I quit and will be starting my first of a two year pre-law program in two weeks. I'm quitting for a reason I haven't seen represented in the thread: "It's not even what I wanted to do as a career when I finished college" I only ended up in IT when my first job at a law firm as a file clerk nearly ended due to workforce reductions at a mid-sized law firm-an attorney I had helped in a big way solve a rather mundane word processor problem vouched that the company should keep me on and assign me to the help desk.
I found that I was very good at the work, thirteen years later I woke up one day really wanting to actually use my humanities degree (PoliSci and Public Policy) and that my joy of doing computers for other people was gone, and I didn't have the patience to keep up with where tech was going to stay competitive.
That, and the current state of affairs for people in my social group (African-Americans) compelled me to go back and do what I wanted to in college: fight for better laws and fair access to public resources.
nb4 "The legal profession isn't what it used to be, you [probably] wont become some rich attorney" to which I say "Good. Because that's not what I want to be. I don't want to be rich, I want to be good at what I do and give my kids something to be proud of come career day that isn't "he fixes computers at the local call center".
tl;dr - I have a humanities degree and I got tired of not using it for almost fifteen years.
I'm disappointed you are leaving tech. I wish there were more opportunities in tech that fulfilled your desire to fight for better laws and access to public resources. I suppose I'm happy you aren't leaving because of discrimination (making the assumption your social group represents your heritage...)
Thanks. On the one hand, there are opportunities just like that; they don't appeal to me however-or perhaps more clearly, many of them exist in a different context of practicing law than the one I'm interested in (public defense and mitigation). As I said, I only ended up in tech when early in my career I almost lost a job with a great law firm after I finished my Politics degree.
I got complacent on the help desk because the position paid more than being a file clerk and just never really got back to the legal world. To be honest, I'm going-pure and simple because this is the track I wanted to be from the beginning. As time went on, my legal skills stagnated to the point where I couldn't even get call backs because it had been more than a few years since working in a legal services capacity and the only experience I had was a resume full of help desk work. At 23, I was chasing money and girls and not really thinking about building a career.
Ah. Youth. :)
Here I am now a lead DevOps engineer who is legitimately and thoroughly burned out on tech-although I love the company I'm with right now. They give me time to deal with school stuff, and I've been talking with our CEO who is more than interested in my career plans about changing roles to work under our legal council in a few months-who could really use a 2nd-hand.
I suppose I'm happy you aren't leaving because of discrimination (making the assumption your social group represents your heritage...)
Honestly, not terribly much or at least none of it overt; I did a reasonable job of learning to pick battles when 'those' sort of moments happened-but there honestly weren't enough of them for me to remark on as something that stands out in my career. There were definitely your obtuse, bloviating managers who thought they were God's gift to the workforce, but that's not unique to working in tech, and I've seen that type of attitude transcend race and ethnicity so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Edit: I will mention this: I was VERY often the only black person at many of the companies I worked for, but Austin also has a crisis of African-Americans fleeing the city at astonishing rates.
Does your city have an open data initiative? That's a good start; Austin is working on turning a lot of paper forms into webforms to make it easier to request various city resources.
I think for a lot of new people in the legal profession, the concern is not so much that one won't get rich, but more that one will have trouble finding well-paid work at all- not that you personally will encounter that issue, necessarily. But I take your point of course.
That's a solid point. I brought up that particular topic because it's something a lot of people have told me (curiously, none of them worked in law or even anywhere near it so I smiled politely and listened to their points).
That said, it's not like that very thought isn't something that's on my mind, because it is-every day. It's a leading reason for why I have my eyeball on the University of North Texas' Law School and their current struggles receiving an ABA accreditation-without this, even should I graduate with a JD, I wouldn't be able to sit for the bar. UNT has a very affordable program that so far has been receiving positive remarks from the legal community and her students.
Plus as an Austin resident with extended family in Houston, well it's more than an ideal location.
Nonetheless, the concern you highlighted is definitely a valid one and it is one that's definitely influencing decisions through this career pivot.
I found that I was very good at the work, thirteen years later I woke up one day really wanting to actually use my humanities degree (PoliSci and Public Policy) and that my joy of doing computers for other people was gone, and I didn't have the patience to keep up with where tech was going to stay competitive.
That, and the current state of affairs for people in my social group (African-Americans) compelled me to go back and do what I wanted to in college: fight for better laws and fair access to public resources.
nb4 "The legal profession isn't what it used to be, you [probably] wont become some rich attorney" to which I say "Good. Because that's not what I want to be. I don't want to be rich, I want to be good at what I do and give my kids something to be proud of come career day that isn't "he fixes computers at the local call center".
tl;dr - I have a humanities degree and I got tired of not using it for almost fifteen years.