I am posting this for my friend, who recently quit his job because he was bullied at work by new management. He is in a dilemma now - to choose between programming or support job.

My friend started working for a shipping company right after he finished his Advanced Diploma. My friend didnt come from a very well family. When he decided to start working much earlier than all of us, we advised against it but he went for it still because he thinks he is not studying-type of person so he should go work earlier to help his parents lighten the family burden and save money for his sister who was coming out from school to study Biotech in college.

For 4 years, he struggled and managed to save enough for himself to further his studies to degree level and to get himself a Honda City. He completed his online degree (Univ of Portsmouth UK, by Informatics / Sunway, not sure) in 2005. Due to working and studying at the same time, his result was poor and he only got a Third Class Honours Degree. Soon after that, using his own money, he paid for his own MCSE and CCNA.

My friend recently resigned 2 months ago after being bullied by the new management for several months. Apparently, while he was still serving the company under the previous boss, he was very happy because the boss has made him travel across Malaysia to setup other branch offices. He was also sent to Myanmar and Indonesia to setup their branch office there. He does all the support and maintenance of their servers, PCs, printers, CCTV, keyphone system, etc. He is also the ones who makes decision on all IT based matters like new hardware, new software, antivirus, meeting with custom software programmers, etc. The old management treat him with respect and care even though he didnt have a degree but is very hardworking and always willing to learn. *Trust me, he's my friend, I know.

Earlier 2006, this company he worked for shifted their office, he was the one who  dismantle, pack, transport via lori, reconfigure and re-setup all the hardwares in the new office. Of course, Penny and I helped him out but we wont take credit from it because we only setup a few PCs for him while he did all the other hardwork.

After settling down in the new office, his boss told him that the shipping company needed a new custom software. The boss look highly upon him and told him to setup a team of programmers and write this custom software based on their own requirements. He learnt ASP.NET and C# diligently, did a trial run on a warehouse management system using ASP.NET and C#. I was the one who taught him, haha!! But halfway through his project, the new management took over, scrapped his idea and bought an off-the-shelf software that was already tailor-made for this industry. He was very disappointed, thus the resignation.

Now, he grew tired of handling idiots at work doing the dirty support job. He wants to go into programming field because IMHO, he had always had talent in programming but never had the time to study or look into it in detail. The reason why he wants to do programming is that he can earn extra money doing freelance job on his free-time after work.

In programming aspect, he have knowledge in Pascal, Foxpro, C++, ASP.NET, C#, ADO.NET, SQL, HTML, XML. I will be teaching him Java next. Design aspect, he knows Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Dreamweaver and I think he is working on a personal website as his portfolio now. He do not have a portfolio to show his artwork yet, neither does he have any experience working on large-scale programming projects. Most programming projects that he had worked on are helping friends with freelance work and doing degree projects for those students who are willing to pay.

Is this a good point for him to take a turn into programming and probably start out as a Junior Programmer? How much does a Junior Programmers earn? As for Support Engineer job, his last pay was ~RM3k+ and the last offer was RM4k. Should he work for the money (support job where he have plenty of experience) or the interest (programming job where he has some experience but no exposure)?

We are both 26 years old. I am thinking of asking him take a professional certification for programming like MCSD or something but I am not sure if it will do him any good. I only know that MCSE and CCNA is useless if he does indeed go for a programmer's job. He has been out of job for nearly 2 months now. Kindly advise. Thank you.

He needed a good car because he travel nationwide. Imagine he have to drive up and down in a Saga.

He travels a lot from Penang, Kelana Jaya, Port Klang, Singapore, Johor Bahru. I agree with the car investment. Besides, he didnt steal the damn thing, he bought it and I respect that. Come on, how one wants to spend their money is their problem right? Rather than my other friends who spend RM10k to buy a road-bike.

Hey Dreamer101, thanks for posting and helping my friend out here. No offense, bro, your post may be very informative but I think we should try to stick with the topic here.

Its not about what post you hold or what car you drive. It's about whether he should go for a programming job or a support job. Its not about how much you make and where you want to be at 40 years old either man.

No choice right? Car is never an asset but sometimes, people just have that need. I look at it at a different perspective, the car is the reward, a motivation, a drive. It's not like he bought a Camry or something. Just Honda City, save on petrol, etc.

I would say his suggestion is the best.

vote++;

He does seem to have quite a lot of commitments now, so best to get a job which he is well knowledgable at. Bear in mind, with his experience, he can demand a high pay at support, while being fresh in programming, he probably can't expect much.

I still dont understand WTF has it gotta do with the car? Buy already, use la, sell and make a loss, risk your life on a motorbike and get stuck in the rain, WTF for?

Nope, he is surviving just fine doing freelance and insurance. Now, he just wanna plan his next move for either programming or support.

The car may not be the wisest decision he made his entire life but neither did that affect him one bit. Least he did was brought his family down to Singapore for holidays in the City.

I think I leave the rest to Casanova to post.

Money wise, I believe he is much more capable and richer (in savings) than all of my friends. Though he has many responsibilities, he carry them out flawlessly and hardly ever he spends on unnecessary items (except maybe the car which some of you think so).

My dear, it's 26, not 28. How old are you and what kind of life have you had at 26? Richest among friends as in personal money, dont include parents.

Did you paid for your own car at 26 too?

Dreamer101,
I 'tabik' you with respect man. I do not know how to say this but if what you wrote is genuine, I am nothing compared to you. I guess you are right, end of the world is coming... Nowadays community and young adults my age are not as capable as old-timers like you.

Mind if I ask how old are you anyway? You came out even earlier than all of us, including this friend of mine. Respect respect.

I paid for my very own Audi, in full, at 22

Damn I miss that car.
I'm surprised that a Suma cum Laude didn't realize that foreign students in the U.S. are not allowed to work more than 29.5 hours/week.

Dreamer101,
I 'tabik' you with respect man. I do not know how to say this but if what you wrote is genuine, I am nothing compared to you. I guess you are right, end of the world is coming... Nowadays community and young adults my age are not as capable as old-timers like you.

Dreamer101,

Yes I understand. I am blur but I am not stupid. I know our times will be more difficult than your's. Competition is more now but our quality of live has also been extended. We reap what our parents sow. Unfortunately for this buddy of mine, he aint that lucky but he made it. Not necessarily on the top but he survives.

Wow, I didnt know you are 40+. Sometimes I see you post here and there, I thought you're some childish kid. Sorry man but you've opened my eyes to how old-timers really were back then. I appreciate the experience. Thanks.

Nahhh... I am sure we are still up for some challenge. Maybe it will get worse but it's not going to stop us from living? What's your recommended solution? Mass suicide? Your time, though opportunity is there, had less business opportunities, more diseases, war, killing spree, other bullshit and you made it through. Do you really think we cant?

I mean, every generation is going to have an ass of a time for sure but that does not scare us or make us give up and imho, that's the most important.

Sure it could be hell or worse, nuclear war, 70% world population dies, we may be one of the dead or the survivors but to go on living, it cant be THAT difficult. Scary as it is, all we gotta do is try.