Confused about pay

I am planning to leave the computer field because of the way it works.

#1, all the young kids that grew up in the past 15 years with technology in their hands, can run circles around those of is who did not. I'm 34 years old, got a degree in computer science, and 12 years in the field, and i meet kids who are 15 that can program better than anyone i know.

#2- the I.T field is over saturated. I am currently unemployed for 1 month now. I have applied to over 40 jobs. I go in for interviews and each one of them have told me "well we are still interviewing. We weeded out a bunch and now we have about 30 people to interview" and thats just to make it to the next round of interviews when we hired in our department, we would get 90+ resumes. There are so many people applying for every job it is so hard to land one, and its only getting worse.

#3- Technology advances so fast. There are always new program languages, new hardware, new software, new networking and security protocols it is almost impossible to stay up to date. If a company wants you to do something you have never worked with, they wont just send you to get trained on it, instead they will let you go and hire someone who already knows it.

#4 - the employees that make all the demands and "we need this" requests are not the ones who know anything about IT. So if these clueless people ask for something, and from an IT perspective it not possible without spending 100,00 dollars, they will replace you, and find someone inexperienced enough to think it's possible. who will attemp their crazy ideas demands and spends countless hours trying to do the impossible nefore they to are let go for performance issues.

#5 - IT staff are always on call 24/7. Getting calls at 3 a.m. about a network issue, or server crash, or some a55hat who forgot their password. Yet the other employees continue to think IT does nothing and is never in the building. The IT department always gets crapped on in every company, they never get appreciated or respected.

#6 - everone is outsourcing IT jobs to other countries. The jobs are getting thinner and thinner, and that causes 100+ people to apply for each job out there.

#7- many many companies are working on scripting called automation. I created automation at Goldman Sachs, and for law enforcement around the country. At goldman sachs, i all the sudden realized after working on automation for several months, the stuff i am creating, once i complete it, could essentially take over my job and they would have no use for me. So the more and more that automation is a big thing, the less need companies have for actual humans.

There are more reasons but this would soon become a book to read.

Just think about it this way. Imagine the new elog systems that are being installed in the trucks, also track the driving and roads of the trucks, essentially you are writing code for the elog systems with every turn of the wheel or press of the brake. And the manufacturers will use that very data to create self driving tractor trailers. Once the self driving trucks come out, there will be no need to human drivers, you helped create the very thing that took your job.

The companies that dont use self driving trucks would be flooded with 100+ applications, and they are only hiring 1 driver. And since the driving market is so saturated, if there comes a time that you dont have an endorsement they need, instead of training you to get it, they just replace you with someone who already has it. Would that be a field you would want to work in?

Then i think about the freedom of driving a truck, and not being in a small cubicle, stairing at a computer screen all day, listening to co-workers complain on a daily basis, and getting to listen to books on tape and the howard stern show while driving and seeing the country. Getting to drive a tractor trailer, and meet new people everyday in different states and it sounds so amazing compared to the office scene with political garbage, and incompetent managers who are managers because they know the right person but are dumb as a box of rocks..

Yeah being a truck driver is longer hours, yes it is harder, yes it is time away from family, and yes the pay is harder to achieve, but to get out of the office garbage and into a truck to drive and the freedom, seems like a trade i am willing to make.

I have aleays seen truck drivers on the road and thought that would be a fun job, and the same with excavator and other earth mover operators. I just never financially could do it.but now i can, and am eager as hell to get started.

 

No I am not a troll. Your figures are correct. However i am not looking to make as much in trucking as i do as a computer engineer because that simply is not possible.

With trucking, all i am looking to do is be able to make enough money to pay my monthly bills. The only debt i have is my house (which i closed on 2 weeks before being let go from my last job), food, utilities, car insurance, fuel and blah blah blah. All my cars are paid off, i have no loans besides my mortgage, no credit card debt, so i am in a good place to take a pay cut to pursue a job i would love.

After running figures of what my monthly expenses are, i can get by with 54,000 per year. It would not leave much over though.

Sure i could stay in the engineer field, but i would rather a fun exciting job then more money. Currently At the end of each month now, what we dont spend just goes into the bank and sits. Is that a bad thing, of course not. But the stress that i have to endure 24/7 365 to earn it, i am willing to let it go in exchange for a fun career.

In 2013 our 3rd child was born and was diagnosed with CHD, and she had a 5% survival rate. On july 10, she just turned 4. She has had 2 open heart surgeries before she was 1. It has been the most stressful 4 years anyone could imagine. She is doing very good right now, and all her doctors are saying she looks as though she is out of the woods. Then In November of 2016, my father in law was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer at the age of 52. He was given 3-6 months to live. He is still alive, and is doing chemo and radiation treatments and his prognosis is looking good.

Due to all this stress and hard times with loved ones, my wife and I have decided that life is too short to not live it to the max. When i decided to go into computers it was not because that is what i loved. It was because that is what i was good at, and that is where the money was. If the money was not there, chances are i would not have chose it as my career. My wife told me after i was laid off, "life is too short, if you want to pursue a job you will love, then go for it". I agree with her 100%. Even if it is only for a few years, 5, 10, or 20, she is totally right. Life is too short to spend it sitting in a cubicle, watching the clock every day. In college I decided to chase the money and caught it, it's a 6 figure income, but now I know it's not happiness. When I'm 80 and look back on my life i want to have no regrets, not a bank full of money and a bunch of would of / could of/ should of(s) The old saying is true, money can't buy happiness.