10 alternative careers for recession-hit IT pros

The grass is always greener when you're picking crops for a living

RBS and HSBC are the latest in a long line of companies making swingeing cuts to their IT department headcount over the past 12 months, with economic forecasts suggesting things are going to get worse before they get better.

Amid all the uncertainty, it might be time to mothball those in-house IT skills and use the time (and hopefully the cash) that redundancy offers to take a new direction.

We’ve listed 10 tongue-in-cheek backup plans below, but feel free to write in and suggest your own.

Self-employed PC configuration, repair and upgrade service provider
As anyone with a lot of relatives and friends knows, only a fraction of those using IT on a daily basis have any idea how to actually fix things when they go wrong or set things up for the first time, including the supposedly IT-savvy " Y generation". Why not formalise your current ad-hoc helpdesk agreement and ask for payment in cash rather than beer, cups of tea and flapjacks.

ICT teacher
Teaching may not be quite the open door career that government ministers like to suggest, but information communications technology (ICT) remains a staple subject in most schools and colleges. But with so many recent polls indicating young people’s apparent lack of interest in studying IT, will there be anyone in the classroom to listen?

Freelance contract software developer
An assumed name and a PO Box on the Indian sub continent could help put more contract software development work your way – why not even move there and balance the modest rate of pay against a much lower cost of living and better food. Alternatively, take the time to familiarise yourself with Java, J2EE, .NET, PHP and other mobile application development skills that might help you find work at home.

Hacker
If you feel the risk of being jailed for fraud outweighs the potential financial rewards of hacking, there are always roles within IT security companies employed to test vulnerabilities in software and corporate data security defences that are less likely to land you in the clink.

IT recruitment company
Fewer in-house IT staff means more contractors are needed, right? And companies with fewer internal vacancies for their own HR department to fill often turn to recruitment agencies to find them those contractors, right? If things do go quiet, you can at least occupy your spare time by concocting polls that big up the job market and produce spurious "Top ten IT skills in most demand" lists for others to peruse.

Data protection lawyer
Your detailed knowledge of USB sticks and how to smash up a hard drive with a hammer good and proper may stand you in good stead for a legal career, poking holes in corporate compliance strategy and punishing failures to adequately protect individuals' private information with extreme violence.

Nurse
Bring out your caring side by helping fill the UK shortage of skilled nurses. After a couple of years on the wards watching how IT is supposed not to work, you might even persuade the local health authority to resurrect your former career as an in-house consultant.

Consultant
The dreaded C-word, but many IT professionals' dream job from a fiscal and gardening point of view. For those willing and able to break on through to the other side, extra bonus points if you can get taken on to perform your previous in-house role for one day a week at four times the salary.

Corgi gas-safe registered engineer
Bit of a departure this one, but surely it’s only a matter of time before domestic heating systems are IP-enabled? Anyway, you can’t argue with more work you can shake a stick at and a minimum £60 per hour call out charge. If you have the cash to retrain (around £8,000 minimum), it might be the guaranteed, recession-proof living you’ve always dreamed of.

Crop picker
Fresh air and exercise guaranteed, a world away from the muggy IT basement. A predicted exodus of east European and Portuguese workers in the face of a pound that is worth much less than it used to be against the Euro may soon leave Britain’s farmers begging for extra staff. And the minimum agricultural wage of £5.73 per hour isn’t actually that bad providing the gang master doesn’t take too hefty a slice.