Changing industry - help please

[Matchoo]

Hi Folks,

This is my first day on this forum and my first thread - so a general hello to start with !!!!

I have trawled through the Search feature but not found a suitable answer so here goes....

Basically, I am a chartered mechanical engineer contractor, currently working in Aerospace, who is starting to feel the wanderlust and is tempted by the IT contracting game. How do I get in on it???

Since we, as contractors, are all motivated by the same thing I was wondering what the general opinion is as to how to bridge over industries and still glean the best remuneration. I am not adverse to doing some more training as long as what I do is efficent in terms of return of investment. Or even better what would be my best bet in terms of trying to get my first IT contract and gaining some experience 'on the job'.

I am totally flexible in terms of location etc etc....as long as the rate is min £25 p/hr ltd co.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and, obviously, if anyone is keen to move over into my industry I will do my best to answer any and all questions (dont all ask at once!!!)

Matt

[Moscow Mule]

I'm not sure why you'd want to move from being well qualified in one field to another where you have little or no experience.

Surely the remuneration differential between Aerospace and IT is not that great?

FWIW I would suggest getting an IT gig in your current industry to gain experience.

[Matchoo]

Thankyou for your reply,

first off you make a very good point.

In answerance I would say that I believe that there is more money to be made in the IT world (not that I am 100% money orientated, but it helps). A mechanical engineer is generally thought to be, in this country at least, the sort of chap that fixes your washing machine....

Also, I think it would prove to be difficult to persuade any engineering company (especially if I have already been there) that I approach to take me on as an IT Contractor when my CV, at present, only talks about mech. eng.

If that makes sense?

Matt

[Board Game Geek]

If you are entering an Industry, which you yourself know little about, then expect to enter at minimum wage or close to that mark. I.e., 1st line support on a helpdesk. Memorise the phrase "Have you tried restarting the PC ?" Expect about 11-14K.

After 2 years, you may progress to 2nd line support, which should net you a reasonable 16K PA. You will now have the pleasure of dealing with irate customers who have been wound up by the 1st line support. Your mantra will be "Reinstall the Drivers".

After another year, you may progress to 3rd line support. At this stage, you get the really upset customers who have rang the helpdesk 19 times, and now *you* are their final port of call. Memorise the phrase "Reboot to the Utility Partition and run diagnostics. Oh...I see. Looks like you need the recovery CD"|. Expect a salary of 20-24K pa.

After another year, you may get the chance to blow up servers and learn server support. That might net you about 25-30K pa.

So...in summary...

Year 1 : 11-14K
Year 2-3: 16K
Year 4 : 20-24K
Year 5 : 25-30K

You will also have to deal with agents who will scr3w you senseless for a cut of your time and effort. You may find it difficult to get a job without their help however, because they are all lying thieving con men who butter up and bribe the client in to thinking that they perform a useful function when in fact, they "create" their own existence via FUD on the Client. (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt).

I've yet to meet an Agent who says to the Client "Actually, you don't really need me. You've got an HR team. Kick them to actually deliver and do their job properly". (And if such an Agent existed, no doubt he would charge for that advice as well)

You are basically throwing away all you previous work and study and starting again. Pointless.

You need to work out a game plan and strategy to build on your existing skills.

Consultant Mechanical Engineer ? Produce a portfolio of your skills and how they match specific industries. Then research and contact applicable companies that might be looking for those skills ?

What specialisms do you have ?

Focus on those, and seek to strengthen them if necessary.

Look for vertical markets, no matter how strange. Eg, you might be specialised in stress mechanics...contact a company that makes BDSM ceiling-mounted equipment. Think differently.

For someone looking to move in to IT, I can only advise strongly against it. The starting wages are pants. Most work is being outsourced. And agents are wilfully and maliciously killing the industry by placing cheaper and unsuitable staff.

Stay at what you are good at. Just diversify and branch out a little.

[minstrel]

Also, I think it would prove to be difficult to persuade any engineering company (especially if I have already been there) that I approach to take me on as an IT Contractor when my CV, at present, only talks about mech. eng.

I think you are going to find it difficult to persuade anyone to take you on as an "IT Contractor" when you've got no specific "IT Contractor" skills to sell.

What exactly is it that you want to do as an "IT Contractor"?

There are hundreds of different roles that contractors fill in the IT industry. Typically companies look to take on contractors when they have a specific need for someone with a very focussed skill set e.g. .NET developer, Oracle DBA etc. And then they want someone who has several years experience in that particular area.

Don't think you are going to be able to put yourself through a couple of training courses and then waltz in to a highly paid contracting role with no experience. Most agents look for at least 2 or 3 years experience in a given field before they would consider putting you forward to a client. For many roles they look for 4 or 5 years plus.

You sound like someone who has got bored with mechanical engineering, has seen the rates are higher in IT and wants to switch careers overnight with no real idea what it is they want to do.

If you're serious about getting an IT Contracting gig you really need to do your research and find out exactly what area and technologies you want to work with.

You then need to get experience on your CV before any agent is going to even look at you.

You could try:

1. Getting a junior permie job for a couple of years to learn your chosen skill. They're more likely to take you on with no experience and will probably provide you with all the training you need if you can show them you're keen. After a few years you'll probably have the skills and feel confident enough to get a contracting role.

2. Learning your chosen skill now very quickly, make up a CV with a load of experience in your chosen field of expertise and then try bullsh!tting your way into a contracting role. If you take this option you do need to be damn sure you've learnt your stuff, or you'll get rumbled and kicked out in the first week even if you do manage to get through interview.

3. Building up IT skills in your mechanical engineering contracts. If you want to get into web developing maybe you could build an intranet site for the company doing something useful. Or maybe you could build a database to help manage engineering parts or something.

[cojak]

Thankyou for your reply,

first off you make a very good point.

In answerance I would say that I believe that there is more money to be made in the IT world (not that I am 100% money orientated, but it helps). A mechanical engineer is generally thought to be, in this country at least, the sort of chap that fixes your washing machine....

Also, I think it would prove to be difficult to persuade any engineering company (especially if I have already been there) that I approach to take me on as an IT Contractor when my CV, at present, only talks about mech. eng.

If that makes sense?

Matt

You are quite, quite wrong. You also give the impression of being quite, quite young.

There is v. good money to be made as an MechEng in contracting - look at finding a niche in this. Stress/FE Analysis is always a good place to start. If you want to get into IT, get in via Abaqus and Python.

I'm not going to bother repeating Minstrel, just read him again.

[cojak]

Caveat: Unless you're not a very good MechEng of course (Chartered or not - if you were you could make money out of it?)

[opc]

I am also a Chartered Mechanical Engineer. I got into IT as a permie - I'd always done engineering Project Management and applied for a role as an IT infrastructure PM.

So my advice is to try a similar thing - not all IT roles are techy roles requiring years of IT experience. What are your transferrable skills?

[malvolio]

I am also a Chartered Mechanical Engineer. I got into IT as a permie - I'd always done engineering Project Management and applied for a role as an IT infrastructure PM.

So my advice is to try a similar thing - not all IT roles are techy roles requiring years of IT experience. What are your transferrable skills?

Ermm, none.

You and I both know that a good PM can run anything. Agencies, however, only think that someone who has detailed knowledge of an application, an industry vertical, an operating system and 23 years doing exactly the same job is worth consideration, no matter how good everyone else is. Sadly, you have to persuade the agency, who are not usually salesmen, and will not push anyone who doesn't meet their criteria.

So if I find it hard getting a gig doing a server farm migration programme for a finance house when my last role was doing a server farm migration programme for an energy trader, you will have a cat in hell's chance of crossing the industry boundary.

[DodgyAgent]

If you have knowledge and experience in IT and you have qualified as a mech engineer then it would seem logical to work for an engineering company in IT.

It may interest you to know that mech engineers are viewed quite differently to how you think they are. Mech Engineers are highly sought after outside of engineering. The MD of HSBC retail is a mech engineer as is the head and n02 of BT retail. Mech engineers are highly sought after because of their logical minds that are trained to work outside of an environment that has specific "rules" (mathematics) or where one can indulge oneself in technology for technology's sake (IT- which is why IT people are so stereotyped-often correctly, as nerds . Engineers need to deal with off the cuff situations logically practically and without allowing emotions to get in the way, if you can apply these qualities to IT you would be a rare commodity indeed and therefore very valuable.

For any job requiring human communication skills, then give me an IT person with a degree in mech engineering (esp cambridge UCL) ahead of anyone with a computer science degree, or "member of the British computer society"any day.