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Ask Slashdot: Best Training To Rekindle a Long Tech Career?
New submitter SouthSeaDragon writes "I'm a computer professional who has performed most of the functions that could be expected over a 39 year career, including hardware maintenance and repair, sitting on a 800 support line, developing a help desk application from the ground up (terminal-based), writing a software manual, plus developing and teaching software courses. In recent years, I've worked for computer software vendors doing pre-sales support generally for infrastructure products including applications, app servers, integration with Java based messaging and ESB product and most recently a Business Rules product. I was laid off recently due to a restructuring and am now trying to figure out the next phase. With the WIA displaced worker grants now available I am attempting to figure out what training would be good to pursue. I am hearing that 'the Cloud' is the next big thing, but I'm also looking into increasing my development skills with a current language. I wonder what the readers might suggest for new directions."
You're at least 1 hype behind, it's now all about devops
Since you already know Java, give Android development a try. I know a few people who have rekindled their love of programming by doing some mobile apps.
Unless you're unusually gifted, you're probably learning new things, and thinking, a somewhat more slowly than you were when you were 25.
On the other hand, if you have good hygiene, nice manners, aren't creepy, and are efficient, people might welcome you into their homes.
So how about being self-employed, going to people's homes and small businesses to help them with configuration / purchase / maintenance of computers and simple networks?
It wouldn't pay great, but you may have to live with that anyway, given that you're competing with hungry recent-graduates in a depressed labor market.
I wouldn't recommend learning stuff with the hope of finding a job that uses it. I feel like you should spend some time, look around at various tech projects and languages and applications, etc etc. Find a job you want like "I'd like to work for Amazon S3, it seems really interesting." or something and then figure out what you need to do to get it, training or otherwise. I feel like that would be more fulfilling and have a better chance of success.
If you have a 39 year old career, that means you are likely just a few years from retirement.
A company that hires you will likely hire you for skills you have experience with - not any new skills you have no experience with. Those jobs will, unfortunately, go to young grads.
My recommendation is to take one of the skills you have plenty of experience with and get a formal training in it. Even if it bores you, it will likely boost your employment probabilities more than anything new and interesting like the cloud. Because it is new, companies will be looking for young people who (a) are cheap, and (b) hopefully will stay after gaining experience, so the company can take advantage of that experience down the road.
Sorry if this wasn't what you wanted to hear - I wish things were different, but we old timers aren't all that attractive for things we don't have experience with.
thats pretty damn obnoxious of you, douchebag.
From what I've been reading in the business press over the last couple of years, when folks lose their jobs in their 50s or later, they're screwed for the rest of their life. More than likely, he'll never work again as a professional or in any white collar job.
That is also a reason why disability claims with Social Security have been sky rocketing these last couple of years - older people unable to work so they go for early retirement or disability if they are too young.
It's a crying shame, too.
Java is still a very popular language - Could you get a job teaching the basics? You can't beat the perks of being a professor.
If development classes don't float your boat, how about teaching a Systems Analysis and Design course? You've got experience with requirements gathering, project management, System Design, etc.. you could make a great Professor with that experience.
One of the things that many companies struggle with is delivering on projects. A good PM helps with that. What makes a good PM? Someone that knows and follows all the stupid paperwork around PM, but also has a well refined BS meter, for all the worthless twits who will always say "I can get you that by Friday" when it's a 6 month task (in IT, I find many people have superhero complexes and will never say "I don't know" or anything like that). So, someone with a well rounded background who is interested in PM will make a better PM than all the people who decide it's the non-technical way to get into IT for all that lucrative IT cash, and can't ever deliver anything.
On the other hand, if you are wanting to just continue as an IT grunt, VMware is what most managers think of when "the cloud" is mentioned, so go take a VMware class, or SAN or something like that. Look at the jobs available in your region (or where you want to work) and see what's being listed now and what pays in your expectation range.
Learn to love Alaska
Either
1) Do something completely non-tech like management training and find something in at a tech company. Or accounting.
2) Do what you find interesting (I'm learning Scala by doing Project Euler tasks, because I want to. No other reason). You're asking /. so I'm guessing you don't want to do anything in tech. Which is fine. You may never find a job in the field. Assuming you're in the US, there are fewer employed full time workers every year so you may never have another job, at all. But at least you'll get a cool class.
3) Find where you want to work, figure out what they use in IT, and learn it to get in. So you wanna get in on the bubble (admittedly probably too late) so you figure out what groupon or facebook uses in your field, learn those topics, get into the bubble, or whatever. It seems we're headed into another downswing of the 2nd great depression. I'd look for a relatively stable employer, like a hospital?
4) Figure out where you want to work, figure out what entry level jobs they hire (unfortunately probably low pay), and learn a new skill in a new career.
5) Retire? My dad retired from full time 9-5 work in his 50s and consulted, but was mostly retired. Your previous employers may not need you 40 hours per week, but they may need you for 8 hours a week, or perhaps during busy times. Who's to say you're not doing your own startup or small business while retired? A decade or so ago, retired people looking to earn a buck used their domain specific skills to run a ebay store, worked for my dad. I guess that opportunity has been destroyed but there is probably something out there. Is gold farmer still a valid mode of employment?
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Try to not use your real name when posting on tech forums. You come across as insecure and not knowing.
And with your name, you should consider changing it, because prospective employers like to google names, and find things like
Spamming: http://luni.org/pipermail/luni/2010-July/027748.html
Drug charge: http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/914/1527/243231/
Alleged wifebeating and stabbing attempt: http://on-suicides-deaths.blogspot.com/2009/04/nh-man-killed-in-lakes-region-crash.html
Those might not be you, but a prospective employer might not spend the extra time on finding out.
roll with that.
seriously.
get a job appointing support consultants to do some shit ass oracle consulting for businesses that use enterprise support sw(read: every fucking big corp). swim in money. go for it.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Learn plumbing. Your "Enterprise Products" days are over.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Cloud + "Big Data" are happening things these days. I am a 64yo professional and started a new career at the first of the year in telecom. Cloud + Hadoop + Big Data are serious issues these days. I'm gaining my chops in that area (main emphasis is performance engineering), and there is a LOT of interest in anyone with "Big Data" (Hadoop + MapReduce) type of experience.
If you have been steadily going up the pay scale during your career, you might have to take a significant pay cut - maybe 40% or more, to get another job. As I'm sure you've heard often enough, IT is not kind to those over 50. And nowadays 45 is the new 50. If you have specific niche skills, those are what you should try to market. There is still a considerable amount of legacy hardware and software out there, and it would be better to look there, and hopefully replace someone who is retiring, than live a pipe dream of "reinventing" yourself as a Java/Android/HTML5/Node.js/Hadoop expert.
I do not believe training will help much at this point in your career. Your age will work against you much more than any shiny new certification will work for you. All the twenty somethings are all over the hot new fads. But they will probably not be applying for jobs that involve AS/400 control language, or VAX/VMS.
Support microSD: in a post 9/11 world, it is unwise to carry your data on media that you cannot comfortably swallow.
Sounds like you've done a lot on making different pieces of the IT puzzle work together on the infrastructure side. Maybe there's something there?
A lot of companies are complaining that they just can't find good tech folks. IT and programming seem like damned hard positions to fill. If you wanted to brush up on Java web application programming for a month or two, I don't think you'd have a problem finding a job. If you were feeling lazy, you could probably go into software quality testing (automation is more fun than manual) with no training whatsoever and coast to retirement. Depends on the salary you're looking for, of course.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Get hip-deep in heavy networking knowledge. Use the grants to get Cisco certs; that's a hard thing to get into, otherwise.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
Are you honestly looking for suggestions on training to take that will be good for the next 5 years?
First off, in this job market, don't expect to sail into an upper-level position, so you are likely looking at a grunt-level job.
My advice would be to learn either network security OR virtualization - your diverse skill set will augment either of those two areas, and in security you may have an advantage not being a twenty-something with dubious credentials (AKA self-taught). I think you are honestly at the end of your career, or at least, you can see it from where you are - your greatest strengths are your previous experiences, look for a way to build on them in a growing segment of the industry.
Ken
> I'm a computer professional .. I was laid off recently .. I wonder what the readers might suggest for new directions ..
Unless you can move into project management I would suggest teaching or moving out of the industry ...
I am 68, probably older than you. IOW, my age-related observations come from living them, not from seeing them portrayed on TV.
I have gone into business for myself and have a cloud-based service I wrote at http://www.TelephoneMessagePad.com
It is not a major money maker ... yet. However, it is growing and churn is low. With expected age of death in early 90's (!) for those in their 60's now, what you need/want is a long-term solution. I don't think hanging on for a few years until social security kicks in and then sitting around the house is that solution. I think if you want a job, you have to create one of your own.
You say you wrote a help desk application form the ground up. Hmmm ... we may have some mutual interests. I am writing a sales/help chat application right now.
You can find some good resources on starting up at http://isvcon.com and http://www.asp-software.org Neither are free.
As a twenty something who trained for what you do I couldn't get a help desk job without at least 5 years exp to save my life. After seriously considering a move to India I settled with temping, doing migrations and what not and slowly weaseling my way into Web dev. Competition in the cloud is global. It seems you have a lot of soft skills with people you could play up. Age is always advantageous when it comes to people skills. Unless of course you've decided you hate people then by all means learn server side language.
'Grumpy Old Man', I can relate to a lot of the comments that have been posted here.
I think I'm quite lucky in that I didn't specialize in any one area of IT.
Instead, I got into 'Systems Integration'. My breadth of skills and the ability to take the wider view means that jobs are not hard to come by.
Sure some of the people I work with are shit hot Java coders, DBA designers or whatever but when putting together a system that will work is a whole different kettle of fish.
Over the years, I've been there, seen it, got the 'T' shirt.
Many systems these days are pretty complicated and just manking them work together is a skill.
A skill that is AFAIK not taught in any university. It can only be acquired with experience.
At least you will never have to worry about getting old. At some point you will mouth off to the wrong guy and get shot.
. . . .you obviously know IT, can code, and like being productive. You've got both experience and maturity, and likely a good work ethic.
Might I suggest a different tack ? Get into CNC Machining. Consider it the industrial end of the Maker movement, industrial-style. People are needed, it pays well, and if they need you to work overtime. . . .you get paid for it. Plus, at the end of the day, you'll have a tangible result of your work.
And, with the depth and breadth of experience you already have, picking up CAD/CAM shouldn't be a problem, and you'll likely become a floor lead or shop chief in a relatively short time after attaining mastery of your new skills. . . .
If you've had customer face-time, and worked in a large company, or visited large companies and worked in them, your understanding of the corporate world is not to be underestimated.
Young clowns right out of school typically take years to understand how corporations work, how to navigate, how to handle the politics, how to communicate, hell, even how to dress. You probably want to focus on getting back in to corporate work, or perhaps consulting with corporations.
As another poster mentioned, you'll be hired at this age for experience - so parlay what you have, don't fret about age.
If you'd like to take on a modern language, Udacity's got a really good intro course on Python, six weeks long and free. Other courses on web application development, programming a robotic car, and more are there for the taking. Worth your time. Start with Python - its used there extensively, and is a modern interpreted language.
Get your CISSP cert https://www.isc2.org/CISSP/Default.aspx
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
These aren't the current hot areas and probably never will be (they had their moment in the late '80s and early '90s). But they require highly skilled, highly experienced engineers with dependable work habits, and younger engineers are mostly not interested in these areas anyway since the "action" has moved up the technology stack. Employers realize this, so this your chance.
As your post points out, it's obvious that "the Cloud" is a valuable skill. That term means many things, but although I've been hearing the same things for the last 5 years I've only had the chance to mess with running virtual machines on the public cloud for the past couple months. Why? Time didn't permit me the luxury of exploring it myself, and only recently has my employer decided to it's a priority and paid me to work on it. My bet is that a lot of technology professionals feel that way. I know this sounds cliché, but getting laid off may be the best thing that ever happened for your career. Take the skills you know and add on some pretty deep exploration of cloud technologies. Up to you, but since you mentioned Java you might start with Amazon's Elastic Beanstalk (deploy .war files on Tomcat running in the cloud), which has a 1-year free tier:
http://aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/#pricing
If you want to be really hip, we've used JRuby to deploy Rails applications to beanstalk, there's a "Hello World" tutorial from Amazon here: http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2011/02/rack-and-the-beanstalk.html
I'm sure there are other free or low cost options out there as well. Even unemployed, your time is very valuable so use it to your advantage.
If you are looking for a good computer language to learn now I would recommend python. I have just recently started re-teaching myself programming in a new language and have found python can take advantage of your old skills. Start an online presence and get involved in some open source projects such as SciPy or another that interests you and get your foot in the door without a formal interview. As far as displaced worker training, not sure. The SciPy convention in houston might be a good place to start networking. Academia may be a better place to look for employment as age and experience is valued more highly there, and there is not as much pressure for getting the newest, lowest cost workers. You might also be able to parlay your skills into a position at a local school district that would greatly enhance the value of education to students, but migh not give you the greatest monetary rewards.
Sorry about all the negative comments here, slashdot seems to be going the way of the rest of the internets. Makes you yearn for the days of great comments, and the occasional GNAA post.....
I would caution against trying in-home support unless you live in a well off neighbourhood or can afford to live on a low wage. Problem is there is some young buck, usually the son of a friend of a friend, who gets off on messing with computers and will do it for pocket money. It's hard to make a living wage against competition like that.
If this sounds bitter, yes I've tried it. I'm a bit similar to you started my IT career doing assembler programing on IBM 360's , became a systems programer, then started doing network support, then pc support, then ended up doing PHP programing. I hate managing and at an early stage became a freelance contractor to get decent money but avoid all the management politics.
I had to give all up when I had to take 3 years out to look after my terminally ill mother. Tried to get back in after but I was too far behind and frankly not in all that good a state myself by then.
Tried the home PC support but it's very hard to find a price level that you can afford to live on and people can afford you, though I very much enjoyed the work and meet real live people again after 2 many years in 2nd line support. Did a few other non-computer ventures for a while ( Ran a bar, worked as a photographer) but was never really as happy as when I was messing with bits . Neither did I make as much money , and that with the loss of most of my capital through two divorces forced a rethink.
In the end I stumbled in into a job I really enjoy. I'm a model railroader by hobby and started using 3-d cad to make models by 3-d printing. A year and a bit later I have a business that almost supports me and my family.
If you have been in the biz for 39 years, like me you're not getting any younger - go find something you enjoy and do it.
N.B. this user is far too lazy to write a witty and intelligent sig.
This may help... http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Comprehension-Success-Minutes-Builders/dp/1576856763/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339357690&sr=8-1
Definitely stay in the public eye. Substitute teaching is a valuable service to the community, and gives you an outlet for your skills.
Anyone who has survived on their technical merits as long as you have is probably outside the norm of the crop of twentysomethings and an employer would be a fool not to hire you. (Note to employers who have NOT hired me over the past year: THIS MEANS YOU).
You have to do things to disguise the old-guy smell. I recommend trying to win government contracts, taking a crack at winning challenges such as at innicentive or zintro, and definitely snarfing up a few of the free, excellent, topical courses online from places like coursera and others, the possibilities are growing exponentially right now.
Work on open source if you are adept at something, or learn something and then contribute if you are not.
So you want a CISSP but don't want to relocate from your comfortable home? Get on Dice first and search for CISSP within commuting distance of your home. Alternatively, just set up a daily Dice search for jobs in your area and continually pester the headhunters about any job you feel qualified for, specifying in your resume or cover letter EXACTLY how your skillset covers the job requirements.
Look for opportunities to suggest to an employer that he is better off hiring you AND that recent grad, so you can mentor the kid in all the things he doesn't know anything about (UNIX, SQL, security, perl?) while he backs up your lack of front end development expertise. The employer will end up with two skilled employees for the price of one.
Oh yes, did I mention? Offer to work for a lot less than at your previous job, since you are pretty well set anyway. It will keep you from going crazy and fend off the honeydews. Keep working on something, whether paid or unpaid. Use and reference your web site to hone your web skills and provide a visible first impression.
I know many people will call Pascal outdated, but in my opinion the fundamentals are excellent. Rapid development, rapid and efficient code execution. If you are tired of waiting for C++ compilers or Java app servers, that is it !
Get your ITIL v3 Expert / Manager certification. Jobs for ITIL Experts / Managers start at about $150k and work up from there.
Apple Releases Safari 6 Beta ahead of WWDC ’12
Your skill list is probably good enough. What you need placement help. Check with local technical placement agencies.
Still, if you feel like learning something new check online resources like careerbuilder, craigslist, monster and the like. Look at the jobs that interest you and see what the requirements are. You'll find the holes in your resume pretty quick that way.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
I know my stuff, and have a good education. But I can never get an interview anywhere. I sent out thousands of resumes on Monster.com over two years, and only got 1 Interview from it. After years of searching, I gave up and started programming my own games. This is what I'm doing now. Anyone have tips for someone who's career never started, but is still super talented in what they do?
God spoke to me
or you want to say renook?
A: Find your oldest skill and try to find an industry that still needs it and has trouble finding people able to maintain old common lisp/cobol/PL1/... code using codasyl databases and such stuff... (boring but might bridge you to retirement).
B: Find a job in the Gambling industry it has low "ageism", they want people they feel they can trust (funny isn't it)..
C: Create your own company doing anything you like to, and people will expect you to be "old" since you are the big kahuna, and they do not have to know that you are writing the code yourself instead of feeding it to a bunch of H1B visas in your basement.
nb: Forget about "cloud" and other "mot du jour", you might blurb out the truth accidentally about the real issues, and the client really do not like this, moreover, the field is full of 20 something who think they invented it... and are willing to work for one bol of ramen per day.
...if you know you couldn't fail?
I've been doing computer-related stuff for 47 years. I've rotated between hardware, software, sales, and just about anything in between. The bigest kick I get is making something work. Tech work worked for me for a long time because I was continuously getting called on to make things work. The longer I've been in the field, the more complicated the problems and, until about 6 years ago, the more I got paid to solve them.
My income has dropped 80% in the last 8 years. Part of it was due to an illness I contracted, but most of it was due to the economic situation. I have a small advantage over most techs, but the truth is that any fairly competent tech with a couple of year's experience could do 80% of what I do, and those techs are selling their services for $35/hr instead of the $110/hr I usually charged my corporate customers. It makes sense; It is usually cheaper to hire the cheaper fella and only call me in if he screws it up. That's OK with me, too, because I love being the hero. But it is getting harder and harder to make a living this way.
I'm 64 now, and I'm not ready to retire. (I spent all my money on wine, women and song, and I wasted the rest.) If my business doen't pick up by October I think I will see if can get into an Electrician's apprentice program. There is always a need for electricians, it is solid work, and lots of the low-voltage work in security, home automation, solar electric, etc. is fascinating. Plus, you don't have to re-train yourself every 4 years to keep up with your field. Cause and effect are pretty clear (most complex systems have failure built into the design) and the requirements analysis is pretty straight forward.
Another question might be, "What would you do with your life if you had so much money that you never had to work for a living again?" My hobby is robotics and I do some serious stuff. If I could make a living doing that I would probably be as happy as if I had good sense.
I would suggest reading, "The E-Myth" by Michael Gerber before making a decision. http://www.amazon.com/The-E-Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses/dp/0887307280/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339362079&sr=1-1&keywords=e-myth
Even if you are not interested in having your own business, the first three chapters on figuring out how you want to live your life are very useful.
Good luck.
"The mind works quicker than you think!"
DEVOPS should be worth looking into,experience it the missing link for most devops people.
http://archive.org/details/EbenMoglen-theAlternateNetWeNeedAndHowWeCanBuildItOurselves
http://archive.org/details/EbenMoglen-FreedomInTheCloud2010
Most worthy project anywhere in the world at the moment IMO
You should make a list of contacts and get in touch with them, find out if they know of any needs that you might fill, either as an independent consultant or as an employee.
I also strongly suggest using linked-in and building your contact network, your resume, getting recommendations, joining groups that might be useful, etc. It's an excellent business networking tool.
blindly antisocialist = antisocial
39 years in the business? Capitalise on what you already know, there's scads of legacy stuff just begging for fossil support and crystal clear, complete and insightful risk/implementation analysis. Competing with people 1/4 your age and 1/3 your salary requirements will get you nowhere. Do the things old farts know how to do that young punks won't bother to have learned. Also, following trends is the quickest way to redundancy.
You meant "renook a long tech career", i guess
First answer that question. What do *you* really want to do? The proceed from there. Don't just chase after the latest fad, they come and go and have the shelf life of fresh fruit. And fads can often end up as dead ends. Find out what you would be happiest doing. Even if it means a career change. Get career counseling if you have to but explore that question first.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
You are a douchebag. Go play some more Halo and have a nice can of shut the fuck up. asshat.
Tell me what you believe...I'll tell you what you should see.
Really, why not just try something COMPLETELY NEW. 39 years is a long time to do anything, I'm 42 and feel "old" and I've been a paid programmer for 25 years. Maybe try sales, working at a Starbucks, taking some adult continuing ed classes for fun, etc.
If you're still interested in coding, learn Scala! You'll leverage your existing JVM knowledge, and have exposure to a few currently-hyped trends: Functional programming, actor-based concurrency, etc.
Considering how rapidly tech is accelerating, there is no way to anticipate its development.
Keep the brain in good running order.
Since you're trying so hard for that name, it's yours - douchebag durrr it is. I'm sure you'll live up to it.
You've been in an office long enough. Go do some field work. Bring up circuits at field offices and stores. I did that and I never want to go back to the office.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
All this crap that amounts to "try this" or "try that" or "I did this" to essentially start a new career is exactly that, crap. You're old, face it. It doesn't matter if you can really compete, you're old and nobody wants you because your benefit package is going to cost them more than your wage. Forget being hired by anyone, you have 2 choices only. One is to do project work as a consultant. There are lots of tech temp agencies with lots of work for people with 39 years of experience. Companies love us old guys (I'm 58) to come in and clean up the mess left behind by the kids. I did consulting for nearly a decade and loved it. Base pay is pretty good, you work on an hourly rate, and you get paid for overtime. Your second choice is self-employment; if you can't get a job, make a job. Keep bread on the table during the startup period by taking whatever government money you can get, investing the absolute minimum time possible to keep the tax dollars flowing your way for as long as possible. Don't fall in love with any one concept, try different things to see what works for you. I like the self-employment path because you can keep it going into retirement, so you don't end up feeble, and brain dead sitting on the porch all day. Face it, Social Security is neither social nor secure. You're going to need something to supplement that no matter what. Take this opportunity to get your retirement sideline up and running.
I just flat out turned down a gig at a shop where I immediately run into some young Scala fanboy coders. Truth is the entire operation was a complete mess with multiple stories of down time problems and stability horrors.
I had made up my mind 15 minutes into the interview that this shop would be like watching a train wreck in progress.
You cannot build stable production software using beta quality development tools. Years of experience is what teaches one these valuable life lessons.
Got Code?
Conscientiously re-installing Windows, insuring that no malware and/or feelthy peectures remain, and installing updates and antivirus can keep you busy all week. Surprising how much of this stuff is around. Rinse, repeat... (lots of repeat customers)
Bin Laden is pushing up Daisies ^h^h^h lillypads. now we need people to create the tech to find the other bad people in the world. Rachel from Card Member Services is just such a scumbag.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
This will sound crazy, but figure out some new sellable products that can either by manufactured, or coded. And then do so.
Maybe you could get a teaching degree? Teach kids computer and programming skills?
Also, sorry to ask, but with a 39 year career in and around the tech industry, why are you still working? What went wrong with retirement? I ask only because I'm in the same industry and don't want to work for 39 years (even thought I like what I do). If you made one critical mistake that cost you your retirement and wish to share it, many of us here could probably benefit from your 20/20 hindsight.
"False hope is why we'll never run out of natural resources!" - Lewis Black
Time for retirement? With 39 years under your bet, you've got to have a pretty well financed 401k, yes?
Some of the highest demand for developers, analysts and project leads is in the Enterprise Resource Planning field. Go check out dice, monster or career builder and search for "SAP", "Oracle" or "PeopleSoft" and take a look at the number of hits and the typical contract and staff pay rates. There is a sizeable freelance and big five consulting industry for these products with typical salaries close to if not past six figures.
You should take a serious look at getting some ERP training. Career paths vary based on background; as you have a programming background you should look at topics such as (in the SAP market) ABAP, Basis, Netweaver.
Less technical and more business inclined types can find well paid careers as business analysts, security experts, testing experts and instructional design / training experts.
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I know many people will call Pascal outdated, but in my opinion the fundamentals are excellent. Rapid development, rapid and efficient code execution.
That's a feature of Delphi, not Pascal. And Delphi != Pascal.
If you are tired of waiting for C++ compilers or Java app servers, that is it !
Pascal is a compiled language, just like C++.
And UCSD Pascal compiles to bytecode, just like Java (guess where Java got the idea from). The main difference is that the virtual machine can compile the bytecode to a standalone executable.
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I would suggest retraining in an IT specialty that has a slower rate of change while staying relevant to today's IT needs. With programming it seems to be that by the time you learn a programming language it is already obsolete. Network and Server technology skills become obsolete as a slower rate, a rate that you can use to stay current.
The reason for this strategy is that past learning can inhibit future learning on similar subjects. When the programming languages, like Perl, Ruby, and PHP, are variants of a root language, C, then the differences in the new variant are harder for me to learn and remember because now I have to learn NOT use how previous variants did something. The same is true, at least for me, in learning Linux. I know UNIX but learning different variants of Linux gets me stuck sometimes. My question with Linux is always "where did they put file"? I know the concept of UNIX/Linux and I know what files and scripts are available but not always where are.
Seriously? How do you kiss your momma with the same lips from which you spew such vomit?
Kids these days.
Just another day in Paradise
It sounds vaguely familiar, but I don't immediately recognize the reference. Given that it's in quotes and sounds suspiciously like a movie quote, I'm guess it's from some movie? Anyway, my point is that although some folks may not recognize the reference, I wouldn't say that it "soared over a lot of peoples' heads." Normally I only use that phrase when someone says something that makes sense in one context (or possibly doesn't, but in an ironic kind of way), but for those who are "in the know," it takes on a whole different meaning. In other words, for it to soar of your head, the reference should be at such a high level that those whose heads it's soaring over don't even realize it just passed them by.
Of course, with a comment subject of "The cloud," perhaps one could argue that soaring over people's heads is an appropriate phrase to describe this whole metaconversation.
I know IBM is scared shitless that no one will be able to handle their System z and related mainframes anymore. They have an annual competition called Master The Mainframe to attract college students to their legacy systems (I competed three years in a row). Their System z mainframe is ridiculously easy to learn to handle. You might be taken more seriously applying for a position they expect to go to someone with advanced age (and experience).
You might find some useful information on their site.
Contest: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/university/students/contests/mainframe/details.html
Careers: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/university/students/jobs/
Certification: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/university/students/certification/
Learning: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/university/students/learning/
Good luck!
SQL or COBOL, JCL. You'll have a job for life. I maintain SQL stored procedures that calculate multi-tier, multi-dimensional insurance rates. All highly complex and specialized. There's no off the shelf solution. Yes it's boring but it pays the bills and is recession proof. The only way my job would go is if the company were to fold. Look at business process modeling and computing in insurance, banking or finance. It's been really good to me. I dabble in Python, RoR and Scala/akka/Lift as a hobby for home projects. I don't buy into the mobile apps hype. I don't buy into the web development hype(unless it's a business web front-end). I don't buy into the social media hype. It's been my experience that these are unstable pay/job areas with lots of turnover and lots of bubbles.