Starting Over

[Merusk]

This may be bloggish and long, so I apologize in advance.

So, I had a bit of an epiphany last week.   I fucking hate my job.  Not just my job, but the entire career path I've found myself on for these last 16 years. (that's including school.)

I'm sick of working for other folks, making them money busting my ass and getting dick in return for it.  Merit raises? Ha. I'm lucky if I get enough to cover cost of living increases.  I've found myself stuck at $45k a year for the last 3 years, after averaging out the pay cut I had to take to get my current position.  It's not jantorial wages, but it sure as fuck isn't "Hey you went to college for 7 years and got a professional degree!" wages.  Fuckers with 2-year associates degrees work along side me and make as much (or more) than I do.  This is bullshit and I'm done with it.

Now, I could do the whole "license dance" and pay the AIA $300 a year for the next 3 years to earn the privilege of taking my licensing exam.  At which point I get to find a new job, since my current employer is, frankly, crooked as shit.  I wouldn't affix my seal (at the risk of my professional career) to lots of the crap we do, and certainly not for the $5k a year raise they'd deign to give me while expecting me to do it if I wanted to remain employed.  That sucks, because I enjoy working on houses, but not for this pittance.

I could go commercial, but that's not exactly fun either.  Working on the same project for 12-18 months, doing 4-5 pages of door details is what got me out of that in the first place.  Boring, unengaging bullshit work  while I deal with pretentious asshats who wear 'cat-glasses' and call themselves designers so they don't have to give a rats ass about the structural consequences of that 10 foot balcony affixed to a two foot catwalk.

So, I've somewhat decided I'd rather go back to school and heap more debt on that college loan pile.  In exchange, I'm fairly certain I'd have a MUCH greater earning potential in a field with much less risk of dooming yourself to poverty.  (I recall being told once that Pro. Architects are sued at least 5 times in their career.  For a "max" salary of around $80k unless you own the firm.. which gets into Politics - the REAL kind, not the office kind - no thanks.)

I'm technically proficient, have a strong mechanical aptitude and like working with computers and software.  The downside is, I'd probably have to start as a freshman again, since I'm thinking Comp Sci.  Despite having a B. Arch, I know I couldn't do well enough on any GRE for comp. sci to get a position at any school.  Plus I'd be sorely lacking some of the basics.

Anyone else here done something this "crazy"?  Any advice on getting into a school as a non-trad and perhaps getting some of your other degree credits to count?  I'm hoping to make it into OSU, and plan on calling their admissions office this week, but really, how much does the place you get the degree from matter?  It's always seemed to me that connections > degree location.  Fuck, I'd even be willing to do something stupid like computertraining.com (which to me has always seemed more like a rip-off for uneducated saps.  $20k for a MCSE cert and job placement? WTF??)

  If some of you pros had any advice it'd be appreciated.

[naum]

1. I know its a cliche but doing something you love, you'll never "work" a day in your life. It's been my guiding philosophy and while my income over the past 2 years was slashed by 2/3, I've been much happier and make enough to get by, but have cut back on the toy buying and trip spending…

2. Again, it really doesn't matter, if you're miserable in your career, make a switch now. It's never too late to start. Recently, I went to a college graduation ceremony where somebody was 90+ years old and getting a Masters… …she was beaming

3. Any accredited school is good, I would stay away from schools that arn't.

4. While you're going to school, seek out an internship… …some are unpaid (like the ones that have worked for me), but others offer decent pay and will give you a leg up on landing a job once you graduate.

5. As far as transferring credits, it been so long, but that will depend on the school you apply/enroll to/in…

[stray]

I hear ya.. Well, actually, you're in a much better position since I haven't finished school. But I'm "starting from scratch" either way. I'm playing with the idea of getting into law now (which I almost did and should have done 10 yrs ago).

Anyways.. Are there any other aspects of Arch that you'd like to get into? Maybe landscaping? There's a lot more freedom to be creative as well as self employed that way, I believe?

[Lantyssa]

Many of my first undergrad classes counted towards my second degree, however I returned to the same university.  You will have to talk with an advisor about what can transfer or qualify for.  They may have a post-bach program which lets you skip some basics.  Some also have advisors for non-traditional students.

[Paelos]

Well, I agree with you that making 45k after that much school is ridiculous. I'd say move towards what you enjoy rather than something that pisses you off.

[Aez]

- move to Alberta
- profit!

http://www.pathfinderinc.ca/

[Viin]

I know quite a few folks who hit their upper 30's or low 40's and have said 'screw it' and completely changed careers. They became pilots, which pays crap for the first 10 years, but they totally love their jobs (now).

I'd recommend trying to find a company you want to work for, who can use your skills, but may not start you off making any more than you make now. Find something (someplace, rather) you can grow into - preferably one that will pay for extra schooling.

Harder than it sounds, but it's worth a shot.

[NiX]

- move to Alberta
- profit!

Every boom comes to an end. There's also nothing fun about being stuck at your salary cap in your field.

[Aez]

- move to Alberta
- profit!
- wait for the end of the boom
- change field with pockets full of cash!

[DarkSign]

My wife's an architect and while she's not totally satisfied (she's passed 4 of the 9 licensing exams) with her job...you're not playing the game right.

1. Architectural interns get salary bumps by changing firms multiple times. Usually 5-10k per switch every 2 or 4 years.

2. You've got to get licensed if you want to make the bucks. It's like becoming a doctor but never passing the boards. Every profession has tickets that have to be punched to keep people out and rise up the ranks.

3. Once you get the tests past you, you can do the side jobs you really like and get more personal fulfillment as well as more money.

Everyone wants to be an architect at cocktail parties. You see them in tons of ads...carrying plans around and acting cool. But yeah the money is crap. So you have to find a firm that's going to give you some design freedom here and there while you do bread and butter jobs as filler most of the time. Either that or fuck your way into working at Morphosis.

Congrats on being willing to take a chance at a new career though. That takes a lot of balls. I went from stockbroking to law which was a major shift and I'm glad I did. In the end you have to set yourself a tough, yet attainable goal and keep reminding yourself along the way what you're working for. I want to start a game company and I want to help my wife start her own firm. That's why I sock away money when I can :)

Good luck!

[Samwise]

Anyways.. Are there any other aspects of Arch that you'd like to get into? Maybe landscaping? There's a lot more freedom to be creative as well as self employed that way, I believe?

Before I settled on my computer science major I was very seriously eyeballing my school's landscape architecture program.  If I ever decided I needed a new career that'd probably be it.

[Engels]

The downside is, I'd probably have to start as a freshman again, since I'm thinking Comp Sci.  Despite having a B. Arch, I know I couldn't do well enough on any GRE for comp. sci to get a position at any school.  Plus I'd be sorely lacking some of the basics.

Anyone else here done something this "crazy"? 

Coupla things to share. I had a sorta similar experience. I started out thinking I wanted to be a shrink. I graduated with a BA in Classics, so I needed to go back to undergrad to take 2.5 years of classes to be able to apply to a grad school in psychology. Did that. Then I got my Masters. During the last year of my Masters, I came to the conclusion that there was just no way in hell I'd be able to do the 3+ years of $16/hour social work/case management in order to eventually get enough street cred to get my own practice and start to get a living wage. I knew what I was capable of and I knew this would burn me out in a big fat hurry. That's basically 4.5 years and cash to decide it wasn't for me.

So after a while, I decided I needed to do the job I'd always enjoyed doing, which was messing about with computers. 9 months at an A+ cert program, and voila, I was soon employable. Sure, initially a gruntish job, but I was doing what I loved. Couldn't have been happier. Then later, got another job that payed better, although not much better, and that brings us to the current date. I don't earn enough for my taste, but I can stomach it simply because its what I want to do.

Just a word of caution about getting a Comp Sci degree; don't do this expecting a higher salary unless you know you are just that good. Any and every profession, just like your current one, has tickets that need stamped, and a ladder to be climbed. There's a heck of a lot of luck involved too. My GF, with no formal training whatsoever and no science/computer training in particular, has landed a job writing sql script database clean up code for ~$46k. Completely out of the blue, it seems, until you start looking at the detail; she worked in development for a university. Fundraising. She taught herself the ins and outs of the database systems they used, and did some custom access databases on her own. She looked for a job in a related area, and she was basically head hunted by someone who needed someone with intimage knowledge of development frontend while able to learn the database backend of large institution fund raising, and bingo, she snagged the job.

So my instinct in your case is for you to figure out another niche that takes advantage of your architechtual skills. Perhaps a specialization in AutoCad? Perhaps if you're interested in computer hardware, a firm that designs machines specifically with architechs in mind? In any case, its great to be able to leverage your previous career into the field you're angling for.

[Selby]

I'm technically proficient, have a strong mechanical aptitude and like working with computers and software.  The downside is, I'd probably have to start as a freshman again, since I'm thinking Comp Sci.  Despite having a B. Arch, I know I couldn't do well enough on any GRE for comp. sci to get a position at any school.  Plus I'd be sorely lacking some of the basics.

Well, you are an architect who I assume can use AutoCAD or somesuch to design buildings, and presumably like doing it or are at least proficient at it (just pissed at the salary and office politics).  If you can do the math, go for an engineering degree of some kind and then get into the CAD side of things.  Having an engineer who can CAD their own parts is a godsend at most places.  Usually our CAD guys don't understand the systems and will make parts how they interpret our specifications, not how they need to be and how an engineer would do it.

In any event, a computer science degree would be mostly worthless in my opinion (I should know, I have one that I got in 2002 that did all of jack and shit for my job prospects).  You will spend another 3-4 years jumping through hoops and bending over for professors who are never satisifed while going into debt to have a piece of paper that may not enable you to get a better job anyways.  You have to be extremely proficient with computers, languages, and algorithms to even begin to compete with the way India and Russia turn out programmers who work for peanuts, and then you have to convince the HR department at some company somewhere to even look at your resume over the 1500 other ones they get from people on paper who have the same credientials as you (maybe with more experience).  I second the comment made about learning to do a certain routine or tailoring yourself to the kind of job you want and then trying to network in.  This is really the only way to get a job besides dumb luck in the computer biz.  Too many people in it and you either need to stand out in a beyond godly but still believable way or know someone on the inside.  If you want the experience of a computer science degree, by all means go for it.  But learning to code in several lanuages and being proficient at it (assembler for various microprocessors are quite sought after) while studying algorithm structure and design on your own will get you 90% of the experience of a CS degree without the costs or major timesinks of going to college.

I went with a specialization in my degree that basically enables me to beat out 95% of the candidates with generic electrical engineering degrees for my job, but it has to be the right type of job otherwise I am one of the 95% who is beaten out.  If you can get an angle or leg up, use it to your advantage.  If you want a no-brainer IT job, no need for a degree for that.  I had departments begging me to come work for them for $24k/year doing tech support and network admin work when I graduated from college the first time purely because I had worked in the field for 3 years as a poor college student for $6/hr.  A pretty low stress job even if you have to deal with idiot users and administrators for low pay.

[Jimbo]

I'm gonna be a 39 year old freshman this fall :D
I got into Butler University in the Pre Physician Assistant program, which is 2 years of undergrad bullshit (well not all of it), then 3 years of the PA stuff, then graduate with a Masters of Science, then take the boards to become certified and licenced.  Hell, I'm even going of night shifts and back onto a real sleep schedule working midshifts.  It is going to suck as far as loans and not doing somethings I enjoy (working at the free clinic and working on the ambulance--won't have time), but it will be awesome to be a mid-level provider.

Oh, Butler seems to think I need to take a gym class, when 6 other universities counted my basic training in the Army for it...  Oh well, maybe they have bowling.

[shiznitz]

So my instinct in your case is for you to figure out another niche that takes advantage of your architechtual skills. Perhaps a specialization in AutoCad? Perhaps if you're interested in computer hardware, a firm that designs machines specifically with architechs in mind? In any case, its great to be able to leverage your previous career into the field you're angling for.

This is a good idea. Find a company that sells to/works with architects and join it. That way all your accumulated knowledge is still worth something. People that drop out of med school and become pharmaceutical salesmen can make more than the doctors they talk to every day!

[stray]

Anyways.. Are there any other aspects of Arch that you'd like to get into? Maybe landscaping? There's a lot more freedom to be creative as well as self employed that way, I believe?

Before I settled on my computer science major I was very seriously eyeballing my school's landscape architecture program.  If I ever decided I needed a new career that'd probably be it.

I always thought it cool too. I have a fair amount of experience working with residential areas, but I don't know anything about architecture per se. If I already had an architecture degree/work experience though, and wanted more autonomy, then that'd be it. Seems like an all around cool job.

[UD_Delt]

I would suggest looking at the school you're interested in and possibly finding a job there and using that to pay for your school. It will take you a bit longer to get your degree but at least you won't be racking up more student loan debt. Also, usually as an employee you can take a few classes on a non-degree program, do well enough in them, and have the testing requirements waived to actually enter the degree program. That way you could at least attempt to jump right into a masters program.

Also, universities (at least the one I'm at) seem more willing to hire someone into a position without a degree if they express an interest in earning their degree. We have a couple of people in our area that only have HS degrees at the moment who are working in IT while going back to school to earn a BS. So, you might be able to land yourself an entry level IT job and get a free degree at the same time.

[Oban]

What are cat glasses?

[murdoc]

- move to Alberta
- profit!

http://www.pathfinderinc.ca/

Speaking as someone who lives in Alberta, this boom has to end sometime, but right now it's pretty darn sweet. I don't have a degree in ANYTHING,  yet I just got offered a $75k a year intermediate Windows Server position based on the fact that currently I'm a one-man IT group for a small, cross-canada company of around 75 people. Pretty much everything I know has been learned 'on the job' with a few classes here and there sprinkled in to fill in the blanks.

They company that made the offer is giving me an extra weeks vacation, profit sharing for my billable hours (they contract out to a lot of the oil companies here, including Shell) and they'll put the equivalent of 6% of my salary into RRSPs for me every year... and I probably make out the worst of my friends that are currently in the IT field here.

So yeah, the Boom is gonna end, but I might as well do the best I can in the meantime. Just except to pay ridiculous amounts for rent or purchasing a home. I *think* the average house price here is just under $500k and condos are silly too. Friend just bought a 460 sq ft condo in downtown Calgary for $240k and that was the cheapest he could find that was resonably up-to-date. I'm lucky in the fact I bought my house right before the prices really took off.

 

[Merusk]

So my instinct in your case is for you to figure out another niche that takes advantage of your architechtual skills. Perhaps a specialization in AutoCad? Perhaps if you're interested in computer hardware, a firm that designs machines specifically with architechs in mind? In any case, its great to be able to leverage your previous career into the field you're angling for.

This is a good idea. Find a company that sells to/works with architects and join it. That way all your accumulated knowledge is still worth something. People that drop out of med school and become pharmaceutical salesmen can make more than the doctors they talk to every day!

This was actually along my lines of thinking.  I'd rather go to work for Autodesk or one of the 3rd party companies around them, or one of the other "off-brand" softwares.  Alternatively I could go to work for a large A&E firm as a CAD manager, with some actual software/ hardware knowledge to back it up.  Those positions are pretty slim pickings, however, as most A&E firms think "Oh "Bob" knows about computers, let him handle the file server.. what could happen?!" 

What are cat glasses?

A term I picked-up from one of my former co-workers.  He was a macho gay guy who wore those long, narrow somewhat rectangular lenses, and he called them his "Cat glasses" because the shape and proportions roughly resemble a cat's eye.  You always see them along with the black turtleneck on the "effite artiste" types in pop culture shows.  They're the modern version of a beret signaling "Hey I'm a pretentious asshat douchebag!"

My wife's an architect and while she's not totally satisfied (she's passed 4 of the 9 licensing exams) with her job...you're not playing the game right.

1. Architectural interns get salary bumps by changing firms multiple times. Usually 5-10k per switch every 2 or 4 years.

2. You've got to get licensed if you want to make the bucks. It's like becoming a doctor but never passing the boards. Every profession has tickets that have to be punched to keep people out and rise up the ranks.

3. Once you get the tests past you, you can do the side jobs you really like and get more personal fulfillment as well as more money.

Everyone wants to be an architect at cocktail parties. You see them in tons of ads...carrying plans around and acting cool. But yeah the money is crap. So you have to find a firm that's going to give you some design freedom here and there while you do bread and butter jobs as filler most of the time. Either that or fuck your way into working at Morphosis.

Congrats on being willing to take a chance at a new career though. That takes a lot of balls. I went from stockbroking to law which was a major shift and I'm glad I did. In the end you have to set yourself a tough, yet attainable goal and keep reminding yourself along the way what you're working for. I want to start a game company and I want to help my wife start her own firm. That's why I sock away money when I can :)

Good luck!

Oh, I know the whole game.  It's like every other company and every other position.  One problem I have doing it in this area is that (aside from hating the work I'm handed.)  I live in Cincinnati.  There's a ton of graduates from UC and Kentucky in the area, all looking for jobs at 'stupid college kid' rates.  Combine that with the Intern/ Co-op programs both schools have and wages in this sector are a bit depressed.

However even if I move,  It's ridiculous that the entire carrer pays so little for a FUCKLOAD of responsibility.  You are responsible for life-safety of hundreds of thousands of end users of every building you ever design.  Screw up enough just once and you are barred from doing that work ever again. All for $75k a year, max.*

There's an old adage that Architects make poor businessmen.  It's true, because their egos won't let them pass on a client or a job that's a bad economic risk simply so they have their name on another building.  Over the decades this has lead to price undercutting and serioiusly stupid shit on the part of all firms so that they've priced themselves to the level of a blue collar worker while pushing white collar hours and responsiblity.  How many lawers, doctors or engineers (other professions that also require licensing) work 50-60 hour weeks for $36 an hour?

I've had plenty of offers for side-work on housing.  However, I decline them all. Crazy? No.  See, people try to get you to do work 'on the side' so they can pay you less for the same amount of work.  Also, my co-workers who have done side work have all been screwed in some way.  Either the company found out and fired them, (you see, that's a house the company could have sold) or the person balked at paying what the work was worth, or simply didn't pay.   That's before you get into the ethical issue I have of doing work that should be routed through your firm.. if your firm wasn't stupid enough to not pay you for the referral. 

* Again, I coulld start-up my own firm once licensed.  But that gets into political connections and doing a lot of legwork I'm not comfortable with/ have no desire to do.   The foundations of a successful firm are set in your 20s and 30s.  It's who you know, and what positions they get into/who they introduce you to that funnel the work towards you at first.

 I'm much too geeky/ engineer-minded to put up with that nonsense.   This was something I realized in school, but finished the degree because my parents encouraged me to do it rather than switch back then.  I've come to realize that it was a HUGE mistake, and I'd have been better off switching the first two times I wanted to. Be it to IT, or Engineering itself because that's simply the way my mind works.

[schild]

Friend just bought a 460 sq ft condo in downtown Calgary for $240k and that was the cheapest he could find that was resonably up-to-date. I'm lucky in the fact I bought my house right before the prices really took off.

460 Square feet is smaller than my bathroom.

[MrHat]

heheh.

I'm paying $750/mo to rent a 288sqft efficiency in 22314 (Alexandria, VA. 1 mi from old town) and that's the cheapest place in the damn city where I live by myself.

288 sqft.

[schild]

heheh.

I'm paying $750/mo to rent a 288sqft efficiency in 22314 (Alexandria, VA. 1 mi from old town) and that's the cheapest place in the damn city where I live by myself.

288 sqft.

Ok, see, that's smaller than my balls.

Man, apartments suck.

[Viin]

Could always try Denver.

http://denver.craigslist.org/egr/
http://www.jobsearchusa.org/index.php?action=search&92=193&93=339&6=&25=&2=cad&search.x=0&search.y=0&search=Find

(Also feel free to use my LinkedIn network to look around too, though I don't think I know many folks in the CAD industries).

[Nebu]

Merusk,

I think this is a bold, but good move.  I've been contemplating the same thing.  I've found that the biggest hurdles to overcome are a) getting the nerve up to leave a comfortable situation and b) convincing employers on the other end of the journey why they should hire a 40-something newbie over a 20-something newbie. 

I tried recently to leave an academic position at a research 1 school for a teaching position at a much smaller, liberal arts school.  I have sent out 50 applications this year and found that none (yes, NONE) of the teaching schools I was interested in would hire me.  Why?  None of them believed that I'd give up the prestige and higher salary of being at a research school for a teaching position.  After travelling to interviews every week for the past 4 months, I've had a  number of schools state: "While you were clearly the strongest candidate, we decided to offer the position to someone we felt would be truely happy in a role that is primarily teaching".  What has really left me dumbfounded is that I've won a myriad of teaching awards (some at the university and national level) and schools still doubt my commitment to teaching.  *shrug*

I'm thinking that my best bet is to leave science entirely if I want to take a teaching job.  The reason that I even bother to mention all of this is to let you know that perceptions on the other end are tough to overcome.  No matter how honest and open you are with employers, they still think some pretty ridiculous things. 

The best thing you can do is research.  Find a field that you're not only passionate about, but that is in high demand.  This will ensure that you not only get a good job in your choice of locations, but that future employers will see more value in your past experiences.  They will also be more likely to appreciate why you decided to switch fields. 

 

[Salamok]

stuff..

Going back to school for another degree when you already have 1 makes it sound like you just want to be an acedemic for life.  The vast majority of jobs that require a degree don't really give a rats ass what that degree is in.  If you want a job in the IT field just go get one, your going to have to start with an entry level job either way and 2 years of employed IT experience + a college degree > CS degree with no years of IT experience.  After 5 years no one is probably going to even ask you what your degree is in they will just assume it is in the field that employs you.

Personally I think yer friggen crazy, outsourcing has killed and is still killing the profession.  Some IT jobs seem to at least be coming back into the country but what used to be a cushy in house position has become a stop on your route that is assigned by the local contract IT firm you end up working for. 

Go get a teaching credential, the pay scale is better than what you are currently experiencing and the time off is amazing.  Once you land a contract the district will basically hand you a map of your salary from the moment you start till the moment you die.  This will give you ample time to figure out what you want in life while still getting paid.

[Salamok]

Merusk,

I think this is a bold, but good move.  I've been contemplating the same thing.  I've found that the biggest hurdles to overcome are a) getting the nerve up to leave a comfortable situation and b) convincing employers on the other end of the journey why they should hire a 40-something newbie over a 20-something newbie. 

I tried recently to leave an academic position at a research 1 school for a teaching position at a much smaller, liberal arts school.  I have sent out 50 applications this year and found that none (yes, NONE) of the teaching schools I was interested in would hire me.  Why?  None of them believed that I'd give up the prestige and higher salary of being at a research school for a teaching position.  After travelling to interviews every week for the past 4 months, I've had a  number of schools state: "While you were clearly the strongest candidate, we decided to offer the position to someone we felt would be truely happy in a role that is primarily teaching".  What has really left me dumbfounded is that I've won a myriad of teaching awards (some at the university and national level) and schools still doubt my commitment to teaching.  *shrug*

I'm thinking that my best bet is to leave science entirely if I want to take a teaching job.  The reason that I even bother to mention all of this is to let you know that perceptions on the other end are tough to overcome.  No matter how honest and open you are with employers, they still think some pretty ridiculous things. 

The best thing you can do is research.  Find a field that you're not only passionate about, but that is in high demand.  This will ensure that you not only get a good job in your choice of locations, but that future employers will see more value in your past experiences.  They will also be more likely to appreciate why you decided to switch fields. 

Go teach high school the pay is probably better than what you would get at a small college.  Shit my uncle makes 85k, works 185days/year and is home by 5:00 every day.  My dad retired 10 years ago and was making over 60k a year teaching 3rd graders (home by 3:30 every day) god knows what that pays now.  My sister has to be pushing 60k a year by now teaching 5th grade.  Starting salary in Austin is in the mid 30's but the experience+education salary model ramps you up above 40k pretty quick. 

[naum]

Personally I think yer friggen crazy, outsourcing has killed and is still killing the profession.  Some IT jobs seem to at least be coming back into the country but what used to be a cushy in house position has become a stop on your route that is assigned by the local contract IT firm you end up working for. 

AFA wages|salary|rate goes, yes, it's not like it was when I first got in the field (though even then, starting pay sucked for most new slots). I still get calls from recruiters trying to fill that occasional mainframe | Unix scripting position and am astounded at how low some of them are — even ads for PHP programmers at $8-10 / hour, $20-30 per hour for COBOL or Bash/Unix (Bash/Korn), etc.… …10 years ago, even junior level COBOL programmer could net $50-60 per hour (or more). For a while Java programmers were hot commodity, but I don't know if that has been sustained plus if you're coding Java, you may as well be coding COBOL…

…still if you carve a niche, you can nab $100 per hour or more… …specialty tech knowledge with a specific software vendor that's widely used…

Again, if you dig this sort of thing… …writing (and reading) code is one of the few skills I am blessed with and I actually enjoy it, so its all good for me… …though now I little more than glorified web master, though I call the shots, write and implement my own CMS frameworks, etc.… …though like I wrote, I gave up income at 3X-4X (not counting my freelance income, though I've purposefully chased most of those clients away…) what I make now, though I was traveling a lot, living in airports & hotels, and I didn't enjoy that at all (nor did Mrs. Naum, who told me that she didn't get married to sleep alone)…

[Viin]

…still if you carve a niche, you can nab $100 per hour or more… …specialty tech knowledge with a specific software vendor that's widely used…

Say, SAP. I see 10-20 SAP consultant jobs posted almost daily, all starting at 100k+/year.

Also, I agree that any degree is fine .. just get a tech job and eventually move into what you really want to do .. once you start getting some tech experience under your belt you will find jobs a lot easier.

Edit: If you want to see the types of jobs that make 100k+ in the tech industry, let me know. I'm currently using TheLadders to look for a new job and I can give you a good list of the job openings I see.

[Salamok]

Say, SAP. I see 10-20 SAP consultant jobs posted almost daily, all starting at 100k+/year.

yes ERP and CRM crapola is hot right now, I can't see this lasting much longer though.  Thats 1 of the main problems, the flavor of the year $100 an hour job follows the same rules of supply and demand as everything else does.

[Viin]

yes ERP and CRM crapola is hot right now, I can't see this lasting much longer though.  Thats 1 of the main problems, the flavor of the year $100 an hour job follows the same rules of supply and demand as everything else does.

Of course. But that doesn't mean you can't get that experience in 2-3 years... when it's still booming. And then you probably are more than young enough to go learn a new tech when the next big thing shows up for techies. 

[naum]

…still if you carve a niche, you can nab $100 per hour or more… …specialty tech knowledge with a specific software vendor that's widely used…

Say, SAP. I see 10-20 SAP consultant jobs posted almost daily, all starting at 100k+/year.

Wow, SAP still in demand… …I figured by this time, all those bloodsuckers would have been ushered out of all the Fortune 500 shops… …in the early 90s, it was CASE tools and folks were paid ridiculous money ($150/hr+) for systems that mostly were just wet dreams on Microsoft Word requirements document templates… …a few years later, it was Smalltalk and Visual Gen (or whatever it was called) — a boondoggle that triggered a whole bunch of code rewrites… …I wonder if Rational Rose is still a hot ticket…

But yes, there is always a niche — I still get calls for Sterling Commerce (or whatever SBC or whoever bought them out calls it now) data communications suite — Connect Direct/Connect Enterprise, etc.… …although their recruiting efforts are met with my chuckling as I would demand $100/hr+ + per diem and some of those slots now in companies have been redesignated as "operations" type jobs, which really makes me howl and is no surprise when a different recruiter calls every 3 or 4 months for what I can tell instantly is the same position…

Some other niches:

* …for awhile, Walker General Ledger application would net one somewhere in $100/hr range…

* …Y2K work was very lucrative for many though it's duration was limited… …might have to wait until 2037 for the next go around (oh wait,  NM, by then, 32 bit machines will be extinct… …and so will Linux/Unix as Microsoft Silverlight swallows the world…)

* …do you have experience in managing offshore workers? Still need for an American worker to manage the bridge calls and handle access into IBM managed data centers…

* …get Six Sigma certified (or some other SEI/CMM FOTM paradigm that said company is inflicting upon its IT department. Better yet, become a "certified" trainer…

* …take some trips to Central and South America, adopt some talented "kids", bring them home to America to work for your consulting company for some custom insourcing outsourcing action (worked with a dude that pulled this off and had nearly a dozen adopted "kids" of which he was raking >50% of their discounted billable rate). Nowdays you might have to relocate to Bangalore or Mumbai to adopt that strategy…

* …start a business creating and updating MySpace pages for local businesses

* …create a startup and build the next Twitter | Blogger | Digg | MySpace | Facebook | Bebo | F13 | $WildyPopularAndInsaneNewThing

[Yegolev]

People working with SAP make ridiculous money today.  I'm looking for an opening, but I don't speak Hindi.

Merusk, I approve of your bold planning, but I think it needs to be bolder.  Get the fuck out of Cinci.  Also, niche work, or subcontracting if you prefer.  I don't know a whole lot about the commercial construction industry but I do know lots of people do contract work.  They definitely do skimp on the computer support even in large A&E firms, but when something goes bad they will probably call on a short-term contractor.  You might need to go someplace where people are building lots of shit; from the top of a parking deck at my office I can see five tower cranes without turning my head, so there's always the ATL if you like humidity and broken glass.

[Signe]

My brother in law doesn't speak anything but English with a heavy Scottish accent and he works with SAP.  He does make ridiculous money and he's being fast tracked so he doesn't stay in one place more than a couple of years.  He's just left Texas and is now in Hungary.  I can't see you not being able to find a job in some of the most evil companies in the world if you have SAP, especially with financials.  Go for it.  I'm sure a nice oil company or something equally deadly to the environment and innocent native people of <insert name of impoverished area of a third world country here> will give you a go.

[Salamok]

People working with SAP make ridiculous money today.  I'm looking for an opening, but I don't speak Hindi.

I always thought SAP was inflicted upon us by ze germans