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Yes, when I got my first full time (non-contract gig) in IT I was making about 55k per year. Now granted that was in 2013 so 55k for a single guy went a lot further than it does today. But being IT doesn't automatically mean you will make a lot of money.
I left a hospital system back near the first of the year. Level 1 application analysts start at $46k. These people are salaried, on-call, and generally work at least 45 hours a week. While they do have some support from senior analysts, most of them are also having to PM small software implementation projects, have "ownership" of various systems and applications, etc.
You're not going to keep anyone long-term at $46k in conditions like that with the labor market the way it is now. Anyone with any talent will be looking for something better after a year or so - maybe as soon as they get there.
The difference between the wages of "regular" jobs and low end tech/IT have dramatically shrunk over the last few years. The help desk and desktop support teams were regularly losing people to a car wash and Target/Aldi.
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Originally Posted by Adhom
There are also a lot of tech related jobs that don't require writing code. You have agile coaches, project management, product management, release train engineers etc. Depending on the OP's current industry, these may be a lot easier to get into.
For example, the wife doesn't have any technology background but she's working in the finance industry. Recently she got hired into the tech org of another financial company. In the future, I can see her getting promoted to a management role in the tech org without ever having a tech background or writing any code.
Tech companies have all kinds of staff. Staff accountants don't need a technical development background - with that said, if you are doing any sort of technical work, or working with techies, you need to at least understand what business purposes software projects are trying to solve/accomplish at a high level.
I work with ERP systems. I have some programming background and knowledge, but I'm not a software engineer. Still, I wouldn't hire someone who doesn't know what an ERP system is, what interfaces are/do, or what different areas (finance, supply chain, HR, payroll) mean/do, unless it was for the most junior level of positions.
You might not need to write the code yourself as a manager, but you need to understand how that technology is leveraged to support business processes.
You raise an important point, at age 40 I assume you have financial obligations that you need to meet. What is the starting salary that will meet your need?
For Serious Conversation, a $100K salary where he lives in TN makes a comfortable income but for major high COL cities such as LA it's barely enough.
You'll also need to consider if you will ENJOY doing the new profession day-in and day-out for the remainder of your career? You don't want to end up where you are and not enjoy what you're doing.
When I started out in Indianapolis, I made $55k. The rest of the team started at $60k. I didn't know that at the time, but it was obvious to the management that I probably wasn't making much money, coming from a help desk in small town Tennessee. Everyone, at least as far a I know, had their own house/apartment.
The COLA to metro Boston was only 30%, so make that $78k. Most of those colleagues were living with roommates, or their significant other. Even then, $78k wasn't a big salary in Boston. It's fine for starting out, and there was potential to move up, but it certainly doesn't spend like $78k does here.
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Originally Posted by ss20ts
When my partner started in tech in the late 90's, they made $25K a year to start with an associate degree in CIS. We were in a major metro. Now it's 25+ years later and they make low 6 figures, but they also now have a bachelor's degree and several decades worth of experience and knowledge in the healthcare IT industry. That takes time to develop. The road was NOT easy. Many years of being on call and as a traveling consultant got them to where they are are today. It was mentally and physically exhausting.
I've very familiar with healthcare IT. Unless you are working for a consulting firm or an outside vendor supporting the medical industry, the pay and benefits in the hospital industry are just not to the tune of most other private sector employers.
I had only 21 days of PTO annually. If you took off the six major holidays, you had to "pay yourself" for them out of PTO. It works out to basically two weeks vacation, one week sick, and the six major holidays. It was easily the worst time-off package I've ever had anywhere I've ever worked as a direct employee.
On-call can be brutal. If you stayed up from 2-6 AM working on a ticket, the expectation is that you're back in the office at 8 AM. There's no comp/flex time. Until COVID, no ability to work from home. Managers had a bit of discretion with that, so it really depended on who your manager was.
Many of our analyst and engineer teams were running at 75%+ turnover in 2020-2022. That's incredible for a large employer that pays fairly well for the local area, and in an area where there are very few alternate IT employers.
When I started out in Indianapolis, I made $55k. The rest of the team started at $60k. I didn't know that at the time, but it was obvious to the management that I probably wasn't making much money, coming from a help desk in small town Tennessee. Everyone, at least as far a I know, had their own house/apartment.
The COLA to metro Boston was only 30%, so make that $78k. Most of those colleagues were living with roommates, or their significant other. Even then, $78k wasn't a big salary in Boston. It's fine for starting out, and there was potential to move up, but it certainly doesn't spend like $78k does here..
15 years ago, I was single and make $120K/yr but I was living in a 1 bed room apartment in LA. Technically I made good money but since I was single, I eat out all the time and spent money on expensive hobby. I was basically living from paycheck to paycheck. Later, I got married and my wife made an additional $75K on top of my salary. We bought a townhouse and was able to save some money then. Then we moved to Alabama and back to a single earner, but due to a low COL, we were able to afford a 3,000 sq ft house with a $125K salary.
I guess I'll have to disagree with the other posters regarding your prospects after age 40. You still have 25 years of working left. I would get some schooling at a community college and then work towards certifications. Whatever means you decide to take to get the schooling you need should provide you with opportunities for employment.
Also, keep your current job while you go to school.
I am 65 and have done a few startovers along the way. I made lots of mistakes and wish I could start over at age 18.
As you know, the world is crazy and getting crazier. Many fields are unstable. You say you are paid well. Unless you are being pressured to to anything unjust or illegal, I would stay where you are and look into a night or weekend job in whatever field you find interesting. See where it goes. If fulfillment is your main goal here, look into volunteer work. It is always available. Be very careful about giving up a stable job.
I'm somewhat glad I read this, to put this perspective. I'm thinking about quitting my job because I have been here 6 years without getting promoted, yet there have been a few guys promoted within months because they're drinking buddies with the right people. I'm on the wrong side of 40 as a single dad, and anything else I could get would have me do more to get paid less...
I am 65 and have done a few startovers along the way. I made lots of mistakes and wish I could start over at age 18.
As you know, the world is crazy and getting crazier. Many fields are unstable. You say you are paid well. Unless you are being pressured to to anything unjust or illegal, I would stay where you are and look into a night or weekend job in whatever field you find interesting. See where it goes. If fulfillment is your main goal here, look into volunteer work. It is always available. Be very careful about giving up a stable job.
Agree. A stable job with good pay is very precious to have in this day and age.
I'm somewhat glad I read this, to put this perspective. I'm thinking about quitting my job because I have been here 6 years without getting promoted, yet there have been a few guys promoted within months because they're drinking buddies with the right people. I'm on the wrong side of 40 as a single dad, and anything else I could get would have me do more to get paid less...
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Originally Posted by BusinessManIT
Agree. A stable job with good pay is very precious to have in this day and age.
Agree! Keep your day job.
Look at it this way, it's your primary source of income. Keep that income coming, THEN you can develop different skills (nights & weekend courses if you need to). Until your new skill gets you that new job. Keep your day job.
This is in light of current inflation and anticipated recession coming next year. It's more important than ever to have that primary income stream.
To start over in Tech at 40 is only possible if you're already tech adjacent. For example lots of engineers and graphic designers dabble in code, and it would be fairly easy for them to build a viable skillset and demos from that. If you're in an entirely different field and think Python is just a reptile then it is very, very unlikely that you can find a tech job, let alone finding one that pays as well.
The easiest kind of tech job one can get by certification is in tech is probably support/networking. The pay aren't that good and nobody really likes doing that.
I'm 39 with a useless BA in Comm and a useless AutoCAD 2D Cert. I've thought about taking a Data Analytics Google course, but it just wasn't for me. You still have to put up with people and you have to have a certain type of mindset for it. Coding isn't for everyone no matter how smart they appear to be. And again, that field is oversaturated to begin with. I refuse to take a scamming bootcamp.
I've been in logistics for about a decade. On the hard labor end, currently in a semiconductor plant, with 50% doing labor warehousing & 50% working on Netsuite doing inventory mgmt, chemical/wafer IQAs, audits. I would like to get into purchasing or some sort of supply chain position that doesn't require dealing with people too often.
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