Asking genuine advice regarding my future.

[InvisibleJim]

I think the complete opposite. Can't think of anything worse than not enjoying your job and having to slog to work for years and years hating it. Only using it a means to pay the bills. You spend most of your life at work.
Would rather just jump off a bridge then.

But then that's just me.

Also me. I changed careers in my early 30's because stopped enjoying what I did and wasn't doing it that well anymore.

Do what you enjoy, do what you're good at. We spend too much of our life at work to do something that is making us unhappy.

IMHO, you can become wealthy in pretty much any field or skill that has value so whether you become a developer, engineer, hair dresser, accountant, chef, plumber or whatever isn't the deciding factor. If money is your primary motivation though, you do have to make the correct choices to maximise your earning potential.

 

[InvisibleJim]

Yeah if you've found how to make a hobby into a career then that's a pretty sweet deal. I think that's very rare.

I don't think it has to be making a hobby into a career (and doing this can actually make your hobby start to suck) but it is definately better to enjoy what you do to earn a living and you will probably be better at it when you do.

 

[cguy]

On the topic of advice:
I definitely suggest studying if you can. Things are only going to get harder for people without qualifications in the near future.

I don’t suggest a PGCE - it’s going to be hard to make a living and often doesn’t transfer to other countries (my wife has one, and she still would have had to do the US teaching qualification to teach in US schools).

CS+AppMath is a great option (I recommend doing it to honours level at least), and so is engineering.

On the doing what you love debate:
Obviously it’s great if you’ve got something you love and can do it as a career.

Something that gets discounted a lot though, is that it’s hard to love a job/career that doesn’t treat you well, and it’s much easier to learn to love a job that values your contribution.

Furthermore, by definition people limit their career goals and their expressed “dream job” to what they know. When they’re kids they want to be firemen, when they’re teenagers they want to be game designers, and when they’re adults, well, they know what webpages are, and it pays ok.

Very few grow up wanting to be quantitative researchers or ASIC designers or DevOps cloud specialists or Site Reliability Engineers or whatever. The odds are that there is still something out there that you will learn to love through a combination of a greater understanding of the field, great pay, improved working conditions and professional pride. You may just need to be more open to things that don’t immediately appeal to find them.

 

[ChuckMeFarley]

I haven't programmed in a professional capacity no, I built some websites for fun and I built a couple of applications that weren't that complex, and maybe you're right, maybe it is that there is no challenge to it, thank you for that insight my friend. Would you say Computing at Unisa would be a good option for me then? I do have some ideas for larger projects if I do go that route, so you might be right.

With regards to the Netherlands, I have a girlfriend I've been with for two years, depending on what happens I will either move there, get a job, and study at an online university there, or I'll study here. It's completely up to her though whether the first scenario takes place, which is why I'm trying to flesh out a decent backup plan. I do believe we'll end up together in the end, I'm just not sure whether it'll be next year, and since I'll be 31 next year when I start studying, I don't want to put it off any longer than I already have.

Don't worry about your age and studies! You're never too old to learn. I started my studies at 40, whether I will be able to finish what I want to accomplish, who knows. But yes, do it sooner than later, it just gets a bit harder as you delay.

 

[RedViking]

With a name like "death prophet", I am afraid your future does not look that bright. The best you can do at this stage is try figure out if you have 215 hours or 215 days left. Then you need to make the best of it as if tomorrow is your last day.

I would stick to "IT" and then find something within the IT industry you enjoy. You can even teach whatever field in IT you are in after hours at your nearest technical college. IT is also very flexible and universal. Don't restrict yourself to being forced to do something else just to get out of the country. That is fear talking and not brain.

215 minutes maybe?

Make the best of today. Tomorrow may not come.

 

[B-1]

Programming is just a tool in your toolbox. Sure there are jobs where you just punch out repetitive code but they are fairly rare these days. The majority of the time your job is actually problem solving and a programming language is how you achieve it. The interesting part comes in with the problems themselves whether they are technical, science or business related or what field they are in is where you need to find your interests. Personally I just like building cool things, Im technically in the software space but I fairly often jump into the hardware, networking, business side of things because I see the big picture of what we are trying to create. I've learnt a lot over the years by doing that and its kept things interesting.

 

[Barbarian Conan]

You need to do something that you enjoy doing as you have at least another 30+ years of doing it.

I wouldn't advise staying in desktop support though. You don't want to be doing that for the rest of your life.

Rather find something you don't hate. Only the lucky ones have jobs they find enjoyable and fulfilling.

 

[Paul Kemp]

If I was giving my younger self career advice I would spend time finding out what I have an aptitude for. That would assist you in finding out what you can be good at, which brings fulfillment, and in turn allow you to be in the upper tier earnings wise which is always useful.
I would also tell myself: Buy that ticket, take that ride.

 

[NightShift]

I'm making this post because I am uncertain regarding my future, one of two things can happen next year, I can either move to the Netherlands, or I can stay in South Africa and study. Now my query is regarding the possibility that I have to stay in SA next year.

In my mind it would seem obvious that you should go to the Netherlands. There's nothing stopping you from studying in the Netherlands through UNISA, and they will have exam venues where you can go and write your exams. I did this myself more than a decade ago when I went to the UK, without a degree, and just a few classic certifications. What happened to me was that I found opportunities there that I wasnt expecting to find and which I wouldnt have gotten in SA, that allowed me to build up experience while I completed by degree. Coming back to SA, with international experience and a degree to literally just tick the boxes for recruiters, and I found it relatively easy to secure a decent job here. Go for it - get oudda here.

 

[deathprophet215]

In my mind it would seem obvious that you should go to the Netherlands. There's nothing stopping you from studying in the Netherlands through UNISA, and they will have exam venues where you can go and write your exams. I did this myself more than a decade ago when I went to the UK, without a degree, and just a few classic certifications. What happened to me was that I found opportunities there that I wasnt expecting to find and which I wouldnt have gotten in SA, that allowed me to build up experience while I completed by degree. Coming back to SA, with international experience and a degree to literally just tick the boxes for recruiters, and I found it relatively easy to secure a decent job here. Go for it - get oudda here.

Unfortunately the choice isn't mine alone, but I would definitely go that route if I do have the chance, thanks for the advice my friend, and I am glad it turned out well for you.

 

[syntax]

I must be lucky then My hobby has always been computers/electronics. Always messing around with some computer stuff after work.

Started off as desktop support, then server support. Now doing cybersecurity for a major corporate and would almost work for free its so much fun.

Almost for free you say........ you're hired

 

[sandwitch]

I don't know about the Netherlands but I'd take @cguy's advice about the PGCE. Even if you did a full BEd there are countries that require you to take a bridging course. If you plan to teach in SA: only choose teaching if you're sure you want to teach. There's a high number of people who quit being teachers in their 1st year.
The paperwork will kill you, and it's a running joke (that's pretty accurate) that you don't go to the toilet while you're at school because you don't have time. Another one is, you're too busy with 40+ other children and paperwork to take care of your own family.

 

[deathprophet215]

I have an update my friends. My gf and I have decided that we can't be together anymore, which rules out the Netherlands option. My options are now either Computer Science/Computer Science and Applied Math or Teaching at Unisa.

The problem with the IT industry is I constantly hear about ageism, is this true? The nice thing about teaching is the teaching abroad opportunities, like teaching in Japan, and maybe even permanently moving to countries where they have shortages like Canada.

 

[cguy]

The problem with the IT industry is I constantly hear about ageism, is this true? The nice thing about teaching is the teaching abroad opportunities, like teaching in Japan, and maybe even permanently moving to countries where they have shortages like Canada.

There's some truth to it, but as with most things there is a lot of nuance. The big reason for ageism historically is the big "pyramid" of developers entering the work force as technology found its own. I.e., in the 80's there were a handful of IT workers, and most were in their 20's. In the 90's far more 20-something IT specialists were produced, and now the earlier handful are in their 30's, in the 2000's even more IT workers were minted and now the original 80's group are in their 40's, in 2010's, they're in their 50's, and 2020's they're in their 60's. Further down the pyramid, those 90's and 2000's workers are in their 40's and 50's, etc.

Essentially, due to the newness and rapid expansion of the field, older workers were scarce until more recently. Today, seeing older IT workers is a lot more common, since even the huge wave of IT workers that started during the internet boom/rush of the late 90's are likely in their late 40's now. I am closer to 50 than 40, still code every day, and I have plenty of colleagues in their 50's in my current team. My team at my last company currently has several 60-something year old workers (who were in their 40's when I joined ~20 years ago), and outside of my teams, there are even 70-year old workers (mostly just working to keep themselves occupied and in touch with their respective fields).

Something that is relevant though is the type of work you choose to do. If you end up doing work that doesn't require a whole lot of qualifications, and where experience has diminishing returns, you may find that they tend to be a younger crowd, because a) they start working younger, and b) once that pay-ceiling is hit by those who are experienced, most will either try move into management, or do something else, leaving fewer older workers. The places you tend to find the most ageism are companies/teams consisting of mostly younger employees.