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What's your next career move? What's your exit strategy?

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    What's your next career move? What's your exit strategy?

    I'm trying to word this also as not to sound like a corny permie interview question, i.e.: "where do you see yourself in 5 years time?" and failing dismally... I fear this may be the start of the realisation of a mid-life criss, or the beginnings of feeling redundant as technology and processes leave behind the ways of working of my early career.

    I've been feeling lately (well, not that lately - since around the beginning of Covid), that the traditional project roles are disappearing, and that change functions rely more on technical change and deliver technology-focused change in isolation, as opposed to traditionally working with business users. "Change fatigue" is a cliche often heard in many of my contracts/permie jobs, where the business are simply too busy doing their day-to-day to support large change projects.

    Agile ways of working have seen the reduction - at least, in my experience - of the BA's role. Once upon a time, a BA had months to go away and collate the requirements and produce significant artefacts that would go through multiple rounds of feedback and iterations before landing on the perfect document, only to then have to work on multiple change requests as requirements shifted or the business realised what they'd originally asked for wasn't actually what anyone wanted or needed. Now, the BA seems to be shoehorned in between a Product Owner and Developers, and much of my time seems to involve hacking out a few words in JIRA, where detailed lengthy descriptions of how the system should work are no longer wanted or needed, with developers building multiple prototypes until the PO is happy and ready to push into production. As a Business Analyst with a business change focus first and IT change very much second, I find myself feeling threatened.

    As a contractor, but with two or three decades left in the working world, I find myself wondering where next? Can I see myself doing the same job in five years? Probably not, if I'm honest I feel burnt out, disillusioned and dissatisfied with my "career", although I'm well-renumerated and rarely busy. I don't see my role as bringing particular value anymore, which as someone who charges a day rate is concerning. I'm unhappy in my career, and don't feel like I do a good job, yet weirdly I've always had positive feedback. I've always been regarded as a safe pair of hands who hiring managers seem to like having around the place, without feeling like I'm really doing a good job. Friends/family are baffled what I'm worried about - well-paid, largely remote and not busy, I should be loving life, but instead I find myself worrying about my self-worth and mental health in a way which I have never done before. I'm otherwise lucky to have a great home life and am very happy, but work is the one area I'd change if I could/knew how. I fantasise often about retraining into a new role/area, preferably operations or something that would keep me busy day-to-day, but I'm at a loss what I could do that wouldn't involve a significant pay cut.

    So as a tech/change superstar contractor, where do you see yourself in the next few years? Are you eyeing up a cushy move to a perm role to see you through to retirement? Have you got a clever side-hustle that you're hoping to scale and retire from your main job forever (preferably that I can steal)? Are you retraining? Are you happy? What's your 360 assessment (or whatever horrible terminology HR or whatever they call themselves at your company use to describe self-reflection!) of your career?
    Last edited by fiisch; 22 January 2024, 17:01.

    #2
    Originally posted by fiisch View Post
    I'm trying to word this also as not to sound like a corny permie interview question, i.e.: "where do you see yourself in 5 years time?" and failing dismally... I fear this may be the start of the realisation of a mid-life criss, or the beginnings of feeling redundant as technology and processes leave behind the ways of working of my early career.

    --////--

    So as a tech/change superstar contractor, where do you see yourself in the next few years? Are you eyeing up a cushy move to a perm role to see you through to retirement? Have you got a clever side-hustle that you're hoping to scale and retire from your main job forever (preferably that I can steal)? Are you retraining? Are you happy? What's your 360 assessment (or whatever horrible terminology HR or whatever they call themselves at your company use to describe self-reflection!) of your career?
    The honest answer is a I don't know what to think about in 5 years. Keine Ahnung, to that question: technically Java is a still alive, but suddenly there is jump to the left field: Golang, Rust, Scala, even Python and may be the next thing for me, no I should go relearn JavaScript for everything for the future. Oh. perhaps that is even wrong: Edge Computing that might be the gorgeous beautiful girl with long legs, and for the other gender, the slender broad shoulders and heavy backside bum is very attractive. But, the question in of itself is illustriously VERY. LAZY. INTERVIEWING and utter Alaskan Pollocks.

    I am hanging onto the current day: the present date; the current month and probably year.
    My advice is that all your money quickly runs out, and you have keep earning it to pay bills.
    There is always something unexpected that crops up when you least expect it.

    Look at this Nonsense in Gaza, or the very recent cross-border missile flare up in between Pakistan and Iran. IN. FIVE. YEARS. What?!! Will we be here in five years?

    I would just turn the question back on the interviewer, "where does this company see itself in 5 years?" Think about it.

    Staff lay-offs and huge restructuring are / will be affecting business in 2024. I just reading some stat of X about 47,000 business are critical in January 2024. Truth, everyone and everything is treading on water.

    What you have in your ken is INDISPENSIBLE (you said yourself "a safe pair of hands"). I'd love to have that trusted characteristic for 1 year straight. Be thankful you have it and get some testimonials. It means that you are the go-to-guy. So keep earning that paper, that doe, that money, honey. As to what to do next? You will think of something in the next shower or dog walk. Get yourself a well overdue hoiliday. Your gig is safe, because you are __indispensible__. Think much deeper in your ambitions and inspirations: YOLO. How do you like live with your family and love ones in the next 5 years is an improvement?

    Business need soft people skills, more so than ever, with ever increasing mental health issues: ADHD, stress, environment related emotional break downs and family breakups. Being an empathic and emotional supportive project manager / coordinator / educator / facilitator / coach / producer will be a useful skill, business still need to run, and they will need people to run them. AI won't run them by itself.
    Last edited by rocktronAMP; 22 January 2024, 17:54.

    Comment


      #3
      "Probably not, if I'm honest I feel burnt out, disillusioned and dissatisfied with my "career", although I'm well-renumerated and rarely busy. I don't see my role as bringing particular value anymore, which as someone who charges a day rate is concerning. I'm unhappy in my career, and don't feel like I do a good job, yet weirdly I've always had positive feedback. "

      Similar here, though different role as I'm more of a softie, with some hands-on / electrical / field instrumentation work.

      For now the plan is to get away from the UK and most likely take on a perm job, would be nice to find a well paying, comfortable place but honestly I just cannot see that happening as everyone seems to be cutting costs. Was eyeballing Scandi countries, but their approach to taking me on has been...well tulipe tbh, also not paying enough anyway. I'm now eyeballing Switzerland which I'm not so sure about as I like the "we trust you" approach that Scandi offers and I'm worried the Swiss will be more like a clash between US and Germany, clocking 192837912873 hours a week and stabbing others for a promotion. Would love a house somewhere, can't afford tulip here, most likely can't afford much elsewhere on a perm salary. Work is boring, there's maybe 20% of fairly interesting stuff and 80% of just doing the coding to get to the end result, which is monkey's work if you ask me (once the solution to the problem is solved). Would be nice to re-train in something, but it's a bit like emigrating to another country, you kind of start at the bottom, need to prove yourself etc. I fell like I'm just too old for that tulipe.

      So to sum up, the work I'm doing will most likely still be there in 5 years, but if I'm still doing the same tulipe, I'll probably be even more burned out and depressed than I am now

      Comment


        #4
        No idea. I am currently in Rust but there seem to be far fewer roles in it than a few years ago due to the Crypto explosion. The ones that are available demand so many years of experience I am not sure they realise how new Rust is.

        I went into the managerial route and was CTO for a bit and one company. Turns out they only wanted me there long enough to design their system and build their infrastructure and then they got rid of me and had their cheaper engineers build it. Became CTO of a fintech firm and it was awful. The worst politics in a company that I have ever seen.

        I do not want to go back to that but I am not sure I have the tech skills to compete with people who have nothing to do all day but grind away of Leetcode. I have to work for another two decades or so to pay the mortgage.

        This is all just stressful and depressing!
        "He's actually ripped" - Jared Padalecki

        https://youtu.be/l-PUnsCL590?list=PL...dNeCyi9a&t=615

        Comment


          #5
          I hit this in late 2012 and decided it was best to leave the IT sector.
          I left at the end of 2013.
          Best decision I ever made.
          Former IPSE member
          My Website

          Comment


            #6
            Since you're asking an individual, I'd rather not compartmentalise my life into "career" and "other things".
            If your number one goal is to finish the games with the most toys, then focus on your career.

            For me, when I'm looking at my life, I'm looking at how to balance it now, and how to balance it longer term. For me, paid work is a means to an end, not an end in itself. You need to work out what that end is, and then work back from there.
            My "exit strategy" is to do less paid work, spend more time with my wife and dog, walking the beach, spend more time in the garden growing fruit & veg, maybe do a bit more photography, maybe get involved in a band again, maybe sail up the west coast through villages and towns...
            …Maybe we ain’t that young anymore

            Comment


              #7
              My wife doesn't work and I have spent a decent chunk of my contracting income on experiences for the kids.

              Pension pot stands at about £300k and I have about £40k outstanding on my mortgage on a home worth about £600k. I have about £140k in savings and share on an inherited property. I will probably live on this for a while and pay as much of my contracting income into a pension.

              I don't really have an exit strategy - I am 50 and expect gigs to be harder to come by and lower paid as the years progress. That said I have some great firms and experience on my CV so who knows.

              I'm not going to be poor, I'm not going to be rich.

              I will probably be serving you in B&Q in 20 years time.
              Last edited by TheDude; 23 January 2024, 09:23.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by TheDude View Post
                My wife doesn't work and I have spent a decent chunk of my contracting income on experiences for the kids.

                Pension pot stands at about £400k and have about £40k on my mortgage.

                I don't really have an exit strategy - I am 50 and expect gigs to be harder to come by and lower paid as the years progress.

                I will probably be serving you in B&Q in 20 years time.
                Only 2 years older than me.
                For what its worth I would struggle to get back in to the IT trade now. Getting back into contracting would be even harder I guess. Oh and morning stand ups, would be a great laugh! (if you know, you know!)
                I am retired now, which was definitely not in the plan in 2012. Trust me its not fun.
                I have a little side project bubbling slowly away but thats another story.
                Former IPSE member
                My Website

                Comment


                  #9
                  Been trying to get out of IT for years but never managed it. I am about to become 54 soon, so probably have about 10-12 years left before retirement. So I might be able to see it out. I would like to take a nice permie role after 26 years of contracting and see the next 10 years out doing that.
                  It's very hard to plan 5 years ahead right now. IT has changed, whether that's permanent or just a blip remains to be seen.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by rocktronAMP View Post

                    Golang, Rust, Scala, even Python and may be the next thing for me
                    I have been working with Scala since 2013 - I don't see many new projects using the language.

                    There are a few large firms heavily invested in Scala (ITV, Sky, Bank Of America, Morgan Stanley) that are always looking for Scala developers.

                    It is not an easy language to learn - especially if you are also making the transition from imperative to functional programming at the same time. That said firms will typically give Java developers a go but not at the top rates.

                    Rate wise you are looking at anything from £500 to £1000pd inside IR35 with most roles around £700-£800pd


                    Comment

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