Headed to the IT Career Field

pilot4500

pilot4500

IT Architect/ Former Cirrus Charter Pilot
I have talked about leaving professional aviation for a while, and recently I had an opportunity to move into the field that I have been studying and preparing for. I have been a professional pilot for 10 years now, and I have been flying for a total of 12 years. It has been fun, but for a number of reasons I feel it is time to change careers.

I was offered a position as a Technology Associate at local school board in my hometown of Albemarle, North Carolina. I have decided that it is in my best interest to take the job. I will be doing basic computer troubleshooting, setting up and networking new computers, and providing help to teachers and students who need assistance with computers or other office equipment. This job will allow me to gain experience in the IT field and move up to a better paying job within the school system.

On May 10 I will be completing my Associate's Degree in Computer Information Technology. I plan to start working on my Bachelor's Degree while I work and major in Network Security this coming Fall. I can do a majority of the classes online while I build real world IT experience at work. I may decide to pursue an MBA after that.

I will have an awesome schedule. 7:30 am to 4:30 pm Monday through Friday! I can come home for lunch, be home every night, and have every weekend off! :) You can't do that with a flying job.

I have been working for a Part 135 operator in the Washington DC area flying Cirrus SR-22s. I enjoyed the job and I can honestly say that I was quite good at it, but the time away from home was killing me. I have a 4 year old son and I was completely missing out on his childhood. My wife had to be a single mom a lot of the time since I was not home. I know that the aviation lifestyle can work for some couples, but it just did not work well for my wife and I.

The other factor that really sealed the deal for me was my recent trouble renewing my medical certificate. I had some issues with tachycardia and marginally high blood pressure on my last medical exam. My AME referred me to a Cardiologist. I was thoroughly evaluated, and did nearly every cardiovascular test known to man. I spent well north of $1,000 on tests and office visits out of my own pocket.

My medical was eventually issued with a one year restriction, but I recently got a Certified letter from the FAA in the mail saying they want more testing done or my medical application will be denied. My Cardiologist already told me that the tests that they want me to do are not medically necessary. My tachycardia and blood pressure have been stabilized well within FAA guidelines. My AME and two Cardiologists all sent letters to the FAA explaining that my situation was stable and provided more than 30 pages of documentation to back it up. It seems that you just can't make the FAA happy, and I really don't want to go through this kind of scrutiny every year.

I leave the aviation industry with a lot of good memories and experience. I have been flying since I was 19. I am now 31 and my priorities have changed quite a bit. When I was young I really didn't care where I lived, what my schedule was, and I didn't mind working for low pay. I was flying and I was doing what I loved. Now I crave stability, a decent income, a career field with the potential for personal and financial growth, and a good schedule. More than anything I want to provide the best life possible for my family.

I thoroughly enjoyed flight instructing in Arizona and Michigan, scared myself poop-less a few times flying freight in the Carolinas and Georgia, and I had a blast flying brand new SR-22s up and down the east coast. Now, for several reasons, I think it is time to close the chapter on aviation and open a new one with IT.

I just totaled the logbook and my flight times are as follows:

6,422 hours Total Time
1,302 hours Multi Time
1,862 hours Dual Given

It has been a fun ride. I have met a lot of good people along the way, and I will have a lot of good stories to tell when I end up in the old folks' home. I think it is now in my best interest to pursue my other passion which is computers and technology. I now look forward to having a stable income, predictable schedule, being home for holidays, and going to my son's kickball/T-ball/Baseball games. I can honestly say that I feel excited about what the future holds.
 
Congratulations on seeking out what is a priority to you and going and getting it. As a side note, I often read these threads and am happy people have found a career change that is a good lifestyle move for them, but I can't help but feel sad whenever I hear someone is leaving the field of aviation. I guess it kind of scares me that I might feel that way someday too.
 
I wish you the best of luck, pilot4500. Sorry for your troubles with the FAA (it's there to help, right), but at least you found something that can support your family.
 
IT has been very good to me. I hope you enjoy the new position. It's a field where there is always something new to learn and new areas you can specialize in, so it's interesting to people who remain curious and enjoy the learning process.
 
IT has been great to me as well, but I still long to make the jump to full time aviation. All in due time. Good luck with your future endeavors...and remember, the users are always wrong and lie through their teeth!
 
I look forward to the new challenges ahead gaining experience in the IT field. You don't know what a good feeling it is to have a predictable schedule and a good idea of how much income I will make every month. In addition to that, being able to see my family everyday is truly priceless. I start the new job next week and I am excited! I have to admit that I will miss flying a little bit, but I will not miss the lifestyle at all.
 
I've been doing flying and IT for a company. We recently lost our SR22 so it turned into full-time IT. I must admit that while a predictable schedule is nice, I'm miserable doing IT work. Constantly answering the same questions and telling people to just restart the computer gets old quick. I'm hoping you like it. It certainly is a good choice to fall back on if you need to. You will definitely have more family time. Just don't let them send your blood pressure over the top.
 
That's a bummer that the FAA has cracked down so hard on you making it difficult to have a career in aviation. It's great that you got to live that career for at least a decade. It must be nice now to move on to a life that will allow you to spend the time needed with your family. The best of luck to you as you continue on in life. Hopefully in some capacity you will be able to spend time around aviation sometimes.
 
Wise decision. If I lost my current job I would most likely do something else too. I love to learn new things. Everything gets humdrum after time including flying.
 
pilot4500 said:
I will have an awesome schedule. 7:30 am to 4:30 pm Monday through Friday! I can come home for lunch, be home every night, and have every weekend off! :) You can't do that with a flying job.
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IT is not the place to go for a 9-5 job. Entry level, sure. But if you want to earn over $50k you will be owned by the company and be working 60 hour weeks (on salary).

I have been in IT for many years, at various levels. I would suggest IT security over all other aspects of IT.
Networking and Sys admins are a commodity now, you will be competing against people from India that are willing to work for 1/5th of what you want. Even with a CCIE or a RHCE certs you will be hard pressed to get over $100K, both these certs are very hard to obtain. I have a friend that is a Cisco Certified Networking Professional and all he can find are basic support jobs. Just like flying IT is a combination of experience and certification.

Just today I got an email from a recruiter for a security job for $80/hr, they want Arcsight certification.
Good luck with the career change, it can be an exciting time.
 
will_fly_for_bandwith said:
IT is not the place to go for a 9-5 job. Entry level, sure. But if you want to earn over $50k you will be owned by the company and be working 60 hour weeks (on salary).
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I make well over $50K and haven't been on call or worked nights or weekends in over 7 years. I currently work a straight 40 hours and pretty much pick my own hours.
 
will_fly_for_bandwith said:
IT is not the place to go for a 9-5 job. Entry level, sure. But if you want to earn over $50k you will be owned by the company and be working 60 hour weeks (on salary).
Click to expand...

It really depends on your qualifications and ability to carve out a niche. I was trained as a systems maintenance troubleshooter in the Army, so that gave me the ability to understand computers and networks. I've been really blessed that a few people have taken risks on me in the IT world, and I got some good real world experience. These Microsoft Certifications are crap...nothing works how MS thinks it should in the real world. Just like aviation, it's about who you know sometimes and how well your portray your strengths. Being a guy who can work with users and be fun to be around in IT is somewhat rare, so I have that going for me. I started around $30K at my first IT job, then up to just over $40 when I moved to Chicago doing the same kind of work. I got out of Managed Services and saw another $10k overnight...Kind of like a 20 year 747 captain or a G5 captain, in house IT is soooo much better then doing contract stuff. YMMV
 
rframe said:
I make well over $50K and haven't been on call or worked nights or weekends in over 7 years. I currently work a straight 40 hours and pretty much pick my own hours.
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That's great for you, but lets not paint a picture of IT as 9-5 M-F. Once you move away from a user support role and start providing IT as a service to your internal and external customers the landscape changes.
Maintenance, upgrades and other non break fix activities are not done during normal business hours.
 
will_fly_for_bandwith said:
That's great for you, but lets not paint a picture of IT as 9-5 M-F. Once you move away from a user support role and start providing IT as a service to your internal and external customers the landscape changes. Maintenance, upgrades and other non break fix activities are not done during normal business hours.
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Oh there are definitely some IT roles and companies where people work odd hours, but in my experience the people who work ridiculous hours are people who choose to do so or where the corporate culture is really weird and people are overworked out of some sort of pride of working crazy hours. Also, middle-managers notoriously work crazy hours, usually in an effort to prove their value to the middle managers above them. I have turned down all offers to move to middle management because it's usually a vicious cycle of non-productiveness from what I've seen.

I've worked in network/systems administration for about 5 years (worked a few late hours for upgrades and outages and a couple weekends for migrations but not common), medical imaging systems engineering for about 3 years (this was the worst for on call duties which got rough sometimes but was one week per month of on call), software development for about 3 years (think I worked one weekend in 3 years for a migration), and IT security for about 5 years (worked a few hours on a weekend maybe 2-3 times to check up on issues).
 
I have really enjoyed the discussion here about the various types of IT jobs. My long term goal is to get into network security. There always seems to be a demand for that type of work based on what I have seen. I don't have any illusions about this career change being easy or IT work being a cake walk by any means. I am ready to work hard, work overtime if necessary, and to always continue learning. IT is similar to flying in that you never reach a point where you know everything. There are always new things to learn. I expect some hard days ahead as I get used to a new filed, but I feel that it will be very rewarding in the long run.
 
rframe said:
I make well over $50K and haven't been on call or worked nights or weekends in over 7 years. I currently work a straight 40 hours and pretty much pick my own hours.
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I'll second that motion..While I am part of an on-call rotation, I am M-F and tele-commute 4 days a week from hte comfort of my deck. Don't have a single certification either. There are far too many factors to say IT is 'this or that'. I work in what some would say is a hot IT market (MSP). Several Fortune500 companies, some of the largest privately held global-companies in the world, one of which I work for.....

IT like aviation will be what you make of it. One of the main reasons I never left IT for aviation was the $$ that I was being paid.
 
JEP said:
I'll second that motion..While I am part of an on-call rotation, I am M-F and tele-commute 4 days a week from hte comfort of my deck. Don't have a single certification either. There are far too many factors to say IT is 'this or that'. I work in what some would say is a hot IT market (MSP). Several Fortune500 companies, some of the largest privately held global-companies in the world, one of which I work for.....

IT like aviation will be what you make of it. One of the main reasons I never left IT for aviation was the $$ that I was being paid.
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I did MSP for 3 years and swear I'll never go back unless I can name my salary...that's one of the lowest depths of hell in my opinion. Kudos to you for making it word for you.
 
will_fly_for_bandwith said:
IT is not the place to go for a 9-5 job. Entry level, sure. But if you want to earn over $50k you will be owned by the company and be working 60 hour weeks (on salary).
Click to expand...


It is very possible to have a mostly 9 to 5 job working with computers. Mine has been almost entirely 9-5 for my entire career, by choice. I won't take jobs that require being on call.

IT is a very broad term, much more so than aviation, which is also a very broad field. Earning six figures in the computer biz is not difficult, but it takes a few prerequisites:
  • A four-year education from a good school, preferably in CS/EE/Mathematics/Phyics/etc
  • Specialization in some specific field
  • Willingness to travel
  • Be a US citizen
  • Ability to get a security clearance
  • A good resume with at least a few years experience
  • Good credit
  • Networking - know people that will get you in the door.
All of that takes a bit of time and effort, and not everyone will be able to do it.
I pretty much work 40 hours a week, mostly from home, almost always 9-5, for what a mainline captain would make, from the comfort of my deck.
 
I just started the new IT job and so far I am loving it! I have been learning a lot and really enjoying the work. I hope that in 10 years, with a lot of hard work and some hardcore networking with people and computers, I can make somewhere around $75k a year. $100k would be even better, and I plan to work my ass off to advance in the IT field. My family and I want to be able to live comfortably. We want a nice cozy house (no McMansion for us), nice reliable cars, and a little of extra money to be able to travel to the beach or the mountains when we want to. I guess you could say that my dream has drifted away from flying planes at all cost to living the middle class lifestyle. I still glance upward when I hear a small plane buzzing overhead, but I am happy with my new day job. And it is just that, a day job with a set schedule! When the clock strikes 4:30 pm, I am walking out the door to make my five minute drive home, feed my dog, and play ball with my son. It is impossible to describe how good that feels! First time in my life I have ever had that kind of luxury! :)
 
First off, I wish you the very best of luck in your new career and it sounds like you are off to a great start pilot4500.

I had the pleasure of working with a great IT department in a medium sized hospital setting. The guys were absolutely great. Unfortunately, the big corporate hammer came down with all of the new health care rules and our entire IT staff was laid off and outsourced to a company in India. Turns out were going to be in the hold some 2 billion in the next couple of years so something had to give. It has been more than interesting to say the least.

However, I became good friends with one of the only networking guys we had on staff before the layoffs happened. The dude loved aviation and was considering buying his own airplane or building one from a kit. I always thought this dude made a "descent" salary like most of the other support dudes we had but little did I know. One day he went on telling me about the networking side of IT and how much they actually made. BLEW MY MIND. He was talking like $60 an hour. He ended by saying that the money to be made is with the guys in IT networking that can get on with government contracts...something like $100/hour. Once again blew my mind. He added that every time he was asked about which route to go in the IT field his answer was always the network side.

Best of luck to you. I wish you nothing but the best and hope you can keep flying for fun when you get the chance.
 
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