Midlife change up.

• Author: BECK, CATHIE
• Position: Career changes - Brief Article

GROWING NUMBERS MAKE CAREER LEAP TO TECH

SHE BEGAN HER CAREER in what she calls "a helping profession." When her office received complaints of child abuse or neglect, she was sent to investigate. "I'd assess the situation," says Jennifer Lacerda, "and then determine whether foster care, special services, and/or the legal system was the way to go."

Today, Lacerda rarely sees a child, and she knows little about what's happening within the social welfare system.

Instead, her time is spent studying networking systems, coding software, and solving ongoing computer problems. Rather than depending on the telephone or car to get her work done, she now relies on a keyboard, a Unix operating system and the Internet.

Larcerda is among a growing number of professionals who are jumping ship on initial careers, plunging head-on into the technology-related work force. About half of the 1,100 or so students enrolled in the master's program in computer information technology at Regis University are career-changers, school officials said.

Often the reasons behind the shifts in career tracks are as dramatic as the change itself. "I was extremely unhappy with bureaucracy, and wasn't sure if I was really making a difference in anyone's life," says Lacerda. "I was just generally unhappy and wanted a career where I wouldn't have to be so intrusive in people's lives, so I left social work and enrolled in the Women in Computer Sciences program at Denver University. I don't think child protection investigators are widely thought of as great people. And I felt I wasn't being paid enough to do what I was doing. I wanted to go into a field where I would be able to continue getting raises and bonuses -- which just wasn't possible in social work."

Ah, yes, the money to be made in technology!

Regis instructor Judy Kendall, an Oracle database administrator and instructor in wide-area and local-area networking, says the promise of increased earnings often drives students to her classroom -- whether they admit it or not. After more than 10 years teaching in Regis' graduate program, Kendall says that students often are motivated by dollar signs, but they can have unrealistic expectations. "If you ask students about their motivation to pursue technology-related education, they may say, 'I want to be challenged,"' says Kendall. "But often it's about money. Many believe that they're going to go out and make a lot of money very quickly"

Heidi Hendricks was not one of the...