Claudia,

 

Since you’ve worked on the IT-ecommerce side, making the transition to the business-ecommerce side is probably not such a big move. I guess it very much depends how you see the future in ecommerce and in IT. As an MBA one of the things to consider are the PEST factors (Google Wiki PEST), which stands for Political, Economical, Social and Technological.

 

Having 20 years in IT puts you in the late thirtees to mid fortees. Now from a SOCIAL perspective IT opportunities become few and far between once you hit mid 40s and they almost disappear when you get to 50. Anecdotally, IT discriminates against age. From a TECHNOLOGICAL perspective, I have not met many 50 year old Java programmers. Most of my 50+ contemporaries have moved onto the business side or have started their own businesses that are non-IT related. I, for one, is moving into psychology and has been retraining as a Psychologist (Using the same transferable Analysis/Solution skill set in a different domain).  Psychology tends to value life experience and age is an advantage.

POLITICALLY my government in OZ wants us to work till 67 years of age, which creates a few ECONOMICAL problems – one is the age and IT dilemma mentioned earlier. The other is supply/demand issues. I always hear of shortages in IT skills, BAs included, yet I know of many seasoned/upskilled BAs that cannot find work. It appears that BAs do have a “use by” or “best before” date (Pardon the perishable goods analogy)

 

In the short term what are the IT or Business demands that you can supply, whilst considering the rest of the PEST issues.

 

This is a different perspective and some food for thought as you deliberate your next career move.

 

Oh yes, if nothing else works, there is always LOTTO!

 

Warm regards,

K