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I know quite a few six figure earners (over age 30) who work a 40 hr week and their jobs DO NOT take over their lives. I can only speak from experience but I've not witnessed 30 being the cutoff age for having good employment. Some people are just fear mongering.
I know a guy who retired in his late 60s and then came back to my company asking if he could have his job back because he was bored to death at home after only 2 years of retirement. Upper management couldn't be happier to have him back. No, he didn't have to work. He had 3 houses in 3 different states with a pension and 401k savings. And when he came back, he was the highest paid person in our office, even more so than his and my boss. They offered him a company suv which he turned down because he was driving a luxury SUV already. He just wanted to work.
Different engineering teams were fighting to have him. My team got him so I had the pleasure of working with him. Nicest guy I ever worked with. Even though by then he was in his 70s he was as sharp as a knife.
The trick is to attain enough skills and specialize in something so that you're really really good at it. Good companies will want to retain you because you make them a ton of money.
The guy I speak of eventually retired for real in his late 70s. I think I will give him a call this week to catch up. I kinda miss him.
Edit.
The oldest engineer I worked with was 82. Same story. He retired then came back because he was bored. Sharp as a knife. Somehow, he beat the stereotype of old people not being too technical. Because while I worked with him, he had a nice computer system set up with 3 monitors and he was able to use all the new software with ease.
This. Looking around my upper middle class neighborhood, everyone is well over 30 and doing fine. Heck, a guy at my company just got poached from us....he's 64. He even mistakenly told the company he wants to retire in 3 years…they still hired him at a much higher salary.
People on this forum with mental issues should really learn to distinguish fiction from reality when reading Internet news. All the doom and gloom headlines are designed to draw your attention
Not that many Americans are living the upper middle class life of #firstworldproblems
It IS a problem when you need 2-3 years experience just for an "entry level" yet if you make it too far senior level, you are "overqualified" or "cost too much".
Oh, and if you end up stuck in a jam near the beginning or the end, if you're out of the loop for too long due to choosy and greedy employers, you are "unemployable" due to "too much of a gap".
I know a guy who retired in his late 60s and then came back to my company asking if he could have his job back because he was bored to death at home after only 2 years of retirement. Upper management couldn't be happier to have him back. No, he didn't have to work. He had 3 houses in 3 different states with a pension and 401k savings. And when he came back, he was the highest paid person in our office, even more so than his and my boss. They offered him a company suv which he turned down because he was driving a luxury SUV already. He just wanted to work.
Different engineering teams were fighting to have him. My team got him so I had the pleasure of working with him. Nicest guy I ever worked with. Even though by then he was in his 70s he was as sharp as a knife.
The trick is to attain enough skills and specialize in something so that you're really really good at it. Good companies will want to retain you because you make them a ton of money.
The guy I speak of eventually retired for real in his late 70s. I think I will give him a call this week to catch up. I kinda miss him.
Edit.
The oldest engineer I worked with was 82. Same story. He retired then came back because he was bored. Sharp as a knife. Somehow, he beat the stereotype of old people not being too technical. Because while I worked with him, he had a nice computer system set up with 3 monitors and he was able to use all the new software with ease.
I'll tell you what. I am definitely NOT bored in my retirement. So many interesting things to do and no more deadlines or after hours support. To each his own (or her own) I guess.
what did you expect? that they pay top dollar for a new grad with no record or skills/experience beyond doing homework?
don't forget, most of your "under 30" and complaining are college grads who stayed in college until their mid/late 20s... if under 30 is your standard, what have they accomplished beyond college in a few years time?
In my long career, I never saw any employer pay top dollar for new graduates with little or no skills. But each profession has its own starting salaries. The starting wages for a civil engineer would be higher than that for a garbage man, and a software developer's salary would be greater than an office manager's. My point is that these starting salaries have been degraded to a far lower level. Employers just don't want to pay good wages for specialized skills anymore, especially starting salaries for professions that used to pay good wages. Wages are in the process of being dumbed down (lowered).
In my long career, I never saw any employer pay top dollar for new graduates with little or no skills. But each profession has its own starting salaries. The starting wages for a civil engineer would be higher than that for a garbage man, and a software developer's salary would be greater than an office manager's. My point is that these starting salaries have been degraded to a far lower level. Employers just don't want to pay good wages for specialized skills anymore, especially starting salaries for professions that used to pay good wages. Wages are in the process of being dumbed down (lowered).
Degraded to what? Provide a number. I've not seen a new grad start off in a salary lower than $55k (financial operations). IT is much higher.
Degraded to what? Provide a number. I've not seen a new grad start off in a salary lower than $55k (financial operations). IT is much higher.
It is not an absolute number. The degradation is happening, but employers don't move as a unit in paying the exact same degraded wages. Some companies pay less than others. Some pay more. Some companies will not do this degradation. Others have joyfully embraced it.
Here is an actual example to illustrate my point. A company paid $60 to $110K salaries. They decided that their employees earned too much money and began a 2 year program to throw out those employees and replace them with lower cost workers earning 36K. Management is being paid around 53K now. The 2 year period will be completed around June and almost all of the highly paid workers will be done away with at that time. Most are already gone.
This news is not meant to shock anyone. It is just a business decision made to save money. Employers have a right to make these business decisions to advance their bottom line.
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Retirement is Great!
