The Glade 4.0

so I work in Tech.

Its weird. There's very few grey hairs around, and those there are are all MD's.

I'm not going to be an MD. Might make ED. Maybe. VP at the moment.

So Im thinking where do I go from here? How do you reskill? Whats the *future*?

With the current climate too its high stress; folks are catching bullets just for not keeping up, even though they're doing everything asked. I find it demoralising, not motivating. I find myself wondering how to leave and maintain income. How to work somewhere kinder, more meaningful, more long term. I loved my job when I had a sense of mission, when we were building the future, when there was space to learn and screw up and encourage more junior staff. Now... its just brutal.

Just when I've convinced myself I hate it, I cant bear it, Im awful at it, its all going wrong... I get an email telling me I'm part of a key 1% of the org and am being asked to form part of a new strategic architecture & direction team, but that it's on top of my current job.

Comes with a separate IC pool, so potentially more money, but... argh.

The joy is kind of leaving the work, and I wonder how I maintain this for another 20 years.

The fear is settin in ;-p

Crap.

I started down the management route in the late 80's. As upper management changed, my role became less defined as my number of direct reports increased.

I decided to go the pure tech route and haven't regretted it at all. The pay's the same or better, and I have no requirement to deal with 'politics' to speak of even though I'm at one of the largest companies in the US at the moment. Little or no stress in my day to day activities.

If I were management and I suffered a layoff, the average amount of time I'd be unemployed is about a year, as it is, it's about 2 months.

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In time, this too shall pass.

I hear you with this, and also about the current climate making it even tougher. Not even maintain income but come close would be nice. I think it would be much easier if I could define a goal and pursue it, but it's not like I have some burning desire to be in another field either. I toy with the idea of being self employed and opening a small business, hell it worked for my Dad, but the inspiration has not hit me.

At this point, I'm trying to ride out the current economic storm and every day I'm employed I am grateful.

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe