Is now the right time to move jobs?

learoy

Hi All,

I am looking for career advice and I was hoping you could help me make a decision re my career.

To cut a long story short I graduated with an IT degree in 2005, I work in the IT industry until 2010. I moved abroad and was lucky enough to find a permanent role and I built on my experience whilst living abroad.
Despite the recession I moved to Cork in 2010 and I jumped at the first job I was offered.

15 months later I am still in the same role and I am not sure where I should go from here.

The role does not match my career path I am working in an operations department and the Salary does not match my salary expectations. (My current salary is the same as the graduate salary I was on in 2005)
However I really enjoy the work environment despite the long hours and I have made great friends with my work colleagues. I know I am lucky to have employment but my questions are follows:

• Should I stay in the role because I enjoy going to work?
• My Current role is fixed term contract- I have been told I am next in line for a Pernament Position.
• The Company is large multinational company which should mean there will be alot of opportunities for me to grow within the company. (However I recently applied for a couple of roles which suit my experience but I have had no luck yet.)

My main reason for wanting to look for another role in another company is because I am running out of patience. I have been promised a permanent role for 10months now and a pernament role is important to me because I want to buy a home and start a family this year.

I am also eager to get back into the IT industry before my 5years of IT industry is out of date and I want to maximise my salary potential in the IT industry.

Should I be patient for bit longer and focus all my energy on my current role in the hope that I will be offered a pernament role and eventually move internally as opportunities arise or should I start looking else where now?
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Moonbeam

There are loads of IT jobs out there but the majority of them seem to be in Dublin.
There is no harm looking for a job and seeing what happens:)

Mr. Loverman

Job happiness is hard to find, so if you are happy in your current job and you aren't struggling financially, I would seriously consider staying put.

Could you do some IT stuff on the side, e.g. set up some kind of online technology business? Bad example, but imagine you wrote software which can power discussion forums.

Joe10000

Remember that 80% of the population is working and the IT sector currently has a massive skills defecit so my tuppence worth is to go for it as its a good time to be in IT.

iceman777

I've worked in IT for 12 years and it's actually shocked me that so many people have moved jobs in the last 12-18 months.

What I am seeing though is a lot more companies are paying really high salaries, but you don't get a pension contribution or health care with them. I know of one lad who moved the very end of 2011 and is now on 75% more in his new job.

I think the average increase in salary for people I know has been 40%, while keeping the perks they had initially e.g. VHI, pension, phone, car allowance etc.

Outside of Dublin there are loads of jobs, particularly in Galway.
Companies in the Midlands, predominantly Athlone and even Limerick are taking on lots of people currently.

I know lots of people heading to Canada, Sweden, Australia and Germany to take on IT related jobs if a role abroad floats your boat as well.

What type of IT jobs Iceman77?

iceman777

From testers, developers, project management, Program Office Managerment, Scrum masters, Product Owners etc. - a whole array of jobs in IT.

I don't really work in the hardware side of things, but I do know that some friends of mine are having great luck in Limerick for jobs

JSP

iceman777 wrote: »

From testers, developers, project management, Program Office Managerment, Scrum masters, Product Owners etc. - a whole array of jobs in IT.

I don't really work in the hardware side of things, but I do know that some friends of mine are having great luck in Limerick for jobs

That's very good news. Specifically, what type of skills are in demand?
Anything in EDI?

mickman

plenty of jobs in cork at the moment also. All the multi nationals hiring.

good people are getting very good salaries

JSP

mickman wrote: »

plenty of jobs in cork at the moment also. All the multi nationals hiring.

good people are getting very good salaries

Are these jobs listed on the job boards online? Are the companies advertising the jobs or are they going through IT recruiters?

boobar

learoy wrote: »

Hi All,

I am looking for career advice and I was hoping you could help me make a decision re my career.

To cut a long story short I graduated with an IT degree in 2005, I work in the IT industry until 2010. I moved abroad and was lucky enough to find a permanent role and I built on my experience whilst living abroad.
Despite the recession I moved to Cork in 2010 and I jumped at the first job I was offered.

15 months later I am still in the same role and I am not sure where I should go from here.

The role does not match my career path I am working in an operations department and the Salary does not match my salary expectations. (My current salary is the same as the graduate salary I was on in 2005)
However I really enjoy the work environment despite the long hours and I have made great friends with my work colleagues. I know I am lucky to have employment but my questions are follows:

• Should I stay in the role because I enjoy going to work?
• My Current role is fixed term contract- I have been told I am next in line for a Pernament Position.
• The Company is large multinational company which should mean there will be alot of opportunities for me to grow within the company. (However I recently applied for a couple of roles which suit my experience but I have had no luck yet.)

My main reason for wanting to look for another role in another company is because I am running out of patience. I have been promised a permanent role for 10months now and a pernament role is important to me because I want to buy a home and start a family this year.

I am also eager to get back into the IT industry before my 5years of IT industry is out of date and I want to maximise my salary potential in the IT industry.

Should I be patient for bit longer and focus all my energy on my current role in the hope that I will be offered a pernament role and eventually move internally as opportunities arise or should I start looking else where now?
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Personally I think you should focus on what your ideal job is and also where.

You mention you want to start a family and buy a house. So you should look at where you would like to raise a family and where you would like to live.

I think when one thinks about work, it seems that many look at the job first and next thing you know you've moved to Dublin and all your other life choices revolve around the Dublin location.

Once you know where it is you want to live, what kind of life you want (commute distance etc), you can look at the work decisions.

As many posters have already mentioned, IT is thriving as an industry at the moment, so there are opportunities in the country. a lot in Dublin, but elsewhere also.

I work in IT, communted to Dublin (4 hours round trip). I then moved to the midlands, got a job there, I have the IT role that I wanted, commute to work (40 minutes roundtrip), quality of life is excellent, and family life has worked out great.

Best of luck with your decision making.

fret_wimp2

The IT Industry is one of the few thats relatively unscathed by the recession. Dublin in particular has lots of IT jobs in all areas.

Irishjobs.ie is great, but i find that if you move in IT circles ( user groups, activities to do with your profession out of hours etc) with other professionals in your field you will find lots of jobs that are not advertised online.

JSP

fret_wimp2 wrote: »

The IT Industry is one of the few thats relatively unscathed by the recession. Dublin in particular has lots of IT jobs in all areas.

Irishjobs.ie is great, but i find that if you move in IT circles ( user groups, activities to do with your profession out of hours etc) with other professionals in your field you will find lots of jobs that are not advertised online.

Is MS Access Database (Forms, Reports, Visual Basic) still popular?
Is this skill set enough in itself to land something in the IT field?

mickman

JSP wrote: »

Are these jobs listed on the job boards online? Are the companies advertising the jobs or are they going through IT recruiters?

recruiters have most of them so you need to register and meet with them.

linkedin also good and of course word of mouth!