Non-Tech Jobs For IT Workers

Are you tired of stupid users who never listen? Fed up with inidividuals wh whoo have no idea how to reset their computer? Do you hate being on call 24/7? Is your boss a penny pinching moron who won't fund a backup server?

If any of the above ring a bell, you may need a career change. Working in the IT (Information Technology) field can be frustrating, stressful and leave you feeling unappreciated. Luckily for you, there are a lot of ways to use your hard developed IT skills in other career fields.

There are plenty of great opportunities for former IT workers. Here are some stimulating ideas for what you can do with the rest of your life.

Psychic

This is especially true for those in tech support. Your time working support has lead you to know exactly what a user means when they say "my computer is not working." That one sentence is enough for you to know that what they actually mean is their Chrome icon got moved to a different location and they are now unable to figure out how to check their webmail.

But the lucrative psychic field is not just for tech support. If you develop software for clients you clearly have a knack for reading people's minds. Web developers, for example, know that when a client says they want a "fast website," they actually mean lots of animation and a fancy splash screen.

If you are an experienced IT worker with any amount of end-user or client interaction, you have learned to read minds. Consider investing in a crystal ball and opening up your own freelance psychic business.

Historian

You have likely come across a server, a bug or a piece of code you could not understand. Where did this come from? Why is it here? Who put it there? If you are lucky, this is in a log or comment somewhere. It is then your job to read through logs, tickets, comments, revision history, etc. to figure out the origin of this thing.

Reading through arcane, poorly written, incomplete text is a highly sought after skill that historians train to develop.

If you know how to code in Flash or Perl, be sure to add "knowledge of dead languages" to your resume.

Archaeologist

If you are unlucky, then you have had to figure out the above without any documentation. No logs, no comments, no searchable ticket system. Instead you are are stuck tracing cables or going through the code line by line trying to understand just what in the world a single 'if' statement is doing.

Maybe you are used to finding ancient pieces of equipment, sitting under a cover of dust in some forgotten closet. You know you must extract and study this equipment with care. Maybe, in the past, you found an old Windows 95 server in some basement that you thought you could power down... Only to realize that you just turned off your company's DNS server, making the Internet inaccessible to everyone in the building. You now have a special respect for unknown artifacts.

Translator

Do you talk to sales? Management? End users? Clients? Your grandparents? If you have experience talking about technology to those who are less than fluent in tech jargon, you may think about a job translating languages.

Have you had to explain what "The firewall is blocking TCP packets between the VPS and the local proxy server" means? What about "The NAT turned the IP into RFC 1918 space?"

If so, you probably possess the ability to translate esoteric language into something a five year old (AKA middle management) would understand.

Ever have to port software from one language to another?

A job as a translator may be a great next step in your career.

Shoe Salesman

Ever work at a small business or a start up? If so, you are familiar with what it is like ot wear many shoes.

The IT field is full of individuals who were hired to "maintain a website" but end up fixing printers, troubleshooting the accounting software and dealing with the HVAC repair guy. Use the knowledge you have from filling all these shoes and become a shoe salesperson.

Dancer

You'd make a good dancer. Dancers need good balance and flexibility. Overworked IT workers know how to balance their boss's priorities and are flexible enough to be on call 24/7.

Due to budget cuts, you know how to tango: for every one step forward, you seem to take two steps back.

Necromancer

A system administrator will open up a dead server, replace the guts and bring it back to life.

If you work in a data-center, the estimate is that one out of three of your servers are "zombie servers" that are on, consuming power, but not being used at all.

Programmers are always in search of "dead code," which takes up space, but is never actually run.

Most importantly, if you've been working in IT long enough, you are probably dead inside.

Weatherman

You're used to storing things in the cloud.

Guide

Sometimes "click here" or "Press any key to continue" is not enough instruction. Users who have trouble with commands such as this need support and guidance. If you commonly deal with PEBKAC (problem exists between keyboard and chair) then you have the exact skill set needed to be a guide.

• The first step is to choose a place tourists go. Yellowstone National Park might be one.
• Two, get a map of the park and offer to show tourists around.
• Finally, realize that stupidity goes beyond computers, as your customers try to take a selfie with an angry bison or try to hand-feed the wolves.