All change?

[castoff101]

What are your thoughts on reskilling at the age of 56 after working with a product for the past twelve years?

I have been contracting for around seven years now as a Lotus Notes developer. There is still some work out there but the move is for companies to move away from Notes onto Microsoft products.

My initial thoughts were to keep going with Notes hoping that the skill would have some rarity value and keep the rates at a reasonable level. At the moment, all I can see are contracts requiring my skill set are just very rare and very few around. The day rate also being quite low.

I guess then the question is what to reskill in, I think the learning curve would be a bit steep to start all over again with another coding language, bearing in mind that I have less than ten years before I hit the scary age of 65.

Previously I have been involved in software configuration management and also did a year of testing.

Is there anybody else on this board who was involved in Lotus Notes or who faced a change of direction fairly late in life?

Thank you.

[v8gaz]

Best thing you can do is get into migrations off of Notes. There are still a few big big companies out there who are on notes and don't know how to get off. From my experience, it's always painful and can take years. Could be a great money-spinner!

[Gentile]

What are your thoughts on reskilling at the age of 56 after working with a product for the past twelve years?

I have been contracting for around seven years now as a Lotus Notes developer. There is still some work out there but the move is for companies to move away from Notes onto Microsoft products.

My initial thoughts were to keep going with Notes hoping that the skill would have some rarity value and keep the rates at a reasonable level. At the moment, all I can see are contracts requiring my skill set are just very rare and very few around. The day rate also being quite low.

I guess then the question is what to reskill in, I think the learning curve would be a bit steep to start all over again with another coding language, bearing in mind that I have less than ten years before I hit the scary age of 65.

Previously I have been involved in software configuration management and also did a year of testing.

Is there anybody else on this board who was involved in Lotus Notes or who faced a change of direction fairly late in life?

Thank you.

I can't offer any insight into the "fairly late in life" part, but I think everyone that works in technology experiences having to re-skill on almost every project, with major re-skilling that involves getting up to speed with a whole new technology stack perhaps every ten years or so. I know that what I'm doing now bears little relation to what I was doing in 2002.

Surely you must have past experience of this yourself, and have been doing something completely different before you got into Lotus Notes? I think it's just part of having a career in technology, no matter what age you are, that you're always going to be somewhere along a learning curve.

[nomadd]

I think it's just part of having a career in technology, no matter what age you are, that you're always going to be somewhere along a learning curve.

This^

Only other option I can think of - if you can't face the retraining - is to take a permie job in a more managerial type position.

[sunflower]

I agree with Gentile.

Reskilling takes time. Apart from the relevance of the new skill to the market, I would pick something you think you would find interesting.

If testing might be your new direction, then even that has various sub branches. Functional testing, automated testing, performance testing. Latest trend agile testing.

One colleague of mine on a project is a great functional tester, but has less experience in automated testing. He manages to get work based on good experience in a couple of sectors. If you can do a few of types of testing, so much the better.

Another colleague on a project had a couple of areas she could work in - functional requirements and testing. Great for the client becuase she knew exactly what the test cases should deal with and it meant she got longer contracts.

Then test co-ordinator and test manager are also roles you could go for with some experience.

[ChimpMaster]

I need to re-skill very soon but just can't get my head round to doing it. It's not that I'm lazy or thick, more that I feel burnt out by the past 8 years' contracting. I am almost 20 years your junior and I have no idea how I will be reskilling (mentally getting round to it I mean).

My feeling is that a permie job - at least for a short while - might be the answer.

[lukemg]

I was the same, just could not be bothered to invest time and effort and had a good run. It fell off a cliff and it took a long time to get back in the game.
I would advise all on here to be actively looking at their next move and Plan B and investing significant portion of revenue (half your age as a % - minimum).
It's easier to jump ship than to be pushed off the side mid-ocean...

[jmo21]

I need to re-skill very soon but just can't get my head round to doing it. It's not that I'm lazy or thick, more that I feel burnt out by the past 8 years' contracting. I am almost 20 years your junior and I have no idea how I will be reskilling (mentally getting round to it I mean).

My feeling is that a permie job - at least for a short while - might be the answer.

What are you aiming to get out of?

[Scoobos]

I need to re-skill very soon but just can't get my head round to doing it. It's not that I'm lazy or thick, more that I feel burnt out by the past 8 years' contracting. I am almost 20 years your junior and I have no idea how I will be reskilling (mentally getting round to it I mean).

My feeling is that a permie job - at least for a short while - might be the answer.

I was in the same position - I'm just accepting lesser contracts for better clients , and getting a TINY tiny bit of my "dead product" work from time to time, doing migrations.

I've been UK wide SME in 2 different products now and both of the buggers have been axed! I've only been in the game for 15 years, so I'm even a bit jealous that your Lotus Notes skills have lasted so long.

Anyway, you'll be right - either reskill if you can or move into strategy or management. With your skills and experience you'll be fine, much better than most of these pretenders I'm coming across at the mo.

[castoff101]

Thank you all for your replies. I think I will stick with Notes all the time I can. Reskilling as a contractor is rather difficult as the client is very unlikely to help with this which means it has to be in your own time. Time is in rather short supply when you are actually in a contract. The alternative is to retrain during any bench time, this is the option I think I will look at... but just hope a Notes related role comes up!

Permie job, I have attempted that route a few times, but at 56 I do feel my options are limited, and those stupid interview questions... where do you see yourself in five years time? I really can't answer honestly