The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: Uturn on September 07, 2018, 10:48:16 AM
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I'm trying to figure out what to do next, and figured I would put it out to the hive mind.
The Stats:
48 years old, single, no kids
Sold my house in TX earlier this year and moved to NC
Network security engineer
No debt
2/3 to FIRE number
65% savings rate
Yeah, I know, this long in a high paying field, I should be done. Well, I fucked up and still have a few years before I can be FI.
I am not disgruntled and tired of working, but I am tired of going to the same place and sitting at the same desk day after day. So I am looking for other ways to make a living. I have tried sales twice in my career, I am not a salesman. In 2003, I was a long haul trucker, and realized that isn't the life for me. I like cyber/network/IT security, it's the same place same desk that I am tired of.
I loved being as sea when I was in the Navy. I think research vessels or cruise ships would be good, but so far I have not even figured out how to find jobs there.
I used to work for VARs in the 90's and loved it due to being at different customer sites often and always on a new project. I work for a VAR now, and it is not the roving job that I remember. I don't know if the VAR world has changed that much or if it is just my company.
So let's brainstorm. What should I be looking for and where do I look?
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How are your communication skills? A friend's brother does "something" (sorry, can't remember the exact position) similar to your position for a large corporation - but instead of sitting at a desk day to day, he actually travels around the world and does training etc. for the company's various satellite locations. Apparently there is a shortage of engineers with good communication skills (friendly, outgoing, sociable) who are also not tied down, thus putting him in a solid paying (like, high $100k or low $200k) and relatively secure position.
Might be something to consider since you are in a similar position life-wise and are tired of sitting in the same desk everyday. :)
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Being 48 and 2/3 of the way to FI is commendable --people stumble into FIRE at different ages and we all have had financial fuck ups.
But there's a problem with what you're looking to do. Giving up network security to work on a cruise ship would probably kill your FI timeline. Instead, would you consider becoming an independent contractor in your current field? Maybe do some implementation and also strategy? This way you could make more money, but there would be some variety. You could take jobs at interesting locations around the country and AirBnB becomes a business expense.
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Research specific jobs, job titles, and other categories or clusters work that are as similar as possible to your current job, just in other organizations.
Look for job listings that have "travel" in the job description.
The point being, stick with what you love and get well paid for. Somewhere, there are employers who need someone to do exactly what you are looking for. No career change needed, just research. Use LinkedIn, personal networking, etc persistently. Communicate with people on multiple channels until you find examples of the right thing. Then find all the instances of each example! You'll find one that's open and pining for someone like you.
If you need step by step research directions, fall back on What Color is Your Parachute. Or Google "how to do informational interviews", make a checklist, use that as your question guide when contacting people and researching positions.
PS. I have a relative who hates his job because he "doesn't want to set foot on one more military base." He tests and upgrades network security for military installations, but as a civilian contractor. If you can pass background checks and communicate via the military's organizational protocols, you could include such contractors in your search. He goes to new sites every month or two, usually a couple weeks at a time, for the field portion of their work.
Also - if you don't mind writing reports at the end of a visit, you could become an IT auditor. Get CISA certified; audit a new org or system every few months. Money might be close to what you're used to. I doubt you need to go that far afield to get what you want, but with your skills, they'd love you. Normally an auditor should be good at interviewing people, and analyzing business risks as well as IT ones, but with your background, other team members could do that while you focused on the IT part.
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A family member of mine went from being a chemical engineer to a software consultant at SAP. He was able to work with big chemical companies during their system implementations and provide translations between the client, the sales team, and the software team developing the new system (each group speaks their own language). It involved a lot of travel (100%) but the project duration varied so he would end up in different places over time.