What ya said, Rion; all true. And when I get the brochures and catalogs from colleges and manufacturers, everyone in the pics is a freaking kid fresh outta college.
I spose I could learn more programming; experience thus far is just scripting stuff like DCL (howz dat for old fart dinosaur?) and some bash and vb and Windoze PowerShell, which actually ain't too bad. OTOH, why bother at 55? One look at me and they're ASSuming I'll retire in ten years. Now looking at part-time farming, gunsmithing and EMT/paramedic certs; all useful skills as the country goes back in the time machine to circa 1900 in the next few years/decades. And thank God for Scott Adams all these years, making us laff as we are rendered null and void. Ditto http://www.redmeat.com, published in SevenDays. (I figger, in the latter strip, I am either Bug-Eyed Earl or the Dead Clown. Cheers to all, this snowy night in central/northern Vermont! Old Farmer Davy Pavilion Farm (1806) On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 6:21 PM, Rion D'Luz <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wednesday 28 January 2009, David Hardy wrote: > >> "... the best way would be to improve your HR dept to be more responsive > to job inquiries, > >> specifically after one has gone to the trouble of filling out the > on-line form and submitting. > >> Waiting weeks before getting even some notification of receipt, let > alone review, is BS." > > > That seems to be S.O.P now in the industry. They post gigs, we respond, > and > > BTW, they all want the full alphabet soup for their site's infrastructure > > (which we must already know down to the smallest nuts and bolts before we > > even darken their doorways) and then we hear either nothing at all, or > > nothing for weeks and weeks. I've sent in the stuff to LS before and got > > nada back. > I can claim the same. Don't anybody tell me that I can't test equipment, > but in their > wisdom (and w/no avail recommendations) they prob see me as a poor match so > I fail even > the pre-screening "getting to know you" dance. > > > Same with hundreds of other places over the last eight years. > > Of course I only have 12 years in IT across multiple hw and sw platforms > > and applications, plus college and grad school, and decorated combat vet > > status. All apparently worthless, due to me being 55 or whatever. > Well, there it is! You old fart:) Join the club of dinosaurs. Tech, > specially the www, > is so youth marketed and driven that you are handicapped the moment your CV > gets read. > I can understand how some might think that oldsters are "net1.0"; but, > speaking for myself, > I am as abreast of current tech as any 20-something; and FWIW enjoy their > company more often > than a general cross-section of my peers. > It's not about age but about the fun that comes from sharing knowledge and > making shit happen. > Try selling that concept to the PHB in HR! > > > > > Meanwhile, I'll apparently be driving, cleaning out, and washing rental > > vehicles for a local chain. Sweet! No cube farm, no pager, no cell > phone. > > And 12 years of IT down the drain. As we continue to see mass layoffs > and > > more savage and bloody competition in the job market, we're bled white by > > taxes, and our kids are still being fed to Moloch's jaws in endless > foreign cluster****s. > > I feel your pain. It's like slowly getting pushed out of our field despite > having so much still > to contribute. I'm in a constant struggle to re-invent myself just to find > meaningful work in IT. > > No sysadmin jobs: go back to programming. No local jobs: get on guru, > scriptlance, elance, getafreelancer... > The absolute worst part about finding 'gainful' employment is that if you > have to work too hard > to sell your strengths then they probably will never recognize them to > begin with and you'll be > frustrated that you never find a seat at the table for your ideas (like > switching from x-change to scalix, or > virtualizing, or designing sites w/compliant, non-tablular markup with > decent style and presentation, whatever). > If they don't see you as an asset they never will because you'll never have > the opportunity to prove it. > > Fact is, you and I (and a few others on this list) are at that point where > we have to draw upon our collective > abilities to "make something happen" or probably face our imminent demise. > > Rion > > >
