Posted on 09/27/2001 5:18:01 PM PDT by mlmr
This is a general question for techies and the people who love them. I have a relative who is married to a techie type. Consultant for 20 years. Subcontracted to one of the big 5 occasionally for project managmement. Business systems, inventory, financials, POS, materials tracking, delivery...you name it using IBM midrange systems. Made between 75 to 125 per hour (which is big money in this area) depending where he was working plus expenses.
Their lives changed and there were some family illnesses, deaths, and other problems. He really hasn't stayed on top of the changes. He has woken up to find his client base eroded and has been paralysed about retraining. What direction to go in, what to focus on, who's going to hire a 50 year old newly retrained guy? Is he ever going to be able to make dollars at previous levels? What kind of training does he need? He has even tried to get a job with the state and didnt make the cut. Is this a lost cause?
His wife is nearly hysterical. They are living on the retirement fund and between the taxes and the market, it isn't going to last long. They will lose their house. They have five kids, a mortgage and a car payment. He is stuck.
People managed to muddle through the Great Depression. We can make it if we are willing to accept what we have and continue to grab any opportunities that arise. In many cases that will mean lowering expectations, but there are always opportunities to prosper even in the worst of times.
Lumber mills are closing up here in maine. So have many of the paper mills. We do tourists, mostly. You want that lobster boiled or baked, sir?
ROFL! What hay wagon did you fall off of?
The "economy" did more for the "Klintons" than the "Klintons" ever did for the economy.
Credit the "good years" to the end of the Cold War and the dot.com boom, nothing more .... sheesh ... yeech! The Clintons created .... What a pile of dog manure THAT is!
-The "who's going to hire a 50 year old..." attitude has got to go. Fifty is not old.
-This individual was asleep at the wheel for at least 5 years.
-This person needs to find a viable niche in the market and excel in it, even if that means generating a demand for a particular service.
-On the financial side, put the children to work, sell the financed auto, move into a smaller house, buy clothes from Goodwill, develope an emergency budget and stick to it. And don't go in debt (no credit card charges).
Oh Senator, you are truly evil. LOL
Thank you
mlmr
Just moved from Austin (5 yrs) to the Dallas area. Wouldn't recommend Austin for IBM midrange skillsets. There are about 3 smallish consulting firms that specialize in S/36-AS/400 support. My job was MIS Director for a VMS shop that migrated to AS/400 for Y2k.
The problem is that most AS/400's just run themselves. Extremely reliable, kind of odd--nothing else is quite like it--but most shops are buying packaged AS/400 software. Often a company with an AS/400 doesn't even need a fulltime MIS staff or even one staffer.
That's partly why I, in my mid-40's looked while I had a job for a different niche. It took nine months since I was working fulltime, but I'm now working in high-end disk storage arrays, EMC Corp, SAN's etc. and very happy here.
As we get older, it's too easy, and dangerous, to just keep doing what you've done well in before. I know. I was in serious danger of being stuck with outdated skills. Project management is now a very hot consulting specialty, also Data Security and of course, networking design.
1. If he has any SQL experience, he can use that right away - SQL is mostly the same on any OS. If he knows DB2 he can transfer his knowledge to any other IBM system, since IBM makes DB2 for virtually every platform.
2. He has extensive pm experience; he can serve as an expert witness @$125 or more per hour for contract disputes where a consulting contract goes wrong.
3. Have him use his sources to get an older decommissioned AS/400 deskside, which will run on household current; he can learn new stuff on that, if he goes with AS/400.
4. If he finds any opportunities for MVS, he can learn that at home too, with either the "Hercules" emulator (which is free) which emulates an entire S/390 on a high end PC, or with a P/390 system, which has the 390 mainframe on a chip inside an IBM PC. Both will run pretty much any versio n of the OS.
5. If he has any REXX esxperience, that too is transferable - there are REXX interpreters for virtually any OS.
Hope this helps, good luck to him.
The top end on that is 38, I think. There are exceptions and waivers for many federal jobs with age limits, but most rely upon previous government service. A newbie applying for the Sky Marshall program at age 50 would be rejected out of the gate.
I'm not certain if your advice is inciteful or incestual.
Sounds like you need an emergency dose of Grecian Formula.
When will you do us a favor and become half-mute?
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