Loads of issues related to my job/career (or lack of) and future direction. Please advise.

[workworries]

I have changed my name for this because it is a fairly detailed autobiography but I am really and truly a regular. I will try to be brief but this is really about my whole working career to date and what I want for the future so a fairly big topic.

I am nearly 34. I have an English degree and a B at Maths A-level (trying to create a picture of someone who is academically rounded). After university I did a year as an au pair in America, then I came home, applied for tons of various graduate jobs in London (decided I wanted to live in London) and in the meantime met DH. Got a job as an IT graduate trainee for a large international(but not that well known) IT company and a bedsit. Did training in Cobol and then after a couple of months got a transfer to the north (so nearer to boyf - now DH). Started working as support for a legacy accounting system written in Cobol and DL/I with odd small bits of development thrown in. Bought a house 22 odd miles from work and got married.

I then started to think I should widen my horizons etc and started looking for other jobs, even got one interview. But then I decided to stay put in order to have full maternity benefits. I now have two children and have worked 3 days/week for 6 years at the same job which is all I have ever really done - coming up to 11 years supporting the same IT system. Over the last 5 years or so pay rises have been infrequent and poor. But the contract with the company whose system I support is up for renewal next Feb and that company has just been taken over so chances of renewal are slim. Also the system is being replaced with a SAP package which is likely to happen in the next 18 months or so and I don't know if there will be an alternative position at my location. So I am quite likely to get made redundant. I have very little work to do when I am here anyway.

After childcare (all of which I pay for in vouchers) I am taking home at least £800/month (it is variable because I also do out of hours call 4 or 5 nights a month and get paid more if there is a fail). This is a significant figure for us because it is more than our mortgage.

I am concerned. I have no particular career ambitions or vocations. I sort of fell into IT which I quite enjoyed when we were busy (pre millenium and especially round about then when we had to do quite a bit of millenium bug fixing) but can really take or leave it. But my IT skills are dated, my experience is narrow and there is a lack of work round here - I don't want to relocate because DH is happy in his work and making progress and DS is at school.

Basically I just want a job that I can do 3 days a week that will pay me £15/hour, and find moderately interesting. Because that will support my current lifestyle.

I think that is my longest post ever! I am just about to leave work to go and collect the children but will look in later.

Quick bump before I leave.

Do you have an adult careers advice cente near you? We have something called Connexions near us, I didn't realise they gave advice to those over 30 as well as those under 18! My friend has just had a similar experience to yours and went to have a chat with these people who helped open up new doors for her, in that they suggested jobs she could do and was qualified for, that she'd never have thought of herself. May help you on the start of your journey anyway, good luck.

Ok , first step sort your priorities. What is most important to you in a job?
Salary?
Status and responsibility?
Hours that fit round dcs?
Mental stimulation and challenge?
social stimulation and working with others?
convenience e.g. local or an easy commute?

which of these factors would you be prepared to sacrifice for the right job?

next think about your dream job. What might you have done if things hadn't turned out the way they did? have you got any secret hankerings to be a hat designer or a zoo keeper? Look into those jobs and even if they are impossible now you mught be able to work in the general field of interest. Could you retrain? Could you get something that would be a step towards it?

Think about your skills. Not just formal qualifications and your IT experience etc but your strengths. e.g. are you organised? creative? good at getting on with people? Could these skills be appropriate in other areas?

Then start scanning the papers, internet etc. for job vacancies. does anything appeal and match your priorities? think as broadly as you can and don't discount anything just because you don't have everything they say they want. Enquire. They may be prepared to train you if you have the potential. Do a few applications and interviews to get you back into the swing of job hunting.

Good luck from your friendly resident careers adviser.

Thanks, you two. Milly I will google Connexions. Shimmy, good point about the priorities.

My priorities are to get a reasonable salary that will match what I am earning now which is about £15/hour so not megabucks but not minimum wage and to be able to be part time in order to sort DC out. I am hoping that I could just about last in this job until DD goes to school which will be in Sept 2008 (so 18 months) because then I might be interested in different hours etc (currently do 3 full days so DD only goes to nursery 3 days but would then be interested in shorter days or whatever). But obviously it makes sense to start digging myself out of the rut so I am prepared for when the time comes.

I would also like either a mental or social stimulation - I could easily cope with either/or. Dream job is really difficult. I don't think I have one - at one point I thought about librarianship/archivist. Recently I have considered gardening - but think I might be too concentrated on the fun bits and be less happy about heavy digging etc day in/day out in the bad weather.

I know what I'd do in your position: I'd put myself forward loud and clear for something on the SAP project team. I'd get as much SAP experience as I possibly could, which would make me more marketable and increase my value/future hourly rate.

I would then decide what to do next but would consider short term pain i.e. a full time post where I got a lot of useful experience for long term gain i.e. experience which might allow you to dictate your hours in a future role.

That way

a) you will earn easily £15 an hour (and the rest)
b) You could potentially work on a contract basis or negotiate term time only (no idea how old your children are) or only take short contracts with no travel
c) Or you could consider something of a sideways move, like being a SAP trainer, which is still reasonably well paid but usually less pressure than many other roles

Because what you want is the most amount of money for the least amount of effort and I think this is the way I'd go about getting it. Good luck.

www - last para, so true. Problem with SAP team is that it is likely to be in India. Offshoring is the big thing in IT these days. Currently the only way I have to gain any knowledge of SAP is to do CBT - which obviously I ought to be doing instead of spending my work time mumsnetting.

Think twice about picking up another pt job in IT. Currently looking for one, have 20 years exp inc project management, QA systems, etc. Loads of interested people until I mention 3 days per week when no-one wants to know. I feel like telling them they couldn't afford me if I went full time

BTW I'm in the Northwest

Hmm berries I think I am at the lower end of the IT spectrum where a lot of the problem is that so much is being offshored or nearshored or whatever. I really don't see why IT shouldn't be exactly the kind of job you can do 3 days a week but it is the getting your foot in the door issue which is why www suggested short term pain and going full time, I suppose. Also why I have stuck in my current rut for so long.

workworries I understand your predicament. I'm a senior programmer (Oracle development), and I work P/T but only because I'd already been with my company for a while and my boss is nice! I'd like another career move and have had a couple of interviews but as soon as you mention flexible working, noone wants to know. I even got offered a job last year but turned it down as it was F/T with unpaid overtime - careerwise I should have taken it but I'd never have been able to pick dd up from school. My job is safe for the moment though, so I'm probably going to do some skills updating in my own time, as has been suggested.
What www has said sounds sensible. I'm in the North West as well Berries!

It is ridiculous really. On paper it looks good that they have X number of part timers but in general they were either already established full time before having children and requesting part time (every single one at my location) or they do the short term pain thing www suggests and get a full time job and then apply for lesser hours once they are established. I really do think that any woman who wants to work part time as her career options severely curtailed by this.

So does anyone know any growing areas of IT that might be worth investigating? TBH I think that the IT job market is probably slightly saturated so only the people who are willing to work 80 hours a week are required.

It is ridiculous really. On paper it looks good that they have X number of part timers but in general they were either already established full time before having children and requesting part time (every single one at my location) or they do the short term pain thing www suggests and get a full time job and then apply for lesser hours once they are established. I really do think that any woman who wants to work part time as her career options severely curtailed by this.

So does anyone know any growing areas of IT that might be worth investigating? TBH I think that the IT job market is probably slightly saturated so only the people who are willing to work 80 hours a week are required.

Sorry dithering finger.

I really sympathise, being in a similar situation - part time and with more to lose by leaving than to gain, but still completely bored.

I agree with the POV expressed earlier that you can either take the short term pain and go full time to expand your skills, or find a niche within your current company to move your skills and experience sideways.

Maybe try to think about ways you could add value to the company with your experience and knowledge of the company? What sort of role could you do/train into that could benefit them without them losing you?

Put it this way - you obviously understand the IT systems at your place - could you move into a different but similar type of role in an area that is not so under threat? And at the same time widen your appeal outside the company?

Right it is happening. We had a meeting yesterday which basically said that most of the jobs on our team (24 FTEs) would be going to Mumbai in the next six months or so as a "pilot". I obviously plan to hang around in the short term in case they decide to retain me or give me a payoff. But I should be using this time to make myself a bit more marketable. I can't decide whether to work on updating my IT skills or aim for a career change. Obviously my colleagues are going through similar thought processes and chiming on about training as plumbers, electricians etc. I can see some pluses in that - could work for yourself, therefore flexible etc but also negatives, not sure I am cut out for a trade, possibility of being undercut by Eastern European workers etc.

oh I was workworries btw.

hi bozza, haven't read whole thread so apologies for any repetition! I'm in IT as well, all be it not in quite the same position. Do you have any IT skills which are still marketable? Would it be possible to, say, do a couple of intensive courses in more up to date languages (eg. I do database development, and there's still demand for that). Then to get some experience, do a couple of short term contracts?
I sometimes wonder if I want to stay in IT forever, but at the moment I'm not sure what else I would do, or what would pay the same!

pb you replied to this thread earlier on. My skills are cobol and mainframe based which is really a bit dreary. I see from your earlier post that you work in oracle - do you think that is still an OK technology?

ah so I did - sorry!
yes Oracle is still very widely used. I got into it after doing a database course at uni. Oracle DBAs are very well paid, as are Oracle Applications programmers (they support/install apps like Payroll or Financials which Oracle have written.) Not sure how you get into this from scratch although everyone must start somewhere! Other current skills around at the mo are .NET and Java.
Also, I have come across some contract jobs where Cobol is still required - perhaps to migrate from a legacy system. You could always see if there are any in your area, and maybe pick up some other skills from this?

Well it didn't work this time round, did it, working on a legacy system and hoping to pick up more up to date skills. Although I agree that sounds like the most logical approach. I have an application programmer background, so to do that would be a case of transferring my skills/experience to a different technology, although I do think DBAs are paid better that would be more starting from scratch.