The post whore thread.

[Great-Kazoo]

I've recently decided that I have a bucket list, and right next to "Go to Antarctica" on the list, is "see a tornado in person." So I hope I do see one. I have a claim down near Joplin sometime this week. Perhaps I'll get lucky. They've already had tornadoes this year.

Witnessed 2, they get your attention.

[Irving]

My buddy and I passing each other on I-70. Him returning from KC, me going.

[Great-Kazoo]

My buddy and I passing each other on I-70. Him returning from KC, me going.

If and when i remember ( my old timers has been real bad thi) the name of the place. There is a killer rib shack that does amazing real (not those crap minced things) onion rings. Chase it down with a super thick chocolate shake. OH YEAH

[Irving]

Also, we went and looked in the trash can to see if it was full of weed from people leaving Colorado. There actually was one empty weed canister in the trash can.

[Irving]

If and when i remember ( my old timers has been real bad thi) the name of the place. There is a killer rib shack that does amazing real (not those crap minced things) onion rings. Chase it down with a super thick chocolate shake. OH YEAH

Near the border, or in Kansas City? If in Kansas City, then there are probably ten of them.

[Great-Kazoo]

Near the border, or in Kansas City? If in Kansas City, then there are probably ten of them.

KC has a lot of bbq joints

[William]

IT consultant that never got a CS degree and seems to now have a case of adult onset ADD as I'm always getting pulled in 40 directions.

More of a field systems engineer than anything. Started as a radio tech, then computer tech in the Army, and did systems field maintenance and repair for many years.

I work on IBM-i (AS/400) mostly, and IBM storage.

I've done a lot of a little of everything. Mostly IBM gear but Cisco too.

Systems, storage, switch/route, firewalls, virtualization, UCS, blades, fiber switching, etc.

Mostly a 25+ year career in IBM-i (AS/400) infrastructure and support, IBM storage.

Sadly, I've also become a bit picky about when/where to work. I work remotely from home but was traveling 30-40% nationally, and that was OK. I would go bust my ass for a week somewhere, get shit done, and come home and kick a little until the next trip. Been working almost 100% remote since last June. Was QA guy on a huge migration project for IBM at one of our big accounts. Flew only once since just to meet a new client in Phx for lunch.

Sounds like you have some great skills, just maybe not the most recent ones. I am kind of in the same boat, early 50s, IT and behind on the latest skill sets. The only difference is my job will last a few more years. I have looked around and most of the openings are paying 25-30% less than what I make now. Have you thought about working for IBM directly? They are one of the few companies that appreciates and retains older workers.

[brutal]

Sounds like you have some great skills, just maybe not the most recent ones. I am kind of in the same boat, early 50s, IT and behind on the latest skill sets. The only difference is my job will last a few more years. I have looked around and most of the openings are paying 25-30% less than what I make now. Have you thought about working for IBM directly? They are one of the few companies that appreciates and retains older workers.

Very recently, I have kept my eye on their postings. In the past, hadn't given it much thought just because I was always so busy and have also seen them cut old workers off early during big layoffs of 10-15-25K people at a crack. They also chased off a lot of old timers with pension pay and benefits cuts. There's also a bit of nepotism in the ranks for some of the juicy positions.

It's not that I haven't kept up with the core technology changes in my field, in fact I'm fairly advanced in my specialty in most respects over the average "AS/400 guy" when it comes to the virtualization technologies and storage.

Most of the virtualization jobs are rapidly becoming a commodity position that just doesn't pay well. Infrastructure jobs are getting harder to get as more companies move into the public cloud. While our company provides infrastructure and implementation services for a lot of that, it's all becoming less and less vendor centric and more a software defined commodity product and we're seeing a decline in the need for folks like me.

The recent public cloud failures have spurned a bit of course change for some organizations, but hasn't necessarily steered the ship towards a different destination.

[William]

That's great that you have kept up in your specialty. I am behind on technologies in my field both from a development and system engineering perspective. Angular baffles me and we are still mostly a rack and stack shop so I don't have much virtulization experience. I used to be a jack of all trades kind of guy, but the last couple years I have focused on the data side and think that might get me through till retirement.

[brutal]

It doesn't help that they're increasing our utilization (billable hours) requirement, disallowing hourly rate discounts unless it's absorbed by product margins (which are stupid slim to begin with), even for large projects, while also slashing and burning our pipeline.

The client base isn't going to pay our full on rates for projects lasting months or years. Not sure what they're thinking.

Pretty much doing all they can IMHO, to force people to make a move. If you're not part of the Fortune 30 "Program Accounts," you're chaff. They're just building a paper trail to show how we're not working hard enough. After 25 years of being measured on revenue, stupid utilization models suck balls anyway and breeds inefficiencies.

Meh, WTF do I know. I'm not one of the fat cat executives or board members making decisions based on a questionable career at one of the top 5 consulting firms. We got rated one of the top IT strategy consulting firms by Forbes and now they've got a big head.


ETA: Am I bitter? Yes. When we were first acquired, I already had a great customer base, was told I would have so much work in my area I would have to turn much away. I kept busy for the past 8 years, but that never really happened, and the work has dwindled since. If it wasn't for the QA project work I did last year, I would have gotten tossed.