Ah, I have a neck injury, not as bad as your back, but I do have an inkling how debilitating that could be.
I was lucky with finanaces. My Mom paid off my loans after I'd flunked out as an undergrad, which, looking back, suggests she made more at her job than I'd realized. Money was pretty tight growing up; I don't know how she saved up whatever that amount was. Dad helped considerably when I went back. By that time I was on in-state tuition at least.
I go back and forth between optimism and pessimism. It's always been difficult for me to get a new job in my field - even just out of college I had only one offer - and computer skills change all the time and my jobs haven't given me opportunities to update mine. I program in a language called C++ and there is less and less calling for it. I tried taking Java classes at a local university but the focus was more on Object Oriented Programming which I already know from C++. Honestly, I could have taught 90% of those classes. In addition my anemia and mother's death led me to a mid-life crisis. Now I am very burnt out with that career. My therapist is encouraging me to think outside the box and I know there are people who are successful designing their own careers or switching to new careers. I'm definitely afraid. I try to think of it as an experiment (worked for Buckminster Fuller) but I keep getting back to “why should this work for me?” But I don't see me old career being viable long-term. MAYBE if I were really gung-ho and went back for Masters and possibly Ph. D. it'd work out long-term but I'm not even sure about that. Plus I just don't care about programming anymore.
And there are TA positions that help with tuition; I had one for a year but the amount of money is nominal esp for the amount of work you are expected to do. See, that's the information I was missing, that there is a lot of work in exchange for a little money as a TA.
One of the problems with money is that we aren't taught how to be smart about it. I was fed a dream as well although mine focused more on their being loyalty - on both sides - between employee and company. That's not how it works. The company has all the power. If they tell me to jump I'm not supposed to think about whether or not jumping is in my best interests, I'm supposed to ask “How high?” I was also sold the dream that you stay with the company, you're loyal, and you're taken care of for life. It might have worked that way once but it sure doesn't now.
I know a guy who was tremendously loyal, actually I know a number of guys who were tremendously loyal and were laid off anyway, but I'm thinking of one in particular. He was on a management track and then shunted back to programming, which he hadn't done in years and didn't have the skills for given the new programming paradigm. He arranged to take management training through the company while working as a programmer and trying to pick up the new development skills he needed. After a year he was laid off because he wasn't getting the programming skills. Instead of looking at the industry and seeing that it's changing, he's asking the industry “How high?” He's taking college courses to try to make himself a better fit as an employee. Maybe that will work for him but after twenty-five years in the field I think he could be throwing his money down the drain.
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branchandroot
Re: Pt 1 of long-ass reply
Date: 2013-10-15 03:09 pm (UTC)I was lucky with finanaces. My Mom paid off my loans after I'd flunked out as an undergrad, which, looking back, suggests she made more at her job than I'd realized. Money was pretty tight growing up; I don't know how she saved up whatever that amount was. Dad helped considerably when I went back. By that time I was on in-state tuition at least.
I go back and forth between optimism and pessimism. It's always been difficult for me to get a new job in my field - even just out of college I had only one offer - and computer skills change all the time and my jobs haven't given me opportunities to update mine. I program in a language called C++ and there is less and less calling for it. I tried taking Java classes at a local university but the focus was more on Object Oriented Programming which I already know from C++. Honestly, I could have taught 90% of those classes. In addition my anemia and mother's death led me to a mid-life crisis. Now I am very burnt out with that career. My therapist is encouraging me to think outside the box and I know there are people who are successful designing their own careers or switching to new careers. I'm definitely afraid. I try to think of it as an experiment (worked for Buckminster Fuller) but I keep getting back to “why should this work for me?” But I don't see me old career being viable long-term. MAYBE if I were really gung-ho and went back for Masters and possibly Ph. D. it'd work out long-term but I'm not even sure about that. Plus I just don't care about programming anymore.
And there are TA positions that help with tuition; I had one for a year but the amount of money is nominal esp for the amount of work you are expected to do. See, that's the information I was missing, that there is a lot of work in exchange for a little money as a TA.
One of the problems with money is that we aren't taught how to be smart about it. I was fed a dream as well although mine focused more on their being loyalty - on both sides - between employee and company. That's not how it works. The company has all the power. If they tell me to jump I'm not supposed to think about whether or not jumping is in my best interests, I'm supposed to ask “How high?” I was also sold the dream that you stay with the company, you're loyal, and you're taken care of for life. It might have worked that way once but it sure doesn't now.
I know a guy who was tremendously loyal, actually I know a number of guys who were tremendously loyal and were laid off anyway, but I'm thinking of one in particular. He was on a management track and then shunted back to programming, which he hadn't done in years and didn't have the skills for given the new programming paradigm. He arranged to take management training through the company while working as a programmer and trying to pick up the new development skills he needed. After a year he was laid off because he wasn't getting the programming skills. Instead of looking at the industry and seeing that it's changing, he's asking the industry “How high?” He's taking college courses to try to make himself a better fit as an employee. Maybe that will work for him but after twenty-five years in the field I think he could be throwing his money down the drain.