The Next Job, Part II: Know Your Stuff

Aside from computing, my other passion has always been medicine. In fact, I was a pre-med student for two semesters when I first started college, but decided to pursue computer engineering instead because I would start making money sooner (5 years compared to surgery's 13 years). In the back of my mind, I've always thought I might make the jump back to medicine, perhaps in a position that integrates computing.

With the prospect of unemployment in March 2015, I wondered whether this was the opportunity to consider a medical career. I reasoned that if my wife's job could support the family wholly for a few years, I might return to school and start out as a nurse, working my way towards surgery. Possibility. The harder I considered this, I became convinced that your 30's are the last opportunity to settle into your last career, one that will take you into a comfortable retirement. Yes, you still have another 30 years before retirement age, but it is much harder to change careers after your 30's. You surely can change jobs within your career, but not many more times. Age discrimination is on the rise, as well as a growing younger and immigrant labor force that will make the labor market highly competitive. Old dogs cannot learn new tricks.

In the end, I decided to stick with computing as my career. In fact, I also determined that I would be really good at it that even in my 50's, I'll still be markatable with tons of relevant experience. Having learned what skills were in demand for jobs I could qualify for, the next step was to determine which skills I already have, which ones I needed to spruce up, and which ones I need to attain. Out of 55 skills, I decided to focus on 25 of the most requested, and gave myself a year (until July 2015) to master them. Even with the birth of our son and off-schedule sleeping routines, I still manage 2-4 hours of quiet study in the mornings while everyone else sleeps, so I have a chance to pursue this goal.