Originally Posted by
John Morgan
... elected to retire at age almost 45, so that I would not be an old codger looking for employment in the tech field, ...
This is a big consideration for ANY kind of significant career change, but especially those requiring some kind of additional formal education to pull off. And the longer you wait, the more difficult it is.
In part, this is because of different forms of age discrimnation (from subtle and almost unconscious to explicit and borderline illegal). And in part it's because it's just more difficult as you age (for several reasons involving cognitive issues, temperment, and "social" issues) to go through yet another formal education process.
Also, regardless of how you pull it off, it will take some time to "come up to speed" in the new work area and environment, and get to the level that you're capable of (and making the money that you need to). A mistake that many people (especially academics or ex-academics) make is in believing that they can switch into some different occupation at a particularl level that THEY feel is "appropriate" for what THEY think their skills, experience, and needs are. Certainly for the intelligent, skilled, and educated, "advancement can be rapid" (and in fact very rapid -- I saw my wife switch out of academia and go from what was basically a clerk-ish paper-shuffling job to a senior technical writer job in two years), but don't expect to change your career area and be hired in at that manager or director level. Three things are important in the real world of business and industry: education, experience, and perceived ability. That's the three-legged stool on which the whole thing sits.
The longer you wait, the harder it gets, and you end up working for people who are possibly 15-20 years younger than you. Some folks are okay with this (you should be), but for others, it's a real stumbling block -- and it's another kind of age discrimination (this time by the old against the young!).
I would say that John showed great courage in deciding to make the change at age 45. Based on my experience in industry, as a practical matter, that would be beyond your sell-by date by about 10 years for many/most job openings. They won't tell you that the age matters, or provide any evidence that it does, but you'll be weeded out at a pretty early stage for what will appear to be reasons of experience or some such. But it looks like John had the education and the ability, and maybe just enough experience to make it happen. And he probably WASN'T thinking that he'd refuse any position below VP.
You may think I'm kidding, but I know too many people -- mostly academics -- who couldn't "convert" because they just thought too highly of themselves and their own "value" to take a job that wasn't "compatible" with what they thought their skills and experience justified. Yes, grasshopper, those 4-6 years you spent in graduate school just don't matter a whole lot to someone who's looking for an employee who can actually work and produce. Those years may in fact have given you very valuable, transferable, and marketable skills, but demonstrating that is an entirely different issue to someone who needs you to start work in 2-4 weeks and fill a definite business need at that point.
Anyhow ... part of the moral of the story I'm getting at here is that if you decide to "play forever" (say at age 25 or 30) and you make sacrifices in order to "stay in the game" over time, then at the point that you decide that it's really smart to get out and "go in a different direction", it may truly be too late. And that's one reason to make the decision not to "play forever" too firmly at certain stages of your life: it can effectively close a door that you'll want to be open, at least a crack, later on.
It's one thing to live a life you enjoy, and with certain benefits you find attractive and adequate in your 20s. It's something a little different in your 30s. It's then a bit more different in your 40s. By your 50s, you'd better be happy with it -- or at least resigned to it -- because that's what you've got and (except for rare exceptions in certain fields) it's not going to change.
Gary Merrill
Wessex EEb Bass tuba (DW 3XL or 2XL)
Mack Brass Compensating Euph (DE N106, Euph J, J9 euph)
Amati Oval Euph (DE 104, Euph J, J6 euph)
1924 Buescher 3-valve Eb tuba (with std US receiver), Kelly 25
Schiller American Heritage 7B clone bass trombone (DE LB K/K10/112/14 Lexan, Brass Ark MV50R)
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