Teaching an old dog a new trick

I’m over 50 and proud of it! And more importantly, I’ve been in IT for 37 years and counting. To make it this long I put myself through a career change a few years ago. Like many of my peers, I had focused on the job for many years and didn’t give myself enough time to keep my skill set current. I had become an old dog.

I have an acquaintance that is looking for a new position and isn’t having much success. He, like me and quite a few others, had prided himself on his work with the hot machines of the 1980s. The PC had just been introduced into the business world and was fast becoming the workstation of choice. The ‘big iron’ in the data center was safe, for the time being and we didn’t pay attention to servers built on a microprocessor. In the 90s, we all learned about networking, Microsoft OS and the internet. Still, we didn’t spend the time to embrace this new technology.

He was a very good system administrator for many years. When others in the organization started to move on to the newer technologies, he stayed with the legacy systems and applications. Finally, the organization he was with went under (a tradition here in the Silicon Valley ) and he was left out on the streets.

The resume is heavy with the old technology, the references point to people and organizations that have come and gone. He is pretty much stuck. He is another old dog.

Why, you may ask, am I writing this sad blog entry? To send a message to other “senior” IT professionals. Many of us put ourselves into this position. We were so focused on being the best at whatever we were doing that we never saw technology moving on. We didn’t get on the technology bus.

There is hope for us yet. As I found out a couple of years ago, while I was not able to compete for positions as IT Director any longer (stale resume) I did have a number of years experience in project management and was able, to move on. It takes determination, patience and hard work. I was one old dog who learned a new trick.

For those of us who fould ourselves stuck in the career rut, we need to identify those things we used to do that we really liked. Do the research, is the favored skill marketable? Will some additional education make it more appealing to a prospective employer? Are we willing to make the investment? Can the old dog learn a new trick?

I hope my friend comes to the same conclusion soon; he needs to learn that new trick.