Update: Nobody seems to want a 59 year old Sys Admin. Advice, Career change ??
Posted by rob_morin@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 262 comments
Hey all, i posted this 9 months ago:
https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/185796c/nobody_seems_to_want_a_59_year_old_sys_admin/
I received lots of good comments and suggestions, thanks to all for that.. As it would happen by kind of luck, i fell into another niche, not related to IT work, although i still do a few IT gigs here and there.
I wanted to update and share my transition/experience in case it can help anyone else in the same situation.
I have always been a handy guy since i was in my teens, was never afraid to try anything once, and my dad helped me out with guidance before he passed away 40 years ago.
A few months back, I had a neighbor ask me to help them replace some under cabinet halogen lighting in a condo as they were not working and needed replacing. I went to see the place, and suggested to replace these halogen pot lights with LED ones. They agreed. I bought 8 LED under cabinet spots from amazon, i already knew a brand they was reliable for me in the past. I did the job in 4 hours, I charged $50 an hour, plus whatever i paid for the parts.
BAM! I have I found a new gig??
I was already the admin of a Facebook group i created for the community i live in, has 900 members and is active. I made a post in it saying "Thank you to a member of this group for allowing me to help with the under cabinet lighting project" And then all of a sudden I am getting requests for handy man work! Replace some water valves, fix some drywall, do some painting, replace some door locks,change light fixtures, etc...
I am astonished at how many people cannot do he simple things themselves and need a handy man!
So now i do about 3 to 4 jobs a week at $50 an hours plus parts, I have a bigger job coming up next week going to be about a 16 hours.
I just wanted to share my experiance in case it could give anyone else some incentive, cause i sure needed it!
Don't get down on yourself, just sit and think what can i do for others?
Have a great day all!
Hour-Bandicoot5798@reddit
I Work with a 78yo Software developer. He is the smartest person on our team. I would never assume
Protholl@reddit
I'm just about there as I'm retiring next week @ 60 after 33 years at the same IT job. Thanks for the thoughts because so far I've applied to a couple of home centers and a hardware store.
halobender@reddit
You're retiring but also applying to some jobs?
devoopsies@reddit
Supplementing retirement with part-time work is a fairly common thing to do, both because it brings in a bit of excess cash as well as ensures that you keep your mind active.
It's great for some, not for others. Really depends on the person and circumstances.
GoofMonkeyBanana@reddit
I have often thought that maybe I would do this once I hit retirement, but then I realize that these part time gigs often have pretty restrictive vacation allowances.
kamomil@reddit
Retail jobs are mostly on evenings, weekends and holidays, not everyone's idea of a retirement convenient pastime
GoofMonkeyBanana@reddit
Actually retail stores are open during the day at which time students can’t work.
kamomil@reddit
And that's when customers are working their own 9-5 jobs
kilkenny99@reddit
Depending on how much you need the money, a vacation request that isn't approved just becomes an "I quit" notification, and maybe let them know you're available when you get back if they're still shorthanded by then.
ThemesOfMurderBears@reddit
It can also just be a "I don't get paid this week" thing. I'm sure it won't fly everywhere, but there are plenty of jobs that would be open to a part time employee just taking a week off unpaid. No reason to quit if they will do that.
kilkenny99@reddit
Agreed. I should have thought of that, since I once had such a job myself.
JewishTomCruise@reddit
The vacation allowances are for paid vacation. That doesn't mean that you can't take unpaid vacation.
GoofMonkeyBanana@reddit
True, but not all companies will allow unpaid time off.
RealKarlFranz@reddit
I'll have to do something along those lines. I spent about 15 years in the music industry prior to settling into an IT career. As you might imagine, that was 15 years of nothingburger in terms of retirement savings or investments.
halobender@reddit
OK got it.
Pyrostasis@reddit
For a lot of folks quitting your "Job" suddenly means you have nothing to do. While its real fun for a few weeks maybe even a month... you very quickly get to a point where boredom and depression can kick in.
Not everyone of course but for a lot of folks finding something nice, easy, and consistent wards off the bad and gives you a little extra spending money.
SpiceIslander2001@reddit
When I retire (which might be next year), I plan to hang out at my brother's bar, drink rum and watch wimmen :-).
Valdaraak@reddit
There's a guy here who's in his 80s. Sharper than some folks around here half his age. Still walking fine, still thinking clearly. I'm convinced he's only still that way because he never stopped.
It's a lot like a mechanical hard drive: Sometimes the only reason they're still moving is because it hasn't been turned off lately.
dansedemorte@reddit
sounds like my dad.
ARobertNotABob@reddit
Nice analogy.
itishowitisanditbad@reddit
We get that at my place too. Culture is chill so a lot of people hit this place and then never move again.
It does mean we got like, a monthly obit email. Which is... I guess expected.
joule_thief@reddit
I subscribe to that theory as well. My grandmother will be 98 later this year and up until 5 years ago could outwork me in the garden.
PrettyAdagio4210@reddit
My uncle is 81 and is still a full time employee with the same job that hired him out of college. He gets around great, drives out to client sites to work on electric meter boxes, and his mind is sharper than mine at 37! Not even kidding.
I love seeing that it’s not all doom and gloom when it comes to age.
ThemesOfMurderBears@reddit
The 2002 Jack Nicholson film About Schmidt is about this. The movie opens on his retirement party (which is a cringe-fest). The next day, he wakes up, and has nothing to do. He had zero plan -- just that he would retire. He even manages to find a reason to visit his office in hopes that he can be off assistance to his replacement, and finds out he is not needed -- at all.
It's a good movie. It takes a pretty dramatic turn and the rest of it is Schmidt trying to navigate his life. It was kind of depressing to see though -- the guy just has no purpose the day after he retires.
NetJnkie@reddit
Which is why your job shouldn’t be your life.
GlowGreen1835@reddit
I'll never understand that. I don't even have a job right now, haven't for a year, and I'll never have enough time for games, YouTube series, and the very occasional eating out or finding a new interesting place or thing to do.
Pyrostasis@reddit
Hey fair enough.
For me, Im off work for about a week, and I start getting bored. Everyones different.
islander1@reddit
YES.
I was on paid severance for 9 months back in 2004. I did fuck all for like 3 months. I was 28 and ignorant. Around month 4 I started, and after 5 months (total) I started getting mildly depressed. I did manage to find a good position right before severance ended, but man...I'll never do that again.
For me, retirement means I work where I want, and when I want.
dRaidon@reddit
Hell no. For me it would be more like now I could actually play with the tech I want to without burning out.
slippery@reddit
Also fills the social void of not being around co-workers daily.
OperationMobocracy@reddit
My neighbor got an early buyout from Delta that was so good it was better than working until his retirement age.
He took 2 part time jobs but they liked him so much they gave him more hours than he wanted and he ended up quitting both of them.
He and his spouse both have lifetime available space privileges on all Delta domestic flights so I don’t know why he doesn’t travel more. He also got 4x first class international positive space tickets (ie, you can reserve a spot instead of it needing to be empty).
ErikTheEngineer@reddit
Airline industry IT guy here...if I had lifetime standby and no job, you'd never see me home again. One of the hardest things to do with standby travel these days is work around your work schedule...wasn't a problem when airlines were fine with 85% load factor...now they do 99+% and it's nearly impossible to get a seat.
OperationMobocracy@reddit
Yeah, he was in inflight operations and has sort of figured out some crazy workaround routes based on “easy” available space when more direct routes are limited.
He also goes to a place in Florida regularly where he’s got not unreasonable alternate airports if his direct route isn’t available. They’re also kind of used to hanging out at the airport and then going home and trying the next day.
IAmTheM4ilm4n@reddit
Agreed. I'm a few months away myself after 45 years in this business, and getting secondary employment while pulling retirement requires some calculation (for me, even just pulling from my IRA risks pushing me into a taxable-income bracket). That's why I also have several immersive hobbies - keep the brain active along with the body.
uninspired@reddit
My dad has retired at least half a dozen times. He's not built to sit around doing nothing. He goes crazy being idle.
ZantetsukenX@reddit
Nothing kills you faster than retiring and doing nothing. I've seen people become absolutely feeble in only a few years of retirement because they would get up everyday and just watch TV and not do much. I could easily see someone without any major hobbies simply picking up a part time job to help keep them mentally and physically active.
Strelock@reddit
I have seen with my grandparents and others that when people stop being active they quickly pass on. If you don't have something to do every day, life quickly becomes dull. You can only sit in front of the TV so much before it starts to negatively effect your health.
halobender@reddit
There are plenty of stimulating things to do besides working. Like learning an instrument or painting.
Strelock@reddit
For sure. Like get an RV and travel, garden, go fishing, or as you say learn an instrument or paint. But some people need to feel like they have a purpose, and a job can help with that. Not saying a job is the only option at all!
FalloutRip@reddit
The best job is the job you don't need - where you can tell the boss/ manager to buzz off if you don't like their tone.
Part-time work gets you out of the house, some additional spending money and socializing. You'd be surprised how many people get bored in retirement because they don't have enough stuff to occupy their time.
sleepyjohn00@reddit
After the first few weeks, retirement can be boring and isolating. A new workplace may have its own frustrations, but you’re not sitting at home rotting.
ThreeChonkyCats@reddit
An appalling number of IT people do woodwork :)
Its something haptic - hold-able in the hands - rather than the doings of our careers, which often have NOTHING to show for our labours.
Its amazingly rewarding AND good for the mind + soul.
bigb9919@reddit
And depending on how you do it (hand tools vs power tools) you either get some piece and relative quiet, or you get to start a whole new collection of fancy tech.
ThreeChonkyCats@reddit
IT people are the WORST.
They either go medieval or sci-fi.
Self made hand tools and hand forged blades from iron gathered off a Japanese beach....or it's Star Trek lasers, CNC, festool everything and a serious obsession with clamps.
It's Gear Acquisition Syndrome on steroids 😸
daerogami@reddit
Programmer here, a couple months ago I finished building my own woodworking bench following a youtube guide by Paul Sellers. Built the hand router plane as well. All in service to eventually finish building my first cello. It is very rewarding work, not just when you're done but the journey is pleasant as well... except chiseling mortises, to hell with that.
ThreeChonkyCats@reddit
(casually builds cello)
Agreed on the mortices.
One insta I love is https://www.instagram.com/takuwoodcraft
The dude is a maestro with the hand router and small circular saw. His jigs are... sublime.
Check that for a mortice/tenon jig. Undoubtedly there will be three!
chiron3636@reddit
Pottery for me, there are a few of us
I don't have to look at a PC screen for a bit and I can use my hands
ThemB0ners@reddit
Are you a golfer? If so, check out part time work at a golf course which then leads to free golf.
angrydeuce@reddit
I worked as a greenskeeper for a year in high-school, best job I ever had hands down. Hours were kinda shitty as we had to be off the front 9 by dawn meaning we started at 2 or 3 in the morning but other than that I loved going to work in a way I've never loved going to a job.
Civil_Complaint139@reddit
Were you at a higher end golf course? I raked the sand pits for a couple of years before getting to mow grass. We started at about 7 in the morning, but we just stayed out of the golfers way when working.
angrydeuce@reddit
Yeah the golfers that were out there at dawn were the super serious ones that absolutely would be pissy if we were anywhere near them. I used to rake traps, change cups, and then more or less did whatever else they had me do. The big mowers were all ran by retired vets and they weren't giving up that job sitting in an air conditioned cab listening to music all day so never got to do tha unfortunately.
Changing cups was my favorite, I admittedly was such an asshole with placement sometimes, like put it right on top of a hill. Id always hear about it the next day, "Hey angrydeuce, you need to move the cup on A13, we got like 20 complaints about it yesterday."
Apfelwein@reddit
This is absolutely my retirement plan. I don’t want to sit at home and atrophy. May as well make a little money and be near a hobby I enjoy.
andrewsmd87@reddit
I worked maintenance at a golf course for a lot of years when I was younger and can totally see myself doing that again in my later years
Protholl@reddit
Haven't played in ages but I played in high school, college and with coworkers a couple decades ago. Interesting idea thanks.
Sollus@reddit
I cannot imagine being lucky enough to work at one place for that long. I just assume I'd be laid off before that. Congratulations on the retirement and I'm envious.
No-Drink2529@reddit
My plan is to go out at 60 too.
VulturE@reddit
My dad enjoyed driving, and wanted to be one of Enterprise's people that drives cars around. Apparently they hire part timers.
EastDallasMatt@reddit
Interested in hearing how this goes for you. I'm doing the same when I turn 55 next year. We will move to a home we own in a rural tourist area and are thinking about opening a gift shop or just getting jobs at the hardware/grocery/feed store. We can afford to fully retire, but I really just want a job that I can leave at work when I clock out until I'm old enough for Social Security.
crackerjam@reddit
Respect, but, real talk, at 59 you do not want to start getting into manual labor trades. Do what makes you happy, but man your body is going to start breaking down quick doing that kind of work.
kamomil@reddit
Changing out light fixtures and installing curtain rods isn't so bad
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
I only take on jobs that i know i can handle without dying at the end of the day. I just finished cleaning and staining a 12x14 foot deck for a client, was not bad took my time, charged 4.5 hours. came home and had a Scotch and some Tylenol to help with a bit of back pain.... :)
cr0ft@reddit
I mean, it depends on the job, and it also depends on the amount of time one plans to do it. Sure, at 59, it may be time to slow down but actual pension is well under a decade away. Doing some LED installs and stuff will hardly break a fit guy about to hit 60.
tacotacotacorock@reddit
They say you age significantly at age 40 and around 65. Small handyman jobs might be okay. However your spot on about it being hard on the body.
burts_beads@reddit
Want that study based on a tiny number of people over a short period of time so they probably had a handful of people at those ages?
safrax@reddit
Yeah. That study was flawed.
ThemesOfMurderBears@reddit
You're correct, but slightly off the numbers. It's bursts at 44 and 60.
I just turned 46. There have been steady changes since I was 39, but it does feel like things ramped up a bit over the last year.
Mayki8513@reddit
or, you do, but take on apprentices and then you're just the manager making kids do all the hard work ;)
JustInflation1@reddit
This doesn’t Matter if it makes him happy. This is what’s needed in capitalism to survive break your body until you’re dead and useless
kamomil@reddit
Awesome! There's always probably opportunities in that type of work too, jobs that are small but still need to be done 👍
The_Gunster2020@reddit
Well no.. you became nothing … all that time .. not even a consultant ? You are bread and butter IT which I meet everyday
Play your PlayStation on the evenings, if you have kids tell them how tried!
Wow great job mate!
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
I am not sure what you mean, but hey, everyone entitled to their opinion. But I am enjoying what I do, half consulting and half handy man. I Love it. I try not to work on Friday's, so I can head to the country place for the weekends. :)
wrt-wtf-@reddit
Apparently you lose all your ability or understand new things after 28. That’s when they all become directors.
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
So true... I cannot really be bothered at my age to start learning new IT skills and or get certificates, classes, exams, yada yada. I might not be certified, but I can create an infrastructure from scratch and properly secure it and all connected devices, either completely by myself or with a 3 rd party vendor assistance. It's not really that difficult.
wrt-wtf-@reddit
There is no new skill at our age. There is only a Mengineering iteration on old technologies.
Something many young people don’t understand yet. There is nothing new, just refined, like old techs - more refined.
PositiveBubbles@reddit
Shit. I'm 32 and only made it to a tier 3 role officially at 27 hahaha
wrt-wtf-@reddit
and did you know everything when you took up that role?
PositiveBubbles@reddit
God no. I think people focusing on age and certain milestones should just let things happen naturally
serendrewpity@reddit
Congrats. I am glad things are working out for you. I initially thought of retirement for you based on the title alone. That's not usually an option for some. For others they may enjoy working and are willing to continue well past retirement.
If you're the latter make sure you are marketing enough to keep a steady flow of work through dry spells and consider hiring a helper that you can pass knowledge onto and maybe even step back and perform more administrative and back office tasks when father time says it's time.
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
If i retire at 60, I loose 35% of my provincial and federal government pensions. 7% per year before 65.
Example if i retire at 60, Quebec(provincial) pension plan will give me $768 a month, if I retire at 65, I will get $1072, if I retire at 70, i will get $1501 and pretty much the same from Federal.
So if i could hold on for a couple more years at least till 63($942) lets say, I might be ok. Plus my RRSP of course, i believe that's 401K equivalent in the USA.
NotAnotherRebate@reddit
My father passed at 65 right before retiring. Was not even able to collect a single penny of the social security he had paid into. See if you can cut back on work and take some extra joy out of life while still possible.
danfirst@reddit
And in your sense here, by retired you mean even if you're not working a traditional job, as long as you don't start collecting the pension?
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
Yes, if i start to collect at 60 i lose that 7% for each year prior to 65. So now if i just do small gigs here and there to pay some bills, and put off officially retiring for another couple years at least. My wife is a Nurse and makes a pretty good salary.
9jmp@reddit
Just out of curiosity, would it stay 768 a month forever if that was what you decided to do? Or would it increase annually at the same rate you pointed out?
skinniks@reddit
It is indexed to inflation
danfirst@reddit
Sounds like a good plan, congrats!
TrueStoriesIpromise@reddit
Keep in mind that by not retiring at 60, you're forfeiting 768*12*5=46080.
For waiting until 65 to pay off, you need to live an additional 46080/(1072-768)=151.5 months, 12.6 years. If you die before 72.6 then you'd be worse off waiting until 65 to retire.
So...talk to your doctor?
throw0101a@reddit
Generally you want to delay CPP/QPP (and ideally OAS) as much as possible, and rely on private savings (RRSP) first. Do a search on "CPP meltdown" (would apply to QPP).
Of course if you/your family has a history of bad health and/or you don't have a lot of savings and need the money right away, that changes things.
You may want to check out /r/PersonalFinanceCanada
B4K4FIRE@reddit
I would transition to a sales engineer or SME or something. Pick a system you knew well backups, EDR, Firewalls. And see what is available.
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
I do excel in backups, so i always use that as a lure to hook people in. " What happens if your employee deletes all his/hers emails and then deletes the deleted emails" That usually leaves them stumped or saying, they would never do that. :) But i hooks them into a longer conversation.
B4K4FIRE@reddit
With the amount of businesses that depend on excel spread sheets as basically databases, this is a real skill.
GiggleyDuff@reddit
I expect to pay between $170-$220/hr for an MSP these days.
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
99% of my few IT clients i do consulting for are non-profit. They were currently paying $140(Canadian) an hour for outsourced IT work. I charge $85 an hour with the first 2 hours for free. Most non-profits do not know the availability of discounted IT services, software or hardware out there and are paying for that stuff a full price, which is not cool, so I help them transition and then ultimately administer their infrastructure. :)
GiggleyDuff@reddit
I started my career at a nonprofit and I fully attribute my success to what my MSP taught me. I'm forever grateful to have worked with someone like that.
therealtacopanda@reddit
I thought we all went to goat farming after leaving sysadmin work. Is the sysadmin to goat farm pipeline no longer in existance?
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
I remember reading about that somewhere! :)
lordjedi@reddit
Fantastic!
Be on the lookout for a negative Nancy in the group that'll complain about you not having a contractor's license (or something else). Imo, as long as you stay away from doing anything super dangerous (like updating someones electrical), you should be fine.
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
Exactly, I just don't say yes to everyone, I do what I know and what will not sort of get me in trouble if something goes wonky. I do abide by local codes when needed. I also just asked my insurance company for liability insurance for doing stuff like that to be on the safe side... If not too expensive, I will just get it, like $50 a month or something like that.
RevLoveJoy@reddit
This is great news, OP. Thanks for following up with the community on how things are going for you. It's nice to hear the follow ups. I know I really appreciate a check in later on as opposed to just wondering.
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
Sure I can update later on down the line...
kingj7282@reddit
F. Bruh, you should be thinking about retirement, not a new career.
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
Not a new career, I just got laid off last year, no one wants an old IT guy, so its hard to find work, that's why I am doing what I am doing. I work 25 hours a week and enjoy my time off to do other stuff. It's to make income before I retire at 63 to 65 in a few years.
ChanceSet6152@reddit
Is your name Karl Hungus?
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
No idea who that is. :)
ChanceSet6152@reddit
He's a Nihilist.
Fizzster@reddit
I am basically screwed myself. 26 years in IT and just got laid off because the company I went to "ran out of money" so no severance or anything. My skills aren't translating to what these new companies need, and I don't know what to do about it. I know I'm an expert at looking at a system and coming up with a solution, but that's not something that you can just have someone take your word on.
I have no idea what I'm going to do. COVID wiped out my 401K basically, and now I'm working at a bowling pro shop full time because it's a passion, but it's literally $20 an hour, which is a FRACTION of what I made before.
anonaccountphoto@reddit
Well... Either adapt or get into another field. IT is paid very well for a reason.
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
Try consulting, you don't need to know everything, just need to know what you know and then get assistant from 3rd party vendors. What i do sometimes if i see someone looking to hire full time IT from a small company, i contact them and ask them if they ever thought of out sourcing rather than full time IT guy, usually comes up cheaper for them.
D0nk1e@reddit
thanks very uplifting and as sysadmin myself wondering about life after 60
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
Maybe we should start a subreddit, IT, life after 60. Hahaha
Bodycount9@reddit
If you are going into the handyman business full time you might want to think about getting bonded. If you're on a job and you seriously mess something up in another persons home that insurance will save your ass if they decide to sue you.
Just think if you're working on kitchen cabinets and you knock a water pipe loose that was about to break anyway and flood the whole kitchen and ruin their floor and cabinets.
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
Ya, i understand, I will look into it, however I carefully choose the jobs i do for people I have never met. For people i have never met, i don't do plumbing stuff, and only do very small electrical stuff, like change a switch. If i know the person or is a friend of a friend, i do more stuff, like some easy plumbing or electrical work. But I understand where your coming from.
SnooDonuts4137@reddit
Congrats.. You are now the South Park Handyman :). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc1_AY7mufM
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
Hahah, that was funny...
THEoMADoPROPHET@reddit
Your experience really shines through in your update. It’s a shame that age can sometimes be a barrier in tech, especially when the knowledge and perspective you bring are invaluable. Have you considered reaching out to smaller companies or startups? They often value experience and might offer a better fit.
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
I actually like helping out start ups from scratch, but not sure how to find such organizations. During this conversation I got 2 more handy man jobs, lol I was also contacted by a head hunter for some kind of migration of domains, so i will look further on that.
uosiek@reddit
Being handy man is a thing. 10 apartaments on top of company building (mixed-use zones FTW!) is enough to hire handyman for FTE. There's always something to do.
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
Handy man & Sys Admin, always something to do, even is there is nothing to do, there is always upgrading or migrating. lol! No wonder they go hand and hand.
mat4linux@reddit
Really glad for you, well done! Just shows what tenacity rewards.
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
Thanks!
Indiesol@reddit
Please do all the things to protect yourself and minimize your liability. Llc, liability insurance, and whatever else is needed in your jurisdiction.
DB718xx@reddit
Consulting may be the place for you as you get to leverage all of your experience without the employer having to make any kind of commitment. You'll also get to set your own schedule and slow down a bit.
RubberBootsInMotion@reddit
I've noticed there seems to be an overlap between sysadmin type people and generally "handy" people.
I was also laid off for a few months, during which I did some work on my own house, mostly interior things that nobody would notice. As soon as I started painting outside and redoing some of the landscaping all my neighbors suddenly wanted me to help with stuff around their homes.
For what it's worth, I also find that simple home maintenance things anyone should be able to do are basically black magic to a huge number of people. Even just changing out sprinklers or putting up shelves is something people need help with, but the actual "handyman" trade is so full of incompetence and sketchy people that they don't actually trust anyone to do it.
theragu40@reddit
IT people are skilled at looking at an unfamiliar system, quickly figuring out how it works, and taking logical steps to solve problems with that system while minimizing impact.
Most people are genuinely terrible at figuring out even simple unfamiliar systems. This is magnified when combined with a stressful situation or high potential cost impact. I feel like in IT you get pretty jaded to the huge monetary numbers and just focus on the result.
That skill translates really well to handyman work.
dirtyredog@reddit
I just recently changed out a 50 year old toilet flange. It had been broken and repaired at some time in the past and the repairs were rusted completely.
The amount of incorrect YouTube videos I had to wade through to find correct information was unsettling. To begin most were PVC flanges and the ones that weren't were usually wood floors and not concrete then I watched one guy confidently install it incorrectly...
I believe If I weren't a sysadmin I would have had to hire a plumber.
theragu40@reddit
I think you touched on a more specific detail, which is that good IT people are exceptionally good at quickly identifying incorrect solutions. I can tell pretty early on if someone troubleshooting something is heading down a path that isn't going to result in the answer.
If I'm being honest, I don't know how I do this. I'm not perfect, and no one is 100% at it, but I can usually intuit if the steps being taken are the right ones or leading the right direction. Like I can somehow see the troubleshooting process as a big funnel with the solution at the end, and I can tell if we are traveling down the funnel, or working against it.
I'd like to spend more time understanding the mindset and approaches to thinking that make successful IT people, because in my experience a lot of this falls under "you have it or you don't" and is not really trainable. I'd love to be able to teach this.
sieb@reddit
Are you me? Even if I start to do something incorrectly, it just feels wrong and I start over, I can't explain it. I swear figuring shit out is a sixth sense. Honed to a fine point over the years of troubleshooting literally everything day to day... Same goes for thinking abstractly in your head and working through the process or order of operations, like Ikea furniture directions.. People like us inherently get it while to others it might as well be a different language. I blame our education system and it's lack of critical thinking/problem solving skills..
theragu40@reddit
Yeah I definitely think the lack of instruction on critical thinking or logic is an issue.
Though more and more I think some percentage of it has to be innate as well. It's super interesting. Like I said I really would love to spend more time understanding my actual step by step because I'd love to be able to get someone to think that way who doesn't already do so.
I don't know how it is for you, but I occasionally find it quite tiring too. Like, any "thing" I am doing, I am looking for ways to improve the way I do it. It makes me I, am sure, a sometimes irritating housemate to my wife. I have a certain way I like things to be, but it's never arbitrary. It's because I've either consciously or subconsciously cycled through all the other ways to do it and landed on my way as the most efficient or most effective. So if someone else suggests a way to do something, it's not that I necessarily automatically reject it, but it's an uphill battle because I've almost certainly already considered it.
I'm not trying to be arrogant, it's something I can't stop my brain from doing. I have to consciously try to tone it down when not in a professional setting so I don't seem like an ass all the time. Thankfully it is generally a benefit to think this way in my job.
dirtyredog@reddit
Im not particularly gifted that's for sure. I think it's being exceptionally interested in how and why things work....coupled with an insatiable desire to ..I dunno tinker... create....design... maybe it's just a drive to be lazy sometimes...an art if you will.
I was tearing things apart as a child and electronics and chemistry basics were absolutely captivating to me then.
I certainly wasn't a great student but tested out of middle school programming class before we had been given it. I'd learned basic in DOS on my own and they were teaching qbasic in 8th grade. So I started learning Pascal. College they tried to teach qbasic again....easiest A ever...I dropped out to do IT work.
RubberBootsInMotion@reddit
Yes, exactly. And that's the part that feels so unfamiliar - not being able to analyze the world around you seems like a handicap to living life almost. I don't know how people get anything done like that.
theragu40@reddit
Every time I watch someone attempt to figure out something simple I die a little inside lol. It might be inputs on a remote control, maybe it's assembling a piece of furniture, maybe it's reading a map or street signs. I try not to be the unasked explainer all the time because I'm pretty sure it's annoying....but it can be hard to resist as you watch someone fumble at following steps that are just inherently very clear to me. It actually took me a while in life to understand that it's not necessarily that I'm smarter than others, it's just that their skillets or attitudes differ from mine.
I have to agree with you though, I can't imagine not having this skill. It does feel like daily life would be substantially harder.
travyhaagyCO@reddit
This IT nerd finished my basement by myself only using YouTube videos.
eastlakebikerider@reddit
It's difficult to find competent people in any skilled trade these days, it seems.
Dubbayoo@reddit
Consider looking for local businesses that only have remote IT (in fields you may not think of). Example - I used to work for an MSP that focused on real estate entities. Their clients owned apt complexes, office buildings and Senior living homes up and down the east coast. These were all companies with outsourced IT operations. We only had offices in two cities so we setup the environments of these scattered locations so most things could be done remotely. Think Meraki, ConnectWise Control, etc.
However, not everything can be done remotely, and we certainly weren't going to fly someone from Atlanta to Rochester to perform some hands-on work. Hence, they occasionally needed some local IT person that could come handle simple stuff.
I imagine you could find enough businesses to get 15-20 hours/month of billable work.
XenonOfArcticus@reddit
When nobody wants to hire you but you know you're good at what you do, go into business for yourself.
I'd love to talk to you about maybe doing sysadmin work for me on a fill-in basis. Lots of my clients are US-based, but I could make Canada work probably. PM me sometime.
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
Sure, i am quite bust for next 2 weeks, but we can chat for sure, as I write this i got a client asking me to paint his bedroom all white, easy peasy when all white. :) Thanks and talk to you soon.
HuggeBraende@reddit
Also, consider cybersecurity. There are a lot of cyber folks with no sysadmin experience, and it can really make the difference. Security is pretty simple, find broken stuff and fix it (or report it to someone to fix it).
19610taw3@reddit
It baffles me - have worked with cybersecurity experts who have no idea how things work.
woodyshag@reddit
I would think this combined with past experience would make you an ideal cyber security person. Not only do you know where to find the issues, but you can probably implement the fixes yourself.
techgm165@reddit
OP are you familiar with the electrical stuff? I know this sounds funny but look into creating lighting kits for Lego and other modeling kits. Huge market if you are familiar with LEDs.
minus_343@reddit
Time to find some hobbies and enjoy life. Hopefully you put some away for a nice nest egg.
scubafork@reddit
In my mid-40's and have been slowly taking my foot off the gas on my IT career, with the same sort of approach. I've been finding that my experience translates better to mentoring younger sysadmins and also just applying common sense to everyday problems. I spend more time puttering around the house, building things to make life easier, fixing things that need fixing and generally problem solving friends and family issues. Sometimes they're tech issues, sometimes they're facilities issues, but they follow the same skillset I've learned as a sysadmin: identify the problem, research the problem/solution, propose a possible fix or two, implement the agreed upon fix, verify.
Leisure_Muffin@reddit
I love reading this when I just entered I.T. at 40
eri-@reddit
It can mean many things. I'm 43 and to be honest I don't care as much about new tech as I used to.
We always like to say personal growth should be a main driver so it should come as no surprise that senior technical profiles shift their priorities down the line. I know I can do the tech part if I put my mind to it, the growth isn't really there, not anymore.
Solkre@reddit
I knew I was getting old when I decided to stick with iPhone because I didn't want to modify and customize my phone anymore; I just needed it to work.
My second stage of old is now I'd rather buy a prebuilt PC to replace mine than build one again.
I'm 41.
liggerbreek@reddit
Re: the second stage is, I think, more about having more money than time and patience. Troubleshooting a self built computer is such a pain if you don't have spare parts lying around and you can RMA the whole thing without having to identify which damn part suddenly decided it's not going to work right anymore.
I am also getting to the stage in my life where I'm considering paying for that convenience.
whythehellnote@reddit
I haven't cared about "new tech" since I was 20. I'm an engineer, not a technologist.
Different-Hyena-8724@reddit
Same. I got started when Voip was running on L2 networks. Was so excited the first time I build a teleworking gateway. Got a public IP for this 1 server and got a phone working offsite. Yea that was so 20 years ago and as the pay capped, so did my passion. And then finally the spark of passion left completely and I'm here shackled with high pay, no debt and many wonders.
smashavocadoo@reddit
In China you are asked to retire after 35 years old in IT, and won't pass any resume filter.
It is ridiculous there while the company runs those slaves 996 and wears them out before 35.
I am not sure how the human society can CI/CD... maybe just like George Carlin once said:
Human?
Plastics!!!
LookAtThatMonkey@reddit
Thats a ton of experience they are losing out on. Maybe after 35 the employees develop a conscience so get moved on.
chicaneuk@reddit
I am approaching mid 40's but have a young family and a large mortgage.. I am not going to be taking my foot off the gas any time soon let alone retiring!
LookAtThatMonkey@reddit
Same here, I'd love to transition to something I now find more interesting, but this pays the bills for now.
moochs@reddit
Lol, right?
Ssakaa@reddit
This is the step that I feel like a lot of IT folks should realize about themselves earlier than they do. I've always "tinkered", and while I grew up with computers, I worked with real tools too a fair bit, so cars, machinery, even basic electrical, etc is all just another system to poke and play with. Diagnostics and holistic systems work as a generalized skill is fun.
fluidmind23@reddit
I transferred to management of IT teams, I didn't feel like I could reasonably keep up with everything- plus looking forward to this situation helped. A 48 year old Sr manager isn't blinked twice about.
escalibur@reddit
I can relate to this though I'm a bit younger. IT seems to continue to accelerate with whatever buzz trends are popping up. Some of them are really great things while others are just like some say 'teenage sex' (everyone wants to do it, everyone pretends to know how to do it and everyone think they should do it too....).
One great career path is going YouTube. Seriously. You can focus on the topics you have the most passion for. You can either go full informative or something more relaxed (podcast, reviews, opinons, news etc). This can give you the flexibility to do the things you like and not having to deal with whatever C level orders you to focus on.
Stubblemonster@reddit
I'm 49 and still in the thick of it. Had my own mini MSP until I was 44 (with 1 employee and a few other self employed guys helping) and still do a bit of consultancy. I'm an IT Manager at a growing charity but that really means doing everything from cabling, help desk and strategy / security, right now its just me but I could do with a junior to take the basic stuff off my hands. I am finding it harder to keep up now and starting to lean on outside help for some of it, especially the intricacies of m365.
I plan another 5 years, by then I'll own the house and can take a view on what I do. I also started a 3D printing business by accident, early stages but already starting to bring in a useful amount of money. Maybe I'll do that! Not fussed about staying in IT, since it's an animal charity I am thinking about doing an animal care course so I can spend time looking after them instead!
Library_IT_guy@reddit
You're literally going to become that South park handyman guy, rolling up in a limo with a toolbelt lmao.
hbdgas@reddit
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Park:_Joining_the_Panderverse
SnooDonuts4137@reddit
I was just thinking the same thing... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc1_AY7mufM
OGTurdFerguson@reddit
Work in education. Pay isn't spectacular all the time. I love it.
LoveTechHateTech@reddit
Same here. Almost 20 years in and just made it over 70k, but it’s secure and the non-monetary benefits are hard to beat.
OGTurdFerguson@reddit
I make 120K. But I also live in Santa Clara County, CA.
122K and below is literally low income here. And this is after I just got a promotion with a 20% pay raise. Looking around the non-stupid COL areas you're exactly in the range where I placed my pay to be at after 13 years.
RabidBlackSquirrel@reddit
$50 an hour, man you gotta up your rate! After taxes and and insurance and other self employment junk you're probably taking home less than $25 an hour.
Small job handyman is crazy in demand. Lot of outfits are too big to want to take the one off/couple hour jobs and focus on full pop remodels instead, but so many people have one or two small things that they can't/won't do and need help on. Know your worth king!
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
Ya for now I am starting out, so no business insurance yet, and in Quebec if i make less than 30K a year on self employment taxes are minimal, so i only claim at income tax time, but then claim expenses. If i go more legit, i will need what is called RBQ here in Quebec where you have to be an electrician to change a simple light switch!
Jesburger@reddit
Be thankful, in the US you need to pull permits for every little thing and have an inspector come. We don't have that in Quebec, you can fix whatever you want.
williamp114@reddit
I stayed at an airbnb in Montreal last month, the built-in power cord to the mini-split air conditioner was run directly through the wall to the outlet below. That wouldn't fly in most US states
I guess now it makes more sense, haha.
Jesburger@reddit
We do have a building code
BrainWaveCC@reddit
That's also location dependent in the US. In smaller towns, this isn't a problem either.
BloodyIron@reddit
Raising prices LATER will always be harder than having actually good prices NOW. Seriously, raising prices is one of the hardest thing to do in ANY business, and will risk losing current/prospective clients.
I don't know the extent of your trades experience, but at 59, you probably should be billing in the realm of $100/hr, or more.
I'm a good bit "younger" (in years) than you, running my own current army-of-one IT business and I'm billing at $200/hr B2B contract. And my customers are very comfortable with that rate.
I do not know the what you should be charging with confident precision. But I do have high confidence that billing at $50 is going to work against you in many regards. The sooner you up that rate, the sooner you will benefit a lot.
Pyrostasis@reddit
Careful with that my man, just takes one fall off a ladder or a trip and fall through some drywall to turn a cool handy man gig into a massive liability.
Im also ultra paranoid and trust no one... I blame the users for doing this to me.
Jesburger@reddit
He's in canada so the healthcare part is free, the destroying the person's home is not free though
Pyrostasis@reddit
yeah mainly the damaging the homes / property thats my concern. Folks get vindictive as hell. Karen from the HOA may seem nice, till you "bump" her fence. Now shes your worst nightmare.
Jesburger@reddit
We don't have HOAs in Quebec
Jesburger@reddit
Bro tu as BESOIN d'avoir des assurances d'homme a tout faire, tu peux pas faire aucune job sans ça
burrito_king1986@reddit
I was ghosted by a few before I just did the work myself.
keaferg@reddit
If I were you I would be shooting for IT Manager roles instead of sys admin.
Dokterrock@reddit
My very first job when I was 16 was at a hardware store with a bunch of semi-retired old guys. I've always just assumed my last job was gonna be at one too. Over halfway there.
Bluecobra@reddit
Ha, that was my first job too. Still probably my favorite job, as they let me do everything in the store and it was never boring. I made keys, mixed paint, cut pipe, cut glass, cashiered, stocked shelfs, organized the screw aisle, got up on a wobbly ass ladder and changed the florescent tube bulbs, broke said bulbs in the alley, built Weber grills, etc. The only thing I didn't do was drive a forklift as I think you needed to be 18 and get training.
jmnugent@reddit
I always joked that I'd either want to be:
the guy in a suit who stands in a bathroom and hands you a small towel
or the guy who stands in the elevator and asks what floor you want.
KiloDelta9@reddit
The guy who got me into IT is in his 60s and was struggling to find work last year so he turned his lock-picking hobby full time into a locksmithing business and is now much happier and making more money than his last job in IT.
Real_Mr_Foobar@reddit
I'm 63 with a good job at IT project management and staff supervision. So I'm in it for probably another five years, maybe even seven, depending on how my health goes. But I do see other people struggling for a job at my age, even willing to do the lowest IT positions just to have money coming it. It's just sad, and I know it means their paychecks are cut by over half in taking such a job.
I'm basically resigned to my own retirement, just to have some "mad" money to blow, being to say the phrase "Welcome to Home Depot!" a lot. Or "Welcome to Walmart". Or "Welcome to ...". :(
theycallmedelicious@reddit
After 20 years or so in the industry and being a "covid casualty", I first transitioned into real estate photography to keep the lights on, and am now in social work as a contracted visit specialist. Surprisingly the skills are largely transferable.
flummox1234@reddit
TBH I think you've hit on a pretty big generational shortfall I keep seeing. It's a combo of a lot of us Gen Xers doing a horrible job teaching their kids to be self sufficient, i.e. helicopter parents, and a lot of people with money that just don't want to do things themselves. But there are a decent amount of small things people can't do and don't have any interest in learning. It's a niche market depending on where you live but definitely a profitable market.
I was the recent beneficiary of this to get a decent house in a crazy real estate market at a reasonable price because there was a lot of little stuff that had to be done on it, i.e. not move in ready and needs paint, simple handyman type of stuff.
I was more than willing to take it on because it will add massive equity for minimal investment in a good neighborhood. Important IMO to note that I'm not a flipper and just wanted a house that with a few years of improvements would sell well above what I bought it.
MATCA_Phillies@reddit
51 here. I made the IT transition into gov agency and will be able to retire here. Thankfully age is actually a good thing in this side.
Lylieth@reddit
Retire? I likely will never be able to...
anna_lynn_fection@reddit
Same here. I'm turning 52 soon, and this kind of thing has me worried. If my current job becomes "not there" for me, I fear that it's going to be difficult to get in somewhere else as an admin the more I age. I'm not burned out. I still get excited playing with tech, even as a hobby, but the assumption will be there.
JustInflation1@reddit
They’ll force you to at about 45. Nobody’s gonna hire older guys with skills because they’re more expensive.
TB_at_Work@reddit
Same here. I'll likely be working on the catering staff of my own memorial service...
p3478@reddit
I am 52 and have been working on woodworking and now jewelry making skills hoping that when I get closer to retirement that will take over. But with a wife with Ms good health care is critical
FourEyesAndThighs@reddit
Maybe because a lot of times we don't want to do it and prefer to have someone do it for us. The value of our time and all that...
FullKawaiiBatard@reddit
Thank you for pointing this out. I'm also astonished that some people here do not understand that all humans do not master the same skills. This is precisely why every society has guilds/casts/professions. Which leads to us helping each other to get haircuts, cutlery, crops, fix clothes, write our paperwork... We should be proud of our own skills but never look down on those who are not like us. Especially when we need them for stuff we didn't learn to do.
professor_goodbrain@reddit
Start a shitty MSP and market yourself as an industry leader in literally whatever, sprinkle “AI” onto your website, sign up a client or two, phone it in for a bit, then fuck off to Thailand after your first few billing cycles.
rob_morin@reddit (OP)
I tried doing that, I started an IT consulting business, I have a few clients, but its hard for some reason, as everyone things they know what they are doing, lol But this handy man gig, i sit back and they come to me by word of mouth now.
largos7289@reddit
Oh yea i would totally do it now as well, same age bracket too. It's astonishing that people don't know how to do simple household stuff. I changed a faucet for someone in their house and they paid me $100 for like 15mins of real work. Re-did my entire ceiling because i had a pipe leek in my bathroom, when i posted pics, because while i had the ceiling down i did the lights. Everyone asked me who are you using as a contractor? i said me and i got about 5 people asking me to help them do the same.
BlondeFox18@reddit
Trust and quality are hard to find. People will pay a premium for it.
AlexisFR@reddit
That wouldn't work in a country where you'll get 20€ max for an afternoon work.
But by 59 you'll be half retired so anyways...
levi_pl@reddit
I'm 47 with 25 experience. I tend to stay 5-7 years with a company. It gets harder to learn new technologies but this is still relatively easy compared to young people I have to work with. Statistically they are on the peak of dunning-kruger curve. This is the landscape.
Only option to get new position is through recommendation. Interviews led by young people are usually disastrous.
I keep home lab running and devote a lot of free time to learn and gain hands on experience. It is not good approach long term so I'm preparing for doomsday (investing in children, savings, own off grid place).
Handyman scenario was explored in "southpark: joining the panderverse" and ironically it is not far from the truth. I still do not recommend it as career change. Stick to what you are good at, but as already recommended, try to switch to mentoring. Your value is in experience i.e. in not making silly mistakes.
baryoniclord@reddit
I can be a pool guy, a cleaning guy, am infra guy, an Azure guy, or... a guy.
MeatWaterHorizons@reddit
Your life sounds like an anime i watched. It was called "Handy an in another world" or something. The handyman main character discovered that even though he wasn't a master at anything, the vast array of skills and knowledge he had led to him being needed and loved by everyone. Even the masters of their craft.
Good stuff man. You're helping out a lot of people that actually appreciate the work you do unlike tech work where the whip is cracked daily. I plan on doing something similar here soon hopefully. My current position will be the last i hold in tech.
Im so tired of working my ass off for stupid bosses that pay crap and blame me for their own failures while belly aching that they pay me too much to keep the back bone of their business running. It's the most thankless job i ever had.
Superb_Raccoon@reddit
I am all set for expanding my bread baking operation when I semi-retire. Right now I provide it for family and friends, plus the soup kitchen.
But I get requests to buy it... I'll take a donation for my flour costs.
Missouri has no special requirements to sell baked goods... just have list the ingredients and your name and business phone.
Ken Forkish made a second career out of bread baking and writing about it after a career at IBM.
jmnugent@reddit
You know what's great about bread. There's never really a "Bread 2.0" to make the previous "Bread 1.0" obsolete.
Superb_Raccoon@reddit
In may ways, we have gone from industrial bread 2.0 back to 1.0.
Lotronex@reddit
Same for Nathan Myhrvold. Former CTO of Microsoft, became a chef. He did a lot of research and helped popularize sous vide in home cooking, also wrote Modernist Cuisine.
xlerate@reddit
Congrats to you. I'm 26 years in IT now and think about this often. I meet a lot of vendors and contractors that are semi retired, still working PT or looking to exit soon. Some of the guys I've met from IT, Telcom, low voltage, etc... These guys have some amazing work ethic and patience that I admire and try and model.
I always think there so many It guys with 20+ years in that can't find a spot for them in today's changing corporate world, they/we should band together locally for consulting or cooperative gigs.
Feeling_Impress_7521@reddit
You never know who is watching, your neighbors where watching and now you found your new gig. Its all about the attitude
southceltic@reddit
Well done, congratulations. Today’s IT industry, especially in the US where companies are larger, is pushing (often mistakenly) towards the cloud, and the vast experience of the ‘old’ sysadmins is being sacrificed for the cost-effectiveness of the new generations who rely almost entirely on Microsoft, Google, Amazon, etc. It doesn’t surprise me that an old-generation sysadmin knows how to do other things: this job requires being good at problem-solving, which is something that is always useful in life.
safrax@reddit
So I think we basically agree, but here's my take. Companies lift and shift into the cloud and then go all "surprised pikachu" when the cloud is some multiplier over what they were paying. And then they try to justify it by saying "Well we didn't need to hire X number of people because cloud." They're leaving all the cost savings at the table because they threw out the sysadmins who knew the system and what was and wasn't needed. Or they didn't bother to rearchitect their product to be cloud native. My company is dealing with both of these issues right now. They don't have a solution for either. The developers "won" so we've "migrated" a version of the product to k8s, but it's essentially the same solution as the previous way of doing it but with k8s, and costs have subsequently ballooned as a resort. There's no plans to make the actual product cloud native but any new services 'might' be. So now we're having to hire a lot more engineers as a resort.
Ok_Rule_2153@reddit
In my experience there is still lots of demand for people who learned k8s on top of sysadmin. It's the people that spent too long just being glue for corporate processes and not automating things that no one wants.
GenHague@reddit
My current job doesn't do any cloud, I wouldn't mind doing cloud, but almost all the job openings want experience with cloud or virtualization (which I have only done at home). I'm looking to move, so I have to get a new job.
diwhychuck@reddit
Ooof I feel this as I do handyman work on the side. I give go away prices an still get the job… sure I guess I’ll take your money.
JustInflation1@reddit
Jesus Christ man this is the future. We can all look forward to after a lifetime of service to this industry. Breaking our backs until we’re dead. I’m glad you’re happy but physical work can’t go on into your 70s and 80s. What a fucked up country we live in.
jmnugent@reddit
Im 51 and I think about this all the time (honestly a lot of the time I just think about ditching out and going to be a homeless vagabond,. but that's a pretty rough life too).
I either need to figure out how to keep working till I'm 75 or so... or ?... win the lottery or something I guess.
I feel like I've worked hard enough to earn my legacy. I've worked for small city governments for over 20 years now, contributing to a lot of things.
Was hoping something like UBI would have been closer by now.
JustInflation1@reddit
If only this country didn’t treat its contributing members who’ve contributed all their goddamn life like disposable pieces of shit. Breaks my heart what they do to us and don’t get me started on homeless veterans.
killyourpc@reddit
At 52 this is where I want to see myself go. Enough with the burnout, enough with dealing with cyberthreats, enough with cloud tech that changes daily.
jmnugent@reddit
As a 51 yr old.. I feel the same. I'm so tired of the constant grind and burnout.
say592@reddit
Im glad you found something! I have always been afraid of this> Im still in my 30s, so I have a little ways to go, but the discrimination in the IT industry is very real. Ive been planning on being able to retire by the time Im 50, just so I dont have to worry about it.
jmnugent@reddit
I feel like the dynamic happening in the IT field now is not so much age'ism .. as much as it is AI and automation and pressure not to hire enough staff.
As a 51yr old, I don't really feel threatened by younger workers,. I feel threatened by leadership who would rather trim staff and just never re-hire. (on the assumption that software-improvements and automation and AI will fill that gap and we'll just need less employees overall)
primalsmoke@reddit
most of us "think outside the box"
us old timers fell into something that never existed
one thing I always remember when the board of directors, or executive committee were having problems with the TV, projector or whatever in the conference room they'd call IT and expect us to figure it out, like there was a VCR class at the IT school. I mean we were expected to go into a high pressure environment and figure it out with no manual or experience with the device.
Anyways I was 59 unemployed, getting divorced, having to leave my home of 18 years. I moved to Mexico leaving the Bay area, one of the most expensive areas of California. I survived because of the way i think, thanks to over 25 years in IT.
We can solve problems
BigBobFro@reddit
Do you just want to keep the lights on? Or do you want to make sure the lights are in the right space, pointed the right direction, getting proper power and all that jazz?
If the former, keep applying for sysadmin rolls. Pay will diminish as rolls become increasingly creap to off-shore.
If the latter: change your resume title to systems architect and start designing networks.
BrainWaveCC@reddit
Congrats... And way to leverage your little network there. 😁
dansedemorte@reddit
that's sounds like something that could be right up my alley when I get to that point...might not be that many years from now...
superspeck@reddit
There’s some great YouTube videos on the business of being a handy man. I would totally do it in a heartbeat if I stop being able to get tech jobs.
HayabusaJack@reddit
Nice. At 67 I’m still going strong but I own a game store as a side gig that I plan on rebalancing my time from 75% IT/25% shop to 25% IT (consulting)/75% shop.
Https://www.AtomicGoblinGames.com in Longmont Colorado :)
lilelliot@reddit
Congrats! Here's a fun story from a couple years ago: I live in a pretty big metro and we needed help hanging a tv on a wall in a guest bedroom. I wanted an articulating mount and I wanted someone else to be liable for hitting (or not) the studs I couldn't find. So I bought the mount on Amazon and used their "pro install" service for about $75. The guy who showed up was awesome and efficient and it turned out he had a day job as a commercial electrician but he gigged via Amazon after work for a couple hours a few days a week to beat the evening rush hour. He was happy, making good money for small jobs, and avoiding traffic at the same time.
halobender@reddit
I've had similar thoughts, in part because sys admin work just doesn't matter long term. Anything I create will be replaced in 5 to 10 years.
flaticircle@reddit
No way. This spaghetti mess of twine, duct tape and aluminum foil will take them decades to replace!
fgben@reddit
I have temporary code I wrote in the early 2000s that I know is still in place!
I have an ERP SaaS product that was largely written in 2009 that I still make about $30k a month off of. It's a terrible abomination, but it's passive so I'll keep it running as long as people keep shoveling money at me.
tacotacotacorock@reddit
Sounds like you want to build a legacy more than a career. I'm certainly oversimplifying it.
halobender@reddit
Not a legacy but I want to feel like my work matters.
Kwuahh@reddit
Depends. Everything fades. You can't measure your outcomes based on how long it lasts in the system. I've found it much more fulfilling to think about the impacts you made during the 5-10 years. That's part of the glory of support work. For example, your WAPs you installed only last 7 years, but you chose good models, set them up with proper updates and maintenance, and made sure they were configured to provide seamless access for each connecting client. For those 7 years, you made life a lot easier on everyone in the workspace. You took off some stress for others. Take pride in that.
halobender@reddit
I used to feel that way.
SpiritualAd8998@reddit
I need my squeaky door fixed a a new K8s cluster installed in my family room pls.
WyoGeek@reddit
I have thought about this as a side gig which would then carry though after retirement. I am also very handy and have done all facets of handyman work for friends and family. Just not for money.
theducks@reddit
Hey! That's great you're finding a good gig. Make sure you have insurance!
RoundBottomBee@reddit
How about home assistant installs and configs for people?
abz_eng@reddit
The you can do x,y & z if you configure it properly and script it to do exactly what you want out of it, same with a lot of stuff in IT
There is a gap between what the creator lets it do and how people want to use it and that takes time & skill
what /u/rob_morin can do is use his time to give back people back time, stuff like Home Assistant / Automation, set up home office, etc. Find reputable tradespeople who can handle the electrical / construction stuff and add the tying it all together.
Kodiak01@reddit
Beats grinding out COBOL.
Aarinfel@reddit
Depending on where you live and the type of work you do, you may need to get a contractor's license.
IANAL, IANYL, but you may need to seek out a legal professional to help you navigate that and write some standard service contracts.
Wolfram_And_Hart@reddit
My plans to eventually convince one of my clients to hire me on as a part time cto and work with a local MSP to run the day to day.
saracor@reddit
The lack of good handymen is amazing. I have a buddy that moved out to Cheyenne and he can't get anyone to do work. He does most himself now. A lot of those skills weren't passed down. Good for you to help out with it. Probably a lot less stressful as well. I know I've had to do my fair share of jobs around our property now that we're more rural. Still IT as my main job but I'm not hiring that plumber as much anymore.
ErikTheEngineer@reddit
This whole "forced retirement in your 50s" thing totally freaks me out as I approach 50. I hate the fact that the last job I get fired from in this field will be the last one I'll ever have. It's good that OP has something they can do, but it's absolutely frustrating that I will suddenly lose the ability to get a job in a field I'm qualified for.
Problem is if you're not handy like OP, what do you do with yourself? Our field is pretty niche. If we could figure out some way to get employers to value experience instead of just burning through new grads, then maybe we could have full careers like every other field out there.
arominus@reddit
Form an LLC, get bonded/insured and pay your taxes, then go to town on your handyman action. Protect your assets and yourself should a repair go badly and the lawyers get involved.
TheDunadan29@reddit
I have a brother-in-law who found a similar niche. He's been doing various installations as part of renovating people's homes. There's a big market for that kind of stuff. I think with the crazy world of 9 to 5 office jobs a lot of people either can't find the time, didn't have the energy, or the skill to do these things themselves, and they'd rather just pay someone to do it for them.
Or like me, my wife doesn't trust me to do the work. But because I can't do it, but because she wants a "professional" to do it. Which yeah it might take me longer to figure something out myself since I haven't done everything before. But I am fairly handy, it just takes me extra time. My wife is like, "yeah you can do it but it'll take you twice as long, it'll still cost us for the parts, and you might make mistakes. I want it done fast and right now." Ok, so I don't argue with her even though it would be cheaper to do it myself.
Anyway, hope your new career takes off and you are successful! I think it doesn't matter so much what you do as much as that you love it.
Spiritual_Grand_9604@reddit
Being handy in general is kind of part of IT, I'm happy you found your niche!
I've assembled boardrooms, mounted TV's, etc and the work in general just kind of cemented my ability to figure shit out.
Girlfriend is always amazed that I can diagnose and fix her car so easily with such limited mechanics experience but I feel the same skillset makes one good at both
wild-hectare@reddit
OP is describing my retirement job...I know full well I can't completely stop working and I like money, so will happily be a handyman for reasonable rates to offset the loss of my 6 figure salary
Connection-Terrible@reddit
Your outcome honestly sounds great. It is surprising how many people can't do 'little' things around the house due to knowledge, time, or mobility. At 59 and going into your 60's if your own mobility is good and without issue, then switching to something more 'active' than being a desk jocky... I think it's a great thing. You will probably add years to your life.
You've found the llama farm that a lot of us hope to find. Good luck!
annihilatorg@reddit
I'm sorry... you're starting to respond to text messages to do work? What kind of self-respecting ex-Sysadmin are you? Send 'em to the helpdesk to get a ticket logged!
vhalember@reddit
That's great.
I know someone that's in their mid-50's, and was an IT manager, but couldn't land another IT gig.
He's now building custom closets for rich people. Yes, fucking closets with shoe racks, fancy shelves, built in wardrobes. He's always had a talent for that stuff, and he makes more doing design work for that, than he ever did as an IT manager.
kudatimberline@reddit
Thanks for sharing this. I've had a run of bad luck and live in a rural area that is a tech desert, so I'm considering a career change.
AlterdCarbon@reddit
As the baby boomer generation like yourself ages, there are many, many divorced or widowed women who own multi-bedroom houses by themselves (empty-nesters) who grew up in a generation where their husband did all of the "handyman" type of work. My mother is one of them. After my dad died she has to hire someone to do almost everything for her on her house if I or my brother-in-law are not available to help her. I'm talking like basic house maintenance, anything in the basement, dealing with minor weather damage, etc.
I think there is a really under-appreciated amount of demand for this type of work. And if you can earn trust of people by not charging the "single female tax" on your rates and not trying to screw people over, I think you will have as much business as you want for as long as you want.
BCIT_Richard@reddit
I'm in my twenties and have only been doing this professionally for 3 years now, prior to that was all hobbyist experience.
I've worked in the Appliance Repair Industry both doing service calls & selling the parts from the other side of the counter. I keep up to date marginally with it as it is my fallback plan should I ever decide I.T. isn't in my blood anymore.
immortalsteve@reddit
Hell yeah, I am glad you found something new OP! It's hard not knowing what you want to do when we eventually hate tech. Personally, I wrench on and detail cars. I'll probably buy and old service station to fix up and detail cars out of when I retire from my tech position.
agoia@reddit
Be careful with the electrical stuff, get familiar with your state's laws to make sure you are only doing things that do not require a license.
jamesholden@reddit
I quit IT about a decade ago (my late 20s) so you beat me.
I just did a nice led cabinet project for my mother in law. Used a shelly rgbw2 to control four zones of white.
Z1: inside upper cabs
Z2: on top of cabs, bouncing off ceiling of vintage metal tiles
Z3: above sink
Z4: under upper cabs onto countertop
The range hood is getting its own pwm dimmer, or will probably just be on/off.
Lower cabs have their own pwm dimmer, might get tied into the upper inner cab zone with a "amplifier"
12v strip light placed inside metal strips with a diffuser, powered by mean-well psus.
YouTuber "the hookup" has lots of info on home automation that can be self hosted.
gramathy@reddit
The upside to having been in IT for so long is you end up picking up all kinds of odd skills and comfort zones that you can...kinda do anything? New equipment? Sure, I can do that. Small scale construction? Might need a bit to get the precision down but yeah, that's fine, I know my way around power tools.
sekh60@reddit
Not sure where you are at, but I am not handy at all, nor is my wife and it is so hard to find people to hire to do small jobs. So not only are you going to make some money, I am sure it'll be pretty stable.
Turbulent-Pea-8826@reddit
You could probably charge more. I can’t get anyone to do work unless it’s entire remodels.
Not everyone can do handyman work. Or can’t do all of it. People have different physical issues too. I can electrical work like a whiz, drywall no problem but suck at plumbing. Some people don’t have the time.
Congrats on finding something new.
iaintnathanarizona@reddit
My man is living the dream!
erik_working@reddit
As someone who has hired a handyman for a bunch of tasks, it wasn't a task I "couldn't" do, but was a better use of my time and money, just like bringing in a contractor for a work project :-).
Good luck on your new path!
Depending on your sysadmin skill-set, you could look at adjusting your resume to mask your age (as a 50-something, I feel you) and do some contracting....
BarracudaDefiant4702@reddit
I can relate on the hiring side... Often it's not that I can't do handyman stuff... but simply would rather spending the time earning $50/hour for things I like doing, and then give someone else $50/hour that enjoys that type of work and they probably will do it faster and/or better than I would... It a win/win and keeps the economy going.
In summary, some people prefer to specialize and then outsource other things, and others prefer the variety... Nothing wrong with either.
lost_in_life_34@reddit
i'm old and I've worked with old developers and IT people on the east coast for decades. Lots of people I work with have kids who are in college or adults.
learn to work with younger people, have a customer service mentality, don't be stubborn about new things, etc
used to report to this old person. years ago we upgraded from SQL 2000 to 2005 and online indexing became a thing if you changed the code in the scripts that did it. told my boss hey we should do it. he was like leave it as is, not a big deal. few months later someone complains a revenue process failed and it turns out because it was being blocked by our index maintenance using the old offline commands.
lots of other stories like this with him where he was too stubborn to change processes to something better
brianfreedman246@reddit
Don’t worry they don’t want somebody that has 8 professionals years of skills and 7 years in an educational setting.