Chaos is sometimes good
About six years ago, "John M." (an IS manager who requested anonymity) had a chance to be in charge of IT operations for a small north Georgia university.
He didn't take the role for several reasons.
"The infrastructure (not to mention the entire faculty) was chaotic, lacking in any sort of standardisation of equipment," he recalled.
In fact, the whole interview process was so chaotic and negative that he couldn't wait for the interview to end. When it finally did, six hours later, he declined the job offer that came his way.
"However, what I thought was horrible probably would have been a gigantic opportunity to grow in terms of skills and management ability," he said in retrospect. In taking the safe route, at a small nonprofit agency, his skills have become outdated and stagnant.
"Sometimes, a seemingly ugly situation can present beautiful opportunities," noted the tech leader.
Trust your first instincts
For one TechRepublic member, the big regret was not sticking to his first instincts during a reorg situation.
The member had served 15 years as the IT manager for a subsidiary of a large banking institute (with almost 20 years service in total), when the executive level decided to centralise the IT functions for all the subsidiaries.
"Although I was initially opposed to the centralisation, I eventually embraced the idea, and turned down an offer from the CEO to remain with the subsidiary," recalled the IT leader.
That decision was made three years ago, but the career impact is still lingering.
"It took me more than two years to find my feet in the organisation again, including going through another round of restructuring," he explained. Today he is managing a small but key technical team but "has lost a great deal of ground in terms of influence, benefits, and so on".
Sometimes, he noted, there's a lot of truth in the old cliché, better the devil you know than the one you don't, said the South African-based professional.
Staying too long
While there are not nearly enough opportunities that provide life-long careers these days, one TechRepublic member's tale illustrates the negatives of longevity with a sole employer.
"I regret having stayed with one company for 30 years. While there have been some rewards, the pigeon holing that has occurred has stymied my ability to grow technically within the company.
"In years past, I have been able to grow technically and to accept many interesting and challenging projects both here and abroad. However, time and age have crept up on me and, according to my HR department, I am 'no longer technically advanceable'. Great euphemism for being too old for new tricks," said the tech professional.
To compensate for the now-defunct challenges and opportunities, the TR member has spurred his own skills development path, learning C++, ASP, Java, and XML as well as keeping up to date with Visual Basic and Visual Fox Pro. He's now learning to use .NET.
"At home, I design and develop Web pages and Web applications part-time for a consulting company. The extra income is nice, but the satisfaction I derive from being able to produce up-to-date applications is better," he said.
His employer, he noted, is familiar with his abilities but believes that only those who have graduated from college in the last five years have the requisite talent to do new technology work.
"I think they are being a bit shortsighted. Sometimes the gray hairs help provide a certain 'maturity' when estimating the resources development will take. Even if you take a gamble and lose, you will have grown in your ability to handle adversity and maybe, just maybe, win greatly because you dared greatly".
And yet, leaving too soon can be a mistake
Richard Byrd related that his worst career decision was to retire early-at age 56--to set out on the project management consultant career path a few years ago.
With his certificate of training in project management from Colorado Technical University in hand, he then watched the economy throttle potential contract positions he had been eyeing.
The opportunities, he said, "went spiraling into the toilet, along with my plans".
Now, after two years of odd jobs and countless applications, he works as a volunteer with the IT Samaritans.
"We are a group of out-of-work IT professionals who do volunteer IT projects for nonprofit organisations in Colorado. Although I miss being gainfully employed, the satisfaction I get from staying active doing what I like while doing good things for my community keeps my self-esteem intact," said Byrd.
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