Dear all,
In response to "is this career worth pursuing" I would like to ask the board if this career is something I can pursue. I have tried to find neutral career information but it does not seem to exist.
I live in London and are in my early forties. I have done an impressive career rising to CIO level in the financial sector but lately have come to the conclusion I would like to do something a bit more meaningful with my live. Despite having been in top management I do have a very current set of low level technical skills, mainly due to personal interest, having been a unix sysadmin and a windows/msdos guru since I was fifteen.
I have my powerpoint background from the boardroom but I would like to get back to the "real" stuff where I would gain inspiration through achievement. On answer to the typical initial response on this board, I don't watch CSI and actually do have a fair grasp of what the work in practice is, through CISO connections in the corporate world, and I don't see six figure pound signs shining in the horizon either.
My current and only education is a MSc from information technology and data communications, which doesn't look too bad, and as I have some financial reserves I can pull, I am now desperately trying to find out what would be the best education path forward.
My question to the board is, is this actually worth doing before I start dropping thousands of pounds to courses? Of course I want to find employment in that field but would it be in my case possible to start more or less from the bottom? Would anyone hire a person like me or are you supposed to take this path in the university and enter as a rookie in your early twenties? I am currently trying to volunteer to Metropolitan police to get some practical experience in the field but their volunteer selection process seems to be overburdened because of many application submitted before the olympics, I guess in hope of getting free entrance to the games…
So what do you think? Go for it or go back to the ivory tower?
If "go for it", what would be in practice the best education path forward? I have been looking for courses and certifications. Most courses seem to cover basic stuff like file system structure, TCP/IP basics and so on, which is something I already know better than most lecturers do. Some of these would give some Cxxx -letters to be added my CV, though. On the other hand, EnCE seems to be something many job advertisements require and that would be something completely new, FTK seems to be another of those.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Hannu