Mid career transition blues

Hi

I am currently working as an IT manager with overall 18 years in IT and aged 39, located in India

till 4 years ago I used to work in Active Directory, ADFS,Windows server administration, and the likes, and gradually moved into Management, with around 100 people reporting to me. It is the natural progression after being with the company for 7 years.

I am not enjoying many aspects of my role, such as

- conflict resolution between team members

- the politics

- doing uncomfortable activities - like firing people or letting them know that there is no hike this year or that your performance is poor

- standing up for the team when someone pushes work over to our team

- Articulating the needs of the team with higher management

- Fighting with higher-ups for backfills.

- the constant 1 to 1's with team members

- convincing people from resigning

- influencing senior leadership

- speaking to a large audience and providing company updates

- lying to the team that all is well with the company ( the company is struggling)

- the way people give respect because of my position.

Things that I like

- No 24/7 shift

- less pressure, unlike in Technology support.

- Pay is good

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As you can see, I don't like most of the activities that is expected out of a manager and that is making me miserable. I am interested to go back to Technology as an independent Contributor, but not in to Operations as I don't like to work under pressure most of the times.

So here I am at crossroads as I approach my 40 contemplating a mid-career move. But the question that has been plaguing me - move into what?

I see Cybersecurity and Data science as the two hottest careers out there now. with my background in System Administration, learning Cybersecurity and getting few certifications shouldn't be a problem for me. However, Cybersecurity is not a new domain, it has been around for a long time and so the pay is not that great for entry-level jobs and I don't think I can get a senior position as I don't have the required hands-on.

On the other hand, data science is a new domain and the opportunities are more with higher pay for an entry-level position. but this going to be a steep learning curve for me and the courses are expensive. But I feel this will satisfy my intellectual curiosity as I normally like jobs that involve researching. However, there is no guarantee that I will get a job due to my age and my background which is not related to analytics, even if I complete some courses and I will be throwing out all the knowledge I accumulated over the years.

So here I am confused about my future career and looking forward to hear from anyone who went through a similar experience. Thank you.

-

Hi

I am currently working as an IT manager with overall 18 years in IT and aged 39, located in India

till 4 years ago I used to work in Active Directory, ADFS,Windows server administration, and the likes, and gradually moved into Management, with around 100 people reporting to me. It is the natural progression after being with the company for 7 years.

I am not enjoying many aspects of my role, such as

- conflict resolution between team members

- the politics

- doing uncomfortable activities - like firing people or letting them know that there is no hike this year or that your performance is poor

- standing up for the team when someone pushes work over to our team

- Articulating the needs of the team with higher management

- Fighting with higher-ups for backfills.

- the constant 1 to 1\'s with team members

- convincing people from resigning

- influencing senior leadership

- speaking to a large audience and providing company updates

- lying to the team that all is well with the company ( the company is struggling)

- the way people give respect because of my position.

Things that I like

- No 24/7 shift

- less pressure, unlike in Technology support.

- Pay is good

-

As you can see, I don\'t like most of the activities that is expected out of a manager and that is making me miserable. I am interested to go back to Technology as an independent Contributor, but not in to Operations as I don\'t like to work under pressure most of the times.

So here I am at crossroads as I approach my 40 contemplating a mid-career move. But the question that has been plaguing me - move into what?

I see Cybersecurity and Data science as the two hottest careers out there now. with my background in System Administration, learning Cybersecurity and getting few certifications shouldn\'t be a problem for me. However, Cybersecurity is not a new domain, it has been around for a long time and so the pay is not that great for entry-level jobs and I don\'t think I can get a senior position as I don\'t have the required hands-on.

On the other hand, data science is a new domain and the opportunities are more with higher pay for an entry-level position. but this going to be a steep learning curve for me and the courses are expensive. But I feel this will satisfy my intellectual curiosity as I normally like jobs that involve researching. However, there is no guarantee that I will get a job due to my age and my background which is not related to analytics, even if I complete some courses and I will be throwing out all the knowledge I accumulated over the years.

So here I am confused about my future career and looking forward to hear from anyone who went through a similar experience. Thank you.

-