While those of us of the boomer generation have valued education, a lot of boomers are finding themselves going back to school. The two biggest reasons for this is the job market and personal reasons. This is an area that I have personal experience with because I was one of the casualties of the tech bubble and bust.
For almost twenty five years I had progressively better jobs in the Information Technology industry. All of that came crashing down when the tech bubble burst and I saw my job and thousands of jobs like mine be shipped out to India and China. Unfortunately for me, I had not kept up with the technology and by the time the tech sector crashed, I had been in management positions for several years.
I had not kept up with my technical skills and found myself out of a job and without the marketable skills necessary to get back in the industry. After struggling for several years, I am now in a position to be able to go back to college. The biggest question for me is, do I want to update my skills or do I want to try for a different career altogether?
After the ordeal that I went through, there are some things that are clear in my mind:
- There is no longer any such thing as working for a company for 30 years and retiring from it.
- Even if you achieved to retire from the same company after 30 years, there is no guarantee that the retirement pension will be there.
- Whatever happens, you have to have multiple streams of income.
- However small, I want to have a business of my own. If for no other reason, I’ll use the business for its deductions.
Most important of all is this, whatever I choose, I want to make sure it will not become obsolete in just a few years. This will probably mean a full degree and possibly a post-graduate degree as well. I admit it, I still have the achievement bug!
What do you think?Do you plan to return to school? Have you found yourself in a situation where you had to re-train to gain new skills? Do you find yourself in a present job situation that can disappear? Are you at a point in your life where you are thinking about a major life change?
