is a good incentive), then find a B-job. Something on the side, no matter how shitty, to give you another perspective.

Or find a B-job that is a sort of half-assed internship in the field you want.

I hate my current full-time job, and have a second job (I'd starve living off that money) that I do something different, somewhat closer to what I want. I'm also doing a graduate degree in what I definitely want to do. I should be done within the year too, and plan on finding another degree because I enjoy school a bit, and don't mind resume padding.


Or go find yourself a baby mama and spend 90% of your time dealing with that...
 
Red Squirrel said:
Life is too short to worry about carreer and stuff. As long as you have a job you like and you are making enough money to be happy, I see no point in wanting to move out, especially if it's a stable position.
Click to expand...

I agree. I had another long post typed up but it got lost, but I have to agree with what gophins wrote about negative influences with one caveat. I personally don't think there is anything wrong with being content with where you're at and being happy to stay in a position and go with the flow. Many people arrive at a point in life where spending time with their family and friends is more important than chasing the carrot in the daily rat race of corporate America.
 
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