The stressful lives of older tech workers.

I'm afraid to read the article, but based on the replies, I can relate.

I'm different in that I'm on the pre-sales side of things. While I need to be technical and I do get in to the nitty gritty details of the gear, I don't have the stress of keeping it up and running. When (not if) it hits the fan, I can end up being the quarterback to a resolution but I'm not ultimately on the hook. Plus, I can push things on to support and development engineers if I have to.

So, when new stuff comes along, I need to learn it, but if I just learn enough to help sell it, I can survive. If I learn any more, my value goes up.
 
I like the fear of younger hungry guys nipping at my heels...keeps me sharp.
Ask me again in a few more years and my answer may change.
 
The next 6-12 months should be interesting. Just turned 55 and our company is being spun-off. Some good stuff, some maybe bad. I am vested and will be getting a pension, hopefully continuing on with the new co. Ya never know though.
 
The next 6-12 months should be interesting. Just turned 55 and our company is being spun-off. Some good stuff, some maybe bad. I am vested and will be getting a pension, hopefully continuing on with the new co. Ya never know though.
A pension? They still have those? My company turned to upping the 401k matches a long time ago. In fact, the old company in which I was vested, pushed folks to cash out their pensions and roll it into 401k's/IRAs.
 
Apparently, I'm just waiting for my job to be shipped offshore to Chennai, India. :mad: :facepalm:
(really)
 
A pension? They still have those? My company turned to upping the 401k matches a long time ago. In fact, the old company in which I was vested, pushed folks to cash out their pensions and roll it into 401k's/IRAs.
No more pension with the new spin-off company, that's why I'm being forced to take the retirement/rehire scenario. If the company was the same as when I started 26 years ago, I'd be fully retired now, but the change to 401K withdrawals to 59 1/2 years of age and Social Security age increases, looks like I've got another 4+ years at least.
 
My dad got laid off from his maintenance job at the local chicken processing facility because he was getting close to retirement and they didn't want to pay it out. It happens all over. Working for a university, the IT folks run a wide range of ages. I work in the support realm of IT. It's a shitty job that no IT person will lower themselves into if they can help it.
 
Apparently, I'm just waiting for my job to be shipped offshore to Chennai, India. :mad: :facepalm:
(really)

This scenario is becoming more real now. It isn't a matter of IF, but WHEN, HOW MANY JOBS (and who get's the axe),
and will management actually expect us to train our fucking replacements?
fu.gif
 
This scenario is becoming more real now. It isn't a matter of IF, but WHEN, HOW MANY JOBS (and who get's the axe),
and will management actually expect us to train our fucking replacements?
fu.gif


any interest in Tulsa??? :grin:
 
42 year old sys admin/dba here :Wave:

I was out of work 5 years ago for a while. Was very surprised how long it took to get another job. I'm not sure age had much to do with it, though I removed DOB and any other obvious dates from my CV pretty quickly. More about being in the middle of the recession. Now there is a ton of work and I'm sure I could walk into another job tomorrow. That's the biggest factor to me, as long as the economy is OK my skills are in demand, but a blip and I'm fucked.

Keeping up to date is enormously important. In the last couple of years I've been pushing everything out of our data centre and into the cloud. It might appear counter-intuitive as having the keys to the server room is job security, right? But long term my AWS skills are going to be a lot more valuable.

What gives me hope for the future is all the doom merchants predicting the demise of other walks of life through automation. I think they have an excellent point and I'm in a good position to be the guy who builds and runs the systems that are automating away everyone else's job. That and I run internet sites, when everyone else is unemployed they will have nothing better to do than fuck about on the internet all day. :embarrassed:

I would NOT want to be a professional driver/bank teller/call center bod at this age and thinking about what my job security is going to be like in 10 years :eek:
 
Keeping up to date is enormously important. In the last couple of years I've been pushing everything out of our data centre and into the cloud. It might appear counter-intuitive as having the keys to the server room is job security, right? But long term my AWS skills are going to be a lot more valuable.

My company provides nor pays for any type of training. I've never seen that before.

I keep abreast of the latest industry trends and security vulnerabilities on my own, of course.
 
My company provides nor pays for any type of training. I've never seen that before.

I keep abreast of the latest industry trends and security vulnerabilities on my own, of course.

We'll pay for training but I never use it, prefer to learn on the job. But there is plenty of scope for that. The push to the cloud is a joint decision by various people in the company but I use my authority, as the lead of the online infrastructure team, to push it. This is conjunction with the CTO and lead devs. The nice thing is a Tech decision, not something senior management or the board (other than the CTO) need to worry their pretty little heads about.
 
I'm pretty lucky. My company will pay a bit for training - particularly online stuff. Also, a lot of our data is subject to ITAR regulations, so moving it to the cloud is not an option (ITAR requires that anyone who has access to the data be a US citizen, or has an ITAR exemption).
 
This scenario is becoming more real now. It isn't a matter of IF, but WHEN, HOW MANY JOBS (and who get's the axe),
and will management actually expect us to train our fucking replacements?
fu.gif

They are now interviewing candidates in Chennai.

4mq9u2G.gif
 
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