How to get out of IT?

 

Been out of work for a long time (10 years) and was wondering if i should include my previous jobs, etc in a new resume?

Don't wanna trauma dump here but looking for some advice. My last actual job was in 2017, got hurt right before starting an apprenticeship as a Crane operator. Took a quite a while to heal enough to walk, then physio, then the pandemic happened. I tried to find work with no avail for months this was around 2022, without getting too deep, as its pretty embarrassing i had a mental breakdown and resigned to the fact that i was unemployable, and stopped trying and really lost control and gained a lot of weight.

Since then, i've become my Dads primary caretaker, and lost 200ibs. All in all im in a good head space.

I've been stuck trying to write a resume and CV. Kinda struggling how to explain the large gap, unfortunately my previous employers have gone out of business, and i've lost contact with my former supervisors and work friends, so beyond using actual friends as references i don't really have any. A lot of my skills and certificates are out of date, so im not sure if i should still list them? Should i list my previous jobs and what i did there even if they are from like, 2013-2017? Im very overwhelmed and just want to try to get some semblance of a life. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, and thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

Jobadvisor

What a journey you've been on — and the fact that you've lost 200lbs, cared for your dad, and are now ready to rebuild says a lot about your character. That's exactly the kind of resilience employers value, even if it doesn't feel that way right now.

Here's practical advice on each of your questions:

Yes, include your previous jobs (2013–2017) A gap doesn't erase your work history. List those jobs with titles, company names, dates, and bullet points describing what you did. Even if the companies are gone, the experience is still real and verifiable through your own account of it. Gaps are far more common than people think, especially post-pandemic.

Address the gap briefly and directly You don't need to trauma dump — a simple, neutral line handles it. Something like:

2017–2025: Extended leave to recover from a serious injury and serve as primary caregiver for an ill family member.

That's it. Both are genuinely respected reasons. You don't owe anyone more than that.

List expired certificates, but note them honestly Include them with the expiry date or a note like "certification lapsed — renewal in progress." It shows you had the training and signals you're working to get current. Some employers will even sponsor recertification for the right candidate.

On references Personal references (friends who can speak to your character and reliability) are legitimate, especially when re-entering the workforce. Just be honest that your previous employers have since closed. You can frame it as: "References available — previous employers no longer operating; personal and character references provided."

One practical tip Consider a functional or hybrid resume format rather than a strictly chronological one. It lets you lead with a skills summary at the top, which draws attention to what you can do before the reader sees the timeline.

You're not as far behind as you feel. You have real trade skills, real work history, and a genuinely compelling story of resilience. Wishing you the best with it.

I dont think there's a way up but also is it even right for me??

My job atmosphere is great, people, owners, bosses etc. Ive worked here almost 2 years but I dont see a way up really. And even with- the salary is nearly the same so ive heard from my superior.

Money aside- I dont get to really *think* on my day to day. Its do this for this or that for that. It Works, its effective. Its great! My issue is i want to challenge myself, really think, process, problem solve on a higher level. I do this day to day but its so mundane and simple and I desire much more thought.

Can i get some ideas of positions to apply for where i can actually think about things instead of just do? I really want to be in a position where i can manage problems, talk to people, and make solutions. I mean technically I do this but I want to be at a higher level. For reference I work in pest control.

Jobadvisor

You clearly have a strong sense of self-awareness about what drives you — that's actually rare, and it'll serve you well in a job search.

Based on what you're describing (problem-solving, people interaction, managing situations, finding solutions), here are some directions worth exploring:

Staying adjacent to your field

• Pest control operations manager / branch manager — even if your current company doesn't have a path, other companies do. Your field experience is valuable here.
• Environmental health & safety (EHS) coordinator — involves inspections, compliance, problem-solving, and talking to people. Your pest control background transfers surprisingly well.
• Public health inspector / environmental health officer — depending on your country, this may require some certification but is very achievable.

Making a lateral move with transferable skills

• Facilities manager — oversees building operations, coordinates vendors, solves problems daily. Very people-and-solutions oriented.
• Field service manager / operations coordinator — common in utilities, HVAC, construction. You manage logistics, people, and problems.
• Account manager or service manager — client-facing, solution-oriented, often in technical industries where your practical background is a plus.

Longer-term if you want to study

• Project management (a PMP cert or similar opens a lot of doors)
• Business operations / consulting

The thread connecting all of these is that you're describing operations and problem-solving with people — which is essentially management or coordination work. You don't necessarily need a degree to get there, just demonstrated experience making decisions and solving problems, which you already have.

What country are you in? That'd help narrow it down further.

A company I applied for asked what my salary expectations are, and I gave them a range starting from my current salary to $5k above it, and matches the general market. They just responded with an offer 6k below my current one. How should I proceed?

So my current job I make a decent salary for my area. However my current boss is extremely toxic and manipulative, and I feel burnt out and want to leave, especially since my current position has no room or steps in encouraging growth, both personally and careerwise, its dead end.

I have been applying to a stem job in my area and one of the places I applied to responded back that they were interested in my application. Among the questions they asked me, they wanted to know what my salary expectations were. I have them a range from my current salary to 5k above it. They responded back with a salary $6k below what I currently make, but said within a year there they might be able to get me closer to 3k below my current salary based on their bonus incentive program.

How should I respond? I'm not exactly happy that it's lower than my current job since I have bills to pay/etc and things are getting more and more expensive, so I am hoping I could phrase it in a way where I can at the very least have my current salary but I'm not sure how to. But honestly my current job is very toxic so should I just go ahead and take the pay cut? Or could I possibly renegotiate a bit? Thank you

Jobadvisor

You should absolutely try to negotiate before deciding — you have nothing to lose by asking, and companies often make a low first offer expecting pushback.

A few thoughts on your situation first: the fact that they came in $6k below your stated floor is a yellow flag. It either means budget constraints, or they're testing you. The "maybe $3k below in a year via bonuses" framing is also worth being cautious about — bonuses are never guaranteed. Don't mentally spend money that isn't in your base salary.

That said, here's a response you could send:On the bigger question of whether to take it even if they won't budge: only you can weigh that. A toxic job has real costs — to your health, your performance, and your long-term career. But a $6k pay cut with rising bills is also a real strain. If you do negotiate and they still won't move, it's worth asking yourself how long you can realistically sustain the financial hit while you keep applying elsewhere. Leaving doesn't have to mean this job — it just means keep the search going.

Am I Overvaluing Myself as A Hardware Manager?

I've been at the same company for 8 years and worked my way up to management in 2. When I first started, the company was a small "mom and pop" store that had been around for 70+ years. With my help, we have expanded exponentially.

We have undergone a big expansion and doubled in size. Since doing so we now offer lumber, concrete, drywall, propane, riding mowers, pavers, stone, car key cutting and a small engine repair shop. There's more small things but these are things I've personally helped bring to the business over the past 6 years .

Almost everything above is my responsibility, including running the actual store. For 4 years straight, I have worked all but 3 to 5 weekends a year and those weekends are mostly by myself. While I’m okay with working weekends, it’s wearing thin on me. I have a co-manager who does her job, but I am the guy everything falls on because I actually take it on.

I have an open door policy, and customers and contractors rely heavily on me for a multitude of things. I also find parts for anything and everything (oven elements, old mower parts, vacuum parts, random items) and I'm damn good at it. If I'm not finding parts, I’m answering questions about repairs, how to's, and products. Sadly, my co-manager gets passed by a lot because she is a woman(people can be sexist in this business) and even though she is plenty capable, customers rely on me, and usually only me.

Running the repair shop is a massive job in itself. I don't do the physical repairs, but I handle ordering parts, paperwork, and billing. Sometimes we have 10+ machines of different brands, types, and years, meaning I have to source parts from completely different vendors. It takes a tremendous amount of focus all while running the rest of the store.

After 8 years, I am making $26 an hour which I pretty average Google tells me. To be fair to my boss, he helped me out with a $10,000 loan(business to me no contract) 2 years ago, and I get a $2,500 Christmas bonus. While that does boost my effective wage, I have only gotten two raises in the last 2.5 years (up from $24). Honestly, I feel like I've earned that loan off twice over with the amount of unpaid stress and work I do.

Here is what is pushing me over the edge:

My secretary makes a lot more than me. I don't hate her for it, but it is deeply insulting considering the responsibility I carry.

I only get 2 weeks of PTO, and it only goes up by one week every 5 years. I think that's terrible.

I have told my boss two weeks ago that it’s time for a raise. He verbally agreed, but my pay is still at $26 and nothing has changed. Even if it's a $2 raise, I'm not sure that's enough.

Where do I go from here? I live in a small town in Montana, so wages aren't easy to come by, but I'm burnt out. I am strongly considering updating my resume and looking elsewhere. I don't have a college degree, but I have taught myself how to run a business from top to bottom. I know the ins and outs of residential construction, and I have specialized vendor/parts knowledge for major brands like Toro, Stihl, Cub Cadet, Ego, and MTD. I have found dropship vendors for things like lumber, drywall, stone and certain power tools that were not easy in my demographic with logistics and shipping. I have done and taught most of this by my own willpower and hard work. Now it's not all me as my boss has written the checks and done a lot himself but I've done my part and more. My employees love me, and I have proven management experience.

I feel like I could easily pivot to a corporate role at a manufacturer, a big-box store (Home Depot/Lowe's management), or a construction-adjacent job. There's many options I think, I just don't know where to start.

Am I overvaluing myself here? What are my possibilities with this kind of background, and how should I handle the conversation with my boss while I look? I love that store to death but that love is starting to fade as I get more burnt out. I respect the hell out of my owner and we have talked about the future and that I will eventually take over part ownership (I'm not entirely sure what this entails) but that is many years from now. It's just tough because it's not like it's a massive business and he can pay me $100,000 a year but $26 is just not cutting it for what I'm putting my mental health through.

Jobadvisor

You're not overvaluing yourself — not even close. What you're describing is essentially a general manager role, and you're being paid like a floor supervisor.

On your actual market value

What you've built is a genuinely impressive operations resume: multi-department retail management, vendor sourcing and logistics, small engine repair shop administration, parts specialist knowledge across major brands, and you helped scale a business from a small local store into something significantly larger. In a bigger market, that's a $55–75k+ role easily. Even in Montana, $26/hr for that scope is underpaid.

The secretary earning more is a real signal — it means the owner can pay more, he's just not prioritizing it for you.

On the boss conversation

You've already told him two weeks ago and nothing happened. That's the real problem. A verbal agreement with no follow-through isn't a raise — it's a stall. Go back and make it concrete:

"I want to follow up on our conversation from two weeks ago. I'd like to set a specific number and a date it takes effect. What can we make happen?"

Put a number on it yourself — don't wait for him to offer. Based on your responsibilities, $32–35/hr is a reasonable ask. If he balks, you can negotiate down. If he stalls again, you have your answer.

On the "future ownership" conversation

Be careful here. Vague promises of partial ownership "many years from now" are not compensation. They're retention tools. Unless there's something in writing with actual terms, don't factor it into your decision-making.

On pivoting

Your instincts are right. Realistic targets:

• Home Depot / Lowe's department or store manager — your background maps almost perfectly, and they have structured pay and advancement
• Regional sales rep for brands like Toro, Stihl, or Cub Cadet — your vendor relationships and product knowledge are genuinely valuable to manufacturers
• Operations or facilities coordinator at a construction or property management company
• Purchasing / procurement coordinator — your parts-sourcing and vendor work is exactly this job

You don't need a degree for any of these. You need the resume that accurately reflects what you've actually been doing, which sounds like it's been undersold for years.

Start quietly updating your resume now. You're not being disloyal — you're being practical.

How to get out of IT?

I’ve been working in IT support for 21 years. My career is officially old enough to buy a beer, and honestly, it is at the point of driving me to drinking.

​I am currently working as a WinTel Tier 2 support tech. A while back, I left DevOps (SRE) to take this job, thinking it would be a step back into a more predictable, manageable environment. Boy, was I wrong.

​I am completely sick and tired of working in IT, and I genuinely wish I had never left the Helpdesk level. My current "Tier 2" role has me writing more code and fixing more architectural problems than I ever did in DevOps. It’s an absolute bait-and-switch. I’m stuck dealing with brutal change management deadlines on one side, and toxic, duct-taped legacy problems on the other that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

​I miss the days of the Helpdesk where the boundaries were clear: fix the printer, reset the password, close the ticket, and clock out at 5:00 PM without taking the stress home. Now, I'm carrying engineer-level stress on a support queue.

I honestly want to get out of IT completely. Is there any careers I could move into with my IT background and not be doing actual IT work? Or maybe something less stressful?

Jobadvisor

21 years in IT — especially spanning helpdesk, DevOps/SRE, and Tier 2 support — gives you a surprisingly transferable skillset that a lot of non-IT fields genuinely need. The key is figuring out which part of IT you're escaping from.

It sounds like what's burning you out is the technical depth and on-call stress, not necessarily technology itself. So here are paths that use your background without putting you back in a server room:

People-facing / teaching roles

• IT trainer or technical educator — corporate training departments, community colleges, or bootcamps. You explain tech to non-technical people. Low incident stress, clear boundaries.
• Technical writer — documenting systems, writing user guides and SOPs. Pays well, deeply solitary if you want that, and your hands-on experience makes you far better at it than most.

Process and operations (uses IT brain, not IT tools)

• Business analyst — bridges the gap between tech teams and business stakeholders. You translate, you don't fix. Your experience on both sides of that wall is genuinely valuable.
• IT project / program coordinator — managing timelines and vendors rather than systems. Gets you out of the technical weeds.
• Operations or process improvement roles — many companies need people who understand how systems and workflows break. You've lived that.

Completely adjacent

• Technical recruiter — placing IT professionals. You know the roles better than most recruiters ever will.
• Vendor or solutions sales engineer — if you have any tolerance for sales, companies like hardware or software vendors pay well for people who can speak credibly to technical buyers.
• Compliance / IT auditor — reviewing whether systems meet standards. More documentation than troubleshooting, structured hours.

The honest truth is that 21 years of IT experience is a credential in itself, even outside IT. The challenge is reframing your resume around what you understand rather than what you fix. You're not just a support tech — you're someone who's kept complex systems running under pressure for two decades. That reads differently to a business analyst hiring manager than it does to an IT director.

What aspects of your current work, if any, do you actually enjoy? That'd help narrow it down.