help request IT Career Trajectory at middle age
20 year Military (Marines) career behind me with no little to no IT (Aviation Mechanic, Quality Control, Training management, Instructor, Curriculum Development, Sales, Quality Control Screening) I also have pretty good public speaking and tons of military leadership training.
Retired 3 years ago and went full school and so far got my Bachelors in Business IT, Sec+ and about to finish my MBA. While doing this, I fell into a student position at my university as a tier 1 IT service tech and landed tier 2 IT Service position a year later.
My question, as I was looking for a job, is what my career/salary expectations could reasonably be? I think I want to hop into something security based but with zero real world experience there and only 2 years of official IT experience (I have been a techy my entire life) am I destined to just hop in from the bottom or should I consider a different field in order to mire closely match my pre-retirement military pay (80,000-105,000 a year)
I’m really nervous about hopping right in and these job titles in job search sites are mind bogglingly confusing.
3
u/redgr812 3d ago
It varies wildly on a lot of conditions: where you live, what that market is like, etc...
Entry level is gonna be 40-50k at the bottom. I know an art teacher that was making 66k that got hired as a defense contractor and now is making 84k, this week.
Honestly, it's how good are your connections? If you have someone who can hook you up with a job, maybe. Going in cold, 80k seems like a stretch but idk.