Career Changer Struggles Part 2
Apparently, I’m a bit of a glutton for punishment.
After leaving my 1st help desk job out of exhaustion, I decided to make a second go at it. Before you start yelling at me, please hear me out with my (lopsided) reasoning:
-I needed full time “tech” experience if I wanted to apply for USAjobs.gov postings. Most of those jobs seemed to be looking for full time experience;
-I still felt like I didn’t “know” anything. The nature of my help desk experience did not prepare me for any of the tasks that I wanted to do, and wasn’t relevant to the job titles that I was applying for. That’s not the fault of the job, but I’m observing that it’s the nature of the beast: the help desk role is just a foot in the door. A way to acquaint you with basic tech if you’re starting off. I really don’t feel like the roles that I’ve seen prepare you for anything more than higher tiered help desk positions. There’s nothing wrong with that. I know so many people who love their help desk positions. I appreciate all the knowledge that they have, and learning from this is amazing. But….
-It’s not for me.
When I was at the start of my social work career, I learned what I didn’t want to do professionally by getting jobs and realizing “I really don’t like this kind of work.” There are many social work positions that I WILL NOT apply to, just because I know that I (emphasis here on “I”) don’t like them. The people who do those jobs are amazing, but I can’t do them.
It’s a running joke between me and the nurses that I encounter. When I tell them I’m a social worker, they respond by stating that it’s a hard job that they couldn’t/wouldn’t want to do. My response is always the same: I couldn’t be a nurse. The job is too hard and stressful. We all laugh about it, but it’s something we all understand.
That’s where I’m at with help desk jobs: I respect it, but it’s not something for me.
The problem is, what am I supposed to do in order to get into a tech field (preferably system administration with Linux) if I can’t get past the seemingly hard gate of the help desk?
I like to think of myself as the pretty typical mid-life career changer: I have a M.S., I get great pay, freedom of my schedule, etc.
But I also have bills. And an 18 year old recent high school graduate that will be entering college for a double major in Engineering and Computer Science this fall. I can’t take a reduction in pay, because I’m going to pay the shortfall of her tuition. I do not want her to be enslaved with student loan debt like I am. So, for at least the next 4 years I have to maintain my current income, or figure something else out.
It’s the very definition of being between a rock and a hard place. The bills can still be paid with the help desk job, but the tuition can not.
And I know that this is the position that a lot of career changers are in: for one reason or another we have to kill ourselves with this schedule.
My question to those who have tread a similar path is this: is there a better way?
I value working smarter, and not harder. So my brain has been in perpetual rebellion against the idea of working 2 full time jobs in order to make this transition.
So, if you have found a better way, could you please share it. I’m sure that I wouldn’t be the only person out here that would be enormously indebted to you for sharing your experience.
Otherwise, I guess I’m going to try to keep my head above water for as long as possible.
