Blowing Where The Work Takes Me

I went to college in my 30’s and received a BS in Computer Science.  After several jobs I found myself working 50hrs a week at IBM.  Stayed there for 12 years and was finally caught in a layoff in 2009.

Ok so now I’m solidly into my 50’s and out of work.  I’m also recently divorced for the third time.  This mini-drama of course was taking place right in the middle of the real-estate bust with its companion recession.

Jobs were not exactly jumping out at me in the Nashville area where I lived.  I was also paranoid that I was too old to be hirable.  This fear was fueled by horror stories I had read about older professionals ending up working in grocery stores, as taxi drivers or worse.

So one day I just said ‘screw it’ I’ll go where-ever I can find work.  Warren’s big adventure, right?

The first job I landed was a 6 month consulting contract with BJ’s store chain, Sam’s club or Costco type stores on the East coast.  So Joe, my son who was staying with me at the time, and I packed up and moved to Boston, well really Framingham MA.

I really wanted a steady employment job rather than doing temporary consulting gigs so when the contract in Boston ran out I took a consulting contract with a bank in Washington DC.  The option to be hired on permanently if all went well was understood.  It did not go well, I did not get along with my manager and was too vocal about my perception of his short comings.  I was walked off the job after a few weeks.

Next I went to work for Aetna insurance in Connecticut.  They wanted to hire me but the pay was too low.  Finally I was offered a permanent Integration Architect position at Devon Energy in Oklahoma City, OK.  I worked there for 4 years and then was again laid off.  I landed another job within 3 months, this time in Wichita, KS with the Koch companies.  I retired from there in 2017 at age 62.

Was it hard making all of those moves and enduring all that change?  Yes it was an effort but the last 8 years of my career were the most rewarding in many ways.  The various work experiences rebooted my career.  I learned much by working IT in so many industries and parts of the country.

Since I kept working at high paying jobs I was able to travel all over the country on driving trips and also take many trips overseas.  Most of all I learned not to listen to the fear mongers and sad stories quite so closely.  They only reflect one person’s sad experience.

Sam Kinison, in one of his routines, said something like.  If you don’t want to starve, move to where the food is.  I kind of felt that was what I was doing by taking jobs where I could find them.