New Year - New Challenge

[fitzsteve]

Hey Peeps,

Firstly, happy New Year to all

I thought I'd share with you all some news. I left my Job at the end of 2012 as I was fed up with Estate Agency! I'm looking for a new Job in 2013 or a new challenge, I've not yet decided what I want to do full time, I may re-train like getting an open university degree or try to start some kind of apprenticeship with training.

I've done jobs for the last 10 years I didn't really enjoy, I spent 7 years working for a trade union that was meant to just be a temp job (2 weeks work lol!) but I ended up getting kept on full time. It was very easy work (data entry and working with excel/databases) a fun place to work but the Job was boring and didn't go anywhere until eventually our offices were closed and I took voluntary redundancy. That was April 2011 and I was lucky to get a pretty decent package.

I ended up going back into Estate Agency which was the job I was doing before the Union which I left for similar reasons...

Before that I done some work in retail before moving to a company called Computacentre which was a really great place to work, I was training to be an engineer/technician in their Laptop repair department and had just completed Toshiba Certification and was to go onto do IBM and Cisco courses before leaving which I really regret now

I left to change area's, I moved to Kent to be with my wife Sarah, so it's not all bad since we've been happily together for 12 years. But I do regret not keeping that career on track...

So now in 2013 I think it's time I sorted out my professional life and try to acheive the heights I know are possible, hopefully at 33 it's not too late for me...

One reason I'm posting here is that whilst I'm out of work I'll be concentrating on selling some of my Retr0 collection, I may therefore need to change my Amibay Status so I'll be discussing that with the mods as it might be an idea to have a separate section for all my sales threads if I'm listing up a lot of items. Maybe a private traders sales section? Just thinking out load really now!

Anyway, as I said 2013 will be a new start for me. I wish everyone a happy new year and a prosperous 2013

Steve.

 

[mjnurney]

Good luck Steve with all you endeavours, I'm sure you will do well in whatever you choose.

I wish I had done the same years ago ...

 

[slk486]

Good luck mate! If you show the same dedication to your job and future career that you do to your Amigas, you'll be just fine

 

[cosmicfrog]

lol watch out aery steve is hunting you down

all the best m8, am sure you will sucssed at anything you try to do, one day I my even be able to spell

 

[johnim]

good luck stevo on whatever you decide to do

 

[fitzsteve]

Thanks for the kind words guys. I really feel positive about this year

I'm looking forward to Amimeet this year and not having to worry about working Saturdays and missing the events.

Hope to see you all this year at the events!

 

[johnim]

hope to see you too steve mate

 

[iainjh]

good luck with the new direction steve. I also changed direction last year (I'm sure I'll continue to change direction I guess for years to come) and I'm sure you'll find it a great thing to do.

new year new opportunities etc!

 

[roy_bates]

good luck in whatever you to do steve.

 

[AmiNeo]

Hey Steve, happy new year! You're not the only one making a new start this year, though for me it wont be until the summer when I finally move out!

Kudos to you for breaking away and pushing for something new! It takes guts to recognise that you're not happy, even more to do something about it.

Cisco is definitely worth looking into. I've done CCNA myself so I know that stuff fairly well, I'm going through it again but newer syllabus as part of my degree, but I haven't managed to get anywhere with it as I'm back in uni and much prefer programming / web stuff these days. I will say this though, people definitely sit up and start listening when you mention Cisco on a CV, lol. I've had some very enthusiastic people call me since it went on, lol. Most were sadly too far for me to travel to though for any chance of it working out at the time.

If you were to go down that route I'd be happy to give you a hand when it comes to some more advanced topics.

Check out colleges in your area, some do Cisco CCNA as night courses and can be cheaper than professional training. You can actually just sit the exam any time by paying for it too, and the course materials you can buy on Amazon . There's just a heck of a lot to take in for self study, and you wont get much practice on real hardware. The books do come with simulation software though which helps a lot.

Whatever you decide though, all the best with it

 

[Retrograde]

Hey Steve, happy New Year!

I changed my line of business a couple years ago and so far it's only been good to me! This was when I was 34 or thereabouts, definitely far from too late.

Remember that while technical skills are important for several positions experience in general goes quite some way too. People skills; if you're good at dealing with customers and suppliers, coworkers, other teams at other departments etc.
Figure out what you want to do and how and go for it!

 

[Paul_s]

Good luck with it Steve, doing something similar to you... I've had enough of ICT these past 14 years so I'm going to re-take my GCSEs this year... then do some teacher training... it's kinda exciting to finally do something worthwhile rather than sit behind a screen 7 hours a day!!

 

[CrazyC]

Good luck mate, from another Kent resident.

Sent from my HTC One X.

 

[RED IMPACT]

Good luck for 2013 and beyond!

 

[supaduper]

Good luck steve you`ll do fine because you are a clever bloke,
I have some `cockney` family down in Sittingbourne Kent, its quite funny when us Brummie family and cockney family get together LoL

 

[fitzsteve]

Thanks for the support guys

@Paul_s good luck with the teacher training

 

[User1301]

Good luck Steve - I'm sure you will be fine

Cheers

John

 

[Firthy2002]

Good luck Steve. Whatever happens, the key is not to give up hope.

I recently got back into ICT last year after over 2 and a half years of being stuck in a job I loathed. I went all out, aced the interview and couldn't be happier in this job I'm doing now.

Whatever you decide to do, stay vigilant, the next great opportunity could appear from nowhere!

 

[ad-rs1600i]

Good luck Steve, I sure you will be fine

You love tinkering with computers, particularly hardware so it seems, so why not get into hardware maintenance or similar as a starting block? Or get Microsoft certified or Linux certified to work in IT maintenance. I work in IT maintenance, and it is a good stepping stone to anything else in IT

Do it mate!

 

[DutchinUSA]

Steve, I wanna say "what SLK486" said ... hehe

You definitely seem to be very organized and detailed oriented which will help you in any path you chose to pursue ! (which I had some of that .. lol).

Good Luck mate, you can do eeeeeeeeeeet