Anyone here have a career change later in life?

[rmp]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

Sad news to lose a job to outsourcing. I imagine it's very difficult to get a job in IT at the age of 64. Best of luck in your search.

Thanks man!

It really is, but just out of any ones control.

the thing is Dru, I'm looking to steer away from IT, I've been in this field since the late 70s,, when computers where the size of 8 refrigerators housed in data centers, and 250k Disk Drivers were the size of washing machines.

I've reinvented myself so many times, I can't even count the different iterations.

I've had enough... I just need something I can tolerate until I can pull the plug and start drawing ss.

I think I want to try being a hobo..



/ray

[Pdubs76]

Originally Posted by rmp

Thanks man!

It really is, but just out of any ones control.

the thing is Dru, I'm looking to steer away from IT, I've been in this field since the late 70s,, when computers where the size of 8 refrigerators housed in data centers, and 250k Disk Drivers were the size of washing machines.

I've reinvented myself so many times, I can't even count the different iterations.

I've had enough... I just need something I can tolerate until I can pull the plug and start drawing ss.

I think I want to try being a hobo..



/ray

You never know. It could be a blessing in disguise. Time will tell.

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by rmp

Thanks man!

It really is, but just out of any ones control.

the thing is Dru, I'm looking to steer away from IT, I've been in this field since the late 70s,, when computers where the size of 8 refrigerators housed in data centers, and 250k Disk Drivers were the size of washing machines.

I've reinvented myself so many times, I can't even count the different iterations.

I've had enough... I just need something I can tolerate until I can pull the plug and start drawing ss.

I think I want to try being a hobo..



/ray

Ray, you mentioned Home Depot. I've been in IT for 25 years (and enjoy it) and I think I would like working at Home Depot or Costco. Hobo, not so much, lol, although "riding the rails" would be fun.

[1neeto]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

My father was an environmental engineer who in his fifties worked for a small company that designed and built bespoke sampling and analysis systems that were bought by government agencies. One day the company owner got a request for a machine that could sample and analyze to a certain specification a group of pollutants in the atmosphere. My father looked at the spec and told his boss, "We can't achieve that level of precision yet." The boss said, "Tell them you can anyway." My father was an extremely honest man and knew he couldn't do that. So, he took a day off and went hunting for a new job. Somehow the boss figured out he was looking for a job. When he returned, his boss asked, "Have you been looking for a job?" My honest father said, "Well, yes." The boss said, "I think you should do it full time. Empty your desk." And that was it. At 56 my father was out of a job and not an attractive prospect in an ageist society.

He spent six months looking, fruitlessly. A surgeon friend in their church invited my father and mother over for dinner. After dinner he pulled out a huge check and said, "We heard you had a rough go of it but we'd like for you to stay in town if you can. Here's some money to help you look for a job." My dad took it home and stuck it under a rug in his house.

A short while later he went on a cold call to a university in the area and was interviewed by a personnel guy. After he left he office the personnel guy called up a department head of the enviromental division of the university and said, "A guy just cold called my office. I looked at his resume' and interviewed him and.. you need this guy. Do whatever it takes - we can find the funding."

My father was called in for the department interview and given the job. On his first day on the job he was taken into one of the labs and show a "wonderful new analysis machine they'd bought from a company that went out of business." They had everything except a manual for it and it was going to be his job to figure out the machine and write the manual. My dad smiled and said, "There already is a manual for that machine and it is up here (pointing at his head)." That was the last machine he had built at the company before he was let go. They had bought the machine and hired the designer and builder without any knowledge that the two were related.

My father went on to this second career building environmental systems, traveling all over the world, and conduction environmental research as a representative of the U.S. Government while working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He tried to retire at 70 but had all the work he wanted until he was 75 years old, when he became a consultant. It was the best career job of his entire life.

And the check? He invited the doctor and his wife out for dinner, after which he was able to present the their check back to them, with thanks from the bottom of his heart.

Bob

I’m still smiling as I write this. What an amazing story!

[Glennwillow]

I have worked as an engineer since I graduated from engineering school in 1970. But I have worked for 3 different companies, doing very different work at each of them. And, after retirement from full-time work, I started my own consulting company.

I have also worked part-time as a musician for much of my life.

I have been extremely fortunate in my work experience. Many of my brothers and sisters got messed over late in life in their jobs by their employers.

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by rmp

funny you bring this up!!

I work in an IT org for a location technology provider, (wont name names, but you could have our software on your phone to find directions on where you're heading)..

The IT dept is being outsourced to a company in India, there's bout 100 of us in the same life raft right now.

We can take a severance (1/2 years pay for me), or take the offer from the company in India, hmm,, how long will working THERE last? haha! yea.. fahgetaboudit..

so it looks like I'm about to embark on a job search... I'll be 64 in like 6 weeks

I swear, if I hear one millennial ask me where I see myself in 5 years in an interview, I'm probably gonna vomit all over them..

the good news is, we have no mortgage and with some manageable debt, but the ability to kill it.. Maybe there's a future for me at a home depot?

"Garden tools you say? that would be Isle 2"

I am so sorry to hear this rmp. I wish you the best.

One of my younger sisters just got laid off from an engineering job at age 62. She has been a careful saver and owns her home, so she can retire at age 62, but it's not what she had hoped for. My next older brother, a chemist, was laid off at age 56 over downsizing. He never went back to work, but his wife had a good teaching job. It's sad what happens to so many people.

- Glenn

[rmp]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

Ray, you mentioned Home Depot. I've been in IT for 25 years (and enjoy it) and I think I would like working at Home Depot or Costco. Hobo, not so much, lol, although "riding the rails" would be fun.

I may have no choice but to continue as I have skills that surely someone could use, Linux, AWS Cloud Admin, Version Control support, Open Source integration... But who knows...

as Pdubs76 said, could be a blessing in disguise..


Glenn, thx for that perspective, time will for sure tell the story, but I think all will be well. I was hoping for 2 more years with out these kind of shenanigans,.. Bad news never has good timing

Thanks to all for the encouraging words.. you guys are great folks.

/ray

[Skarsaune]

30 years in manufacturing engineering so far, and probably 10 left before retirement.

I am looking at teaching as a glide path out of engineering, and have started teaching part time to dip my toes in before jumping.

Keeping health care is the big question.

Problem is, many places employ lots of adjunct faculty precisely to avoid funding any benefits for employees.

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by rmp

I may have no choice but to continue as I have skills that surely someone could use, Linux, AWS Cloud Admin, Version Control support, Open Source integration... But who knows...

as Pdubs76 said, could be a blessing in disguise..


Glenn, thx for that perspective, time will for sure tell the story, but I think all will be well. I was hoping for 2 more years with out these kind of shenanigans,.. Bad news never has good timing

Thanks to all for the encouraging words.. you guys are great folks.

/ray

You've got great skills Ray and very marketable. Lots of IT hiring going on too. Many jobs aren't advertised though. I'm hiring (not your skillset) and it's by referrals from people I know rather than job posting.

Reach out to people in the IT field who you know and let them know if there's anything available. Good luck!

[Don W]

I alway worked at whatever job....never went to college but....I went to college at 50 years old, graduated with honors and worked as an Occupational Therapist for 12 years before retiring. Best thing I ever did.

[Pdubs76]

Originally Posted by Don W

I alway worked at whatever job....never went to college but....I went to college at 50 years old, graduated with honors and worked as an Occupational Therapist for 12 years before retiring. Best thing I ever did.

That’s inspiring! I’m 44 and looking into nursing school. I sometimes think, who am I kidding, so it’s good to here about people older than me going to college and starting a new career with success! Well done sir!

[Cypress Knee]

I've just kind of meandered through life doing a variety of different things - fur trapper, radio dispatcher, gas station attendant, grocery clerk, waiter, Army officer, teacher, stock broker, financial planner, retail store owner, talk show host, race director, real estate rehabber and now an online event planner. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

[Heroditus]

Spent a lot of years in the grocery business. Worked my way up from being a grunt in my20’s to managing a store and then becoming an area supervisor with several stores under me. By age 39 I’d had enough of that. Grueling work often without days off for long periods of time. I blame that job for costing me my first marriage.

I was lucky in that I was able to take a couple years off from working and get my teaching credential. Have been teaching now for 26 years—-middle school history. I’ve loved almost every minute of it and I am very good at it, as so many of my former students tell me even today. That said, I let my principal know that this school year will be my last. She was very disappointed but understands. So, come June I will be retired, though I did say I would substitute teach from time to time—-middle school age only—-so I can get out of the house occasionally. My wife still has a few years to go before she can retire but she only works 3 days a week so I see some little trips out of town from time to time.

[Scholar]

In the middle of one right now.

I retired and moved permanently to Europe back at the beginning of 2008, after having been a lawyer, teacher, college English prof, and freelance writer.

I'm now in Croatia with my family, and I've done a little freelance dabbling off and on over the last couple of years. I was approached on LinkedIn to do a little copywriting, and now that's turned into a full-time job offer from a boutique marketing agency with "significant" clients who operate in English. Pressing on with that.

Because, y'know, folks are just lining up all over the place to hire a 70-year-old (recent) cancer survivor who doesn't speak the local language...lol... Anyway, having fun saddling up again and working with a creative bunch of characters, most of whom are half my age.

I can even wear jeans and a rude t-shirt.

[leew3]

I don't know if it counts for 'later in life' but in my mid 40's after 25 years as a full time mental health provider I shifted to academia teaching graduate students who wish to become Licensed Counselors. I've enjoyed this work since then and maintain a limited private practice as well. I'm at the point where my career gets in the way of my guitar playing so I may have to begin considering my options!