I'm not sure if IT is still my thing, how did you know what career you would take?

[aaradorn]

I have a college degree in IT (not sure how to translate it to English) and immediately got a job as a systems administrator for a laboratory style company, I've worked here for about a year and last week they told me they have to let met go for a variety of reasons, including Covid-19 and the fact that interns are free so they want to switch all IT work to interns. It sucks but that's life, I had a great time at this company so I can't really complain. 

 

 

With the current virus the job market is being strangled, there are only 15 companies looking for a new systems administrator and 8 of them are 30+ days old so they likely forgot that they still have it marked as a open position.

 

 

 

So I started to think about a lot of things and I'm not really sure what I want to do with my life, I only chose IT because it was easy and I had gained a lot of experience during high school.

 

I debated joining the police, military, become a zookeeper so I can try and work with my favorite animals, I even thought about becoming a history teacher. 

 

 

How did you make a decision? 

[porina]

It's difficult, but you need to balance what you want to do, with what is reasonably possible to do.

 

I will say, "zookeeper" will be a job for the heart, not the bank account. It is something I half looked at in the past. There are lots of people who want that type of work, but only a limited number of places, and they're not great paying areas either. If you have some sort of high level skill, like being a vet, that could swing it.

 

I know someone who got a masters degree in marine biology. He could have chosen one of many high paying jobs with that. What does he do now? He's a cameraman at a wildlife rescue charity. You can imagine pay will suck, but again it is a job following your heart. 

 

I lost my job of >20 years earlier this year. I'm going through a similar thought process. What do I do next? My long time job was well paying, so I don't have short term money problems, but I will need an income again at some point. I could go for more of the same, but I'm tiered of office politics and all that, even if the virus situation might mean workplaces in the future will change in some ways. I'm pushing the odd youtube video. I'm about a million times smaller than Linus, so I'm realistic, if anything happens at all, it will take time. I have the luxury of being able to do what I want to do and see if anything sticks.

 

So if you're not in short term financial difficulty, I'd say follow your heart and try what you want to do, if you can get it. If you need an income now, that kinda forces you into what you have to do short term.

[GDRRiley]

if you got the money to sit around and think then figure it out now. if not go apply to positions and maybe some company will treat you better.

there is a funny thread between me and other guy whos a college student and it got asked how many different ideas we had for life post college and we both had at least 5 if not 10. no one knows for sure what they want to be.

 

Maybe consider working a job that has fixed hours or if it pays well enough only part time so then you can go volunteer at a zoo or rescue shelter. My mom job shared teaching for 10 years with a women who on her days off worked in a rescue shelter and almost constantly had animals at her house. She now volunteers at a zoo.

 

 

[aaradorn]

Thank you for the replies, I decided to continue searching for a IT job, if I can't find anything I will go back to college to become a zookeeper. I feel like working for something you love will always overrule the money you could get. And I would love to work with red panda's, raccoons and other small critters.

[StDragon]

Some people just stumble into an industry, stick with it, and expand their knowledge and experience over their lifetime.

 

It boils down to what you want to do, what you can do, and what you ought to do (financially speaking). Somewhere there is a reconciliation process with introspection.

[porina]

18 minutes ago, aaradorn said:

Thank you for the replies, I decided to continue searching for a IT job, if I can't find anything I will go back to college to become a zookeeper. I feel like working for something you love will always overrule the money you could get. And I would love to work with red panda's, raccoons and other small critters.

With existing IT experience and education, you have a good chance of any opportunity out there so hope that goes well for you.

 

I've had a long interest in animal keeping, both from visits to various zoos and similar, as well as previously having so many pets at home people called my house practically a zoo. I did see a course on something like captive animal management, which sounded interesting but wasn't possible to do in addition to my then day job as both are full time. The lower level roles you'll be lucky to get paid at all as they try to get volunteers, where there are no shortage of, all seeking experience. So some higher level role may have most sustainability there, if you can find one.

 

The money or heart route is exactly the battle I'm going through now. I think I have a good chance of landing a similar type of job to my last if I wanted to, but my heart isn't there. It felt like something I had to do, not want to do. I'm looking at things like becoming a Youtuber, or see if I can make a past hobby pay (photography), although my fear there is doing it for fun will be very different than doing it for money, and that'll break it for me.

 

I'll end with this red panda photo I took previously. They're cute in their own way, but I'm more into big cats.

 

[Lord Vile]

5 hours ago, aaradorn said:

I have a college degree in IT (not sure how to translate it to English) and immediately got a job as a systems administrator for a laboratory style company, I've worked here for about a year and last week they told me they have to let met go for a variety of reasons, including Covid-19 and the fact that interns are free so they want to switch all IT work to interns. It sucks but that's life, I had a great time at this company so I can't really complain. 

 

 

With the current virus the job market is being strangled, there are only 15 companies looking for a new systems administrator and 8 of them are 30+ days old so they likely forgot that they still have it marked as a open position.

 

 

 

So I started to think about a lot of things and I'm not really sure what I want to do with my life, I only chose IT because it was easy and I had gained a lot of experience during high school.

 

I debated joining the police, military, become a zookeeper so I can try and work with my favorite animals, I even thought about becoming a history teacher. 

 

 

How did you make a decision? 

I like fixing shit, current job is fixing shit and I get paid to be taught = happy. 

 

I went to Uni first, loved the subject, still do but couldn't see my self on that career path especially when I'd have to either do a masters or do an internship to go anywhere decent. 

[Bananasplit_00]

5 hours ago, aaradorn said:

and the fact that interns are free so they want to switch all IT work to interns.

So slavery?

 

Their IT is gona go to absolute fucking hell too lmfao idiots

[dalekphalm]

17 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

So slavery?

 

Their IT is gona go to absolute fucking hell too lmfao idiots

I was gonna say, replace IT with free Interns? Oh fuck, that’s not gonna go well. 
 

It’s only a matter of time before they encounter situations where they need an experience IT person.

 

On the flip side, in Ontario, no IT intern works for free - or it’s really rare anyway. Usually minimum wage, sometimes entry-level professional wages. 
 

In fact, if it’s for a coop position, Colleges require that they pay you, otherwise the hours don’t count. I’m not sure if University in Canada does the same thing or not. 
 

Note: “College” in Canada isn’t the same thing as the US. College usually refers to the particular school of a University, or it refers to a Community College. In Canada They are technical schools, but usually offer diplomas instead of degrees (some do though). 
 

Unlike community colleges in the US, Colleges in Canada don’t have a bad reputation (though I hope that reputation changes in the US eventually).

[aaradorn]

5 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

I was gonna say, replace IT with free Interns? Oh fuck, that’s not gonna go well. 
 

It’s only a matter of time before they encounter situations where they need an experience IT person.

 

On the flip side, in Ontario, no IT intern works for free - or it’s really rare anyway. Usually minimum wage, sometimes entry-level professional wages. 
 

In fact, if it’s for a coop position, Colleges require that they pay you, otherwise the hours don’t count. I’m not sure if University in Canada does the same thing or not. 
 

Note: “College” in Canada isn’t the same thing as the US. College usually refers to the particular school of a University, or it refers to a Community College. In Canada They are technical schools, but usually offer diplomas instead of degrees (some do though). 
 

Unlike community colleges in the US, Colleges in Canada don’t have a bad reputation (though I hope that reputation changes in the US eventually).

I used to be the intern, I did such a good job they offered me a job. Since that moment every request that could cost them more money was denied, I told them 20 hours for a company that big was not enough (I had 40 as a intern), I told them the laptops they used were failing but they ignored it, I told them the PC's were way to old and reducing the time they could spend on lab tests and they shoved it aside. Since I joined 3 people have left, all stated that they had issues with the higher ups. I still enjoy working here, the tech is great and my colleagues are really nice. (not talking about my boss or higher ups)

 

Note. The previous interns were extremely bad and I told them no one would take the job with less then 40 hours. I offered the job to my friends and they all refused.