Lateral career move (from healthcare to healthcare IT)

[Civex]

Hello Mustachians!


Hoping to receive more excellent advise from this forum. I'm always impressed with the collective knowledge shared!

The large corporation I work for has opened a position that would essentially take someone with my background in healthcare and have them cross trained in IT to assist in IT/my specialty collaboration.

I'm tempted to apply for the position because it would give me the opportunity to learn an entirely new area as well as move into a remote roll. Honestly, the learning a new area appeals more than the remote portion as I'm a bit introvert already and some office interaction seems healthy. The position is the same payscale as my current role, but requires more hours; I'm currently salaried at 32 hours/week and the new role would be 40. So, a modest raise after taxes.

I'm torn because I have a, "good" position-great hours, flexibility, some seniority (7 years in role), and great relationship with coworkers/direct manager. BUT, I've been doing the same thing for 7 years and I feel a bit stuck. If I want to make more money, I need to move into healthcare admin which doesn't appeal; generally, if I want to learn a new area, I need to generally give up great hours (no nights, no weekends, no Holidays.)

For background, I'm hitting mid 30s, spouse and I are both in professional positions making decent money. Two young kids. Close to 7 figure portfolio and total debt is <1 year HHI.  I'm interested, but worried it's foolish to give up a good situation for an unknown. For what its worth, I've already told my manager I'm interested-I think we've worked together long enough that if I want it, he will be supportive; he's already told me he is on the interview committee.

Should I throw my hat in the ring or stick with what I have?

Thanks for any input, thoughts, or recommendations! All are appreciated! :D

PS I crossposted to Bogleheads, but in hindsight there might be more of an IT representation here.

[ChickenStash]

I've worked in healthcare IT for most of my career, but mainly on the infrastructure side (network/server/storage) rather than clinical app/workflow so I can't offer specific advice there. It can be a fun and challenging environment to work in. Healthcare IT has a very broad range of specialties so once you get in the door there's a lot of options for growth into other areas that might be interesting.

Since you mentioned hours, make absolutely sure you know what the work environment is like regarding things like on-call, change windows, major upgrade schedules, or other things that would cause after-hours work. IT can be a cushy gig with the remote work and not having to deal with as many people, but since you might be supporting clinical staff, you'll often still need to be available when they are working or or often do things when they aren't working.

[Uturn]

I have also worked in healthcare IT, but on the infrastructure side, network and security.  I have never done any application support, so I cannot speak to the intricacies of that.  There are some things in IT that might be different than you are used to. 

On-call - the amount of on-call work will vary from company to company, and often this time is in addition to your normal work schedule. 
You don't get to choose when something breaks and this can lead to after hours work.
Scheduled outages - upgrades and taking things down for maintenance is scheduled for times best for the company and that may not be the best time for you.

I never really had any issues with the extra hours, but my ex sure did!

One of the best skills you will need is almost never listed in a job description.  You need to be adept at dealing with upset people.  No one is going to call the IT person and just chat, they call when something is broken and preventing them from doing their job.  When working with end users, I would say the people skills are more important than the technical skills.

I don't mean for this post to sound negative, I'm just pointing out things that I have seen new IT folks struggle with.  I have greatly enjoyed my IT career.