IT Career Transitions at Age 50

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Jimbo

Platinum Member
Oct 10, 1999
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Is this a waste of time, or should I just commit myself to robbing banks?

I'll have my MS in Information Technology from WGU, and my A+, N+, and S+ As well as CCNA 1-4 but not much experience in the field other than doing these things casually over the last 15-years. They are not paper certs in that I actually "know things" and can "do things".

I'd like to start off as a network system admin and eventually management, but realize that I will be something quite a bit lower on the food chain for the first few years, and I can live with that.

Is this a waste of time since everyone seems to be looking for 20-somethings these days?

Brutal honesty and any constructive criticism is appreciated.

Thanks!
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,134
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You could probably get a good consulting job with those certifications. A full time job might be tough because of the blatant age discrimination in the industry.

What are you doing for work now?
 

Jimbo

Platinum Member
Oct 10, 1999
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You could probably get a good consulting job with those certifications. A full time job might be tough because of the blatant age discrimination in the industry.

What are you doing for work now?

I used to own a mortgage company but have been semi retired for the last decade taking care of aging parents. I saved a bit of money when I was doing lending, but the time is now to get back into the workforce.
 

IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
33,655
687
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Is this a waste of time, or should I just commit myself to robbing banks?

I'll have my MS in Information Technology from WGU, and my A+, N+, and S+ As well as CCNA 1-4 but not much experience in the field other than doing these things casually over the last 15-years. They are not paper certs in that I actually "know things" and can "do things".

I'd like to start off as a network system admin and eventually management, but realize that I will be something quite a bit lower on the food chain for the first few years, and I can live with that.

Is this a waste of time since everyone seems to be looking for 20-somethings these days?

Brutal honesty and any constructive criticism is appreciated.

Thanks!

My brutally honest opinion is this - pick another field. :) It ceased to be an enjoyable career long ago IMO when incompetent pencil pushers (MBAs with no tech experience and/or PMs) started to run the show. The big thing in IT now is ITIL, so it wouldn't hurt to get an ITIL Foundations certificate. I'll warn you ahead of time - it is really boring and IMO not useful even to the slightest degree, but the aforementioned paper pushers eat it up.

Seriously, it can be really hard to get into IT even as a twenty something without experience. You probably won't start at a system admin level unless you catch a break or work for a small company but increasingly, much of that infrastructure is being hosted offsite for small to medium companies so those jobs are harder to come by. To work for larger companies, you typically have to have a ton of experience. And to get into management, it seems to take a lot of breaks and being in the right place at the right time.

I've been in IT over 20 years and would love to get out, but I'm 45 and figure I'm probably stuck here. Infrastructure work is still the most enjoyable part of IT IMO, but even I abandoned that track several years ago to chase the money as a SharePoint Consultant. I think SharePoint's future is a bit cloudy at this stage so I may pivot back to infrastructure at some point.
 

holden j caufield

Diamond Member
Dec 30, 1999
6,324
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Your qualified to be systems admin for most small/med businesses. I know someone around your age and age discrimination is pretty bad partly because they made very low six figures and getting back into the job market is tough with that salary history. Maybe gov jobs aren't as discriminating with age. Or you can start your own consulting gig. Good luck.
 

Jimbo

Platinum Member
Oct 10, 1999
2,641
0
76
My brutally honest opinion is this - pick another field. :) It ceased to be an enjoyable career long ago IMO when incompetent pencil pushers (MBAs with no tech experience and/or PMs) started to run the show. The big thing in IT now is ITIL, so it wouldn't hurt to get an ITIL Foundations certificate. I'll warn you ahead of time - it is really boring and IMO not useful even to the slightest degree, but the aforementioned paper pushers eat it up.

Seriously, it can be really hard to get into IT even as a twenty something without experience. You probably won't start at a system admin level unless you catch a break or work for a small company but increasingly, much of that infrastructure is being hosted offsite for small to medium companies so those jobs are harder to come by. To work for larger companies, you typically have to have a ton of experience. And to get into management, it seems to take a lot of breaks and being in the right place at the right time.

I've been in IT over 20 years and would love to get out, but I'm 45 and figure I'm probably stuck here. Infrastructure work is still the most enjoyable part of IT IMO, but even I abandoned that track several years ago to chase the money as a SharePoint Consultant. I think SharePoint's future is a bit cloudy at this stage so I may pivot back to infrastructure at some point.

Actually, I really LIKE the infrastructure part more than anything.
I really enjoy scouring technical material and figuring out how to make it work, then figuring out how to make it do things it really wasn't designed to do.
Is that what you mean?
 

Jimbo

Platinum Member
Oct 10, 1999
2,641
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76
Your qualified to be systems admin for most small/med businesses. I know someone around your age and age discrimination is pretty bad partly because they made very low six figures and getting back into the job market is tough with that salary history. Maybe gov jobs aren't as discriminating with age. Or you can start your own consulting gig. Good luck.

I'm totally open to doing government jobs.
I used to work at UCLA as a Senior Analyst (20-years ago) and I did well there.
That type of environment suited me.
 

IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
33,655
687
126
Actually, I really LIKE the infrastructure part more than anything.
I really enjoy scouring technical material and figuring out how to make it work, then figuring out how to make it do things it really wasn't designed to do.
Is that what you mean?

Yes, by infrastructure, I mean networks, servers, etc. To me, that is easily the most fun part of IT. I left it a few years ago to concentrate on SharePoint full time. The money is better, but I miss being responsible for infrastructure. I designed and implemented a global Active Directory environment for my company a few years ago and that still stands as my proudest accomplishment.
 

Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
22,025
869
126
Is this a waste of time, or should I just commit myself to robbing banks?

I'll have my MS in Information Technology from WGU, and my A+, N+, and S+ As well as CCNA 1-4 but not much experience in the field other than doing these things casually over the last 15-years. They are not paper certs in that I actually "know things" and can "do things".

I'd like to start off as a network system admin and eventually management, but realize that I will be something quite a bit lower on the food chain for the first few years, and I can live with that.

Is this a waste of time since everyone seems to be looking for 20-somethings these days?

Brutal honesty and any constructive criticism is appreciated.

Thanks!

You might get lucky. I did. I've been doing IT for nearly 30 years and was fire/laid-off so many times that its a freaking joke. I did consulting a few years back and was miserable. I am now 50 and around four years ago I found a company in NYC that actually wanted an older seasoned IT manager. They claimed they didnt want some young guy who would be eager to learn stuff and move on. I was a perfect fit as I was too old to want to keep job hopping. Go for it.
 

drebo

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2006
7,034
1
81
Without experience, that MS is going to hurt you. Almost nowhere except smaller consulting places will consider someone with an MS for an entry-level job.

Almost nowhere except smaller consulting places will consider your "doing these things casually over the last 15 years" as actual work experience, either.

It's going to be very difficult for you to find a career position with your jobless gap and lack of real, documented experience.
 

TheSlamma

Diamond Member
Sep 6, 2005
7,625
5
81
Hate to say it man but IT is saturated now, sadly though it is with people who have no idea what they are doing. When you look at all the data breaches at places like Home Depot and Target none of those should have happened. Just careless admins and companies that don't empower their IT departments with the same trust and security that they give Finance and HR departments. This whole BYOD and shadow IT thing is also turning out to be a bad idea for many places (works for some places though) as it is counter to what all the security measures taken into account in the 90's gets washed away.
 

Jimbo

Platinum Member
Oct 10, 1999
2,641
0
76
Without experience, that MS is going to hurt you. Almost nowhere except smaller consulting places will consider someone with an MS for an entry-level job.

Almost nowhere except smaller consulting places will consider your "doing these things casually over the last 15 years" as actual work experience, either.

It's going to be very difficult for you to find a career position with your jobless gap and lack of real, documented experience.

Should I just omit it from my resume and say I have a B.S. then?
Does anyone care if you under-inflate your credentials?
 
Feb 25, 2011
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Should I just omit it from my resume and say I have a B.S. then?
Does anyone care if you under-inflate your credentials?

You can get in trouble in some union jobs (public sector) if education translates to pay grade.

Otherwise, no. "Relevant" Experience and Education - keep the resume brief.

Good luck though.
 
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