Sometime last year, burnout happened for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I found myself working and finally fulfilled (financially, work\/life balance), but something was \u201cmissing\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was tired of being a social worker.\u00a0 Not because of the job, but because of the workload.\u00a0 I worked throughout the pandemic.\u00a0 I witnessed the loss that people experienced.\u00a0 I was sad, depressed and sleep deprived.\u00a0 I decided that I wanted to do something different as a career.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wanted a job that didn\u2019t follow me home or haunt me during my sleeping and waking hours. That\u2019s when my husband suggested a tech field as a career change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was wrapping up his degree in Cyber Security and he felt that it would be a good match for me because I\u2019ve always loved working on computers.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you how many \u201cjunk\u201d PC\u2019s he\u2019s brought home that were destined for recycling.\u00a0 Now all of them are up and running because of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, I started down that path last year. I studied for the CompTia Security + and passed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was elated.\u00a0 I had hoped that the certification would be the foot in the door that I needed to change my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I got a help desk job around that time, which I\u2019m thankful for. But I realize that there is a problem for career changers like me: time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was working what\u2019s considered a full time job that\u2019s pretty involved, and trying to work another 20+ hrs a week. Oh yeah, and completing labs and studying for other certifications in an attempt to acquire more skills, knowledge and credentials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I absolutely love diving into Linux, learning about all the FOSS programs and playing around them. But, as the weeks dragged on I found that a hindrance to me was exhaustion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Exhaustion was setting in, and I slowly lost my will to do anything. I was turning into a zombie. I started struggling to stay awake. I had to take NoDoz multiple times a day. At my second job (help desk) I would have to take a NoDoz to drive home at night. I was so tired that I would start having hallucinations if I didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Long story short, I found that my model of studying and working 2 jobs was not sustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, here I am again. Doing the same thing, but worse: working my primary job full time as well as a help desk job full time. I\u2019m so tired as I type this that I feel like a husk of a person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I just want to be clear that I\u2019m not trying to have a pity party for myself. But I am desperate enough to scream into the void and ask for help. I have no guidance: no real idea of what I should be doing, or where I should apply so that I can free myself from having 2 jobs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sometime last year, burnout happened for me. I found myself working and finally fulfilled (financially, work\/life balance), but something was \u201cmissing\u201d. I was tired of being a social worker.\u00a0 Not because of the job, but because of the workload.\u00a0 I worked throughout the pandemic.\u00a0 I witnessed the loss that people experienced.\u00a0 I was sad, depressed and sleep deprived.\u00a0 I decided that I wanted to do something different as a career.\u00a0\u00a0 I wanted a job that didn\u2019t follow me home or haunt me during my sleeping and waking hours. That\u2019s when my husband suggested a tech field as a career change. He was wrapping up his degree in Cyber Security and he felt that it would be a good match for me because I\u2019ve always loved working on computers.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you how many \u201cjunk\u201d PC\u2019s he\u2019s brought home that were destined for recycling.\u00a0 Now all of them are up and running because of me. So, I started down that path last year. I studied for the CompTia Security + and passed. I was elated.\u00a0 I had hoped that the certification would be the foot in the door that I needed to change my career. I got a help desk job around that time, which I\u2019m thankful for. But I realize that there is a problem for career changers like me: time. I was working what\u2019s considered a full time job that\u2019s pretty involved, and trying to work another 20+ hrs a week. Oh yeah, and completing labs and studying for other certifications in an attempt to acquire more skills, knowledge and credentials. I absolutely love diving into Linux, learning about all the FOSS programs and playing around them. But, as the weeks dragged on I found that a hindrance to me was exhaustion. Exhaustion was setting in, and I slowly lost my will to do anything. I was turning into a zombie. I started struggling to stay awake. I had to take NoDoz multiple times a day. At my second job (help desk) I would have to take a NoDoz to drive home at night. I was so tired that I would start having hallucinations if I didn\u2019t. Long story short, I found that my model of studying and working 2 jobs was not sustainable. But, here I am again. Doing the same thing, but worse: working my primary job full time as well as a help desk job full time. I\u2019m so tired as I type this that I feel like a husk of a person. I just want to be clear that I\u2019m not trying to have a pity party for myself. But I am desperate enough to scream into the void and ask for help. I have no guidance: no real idea of what I should be doing, or where I should apply so that I can free myself from having 2 jobs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[8,10,11,5,6,14,9,13,12],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career-talk","tag-career-transition-to-it","tag-from-social-work-to-it-career","tag-help-desk","tag-it","tag-it-career","tag-looking-for-career-advice","tag-mid-life-it-career-transition","tag-working-2-full-time-jobs","tag-working-2-jobs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28,"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/28"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ttoubeaux.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}