how low can I go?

[SizeZero]

Go permie if it suits your lifestyle and pays the bills. Get training: update the skills that are still useful (Oracle etc) and learn new ones. Remember that 75% of what you read on this board is bravado or bollocks. Remember that many here, even the most experienced forum users, are or have been permies when it's suited them or when circumstances dictated it was necessary.

[OwlHoot]

I'm nearly 50, have a 200k mortgage to service and no contract.

Hi Archangel, long time no see.

Crikey, lucky interest rates are low at the moment, although how long they'll stay that way is anyone's guess.

[Shimano105]

Hmmm. I empathise totally with you. I'm currently looking at perm again because being a technical freelancer seems to have no future in it whatsoever.

So you either open up a business in Northumberland with your last million or try and get into a technical director kind of position - that's the choice I've decided that it comes down to. As I don't have a million going begging it would have to be the permie grind. At least you can pretend you have a future!

Hope things improve for you btw, your predicament sounds no fun at all.

So, are we leaving ourselves exposed in our later years by enjoying short-term good times?

[Cliphead]

I saw the writing on the wall a few years ago and concentrated on a Plan B which is working well despite the recession. I have a sort of long term contract which pays the bills and funded Plan B until it could stand on its own feet.

The thought of going permie has always horrified me and would be a last resort, not proud and would go that route if there was no alternative.

I've been lucky and could always earn a few quid playing in bands if all else failed, selling a few tunes for corporate video etc, just gotta keep some dosh coming in so at worst a low paid permie gig and my own gigs at night.

PS 48 and no real safety net so far so I expect to be working till I drop.

[OwlHoot]

Snap to Archangel.

Field: Siebel. Data Migration. Oracle PL/SQL. Database & data load & interface performance tuning. Plus another 19 years of various: Client/Server. Windows App GUIs, Credit card mainframe systems, COBOL CICS MVS etc, IBM Assembler, RPG, ...... nothing of any value now.

God, twenty years ago I wished to hell I could get into that mainframe stuff instead of being stuck with minis (Dec, Prime, etc). But now I'm quite glad I didn't. There are still a fair number of mainframe sites around though aren't there?

[Fred Bloggs]

Luckily, there seems no age bar at all in process engineering, at least in nuclear ATM.

[downsouth]

There are still a fair number of mainframe sites around though aren't there?

Tons of MF sites around, only issue is that companies hardly get budgets to develop/code applications, most stuff running on them is donkeys years old and only a handful of people (if that) in companies to fix them, so often nowt gets done other than firefighting.

Coupled with the fact that most companies seem to 'think' the world revolves around server based applications/infrastructure means that most people have learnt new skills to the detriment of MF skills just to keep a job even internally within the company.

No good being jack of all trades etc, cos you end up with no skills at all and even more competition when your looking for a job. When push comes to shove, think we'd all take wotever role we could to pay bills etc, regardless of type, even those that spout nonsense on here with all the bravado I read.

[Fred Bloggs]

Yes, we've all had to reinvent ourselves over the years. I did petrochem>gas>fine chem>pharma>petrochem>nuclear.

[OwlHoot]

Yes, we've all had to reinvent ourselves over the years. I did petrochem>gas>fine chem>pharma>petrochem>nuclear.

Mine has been roughly finance>cad>engineering>os internals>finance>web

and I'm hoping to get into robotics at some stage, but it's still quite niche and small scale.

[ASB]

[QUOTE=expat;878939]Do I really want to spend one of them merely existing?[QUOTE]

Probably yes when you seriously consider the alternative. you might not like the position you are in; unfortunately it's where you are.