[jimmydean]

The reality is my career has not progressed due to the fact I have no desire to move into management. I was making about what I was making in 2000 before the crash and it took further education and a long time to get back there. There doesn't seem to be a ton of stuff I can walk into making $50/hr (if there is, help a brother out). So the reality is likely a shift in careers to something else.

After the .com stuff, I considered becoming an electrician. Part of me thinks I might be in a much different spot now had I then. But at 48, it may not be an option (the pay sucks ass for the first 3 years). Or do I suck it up, shoot for management and hope to not kill myself before that? I enjoy doing what I do, but I am old and expensive, so the prospect is less and less.

 

[binary visions]

What do you do? There are a fair number of technical career paths that can get you $100k/year without management, it just depends on how much you want to specialize.

Also depends a little on if early retirement is something you're interested in. Silly to swap careers if you've got less than a decade left. Less silly if your planned retirement is 25 years out.

 

[stevew]

become management....

being an electrician this late would just be a daily kick in the ass as to how old and out of shape you are...

 

[jimmydean]

What do you do?

So I've been in Software QA since forever. The last 10 or so years my focus has been on automation, but that depends on the project.

The industry as a whole has moved to web front ends with Selenium automation where as my focus has been more either back end or server based automation using whatever tool is available. So I could buckle down and work on my Java skills and apply it towards Selenium. But am I still looking at coding for another 20+ years? Am I employable at 55? For a job I did at 25? So I ride this bitch until nobody hires me, then work at WalMart until I die?

Retirement is so far out of the question, I have at least 4 more years of child support. I will likely be working until dead, so the question is what do I want to be doing then?

 

[SkaredShtles]

You should learn Cobol and rake in the BIG money.

 

[6thElement]

Retirement is so far out of the question, I have at least 4 more years of child support. I will likely be working until dead, so the question is what do I want to be doing then?

Most of us will be dead in the climate/water wars, so there's always that to look forward to.

 

[Montana rider]

While continuing to slave away for the man take what you've learned with Frita (and fancy audio etc...) and find some Richy Rich friend/patron who wants a good deal* on /////fancy camper van.

Rinse, repeat until you're THE sought after conversion guy

I'm envious of your DIY RV skillz which I lack so I'll probably go modified ram promaster re stealth/affordability/durability...



*This assumes that you can recoup your time/materials outlay @$50+ in the end which is likely dependant on buy in "value"

 

[boostindoubles]

You could always go teach at a trade school!

 

[jimmydean]

You could always go teach at a trade school!

I have thought about looking at education, but I just get angry. Part of the issue is I am really burnt out. After the .com, I was out of work for 6 months. At that point I said, fuck it, got a paper and found a job driving tow truck. I was humbling and I learned some cool skills, but it also made me realize I still had skills that were useful.

But changing jobs has gotten way old. and part of it is the industry, part of it is obviously me.

 

[Jm_]

Just look at Homer Simpson.

 

[Jm_]

I always wanted to be a volcano-specializing geologist. Republicans tell me there are loads of cash for scientists.

Apart from that, I always also want to be a medical doctor, astronaut, aeronautical engineer, guy that gets paid to go explore shit, etc.

Damn, life sucks.

 

[jonKranked]

Have you considered airplanes?

 

[AngryMetalsmith]

 

[rideit]

I want to be a kept man.

 

[boostindoubles]

Portland doesn't have any towny mountain bike trails. Riding bikes is good for keeping the fuck-its at bay.

 

[jstuhlman]

dude, 48 isn't that old...lol...at 45 i'm much more locked into my area of specialization than you are...it is what it is...pay the bills and enjoy your free time

 

[iRider]

I always wanted to be a volcano-specializing geologist. Republicans tell me there are loads of cash for scientists.

LOL, no way! If you are after easy money then don't become a scientist. It is a passion that earns enough to make a living, but in no way does the pay reflect the hours that you put into it.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

"Management", for the most part, sucks, whether you're managing or managed.

Covert age discrimination exists today in all pursuits...

Working for large companies sucks. Period.

You have stated that retirement ain't there in the short term, so refocusing on something you love to do sounds smart, even with a learning curve.

 

[Jozz]

I have been in the same boat for more than 10 years. Tired of doing what I do (tech illustrator) but hard press to find anyone who would pay me $50/hr for such an easy job. I looked into starting my own remodeling company, or trailbuilding company, and also like you, electrician. I came to the conclusion that all those job required working physically and lots of hours. My solution was actually working less. Just doing an average on 20 hrs a week to make the job suck less. Of course, that made retiring young a utopia. But heck, might as well enjoy the free time while still young! (er)

 

[jimmydean]

Good insight folks. The "passion" thing is a whole other ball of wax. My passion in general has fallen off and finding joy in general has been a challenge. I know I own my own happiness and have been working on that.

I thought I was good until the end of the year and had made plans accordingly. Less than a month after that, I get tossed under the bus and not only find myself looking for work again, but seemingly out of the blue. The contracting company I was working for doesn't care what happened, they think I did something.

The only constant in my career has been change. 20+ companies in almost 30 years has kicked my ass. Granted half those companies no longer exist, but still. Again, I know at least half of it is my own doing, the quest for more money or the next new and exciting thing.

So "finding my passion" seems like a fools errand. Finding something that pays my student loans and child support while leaving something for me seems like the best option.

On a lighter note, while the wife's new gig doesn't pay for shit, it has awesome benefits and we haven't had those in a while. So really I just need a steady paycheck.

Anyone have experience in ponsi or pyramid schemes?

 

[jonKranked]

Anyone have experience in ponsi or pyramid schemes?

RIP DirtMcGirk

 

[dan-o]

Build some secret compartments in Frita and smuggle guns into Canada for the ATF.

 

[jonKranked]

Build some secret compartments in Frita and smuggle guns into Canada for the ATF.

the Maple Syrup Wars won't fight themselves

 

[StiHacka]

Good insight folks. The "passion" thing is a whole other ball of wax. My passion in general has fallen off and finding joy in general has been a challenge. I know I own my own happiness and have been working on that.

I thought I was good until the end of the year and had made plans accordingly. Less than a month after that, I get tossed under the bus and not only find myself looking for work again, but seemingly out of the blue. The contracting company I was working for doesn't care what happened, they think I did something.

The only constant in my career has been change. 20+ companies in almost 30 years has kicked my ass. Granted half those companies no longer exist, but still. Again, I know at least half of it is my own doing, the quest for more money or the next new and exciting thing.

So "finding my passion" seems like a fools errand. Finding something that pays my student loans and child support while leaving something for me seems like the best option.

On a lighter note, while the wife's new gig doesn't pay for shit, it has awesome benefits and we haven't had those in a while. So really I just need a steady paycheck.

Anyone have experience in ponsi or pyramid schemes?

I'd say refocus your skill from QA to Devops. QA jobs and responsibilities are shipped to south Asia the fastest. Devops are heavily understaffed across the board and paid with gold these days.

 

[Pesqueeb]

Have you considered airplanes?

I have been in the same boat for more than 10 years. Tired of doing what I do (tech illustrator) but hard press to find anyone who would pay me $50/hr for such an easy job. I looked into starting my own remodeling company, or trailbuilding company, and also like you, electrician. I came to the conclusion that all those job required working physically and lots of hours. My solution was actually working less. Just doing an average on 20 hrs a week to make the job suck less. Of course, that made retiring young a utopia. But heck, might as well enjoy the free time while still young! (er)

"Nobody ever died wishing they had spent more time at work."

My experience is similar. Found myself a niche. The hours kind of blow, but the trade off is that the hangar mostly forgets I'm even around, and I don't work all that hard, with occasional exceptions. The money is good, there is no office politics, and I'm self supervised. I also have a shocking amount of vacation/sick time to use when I want, and I do. If I have to be employed, this is probably about as good as it's going to get for me, and I'm okay with it, as long as it lasts. Might I like to do something else with my life? Sure! But I'll be fucked if I know what that actually is, which is how I wound up in aviation in the first place. It's what I was going to do until I grew up. 20+ years later, here we are, so I guess I'm in for the long haul, and life is what I make outside of this place. And it's not too shabby.

 

[roflbox]

another vote for devops, automation skills are in demand (ansible + terraform), you could pretty easily hop on somewhere with both respectable pay and benifits

Can you elaborate on what you have automated?

 

[CBJ]

Not sure if its because I have gotten into a VP position but I have a lot of fun managing my team and I am getting a lot of shit done. So I disagree on the fear of becoming management.

 

[jimmydean]

another vote for devops, automation skills are in demand (ansible + terraform), you could pretty easily hop on somewhere with both respectable pay and benifits

Can you elaborate on what you have automated?

Before I left PGE, I was working on a pilot project implementing DevOps for automating the building of VM's. It was an awesome experience, but the project created a ton of political BS because we proved you could do it. There was a whole team who did nothing but hand build VM's and nobody in the company realized that they didn't actually do jack shit.

But that has been my only real DevOps experience. I was writing rspec tests that we tied into Jenkins. I have done other automation tied to Jenkins in a sort of DevOps setup, but PGE I was actually involved in building the build process.

As for past automation, part of the problem is it's been all over the map. Back in '09, I took a long shot job in Ashland and was brought in to design and build an automation solution for a healthcare app that was HUGE. It was a huge success and a major win for my career. When I decided to come back to Portland, that experience made me a wicked hot item. But I went from working with Test Complete on a healthcare app, to trying to get it to work on another healthcare app, but couldn't due to Silverlight. So I switched to Visual Studio and ended up building out a bad ass performance framework that killed the project. From there is was just Company X with toolset Y, repeat. I haven't really specialized in anything and that used to be an asset, but now not so much.

For the last 18 months I was building out automation using Rational Test Workbench (not my choice) for testing mainframes. While it was kind of cool, that experience isn't all that transferable to anything. But they loved me there and loved what I was building. I thought I was going to retire from the bank, I was expecting an offer before the end of the year. Then a project I was moved off of went off the rails because the person who was supposed to work on it didn't and somehow I got the blame. I still don't have all the facts, but the manager in St Louis thought I had quit, then later confirmed that management in Portland fucked me.

She did offer me a spot in St Louis.

But Playhaven (google donglegate) NCD, Flatrock, nCube, etc. All companies that were at one time on top of the game, gone. But Nike I have avoided my whole career and a buddy was DevOps there and said it was one of his favorite jobs. Columbia Sportsware has also been looking for DevOps folks for a while. So maybe I have just been looking in the wrong place?

The Skyward gig was a real nut punch. To go as far as I did with it and be told it was a lack of embedded experience that was the issue was just heartbreaking. I had never been that excited about a job in my life and really thought it was perfect and so was I. Everything else looks like a turd sandwich.

 

[Nick]

The Skyward gig was a real nut punch. To go as far as I did with it and be told it was a lack of embedded experience that was the issue was just heartbreaking. I had never been that excited about a job in my life and really thought it was perfect and so was I. Everything else looks like a turd sandwich

I say keep the conversation with them going. You wouldn't have got that far without mutual interest, and if you show them that you can roll with the punches, sort of adopt an attitude that "we're just not there yet" but you're committed to working it out, they may appreciate that and find a place after all.

 

[jimmydean]

I say keep the conversation with them going. You wouldn't have got that far without mutual interest, and if you show them that you can roll with the punches, sort of adopt an attitude that "we're just not there yet" but you're committed to working it out, they may appreciate that and find a place after all.

I did. I sent the VP an email thanking them for the opportunity and feedback and told him I would be working towards that. I got no response, that sucked. But I put it out there.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Perhaps a follow-up gift?

 

[Pesqueeb]

Perhaps @jimmydean can write a program so that the NSFW links actually work, for those of us at work?

 

[SkaredShtles]

Perhaps @jimmydean can write a program so that the NSFW links actually work, for those of us at work?

Srsly. WTF?

 

[jonKranked]

Srsly. WTF?

it would help if you added them in the first place

 

[jimmydean]

Well, looks like they chose nobody. So it wasn't just me, then.

1,000+ Verizon jobs in United States (39 new)

Today’s top 1,000+ Verizon jobs in United States. Leverage your professional network, and get hired. New Verizon jobs added daily.

www.linkedin.com

 

[jimmydean]

I should reapply and build out my demo in Python, maybe they will take me seriously.

 

[SkaredShtles]

it would help if you added them in the first place

I tried. Several times. Gave up and deleted them.

 

[kazlx]

"Nobody ever died wishing they had spent more time at work."

My experience is similar. Found myself a niche. The hours kind of blow, but the trade off is that the hangar mostly forgets I'm even around, and I don't work all that hard, with occasional exceptions. The money is good, there is no office politics, and I'm self supervised. I also have a shocking amount of vacation/sick time to use when I want, and I do. If I have to be employed, this is probably about as good as it's going to get for me, and I'm okay with it, as long as it lasts. Might I like to do something else with my life? Sure! But I'll be fucked if I know what that actually is, which is how I wound up in aviation in the first place. It's what I was going to do until I grew up. 20+ years later, here we are, so I guess I'm in for the long haul, and life is what I make outside of this place. And it's not too shabby.

This. Work for me is just means to an end. Luckily also have a large amount of vacation and sick time. Plus a pension when the time comes. Hoping to be out of here as close to 50 as I can get it, 55 at the latest. I work to pay bills and enjoy time with my family and riding bikes and whatever else.

I have to say, the couple times I've done guided trips, it always makes you re-evaluate your life choices and if you'd be happier just living minimally and getting paid to show people around or something to that effect. The whole difference between making more money and just having way more free time/flexibility.

Also, SoCal just kind of sucks balls. I'm really tired of a lot of it, but too many anchors to just leave, even though I'm not even sure where I'd go. The riding would have to be good and I'd need a good amount of property. One of these days, the wife and I might just cash out of SoCal craziness and live better somewhere else...

 

[jonKranked]

i too, am considering a career change, just trying to figure out where else i can apply the skills i have.

 

[Nick]

i too, am considering a career change, just trying to figure out where else i can apply the skills i have.

I know how you can make a quick $20.