Job Transitions: IT to ...what?

[Eureka]

@Bongmaster

So we have a mixed bag of personal experience here. I like the suggestions for focusing on security or backups, at least they sound like niches I could occupy for a while. But I’m looking at the big picture here, project all this out 30 years. What will the IT landscape be like then? I’d hate to be in my late 50’s or early 60’s and out on my ass looking for a job. Can there really be job security in IT security and backups that far out?

I’m not sure that ANY job has guarenteed security that far out.

If you stay in IT, and possibly even if you don’t, you may want to take some sort of Continuing Education courses at appropriate intervals to keep your training up to date, or shift your focus as trends shift. You may find a non-IT field that interests you that you could edge sideways into–especially with a little extra training. Or move into management or admin–which also might require some business courses on the side.

[LionelHutz405]

@Bongmaster

But I’m looking at the big picture here, project all this out 30 years. What will the IT landscape be like then?

Good for you for thinking ahead, but don’t fixate on it too much. Personally, I focus on 5 years out. Any more than that and you are just guessing. Think back at the state of IT 30 years ago. Could anyone really have predicted what jobs would be in demand now based on the state of the industry back then?

I believe any job security comes from domain knowledge. The technical side can be outsourced, or learned fairly easily, but if you really know the business side in addition to having some technical skills you are much more valuable. Even more valuable is sales ability. (Typically a weak point for anyone technically-minded.) If you are involved in bringing in the customers no sane company is going to get rid of you.

[Bobotheoptimist]

@Bongmaster

So we have a mixed bag of personal experience here. I like the suggestions for focusing on security or backups, at least they sound like niches I could occupy for a while. But I’m looking at the big picture here, project all this out 30 years. What will the IT landscape be like then? I’d hate to be in my late 50’s or early 60’s and out on my ass looking for a job. Can there really be job security in IT security and backups that far out?

WHAT? No way! As much as my job and even this company have changed just in the past 7 years, I’m not nearly smart enough to guess what’s going to be happening in 30. But I’m pretty sure it’s going to be entirely different and if you don’t adapt and always learn, you’ll be unemployed long before that. Not saying that you won’t be anyway, I was layed off last year because the company had a bad quarter, then rehired 4 months later (and I had two jobs in that time). If you are a good troubleshooter, and maybe have one thing you’re really good at (like backups or routers or security or patching or …) then whatever comes up in 10 years won’t look like a complete change but just an incremental one.
Unfortunatly, this doesn’t help people like Kalhoun and might not help you. It’s a general thing, but I’m saying that the jobs are going to be there and they can’t outsource all of them. Rarely have I heard anyone lament “There are too many qualified and hard working IT professionals!”

FYI - my degree is in Environmental Science and most of the people I work with are without degrees or have them in unrelated fields. I don’t know what to make of this…