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1) Income: Patent/Product Analysis. Your background as you describe it is ideal for any number of law firms and corporate legal departments who must defend against patent assertion by analyzing products and patents - which by definition are things from 10 or so years ago that are contemporary with your resume/skillset. I used to have about 20 scientists & engineers working for me -- in the legal department of a large domestic technology company. None knew anything about law beyond what they picked up on the job, but they were all very good at looking at products (networking, sw, hardware, manufacturing technologies, etc) & they could figure out what the product does & what its components are & if it seemed to do what a claimed invention in someone's patent said is covered.
It is a growth industry.
There have been several attempts to offshore this activity but all have failed miserably. It is all domestic work that is not price sensitive. When another company holds a gun to your head (patent assertion) you almost don't care how much money you have to spend to defend yourself.
Grayhairs have a lot of credibility in such situations - young 20-somethings have no credibility in those environments.
You don't need to be an employee of such a company - just a contractor/hired gun. Money is money, and we sometimes paid $500 to $800/hr for outside "experts" who were guys like you (or so it seems). Sometimes it goes beyond that: for various reasons, the company cannot actually purchase a product on the open market to look at it; we needed to hire a 3rd party (a guy like you) to buy it, and you of course send us a bill with appropriate mark-ups.
Again, this is not legal work; it is technical work where attorneys are your customer (so to speak) and these attorneys are not price sensitive.
2) Cheap living. I don't need this for myself, but I've thought a lot about it for my 57 y.o. brother who has never held a job (he's always been self-unemployed, lived at home and never earned more than about $5K in cash-paid odd jobs per year). So he will never receive social security.
Anyway, here goes. I'm not making a joke here. At some point, Federal Prison is an alternative that I would prefer to being homeless.
The problem of course is how to land in the facility they are keeping Bernie Madoff. I think it is the same facility where they stuck Martha Stewart. From all indications, it would be fine housing. It seems to be a very nice place to live out your days. Unfortunately, many federal prisons are not nice places.
OMG. I think part of the problem here is you negative mindset. Do you really live your life thinking like this? That is incredibly sad. INCREDIBLY SAD.
Dude, lighten up a little. Enjoy your life. I would suggest moving to SW Missouri where the cost of living is very low, but good lord, I'd be too afraid I'd run into you and I would be so bummed out that I would jump off a bridge or something.
Your poor wife.
20yrsinBranson
I don't see SG's post as negative. For many people just figuring out how to survive will be very challenging and to say that the system under which we try to live is increasingly harsh and hostile doesn't seem far off the mark to me.
The type of information SG is trying to find is just what many will need in order to survive. I also find that the "Ten Best places to retire" lists are not a match for my needs. I'm living in a sunny place now that many think is paradise, but medical care here is very poor to non-existent. When I make my list of "must haves" for retirement good medical care is in the top three, sunny weather is not. I'm thinking of more basic needs, not things like fine dining.
OMG. I think part of the problem here is you negative mindset.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Keeper
I have cleaned up this thread. Please stay on the original topic. Personal comments or digs will be handled. We are here to help each other not insult each other
If you have nothing to add to the thread.. move along. The OP was specific in what he was looking for regarding information.
I've noticed that there are three typical kinds of respondents:
1. Those who have read the original statement of purpose, recognized what this thread is about and provided relevant anecdotal or statistical infromation in the form of links or commentary. These people are a joy to answer.
2. Those who take issue with something I've said but state their rebuttal in a civilized way. These people I repect enough to answer.
3. Those who have not scanned the whole thread and noticed the moderator's admonition quoted above but are simply responding to the latest post and shooting from the hip. These people have earned a place on my Ignore List. (I really wish this software had a real "block" or the equivalent to a "send to spam" option. I get to see only relevant posts but others are doomed to view the "chaff" interspersed with the "wheat".)
BTW, I would like to suggest to all respondents that it's not necessary to quote an entire post when replying. It detracts from the readability of the thread. I've noticed that it's the uninformed detractors who usually do this. I think they're in too much of a hurry to see themselves in print to take the time to pare the quote down to what exactly it is they take objection with. (If it's me they take objection with I can't imagine why they would even want to post here.)
Last edited by SelflessGene; 10-11-2010 at 08:17 AM..
Reason: added text
You may need to re-invent yourself in more ways than career-wise.
You've nailed it right on the head. This is my true ambition. In the age of the Patriot Act, CheckPoint, Google, warrentless electronic surveillance, ad infinitum, the trick is how to fly below, above or around the radar. I've had some experience with this during the VietNam War but lately things have gotten much worse then they were then.
I saw a great bumper sticker a few years ago: "God, grant me one more bubble before I die. I promise I'll know when to sell."
It's only the handful of master manipulators who know when to sell because they're the ones who seeded the bubble in the first place and the ones who decide when to pull the plug. "Pump And Dump" rules.
Interesting. "Reverse engineering" is something I'm quite skilled at. (Although not something you'd want to put on your resume.) You're quite right that it's these "niche" occupations that will survive globalization's relentless race to the bottom.
Breaking news: INCREDIBLY SAD woman jumps off bridge!
Quote:
Originally Posted by isabella20
For many people just figuring out how to survive will be very challenging and to say that the system under which we try to live is increasingly harsh and hostile doesn't seem far off the mark to me.
Yeah, I can see how those who see the world through rose-colored glasses might be "INCREDIBLY SAD" when faced with reality. A large number of scholarly studies have shown that people who consider themselves "optimists" are borderline delusional and that those who consider themselves "pessimistic" actually do have a better grasp of reality. It was the "pessimistic" Jews who could see what was coming and fled Nazi Germany to live another day. The "optimistic" ones - well we know what happened to them.
Yeah, I can see how those who see the world through rose-colored glasses might be "INCREDIBLY SAD" when faced with reality. A large number of scholarly studies have shown that people who consider themselves "optimists" are borderline delusional and that those who consider themselves "pessimistic" actually do have a better grasp of reality. It was the "pessimistic" Jews who could see what was coming and fled Nazi Germany to live another day. The "optimistic" ones - well we know what happened to them.
Thanks for your contribution.
Life is what you make of it. If you choose unhappiness, that is what you will receive. If you choose joy, likewise.
I am sorry that you have such bitterness in your heart. I hope that you find someplace that will make you happy, but I cannot imagine that to be possible.
But do look at SW Missouri. I think that it has many of the things you seek. There is a large population of retired people here, the health care I presume is adequate (don't, know - don't participate in that lifestyle). I know that housing is less expensive than many, many places. Taxes are very low.
And, should you decide to spread your cheer - getting a part time job is very easy (during the tourist season). There is a haunted house here that operates year round. I get the feeling you might enjoy scaring people and making little children cry.
Great article on the changing nature of employers' escalating demands:
Unemployed find old jobs now require more skills - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101011/ap_on_bi_ge/us_tougher_jobs - broken link)
One of the most abused words in circulation today is "multitasking". This was orginally a computer term describing computer operating systems that could switch CPU usage so fast that they created the illusion that multiple applications where running simultaneously. In reality, the CPU was still doing one thing at a time and was only able to provide continuity because it could flawlessly store and retrieve machine states in nanoseconds without losing track of what it was doing.
Now compare that to human beings. I've had jobs where in solving some problem it took me hours to develope a train of thought. After an interruption I'd come back to where I'd left off and couldn't even recognize it as my own work.
And yet employers have seized upon this term and made it their own: "Applicants must possess all the qualities of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Thomas Jefferson." I recently saw an ad for a Website Developer in the newspaper classified ads that was half a page long. The employer's requirement was simple enough: The ideal candidate must be proficient in every web-related technolgy ever invented. In general, managers and H.R. types have absolutely no idea what it is their employees are doing. In their ignorance they simply pile on the workload until the employee burns out. (Plenty more where that one came from.)
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You're a 3.
(cheesy emoticon)