Older engineers

[Tris20]

I've heard a few references lately of engineers finding it hard to find work after the age of around 50 (Independent of the current recession). Is this a myth or is there some truth to it? Also if this is true in cases that you know personally, what did yourself or the known individual do as a solution to their unemployment?


Link to an article that goes into more detail of what I've been hearing lately.
http://www.ieeeusa.org/careers/careercon/proceeding/srichfield.pdf

[nctnico]

The thing is that changing jobs after becoming 35 is difficult unless you can live with a considerably cut in your income. As an engineer you can go in three directions:
- move up to management
- stay valuable for your employer and become some kind of guru
- lose track of technology and get parked in a shitty job (and on top of the let-go list)

[eman12]

Well, to be honest, I am scarey of that age!!! Not only due to my body problems, but because I am afraid of losing my older families!
Life is so strange and really very short. We should try to be as kind as possible for that reason!
Sometimes I think, oh god, It is VERY VERY simple to create a baby from almost nothing! but it is impossible (or at least yet impossible) to convert an old guy into a young one! You can born a baby very easily but you are not able to make a dead guy alive!

[c4757p]

So you're telling me I have to waste my short life trying to be kind to people?? *shudder* What's next, I'll be healthier if I stop eating so much? More alert if I put down the damn coffee?

God, I can't imaging living my life like that!

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

mmm coffee

I dont get this graph. Is it just me?

I dont think you have to be a Guru to stay as a technical engineer, but you need to stay on top of your game, by making sure you do good work that your employer finds useful.
I like working with younger Engineers and I like showing them up, in a friendly kind of way. They are very capable of making similar mistakes that I made earlier in my life.
It's not all doom and gloom as you get older.

[c4757p]

Graph? I see a snowman in the sight of a weird gun.

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

Yeah and it looks like Cartman on the bottom left.

I thought I read the author has experienced all of these expectations.
But I doubt if he has experienced "dead" yet.
Not that sure about "Un" either.

[c4757p]

Must be reproduced in...

full?

[eman12]

So you're telling me I have to waste my short life trying to be kind to people?? *shudder* What's next, I'll be healthier if I stop eating so much? More alert if I put down the damn coffee?

God, I can't imaging living my life like that!

I am jut saying that this world is not a place to be angry against others, the reason is that you do not take more time to atone . So try to be kind. When people do not think that they die one day then they would be proud and proudness causes angriness, rudenss and so on.  But when you know and consider that oneday you'll die then most of the times you do not try to be proud but kind instead. Anyway I know that people are different though, that's what I meant anyhow.... Just my 2 cents .

[c4757p]

I think I'd be more kind if I thought I was going to live forever. I mean, I really don't want to deal with all the people I've pissed off forever!

[free_electron]

The big thing is not to become stagnant in your know-how. Greybeards muttering about vacuum tubes are useless...
Greybeards messing about with fpga's and cortex cores on the other hand are very valuable since they have been at it for so long and know all the tricks the young whippersnappers don't

[Hypernova]

mmm coffee

I dont get this graph. Is it just me?

Not just you, that right there is a textbook example of how NOT to do graphs.

[KJDS]

The last big project I worked on, out of the half dozen RF guys, all were over 40. There are very few RF guys in the UK under 40, so I'll be ok contracting until it's time to retire.

[JoeO]

The last big project I worked on, out of the half dozen RF guys, all were over 40. There are very few RF guys in the UK under 40, so I'll be ok contracting until it's time to retire.

It is the same here in the US.

[boz]

The thing is that changing jobs after becoming 35 is difficult unless you can live with a considerably cut in your income. As an engineer you can go in three directions:
- move up to management
- stay valuable for your employer and become some kind of guru
- lose track of technology and get parked in a shitty job (and on top of the let-go list)

The 4th Option is to work for yourself. This has several advantages:

• You can justify spending loads of money on new kit
• You can justify spending all your time on your hobby to the wife without her winging
• You can claim all your electronics/it purchases/services for tax purposes
• Your work the hours you want (until you get too busy  )
• No Manager!
• Best of all you may even make money out of it if your good/lucky.

Also ageism is mainly a corporate/HR thing when I'm looking personally for a service my gut instinct is that someone who has been in the trade for longest is generally more reliable and honest (my last bricklayer was 72 years old and was on site at 7AM every morning)

[PA4TIM]

Greybeards messing about with fpga's and cortex cores on the other hand are very valuable since they have been at it for so long and know all the tricks the young whippersnappers don't

You mean something like this guy 

[Corporate666]

The big thing is not to become stagnant in your know-how. Greybeards muttering about vacuum tubes are useless...
Greybeards messing about with fpga's and cortex cores on the other hand are very valuable since they have been at it for so long and know all the tricks the young whippersnappers don't

This is one of the reasons that people in the technical fields ought to be paid a lot more.

With respect to other professions, the only people who need to continually keep up to date with the latest technologies more than engineers are software developers. 

I've encountered so many older folks who let their skills get stagnant but never got into management.  That is a very tough spot to be in.  Very tough indeed. 

[washburn41]

This a very good site. I am so glad I joined.

[Dr. Frank]

You mean something like this guy 

Bob Pease also had been sacked by National, in the end.

T.I. swallowed National afterwards, serves them right.

[Bored@Work]

Bob Pease also had been sacked by National, in the end.

That was probably part of tarting up the bride so National looked more attractive to a buyer like TI. It would be interesting to know if TI had a hand in it or were caught by surprise.

[A Hellene]

So, outsourcing and downsizing of the occidental healthy engineering sector has always been the plan; and not merely the side effect of the seemingly "bad choices" of the (invariably handsomely compensated) CEOs during the last two decades, as the --always truthful-- Media of Mass Deception have been struggling to present that awful situation to their gullible customers...

This might also explain why the salaries (as well as and the educational standards) of the engineers and the technicians have gradually become equal to those of the cleaning ladies (without meaning to diminish the significance of the work of the latter ones). After all, just look at the quality of the "engineers" the educational institutions are spitting out today: Their eduction is oriented rather in their marketing skills than in actual engineering. You cannot rewire a student's mind to excel in both these two different and competing poles. Quoting a highly estimated acquaintance of mine, "The only engineers who get promoted to management are the ones who can be spared. The real walking disasters are the ones who think they got promoted because they were good."

It seems that the ninety years old Phoebus Cartel Planned Obsolescence guidelines (of those who have always been trying to manipulate that "free market" of ours) have finally found their way through our global society's legislating systems to impose their rules...

/rant


-George

[eman12]

I think I'd be more kind if I thought I was going to live forever.

Really? That interesting for me!

I would like to live forever as well, but not when all my families and friends are eaten by it and I am not able to do something!!
I wish I was able to be born in the next ages when the scientists are probably able to solve the problem the OP mentioned and of course the problem of death!
Anyway I hope all you guys have a very long and sweet life...

[MacAttak]

You don't have to work for "the company" your entire life. Once you have the experience and the reputation to back you up, there is always consulting.

Consulting didn't take nearly as bad a hit in 2008 as other sectors. Our consulting practice grew by 20% in that year (average growth for past 7 years has been 30%-40%). Never had to lay anyone off yet either. A few had to be fired (for good reasons), but not any layoffs.

Consulting is also FAR more personally rewarding and better paying too. And you never get stuck in a shithole for too long. No matter how bad of an environment a particular client runs, you will always have a light at the end of the tunnel - when the contract ends and you can move along to something more pleasant.

Of course the flip side is that as a consultant you cannot miss a step when it comes to continuing education. I have to effectively re-learn the majority of my craft nearly every two years because it changes so damned fast. Many people are turned off by this - but I love to learn new things (makes you not feel as old), so I see it as a pro not a con.

[free_electron]

Bob Pease also had been sacked by National, in the end.

that is incorrect ....


there was a mutual agreement between national and Bob , the details of which are confidential. he was kept on as consultant for many projects.
like Bored@ said : pimping the tart was probably one of the reasons. National shaved quite a bit to prepare for a takeover.

[edavid]

Bob Pease also had been sacked by National, in the end.

that is incorrect ....

there was a mutual agreement between national and Bob , the details of which are confidential. he was kept on as consultant for many projects.
like Bored@ said : pimping the tart was probably one of the reasons. National shaved quite a bit to prepare for a takeover.

After he "retired", he could have gotten a job anywhere else, or become a consultant, or really retired, and he chose to keep working at National, so he can't have been too unhappy with the deal, whatever it was.

But OP, you should carefully consider the story of Brian Reid...