Career break / mid life crisis

+1 Hook. Harry's one of the good guys.

Thank you both.

Seven weeks and not dead yet

I'm the proud owner of two stents and I'll probably get one or two more this year.

I wouldn't recommend it, but it was also a very effective way of giving up smoking.

Thank goodness for love and music. Not to mention life/work flexibility. And for your best wishes.

Bit off topic Steve but had the 1st of my 3 ops at 8am this morning. The wonderful Sonja Cerovac came to see me wearing a very sexy skin tight pair of jeans. She told me afterwards the inside of my wrist was a`bit of a mess`

Mista h

Hi Redmires,

I think your feelings are very normal, more normal than not feeling 'unsatisfied' in your work life I would claim. 'Mid life crisis' is an unfortunate term as it implies a negative state of being and is somewhat ageist. I get the feeling these feelings can occur at any age, less so in the young perhaps but still there if my nieces and nephews are anything to go by.

If your feelings stem from a desire to learn/live better (as potentially you feel your work is occupying too much of your time), then you should have some idea of the next stage or the path to travel on, if not, then I might suggest some good books to kick start this journey.

if your feelings stem from a desire to change your job because it disatisfies you, then I fear you may not resolve this uncertainty, mainly because you probably don't have enough skills to try something else outside of your usual comfort zone. But that's not to say, that just changing jobs want help.

I was recently made redundant from a job I did not really care for or particularly like the person I was working for, but it has given me an opportunity to start my own practise. It's been going very slow since I started in January and I am very much poorer for it, but the freedom and control over my own instincts is absolutely priceless. 

Having to always consult a 'boss' and double check my own process of thinking and instinct in decision making was quite exhausting. This situation came about because my boss was a control freak and was rather old fashioned in his office structure, all very hierarchical. Very much everything I loathed in life. I felt claustrophobic and undervalued.

Now we shall see, I don't care too much for money, so I will also not break my balls to make as much as I can now without addressing my newly forming families concerns.

Anyway, a good start would be to read some inspiring books (And the Forum).

Good luck.

Jason.

I am afraid that everybody working in IT eventually gets to this point.  The problem is that IT skills aren't really useful outside of,well, IT.  I've been in IT for nearly 20 years [mostly independent and always building my personal vision so I am probably more satisfied than most] and the best alternative I've found is... Law School.  That conclusion was so depressing that IT feels like an even better alternative.

When young people tell me they want to be programmers, I always tell them the same thing:

Don't do it unless you've got a great idea with commercial potential and are willing to gamble your future on its success.  If not then get a PhD and do research until you get an idea.  If you never get an idea at least you'll have a chance of getting a tenured academic appointment at a research university where you will have intellectual freedom.  Finally, never work for a company whose products are not software and/or hardware.

Yeah, IT sucks...but here I am in it again, for the 3rd time...after an excruciatingly expensive detour!