[General Stalin]

I also work in corporate IT, and the most enticing career move to me would be building up the skill set and experience to go into consulting or even freelance consulting. The latter would involve find places looking for quick IT gigs and projects and build a customer base by going in and setting up/supporting whatever infrastructure needs they require.

If you could work your way into a specified field/niche in the IT world (e.g. You are really good with specific network storage solutions or security systems/software) then you could be a traveling tech for a company that specializes in those types of products.

[StrikeBack]

If you dont like constantly keeping up with tech, the industry isnt really for you. You're better off finding paths outside of IT, as lacking the passion for it will eventually burn you out anyway.

To be location independent i.e an expert that can work from anywhere in IT, you need to be the one who knows how to use the Next Big Thing to deliver a competitive advantage to your business clients. That implies always being on top of newest technologies, if not driving them yourself.

If youŕe not, why would they pay you?

[Travesty]

^ The good news is if you find a solid niche that is lasting... this does happen (C (firmware), C++, Java, relational databases especially domain specific knowledge of an industry) with many technologies that have been around for a long time and are not going anywhere..
then the time to stay on top is relatively little the wisdom and broad experience in one of these lasting technologies will pay off....

Now frontend, UI/UX, and graphic designers can never really rest on much past knowledge. The look and feel of displaying sites and apps changes constantly. I do not envy them at all, but their jobs do bring more traditional creativity to keep things fresh.

I don't know why guys bitch about keeping up with tech. Most new things makes your job easier to create and deliver software! IE make your own product.

How many entrpreneurs have been born from the web and now phone apps?

Smart TV apps, self driving car apps, robots are all next!

Lawyers have to keep up with new laws.

Accountants have to keep up with new tax rules.

Doctors have to keep up with new medicines, vaccines, diseases, and treatments...

Professors have to research and keep informed inside their own field.

Wall Street guys have to keep up with the market everyday and changing financial regulations.

I can't think of a dynamic high paying job where you don't have to "keep up".

It blows my mind guys in tech don't think build a product as #1. There is little to no overhead cost except your time! If not you then who? Sky is the limit with $ potential if you build a product that either a business or person is pained to live without once they have it.

[JuiceDC]

(01-27-2015 06:19 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  

(01-27-2015 03:22 PM)Alpha_Romeo Wrote:  

More thoughts to add to my original post...

I should add that a major thing I find dissatisfying about my job and the world of IT is that I am forever having to replace my knowledge base with whatever is "current." I am constantly having to start out from zero, and then bust my ass to get up to speed. Of course, this is the expectation in technology, and granted, over time as I've accumulated knowledge, skills, and experience over the course of my career that allow me to get up to speed. But I am getting to the point where This. Shit. Gets. Old. I don't want to have to be learning the technology du jour when I am 60 years old. Hell, I don't even want to do it now. I would rather invest my time and effort in a skill or technology that builds on itself (and won't be replaced or become obsolete at a rapid pace), something that will ultimately make me a rare expert whose skills would be highly sought after.

There's actually a blogger called Half-sigma that made a post a long time ago about the very thing you speak of. I tried to find it but looks like his blog is now history. But someone back in 2007 took his main points and debated them. The comments are interesting to. Half-sigma and the response blog both make good points about this: http://moz.com/blog/computer-programming...eer-choice

Around the turn of the millennium, I was pretty much an expert at Flash development and Actionscript. It has now become pretty much an obsolete skill except for those that make games, and it's a lot more difficult to learn now than when I first got started. I'm kind of tired of that whole having to constantly keep up thing because it makes it much harder to build on experience. Everything I knew in 2000 other than basic HTML tags and javascript is completely obsolete. And as you get older, it becomes more difficult to keep up. Probably why you don't see any 60 year old programmers. Not to mention the awkwardness of having to be interviewed by guys younger than you.

Wow. Co-sign on everything you two just said. And the dumbass managers and office politics. I'm actually in welding school at the moment for those very reasons. That said, for all you masochists that are still interested, I suggest hitting up non-technology related businesses for websites and apps. Think blue collar. The owners are usually not tech savvy outside their field. Do a demo page and email to them. Finish the site and collect your fee. Also currently doing this for the instructor at my school

[inostranec]

I was in your position last year. I have been living in Russia-Belarus for the last 4 years. I was working as company representative here, but some time ago economy went bad, dollar went up to the roof and the war in Ukraine fucked it up. And no sales means no dough. So I decided to get some skills I can get some remote work. For 6 months I studied hard for web development now I work freelance here and living decently.

1-You don't have to be an expert to make money. I got some html, css and some jquery skills first. I took the "mobile first" approach which clients seem to like. I started making money after 2 months of studying.
2-I don't make cold calling, well especially my Russian accent is not welcome here so instead I make a shortlist, give it to my woman and send her over to customers. I choose my clients mostly 40+ year old lawyers, doctors, psychologists or such who has less technological knowledge than younger.
3-I always take hosting to my servers. Most developers don't do that and I don't understand why. I tell my customers that they need some maintenance like if the server is down the transfer of files to another server and such. 50$ a month a customer and it is basically no work and a passive income. Your rates in your country may vary but after say 100 customers you have 5000$ passive income.

You could outsource your work but you should at least be able to read the code.

[Deepdiver]

This is what I am doing now - sharing to cut through the fog and share what is really working for me right now:

My goal is to develop superior income AND a location independent lifestyle and tech can work out nice if you make a plan and execute your mission. If you deliver on time and under budget and garner some great references on LinkedIn it can be a gold mine.

No bragging just sharing what is real - I now have my own small veteran owned consulting company doing Cyber Security consulting work for $135 an hour (Literally turning down $70 to $80 per hour subcontract gigs daily) and a lot of it is analysis and writing which is often "remote" and location independent (Though many Cyber Security gigs are on site at major Data Centers or client offices so they can show off their security department so not all location independent).

Great thing about CS IS IA - cyber security, information security, information assurance work (huge Venn diagram overlap between all three - cyber security is currently sexy so I use all three keyword sets in my CV and profiles) - any way great thing is companies and institutions and the government will outsource just about everything in IT - but - execs want real passport holding USA citizens to run their security because often their careers and lives depend on it.

Information security work is booming I get a dozen calls a week and entry level consultants bill at minimum $50 an hour with rapid scale up with various GIAC, Cisco, ISC(2) certifications - oh yeah I finished off an Associates degree in the service and have taken college credit courses to support my certifications. Best kept industry secret is you really can fake it till you make it - buy books on amazon, read up, take cert exams - put up a profile running your own consulting biz for experience and get hired - that is how I do it and its that simple. If you have a military tech background - clean legal background able to pass pre employment drugs tests and background investigations and get some key certs A+ and Security+ at entry level and then Cisco CCNA CCDA CCIE Security, ISC(2) CISSP or CSSLP or CCFP https://www.isc2.org/ccfp/default.aspx and or SANS GIAC certs (Google it) most of these certs have big fat books available on Amazon - many in electronic form now - just download and read the books and you are ahead of the rest of the bunch who buy books and let them collect dust. Point is with an AS degree and Certs and DD-214 Honorable Discharge employers are jumping on guys now - you can take contract to permanent work as well to see if you like the company and people - or do as I did and go independent.

As mentioned just got picked up for a $135 per hour expert cyber security consulting engagement from my LinkedIn profile and references, its quarter by quarter work - 100% remote writing assignments - time off in between - can work any where - not even conference calls just email. I make my own milestones and define the deliverables and tell them what I need to succeed ($135 and hour is a big part of that - focuses the mind).

I did do a lot of data center and office cube commando work to get here but remote work that is lucrative exists - hint I read an article to update your CV/Resume after each contract while the completed objectives and projects are fresh in your mind then set the CV Resume aside and now write up two "have done can do for you" succinct paragraphs with something like April 2015 update: and the two hard hitting paragraphs about how you are great, walk on water and really have unique skills, perspectives and abilities that appeal to senior hiring VPs and C level officers. Put the summary on linked in instead of a boring full CV/resume and on Monster and Careerbuilder as Corp recruiters use them first (Carreerbuilder allows you to post your summary and resume in stealth mode so your managers don't know you are in the market") Also you can reach out to companies that interest you make contacts to key employees via linkedin and suggest they submit you as a friend for posted jobs so they get the internal referral bonus of $1K to $5K - nice beer money when they get it. Classic Win Win - my last referral got me $2K.

Have tried some of the freelance jobs sites and mostly task oriented scrub work from cheap startups with no budgets. LinkedIn is where the big dogs roam with big corporate budgets and pain points they need experts to solve now. Be that expert.

So I have NO Ivy League degree but ironically Ivy League work experience based upon my military background that landed the job.

You DO NOT need to go $100K or $200K in debt (Unlike Medical fields which require credentialing to work) to make $100K+ a year or even every 6 months. And once you are in big corp or big bucks plenty of great accredited USA STEM/Biz/Finance programs on line at your convenience tailored to working adults (no nanny make work assignments or idiotic pop quizzes) - And full time corp employers and government agencies often reimburse the expense. I know more than a few guys in STEM who got their master's on the Feds dime.

Read, decide on your mission, take action, stay off freaking drugs, get good LinkedIN referrals and references and ka ching.

[Cattle Rustler]

Deepdiver's posts are the one of the many reason's I like/enjoy RVF.

+1.

[finedme]

Are there any entry level positions for these types of jobs? I am familiar with computers but i havent gone to school for anything IT related. Im a welder and im tired of the fucking slave labor want to gtf out of the usa and kick it in bangkok or somewhere in SEA.

If not i guess id have to hit up an IT institute for 18 months for a cert.

[Cattle Rustler]

(03-25-2015 04:33 PM)finedme Wrote:  

Are there any entry level positions for these types of jobs? I am familiar with computers but i havent gone to school for anything IT related. Im a welder and im tired of the fucking slave labor want to gtf out of the usa and kick it in bangkok or somewhere in SEA.

If not i guess id have to hit up an IT institute for 18 months for a cert.

Go to a comm. college, they're much cheaper and have more recognition than some for-profit college like ITT Tech.

Also, don't welders make a shit load of money and can work contracts in refineries? Why do IT?

[kongzi]

(01-28-2015 10:26 AM)GauchoNomade Wrote:  

I am looking to do a Data Science Masters and getting into Big Data. A couple of people have told me that although is a booming sector, it does not suit a location independent lifesyle. Reasons mentioned are need to answer requests constantly and attending meetings, corporate clients.

Very interested in knowing which avenues allow to consult/freelance Big Data in a location independent way.

I've also been told there's few freelancing opportunities in Big Data. That's why I'm thinking about learning web development from scratch, even though I have a Master's and can work in Data Science. I just really want to work remotely and not have to deal with office politics and their culture

[chicane]

While there are a lot of areas, the one I am most familiar with is DevOps. Learn Puppet, Chef, Ansible or Saltstack. I have been a sysadmin for so long that I'm having trouble breaking into the DevOps world because of the prejudices against older folks, but I'm working on it. I'm doing some Puppet at work and setting up Saltstack for some servers of my own.

Mind you that's only one possibility for you, the one I am most familiar with.

Oh, I absolutely loathe open plan offices, they are complete hell for introverts. Another reason I want to work remote.

[Joga Bonito]

Storage or Cloud Administrators and Solutions Architects are two jobs that enable you to work remotely. They can entail alot of different functions depending on the organization, but I wrote about some of the skills needed here: thread-57114...pid1353518

[ElFlaco]

(01-27-2015 03:22 PM)Alpha_Romeo Wrote:  

I should add that a major thing I find dissatisfying about my job and the world of IT is that I am forever having to replace my knowledge base with whatever is "current."

Absolutely true. When I got into the field, the fact that I would always have to be learning something new was a plus in my mind, since my previous career was about to become repetitive. But years later, when I got out of technology, having to constantly stay current was a minus. It really is a young man's game.

By the way, I once chose WPF (Windows Presentation Framework) for a remote project. Nasty learning curve on that one. Unfortunately, by the time the project was over, I could see that tools like that do not easily lend themselves to lone-wolf projects, so they're not ideal for a location-independent lifestyle. They are conceived with teamwork in mind. Projects that use them will almost certainly want you on site. Avoid similar.

(01-31-2015 12:11 AM)Travesty Wrote:  

I don't know why guys bitch about keeping up with tech.

...

Lawyers have to keep up with new laws.

Accountants have to keep up with new tax rules.

Doctors have to keep up with new medicines, vaccines, diseases, and treatments...

All true, but in tech:

1. The percentage of time you need to invest in order to stay current is considerably higher than in other professions on average, and
2. The percentage of stuff you had to learn a year ago to stay current but that has almost no market value now is also higher than in other professions.

[ElFlaco]

delete

[Cattle Rustler]

Alright guys, so where does one start?

I keep seeing certs and stuff but what are the foundations?

Gracias.

[ElJefe1]

If I had the time and were starting from scratch I'd get into something really niche, it would have to be area specific software like EMR all doctors are having to get it and they are getting tax credits for upgrading. Different softwares in the legal field, or dental office software etc..... Something like that I could easily get sites built and optimized so that when these individuals are looking for these services they could easily find those sites.

[Phoenix]

No software engineer hiring manager worth his salt would hire based on some certs or a resume. He would have a quick conversation with the candidate to check he was socially well-adjusted, then direct him to a computer and say "This is your task. You have 3 hours to complete it. You will be hired based on your speed, design and code quality combined. Begin".

If you want to know where to start: think of an idea for an application (be it mobile, web, desktop or otherwise), then build it. There is no better proof of an artist's ability than his previous art works.

[The Beast1]

I'm curious how a Trump presidency will change the nature of IT in the United States. Will we see a return of electronics fabricators and other high tech industry to the states along with the people jobs to program them?

[ElJefe1]

(07-23-2016 08:00 AM) Beast1 Wrote:  

I'm curious how a Trump presidency will change the nature of IT in the United States. Will we see a return of electronics fabricators and other high tech industry to the states along with the people jobs to program them?

If elected there will be no change.....