How to leave IT, volume 2

Dear Bob …

In surfing the web, I came across this article “How to leave IT” and, as that is the question foremost in my mind, I just had to write.

Having somehow survived 28 years in IBM’s IT world, smashing my square peg (me) into their round hole (IBM), I’ve received a couple of poor performance reviews and have decided to do what I should have done years ago — leave the IT arena to the folks (left brainers) who like that stuff. Now, all I need to figure out is what to do next and how to get there.

To go into the details of my background would give anyone a colossal headache but, to be as brief as possible, I majored in English in college, which I really attended to get a deferment to stay out of the Vietnam War. I studied English because it was the subject I enjoyed most — reading more than writing — but I had no idea what I would do after graduating. After playing drums for a few years in touring rock bands, I realized performing pop music wasn’t the life for me (music, the art, yes; music the business, no).

I applied to IBM thinking they would find a good use for me and quickly found myself printing payroll checks in a computer room. I eventually determined that I was a people person and got into user support, education & training with some brief forays into IT communications (which, given the rate of change in IBM, was a very busy area) and received good to excellent performance ratings for most of my career. About 2 – 3 years ago, IBM started telling its employees to “manage their own IT environment” and the need for once-highly-appreciated folks like me died.

So, now I need to find something else to do and need some clues. If you can point me toward any resources that might help a “right brainer” like me with a resume that shows 28 years of IT experience but doesn’t want to continue in that area, I’d appreciate any advice.

– Ready to leave IT

Dear Ready …

I can’t help you. Nobody can.

Yet.

Here’s the challenge: You provided just about every important piece of information except one: What do you want to do next?

You worked for IBM. You “got into” end-user education and communication. You don’t want to do that anymore. Good enough – 28 years of doing the same thing is plenty. But until you’ve thought through what you do want to do, it will be very hard to design a resume or anything else about a job search strategy that will be of much use.

There are professionals who purport to help people figure out what career they’d find most satisfying. I’ve yet to hear of any success stories about them. If you don’t know yourself well enough to figure that out, it’s doubtful that a total stranger will be able to do a better job of it.

You don’t, by the way, have to settle on just one path with a laser-beam focus. Nor do you have to make the transition to your dream job in one giant leap. What I’d advise is to settle on three potential career directions – anything you think you’d be good at, enjoy, and that someone else would be willing to pay you to do.

Then figure out a job title you can successfully apply for right now that, after a couple of years, would both qualify you for all three (ideally), or job titles, each of which would qualify you for at least one of them. Just as important, the job title should result in your meeting the kinds of people who will be in a position to hire you for one of the dream jobs.

Find, that is, your logical next step.

Oh, and don’t overestimate the value of your resume. You don’t have to have just one – you’re free to tailor it for each opportunity. You should: Never forget that resumes are mostly disqualifiers. Nobody ever got a job because they had a great resume, but lots of people have been screened out because something in their resume said, “Not a perfect match.”

– Bob