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Need Techie Input for a Career that is Crashing and Burning
self | today 27 September, 2001 | self

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.


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To: tacticalogic
Oops. CCNA = Cisco Certified Network Analyst.

Got it!

61 posted on 09/27/2001 6:25:15 PM PDT by mlmr
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To: Mordichia
Linux. Red Hat - know it, breathe it, love it.

How did you get trained on it. I have heard of it. Is there Linux school?

62 posted on 09/27/2001 6:27:32 PM PDT by mlmr
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To: innocentbystander
Then by all means, I would pick up those certifications, and start a new career in Security Consulting.

Yeah, "Don't open any attachments."

That'll be $200, please.

63 posted on 09/27/2001 6:29:27 PM PDT by Old Professer
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Comment #64 Removed by Moderator

To: AgThorn
IBM does placement?? Yes he is in Maine.
65 posted on 09/27/2001 6:30:57 PM PDT by mlmr
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To: mlmr
Actually that's wrong, too. See post 47.

Maybe he could take up some other line of work. Does he have any experience as an inventor? I believe there may be a huge demand for "perfect" Preparation H.

66 posted on 09/27/2001 6:31:08 PM PDT by tacticalogic
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Comment #67 Removed by Moderator

To: mlmr
I know someone mentioned it but teaching at a university or community college or even high school level will give him income while he figures out what he wants to do. Maybe he's burned out in ways and should take some time to do another kind of job for a while.
68 posted on 09/27/2001 6:32:32 PM PDT by FITZ
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To: geek
Thank you. You guys are talking about options I have never even heard of.
69 posted on 09/27/2001 6:32:35 PM PDT by mlmr
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To: Rightwing Conspirator1
That's true. I think he does have 400 experience, but not a lot. Is there a school for it?
70 posted on 09/27/2001 6:34:58 PM PDT by mlmr
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To: mlmr, Nita Nupress
Sorry I got in here so late...

Subcontracted to one of the big 5 occasionally for project managmement.

Retraining to a new programming language or new platform is an option. But if he already has this Proj Mgt experience, work on a certification. Proj Mgt can be taken into any type of business (Construction, IT, Medical, Defense, etc). And the pay is as good as the techies or better. His wisdom would be a great asset.

71 posted on 09/27/2001 6:35:51 PM PDT by RedWing9
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To: Old Professer
I am 61 years old, half-blind, semi-retired (through no fault of my own), intolerant of halfwits, halfbreeds, halfholes and all other semi-precious imprecations the like of you spill about your plate like orts for stray dogs.
A healthy male in his mid-years better never come crying on my shoulders because nobody will "give" him a job, I'll piss on his shoes.

Yeah, I have to agree, you do sound like an asshole.

I'm someone who's natural tendency is to be somewhat intolerant of hard-luck stories which frequently turn out to be the person's own fault. But this gentleman doesn't come across as a parasite who finally got his comeuppance. Rather he appears to be a capable, hard-working individual who got a bit complacent about updating his skills and is now facing a shift in the marketplace demand for his services. We all make mistakes from time to time in the course of our lives, and this mistake hardly qualifies him as a bad person.

Nor is it a fatal mistake. While it may be painful to correct, there are a large array of potential solution paths available. Seeking advice on this forum is a good starting point, and I'm glad to observe a lot of excellent advice being given. I sincerely hope it helps, and I wish this man and his family all the best.

I like geek's advice in Post #44 and innocentbystander's advice in Post #58: The field of computer and network security is going to get very hot. And existing security is so neglected and shot full of holes at most places that the opportunities are almost unlimited.

72 posted on 09/27/2001 6:36:20 PM PDT by dpwiener
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To: tacticalogic
Is that security too?
73 posted on 09/27/2001 6:36:40 PM PDT by mlmr
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To: mlmr
You mentioned that he's 36 and 38 trained.

If he doesn't know the AS/400, he needs to learn it. It's an easy follow-on from the two products he knows, but the S/36 has been an obsolete product for 15 years.

74 posted on 09/27/2001 6:37:15 PM PDT by sinkspur
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To: mlmr
Don't know squat about techie jobs, but I do know about what happens to people when there are family illnesses, deaths and stresses and they end up "paralyzed." It is an absolutely normal thing to develop situational depression - he'll come out of it just fine and begin to make plans of his own. If time is "of the essence" his internal medicine doc can prescribe some anti depressants/anti anxiety drugs. There's a trade off there - he will be better able to cope with the next crisis if he gets through this one on his own, but mouths to feed and so forth sometimes require a quicker solution.
75 posted on 09/27/2001 6:37:25 PM PDT by Nora
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To: mlmr
If he has a clearance and any telecommunications experience, I want his resume.
(FreepMail me)

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and forever!)

76 posted on 09/27/2001 6:41:08 PM PDT by LonePalm (Le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican))
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To: mlmr, nita nuprez
Where does he live, mlmr? If he lives in Maine, where you do, he's completely horked.

In the Silicon Valley where I'm at, things are bleak, bleak, bleak.

Bleak, bleak, bleakity-BLEAK, bleak, bleak.

I'm continually employable, but there isn't a single stock option out here that's afloat. The market is still over-valued, in my opinion. My company got a write-up in the Wall Street Journal a few months back as being one of the last of the healthy companies in IT in the 'Valley. Then, the WTC attack happened, and we dropped ten dollars per share.

At the moment, I hear that Austin TX and maybe even Virginia or that teeny 'Research Triangle Park' in NC might offer a chance for a guy with his background.

I occasionally see jobs for AS/400 midrange and S/370 mainframe employment here in the Bay Area, but if he's got a family of seven and a house to sell, I'd advise him to abandon all thought of coming to the San Francisco Bay Area.

It's not the age that's a problem, nor even his skill-set. It's just a flat market for anything tech-related. All the H-1B Visa workers with families had to send them home overseas LONG ago.

He can forget all about the money he used to make. I had to do that.

All I ever told people -- maybe not here on FR -- about a year ago was that if you have a job, KEEP IT. Live well below your means, especially if a family is depending on you.

But, boy... if it's Maine he's in and insists he wants to keep his house, I'd recommend working overtime in a lumber mill or maybe even robbing banks.

At the first look at the predicament he's in, and the location you're posting from, I have to be honest with you: I thought that this was a comical cross-posted troll thread from 'www.fu**edcompany.com'.

(Nita: I wish you hadn't, pal. Only ping me when there's good news)

77 posted on 09/27/2001 6:42:48 PM PDT by The KG9 Kid
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To: mlmr
Yes. Or at least partly. Firewalls are to keep intruders out of your systems. Encryption is to protect your data from prying eyes once it leaves your system until it gets to the intended recipient.

I noticed he has some experience with POS systems - perhaps he can get into doing some development work in the emerging Smart Card market?

78 posted on 09/27/2001 6:43:53 PM PDT by tacticalogic
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To: mlmr
I showed this thread to my girlfriend.

"He shouldn't have retrained for tech in a downturn." she said.

She's been laid off since March.

The nation may be in a recession, mlmr, but the IT industry is in a *depression*.

79 posted on 09/27/2001 6:46:57 PM PDT by The KG9 Kid
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To: SamAdams76
"... Those Sky Marshal jobs start at $80,000 a year."

No they don't. Read it again. They start at $31,000 a year. The top-end range is for the chief administrator of the whole program.

Government jobs pay deek.

80 posted on 09/27/2001 6:49:41 PM PDT by The KG9 Kid
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