So afraid for career, need career guidence.

[Angela D'souza]

Hi,
I have degree in Bachelor in Microbiology, Medical Technology and Computer science. I am PMP certified. I started my IT career in 1995. I have worked for Cisco, Konica from 1998-2003. Then i gave birth my son in 2003. Due to his medical condition i have to be home for 5 yrs.(2003-2008). During those five years i was doing website design from home. But i couldn't do much in that because i had to spend time with my son too. In 2009 i got job as PM and after 4 months due to budget cut, i got laid off.

Now i can see that not many jobs as compared to 1998-2003. I understand economy is worst. But also i heard that so many IT companies are migrating their department to India and China. Is that true? What will be future of IT in US? I am so confused. Should I spend my time pursing for IT job or healthcare job or starting own business like subway, gas station. I don't how IT market will be after 5 yrs. in USA.
Any suggestion???

Thank You,
Angela

[Jacquie Barker]

Angela, I have good news: it's never too late to get back into the swing of things!

I have a dear friend who left an IT career path for eight years to raise her two children ... when she was ready to go back to work, she was quite worried about how she'd ever get caught back up again.

I sent her a copy of my "Tidal Wave" book, which gave her the confidence to dive back into the job market -- she realized that she had lots of fundamental IT skills to "sell" to potential employers (as I am sure you do, too) -- and she's now happily involved in mainstream IT technology once more.

Please email me at [e-mail] so that we may chat further!

Cheers,

Jacquie

[chris webster]

Hi Angela,

Your qualifications sound very impressive, so I hope you can build on these and your experience to get back into a fulfilling job. Given your background, have you thought about specialist areas such as bioinformatics e.g. working for healthcare organisations or pharma companies? My impression (here in the UK at least) is that these specialist areas are perhaps less likely to be hit by the tendency to shift IT production offshore to the great programming barns of Bangalore. Also, is there scope for you to build on your existing qualifications? For example, many universities these days offer distance-learning and part-time study programmes that can be pursued even if you are already working. Is there a suitably interesting employer in your area who might let you work for free/low wage (if you can afford it) for a few months to demonstrate the value of your skills in exchange for the opportunity for you to update and extend those skills?

Good luck.

Chris