Out of work... again.

For nearly nine years I have been working in the IT industry, gaining lots of desirable skills and knowledge. I got into the field hearing about how much demand there was for skilled IT workers, and how the different aspects of the career were going to grow for years to come, however I found my own experience to be quite the opposite. In the most recent 5 years, I have been laid off 3 times, and before that, nearly laid off twice. The only job I had that I felt somewhat secure in was working under terrible management using questionable business practices in order to succeed. This isn't how it was meant to be... is it?

After each layoff, numerous people have suggested other career fields that they felt were more secure than the anything involving my technical skills. I've been constantly asking myself, "Could a career change really be the answer?", and the only answer I could come up with is, "Yes, absolutely". So, I am about to chronicle the end of my IT career path and the transition into a new field.

The change won't be easy and I'll have to give up a lot along the way, but I'm not the only one who has to deal with this right now. Things are tough for everyone, and unemployment has reached historic levels. Many people are considering career changes because of the uncertainty in their own fields. Personally, I'm still considering the field to go into, but I'll give a hint to start; it's Health Care related. It doesn't pay a lot to start, but I think I'll be happy there. I can begin a certification class in June, which is some time away, so there would be plenty of downtime until then. So, for now, I'll just write about what happens during my wait, starting with the final decision within the next week or so. Stay tuned.