Life decisions of a 34 yo male.

[DocYoung]

Question for you big brain intellectuals. 34yo male nurse is tired of doing just that.

Is it unrealistic to get into computers/programming at this point in my life?

Or would it be more reasonable to stay in medical till you/I serve it out?


The pay is really good, the hours suck. the job sucks..

Feed back would be nice but not mandatory.

[LaRoza]

Not at all. I know someone who spent more time in another field then switched to nursing 10 years ago (he is 50 something now).

[Riffer]

I became a teacher at 39.

[DocYoung]

Is it just that the grass looks green on the other side of the fence?

When I look at a computer employee I see the guy or gal sitting at a comfy desk while I stand and run on my feet all day. The joke with nurses is that we going home with sore feet but the tech guys go home with sore buts.

(hehe)

I think my biggest issue right now is all the whining patients. If I have to hear one more person say "may arm hurts when I do this ...", I swear I will pull their arm off and beat them to death with it.

I have to wipe so much butt that I don't want to wipe my own butt at the end of the day.

And if I have one more patient tell me how bad her pain is ----WHILE she IS FALLING ASLEEP--- I will change all of her medications to deep IM with lager gauge needles.

Thank you for listening to my rant !

[adldesigner]

That depends entirely on you. With the wealth of information online, you don't even need to grab a course to get started. Pick a language -I would go for python (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1984319&postcount=5)- and start typing away.

Good luck on your search, mate. And yes, it is possible to jump bandwagon. Do you have a six months emergency fund? If you do, use it.

Start learning.

Hope it helps...

[adldesigner]

Learning Computer Programming (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=796494) <-- Another great thread!

[karellen]

it's never too late if you really like what you're going to do :)

[walkerk]

Never too late to switch to IT. I don't think learning a language at this point, especially python, will support you but working as a Systems/Network administrator/engineer could. There are plenty of websites out there that offer critical certifications for the IT field. Give them a look...

Programming is a cutthroat business. There are tons of opportunities as an IT tech. ISPs, Company LANs, etc...

[OutOfReach]

It's never to late to switch.
My dad (which is 40), he became a licensed computer technician at like 25, a Real estate agent at about 37, then about 2 years later he went into the house cleaning business, and now he is into 3D modeling. Just goes to show you that it's never to late to do what you like, might as well since life is short!

[knightcoder]

Hey, its never too late to make a change. You can always achieve what you set your mind on.
But a computer programmer's job is not to be taken for granted. Each job has its own pros and cons.

Just get as much input as you can, weigh the facts and then take a decision. Your decision shouldn't be based on impulse (hatred of your current job)

Good luck !!

[meborc]

hey, if it doesn't work out you can always get your old job back as a nurse... right?

that is the beauty of having mastered one profession

[fiddledd]

I've spent the last 20 years as an outpatient at more than 6 hospitals and the nurses that have had enough are easy to spot (in the UK there's a lot of them). The hours are long, the pay is rubbish, and the actual job is difficult, if not impossible at times. In my opinion it's almost a calling rather than a job. If you are disillusioned now then change your job before you become bitter. You can change your life at any age and 34 isn't old nowadays. I mean people are living longer and working later in life.

[Solicitous]

I don't think it is ever too late to change a career/job direction, as long as you're doing it for the right reason.


If I have to hear one more person say "may arm hurts when I do this ...", I swear I will pull their arm off and beat them to death with it.

I love that quote. I'm currently working my way out of IT (IT support) and I feel something similar. If I hear again "I didn't do anything! See it doesn't work! A box with some message came up and now it doesn't work - whats wrong with it?" I'll probably pull their arms off too.
I think moving in to IT from another career (and I'm saying that as having worked in the industry for the last 7 years) is probably one of the easiest to evaluate, purely from the point of view that with the high availability of free resources online you can in your own time learn and really make a decision to see if it is a right move for you before ditching your current career.
But as I said, as long as it is for the right reasons, it is never too late to change.

[jacksaff]

I became a teacher at 39.

Hmm, I became a teacher at 36. I'm thinking about not being a teacher at 37. What do you have to do as a nurse again?

[Scruffynerf]

It's never too late to change, just keep in mind that it becomes harder to the longer you leave it.

Both in terms of the financial cost, but also in terms of how agile you mind is learning a whole new thing from scratch. It's do able - I know of a 58 year old who changed into IT from Economics, and also a fair few mid-lifers who have left IT to go into tourism.

[dustman]

I personally made a similar switch. I wanted to go to med school, so i studied human anatomy and organic chemistry for about 4 years, worked as a volunteer in a local hospital (to get used with the conditions), and just 5 days before my exams, i changed my mind and went to a computer science faculty. I never regretted my decision, cause in Romania, computer scientists are paid way much better than doctors (which is very wrong). I finished the university, and now i'm working at a multinational programming company, receiving a better salary than my mother, who is a doctor and has over 20 years worked in the medical field. Of course it was hard, with all the advanced math and having to learn programming from scratch, but i like it very much and i never thought of going to med school again. At first, my mother and even more my grandfather (also a doctor, a surgeon to be more precise), were kind of disappointed when i told them that i won't be going to med school, but then they saw that i was doing good, so everything is all right now :D.

The conclusion: it's never too late to switch, all it matters is for you to enjoy what you're doing. My opinion is that programming can't be done without passion, and if you don't really enjoy sitting several hours in front of a PC, sometimes debugging some good for nothing code, it'll be extremely hard to switch.

Cheers!

Radu

[Sealbhach]

You would need to be certain that you have enough IT nous or aptitude to do the job. Using Linux gives you plenty of opportunities to try and figure that one out.

Speak to people who work in IT. Find out how they did it.

Define your goals more clearly - what kind of IT work? Programming, web designer, help-desk support...?

You need to look at the financial implications too.

I would disregard the age factor, I think 34 is plenty young enough to embark on a new career.

Get lots of advice before you make any decision.

You could even work part-time at the nursing and part-time at IT until you're confident enough to leave the nursing.

Good luck and keep asking questions!



.

[loell]

IT nous

word of the day. :D


kidding aside, isn't it true that different cultures have different whining levels? perhaps you just need to migrate on another country where patients are not so demanding. but if you're assigned in the ICU, well that's got to be expected.

[darrenn]

Could you give me more information. What country do you live in?

[Riffer]

Hmm, I became a teacher at 36. I'm thinking about not being a teacher at 37. What do you have to do as a nurse again?

LMAO I think about just that every year around April (3/4 the way through the school year).

[jimi_hendrix]

well you said you want to get into a programming job i have heard that it is possible to get a programming job without going back to college (though it does help) but you would need to prove that you know what your doing by showing some pretty good programs

if you take you time you could probably do it

(i may be wrong since i am not in programming)

[Mateo]

changing jobs is normal. nothing big about it. the only thing is that you kind of have to start over. so if you'll remember what you were getting paid to do your nursing job at 25, be prepared to get that again at IT, if not lower since presumably you had schooling especially for nursing.

[phaed]

well you said you want to get into a programming job i have heard that it is possible to get a programming job without going back to college (though it does help) but you would need to prove that you know what your doing by showing some pretty good programs

That's the question I have. I'm 30 years old and work in a research lab. I have a Master's in molecular biology, but I don't think I want to do research for the rest of my life. I also don't want to go back to school for several more years to get another degree.

I'm already teaching myself Python. Is it possible to get a job in software development without a degree specifically in computer science or IT?

I was thinking that I could get into bioinformatics.

[Daveski]

Is it just that the grass looks green on the other side of the fence?

When I look at a computer employee I see the guy or gal sitting at a comfy desk while I stand and run on my feet all day. The joke with nurses is that we going home with sore feet but the tech guys go home with sore buts.

The question I would ask, is what is your passion? A job is a job, but if you have a thirst for it - a passion that makes you want to do whatever it is, even if the pay is poor, then that is the career you should be in.

[Anduu]

It is never too late.I'll use my dad as an example...

He served 25 years in the Canadian Air Force.With the technical skills he learned there he got a job as a technician at a main sorting plant with Canada Post.

He just recently retired AGAIN after 20 years there!

Have you considered a tech/computer related job in the medical field?It aways helps when you stick with a field you know a little about.

[DocYoung]

Have you considered a tech/computer related job in the medical field?It aways helps when you stick with a field you know a little about.

This is a thought that came to me last night before I went to bed.

I think its called nursing informatics? I'll look into it more this week.
From what I can gather its programing for medical applications.

[DocYoung]

...

I love that quote...

An old friend once told a guy, "Do I come whining to you at your job? Then why are you whining to me when I'm at mine?"

At the time it was the funniest thing I'd ever heard.

[pbpersson]

Or would it be more reasonable to stay in medical till you/I serve it out?


Well....let's see.....you are 34 and thanks to medical science you will probably live to be 100 and the way things are going, you will not be able to retire. Do you want to do something you hate for the next 66 years?

Find what you love and do it. Oh.....I read a quote just a couple of weeks ago, here it is:


"Success does not bring happiness, happiness brings success, if you love what you do you will be successful".

I really believe that - always have - and that quote just brought it home for me.

Life is WAY too short to be doing something you now hate. Or...maybe life is way too long to be doing that for the next 66 years. ;)

Anyway, try software development or network administration or desktop support and see if you like it - you can even be a DBA.

However.....looking at computer people sitting at their desks is a bit deceiving. There are huge stresses involved. For instance, I used to be a software developer at Motorola supporting the factory. When the factory was down, all the vice presidents were at my desk asking why they were losing thousands of dollars a minute and what I was doing about it.

Look before you leap. ;)

[LaRoza]

Well....let's see.....you are 34 and thanks to medical science you will probably live to be 100 and the way things are going, you will not be able to retire. Do you want to do something you hate for the next 66 years?


That is quite a myth, about people living to great ages. Sure, less die young (like it was a long time ago) which makes the stats higher.

[pbpersson]

That is quite a myth, about people living to great ages. Sure, less die young (like it was a long time ago) which makes the stats higher.

Technology is advancing at an ever-increasing rate.

Twenty years from now the computer I am typing on now will be a museum piece - people will laugh at it as totally obsolete.

Forty years from now we will have more artificial organs and surgeons will perform repairs on human bodies by injecting tiny robots into the bloodstream of their patients. Surgeries to repair organs and extend life will be possible that are mere science fiction today.

Speaking of which.....I can't believe I'm telling this to a borg. ;)

[fiddledd]

That is quite a myth, about people living to great ages. Sure, less die young (like it was a long time ago) which makes the stats higher.

You better tell the Government (UK) then, according to them we are living longer. They use this "fact" to justify raising the age of retirement.

EDIT: Here (http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article2911.asp) is what I believe they base it on.

[pbpersson]

You better tell the Government (UK) then, according to them we are living longer. They use this "fact" to justify raising the age of retirement.

What is the age of retirement on that side of the Atlantic?

Is this the earliest age at which people can start drawing on their retirement accounts, the highest age at which they can still work....or what?

I think here in the USA we can start drawing on our retirement account at the age of 59.5. I don't know how they came up with that number. Many people I know are hoping they have something saved toward retirement by the time they get to that age. :o

Whereas "mandatory" retirement used to be 65 and I think is now considered 70, I don't know what that means. I see people working who look like they are 100 years old and I know people who were forced out of their fields when they were in their 50's.

[LaRoza]

You better tell the Government (UK) then, according to them we are living longer. They use this "fact" to justify raising the age of retirement.

EDIT: Here (http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article2911.asp) is what I believe they base it on.
The living longer is a myth. Medical achievements are able to significanly reduce deaths at birth (but if we count the murders before birth, it may be lower), and keep people "alive" longer, but the ages of actual living is the same or lower.

I had a relative in the American Revolution. He was over 90 at the time, and he was bayonetted by the Brits, yet he survived for many more years in the 1700's.

Living old wasn't that great a feat, if you made it past 10.

[fiddledd]

What is the age of retirement on that side of the Atlantic?

Is this the earliest age at which people can start drawing on their retirement accounts, the highest age at which they can still work....or what?

I think here in the USA we can start drawing on our retirement account at the age of 59.5. I don't know how they came up with that number. Many people I know are hoping they have something saved toward retirement by the time they get to that age. :o

Whereas "mandatory" retirement used to be 65 and I think is now considered 70, I don't know what that means. I see people working who look like they are 100 years old and I know people who were forced out of their fields when they were in their 50's.

Here it is (or was) 60 for women and 65 for men when you could retire and get a State pension. I believe it's changed or changing, IIRC it will be 65 for both sexes by 2020. But I also heard it may be 68, or scrapped completely.

[fiddledd]

The living longer is a myth. Medical achievements are able to significanly reduce deaths at birth (but if we count the murders before birth, it may be lower), and keep people "alive" longer, but the ages of actual living is the same or lower.

I had a relative in the American Revolution. He was over 90 at the time, and he was bayonetted by the Brits, yet he survived for many more years in the 1700's.

Living old wasn't that great a feat, if you made it past 10.

I don't see the difference between "living longer" and "keep people "alive" longer". My point was that there are more older people, and the OP's age of 34 is not too old to change his job.

[PryGuy]

Is it just that the grass looks green on the other side of the fence? I think you right here! I'm an IT engineer, installing Ubuntu on users' desktops. It's not about fun at all! The worst thing is that the most users are dumba**es and they just feel fine with Windows. They do not want to think, it is better to blame a person who installs some ****** (because it's different) and free (free can't be good, eh?) OS. They do not care about software licenses, they do not care about that fact that their company cannot afford Windows. Well, I could continue but I don't see any reason for that. The only thing I want to say that probably every job has it's pains in the ****. I'm 30 by the way.

[DocYoung]

Not at all. I know someone who spent more time in another field then switched to nursing 10 years ago (he is 50 something now).

May I PM you with a question on this topic?

[toupeiro]

My dad got into Computers / Network Administration after 50 and is still going at it. I don't think 34 is too old at all. Hell I'm only 28 and I've worked professionally in IT for almost 11 years. 17 wasn't too young, why should 34 be too old?