On Apr 5, 2007, at 11:01 PM, Thomas Laupa wrote:
> How do we make the most of our hard earned skills when the demand
> is high?
depends on whether you want to stay hands-on, go independent or stay
captive. I got laid off 20 years ago at age 47--two kids in college
and a third coming along. By some good luck I made some reconnections
with people I'd known or worked with previously and
managed to score several contract positions which kept the bills paid
while I was looking for consulting work. By the time I was offered a
direct job, which I would have coveted before I got laid off, I
realized I was done with direct employment--simply spoiled rotten for
the 9 to 5 grind. In the intervening years I've never worked harder,
but i've never enjoyed it more.
So my first suggestion is to prepare for independent practice. Make and cultivate connections and start learning about the business of engineering. Get a PE license, so you can for an actual, noneuphemistic engineering practice.
If you're only comfortable working captive, the only way to stay that way is to make yourself indispensable and unique. Learn political skills and get comfortable with aligning yourself with the prevailing winds, or get yourself a significant piece of the company. Hands-on engineers past the age of 40 are becoming fewer because they're more expensive than new-hires.
I guess there's an alternative, and that's to make as much money as you can and bail when you have enough dough to start over in whatever seems attractive.
The guts of it is that lifetime employment is a thing of the past. When I started out in 1962 you could generally expect to stay on if you kept your nose clean and followed instructions, but that rarely happens. So what you need to be doing when times are good is to prepare for your next job.
Christopher Wright P.E. |"They couldn't hit an elephant at <a href="/group/PipingDesign/post?postID=_T6MZ3CYSulGzJ6EEM3EKhNTOesl2Wa56XiC7tGWEsPJeOI-wsQOq6C2OPKDYAB-B8nvUJqe-yvZZ2g">chrisw@skypoint.com</a> | this distance" (last words of Gen.
.......................................| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania1864)
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