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I must admit that right now is a situation when I would like to be 15 to 20 years younger than my current 62 because through all the turmoil on the financial markets and the knock on effect for all kinds of businesses, brand new opportunities will arise and therefore a chance to ride a new wave and be part of something fresh.

Although none of us would necessarily volunteer for ‘change’, the trick when it becomes inevitable is to grasp it with both hands and make it work to our personal advantage. However it is also important to keep our minds open and not allow ourselves to be controlled in our thinking from what went before and this is particularly true when looking at the current banking crisis.

My Future Plans in IT

At 88 and increasingly frail, my Mother will not live forever and when she does pass, I will need to go back to work. Although at the age of 62 going on 63 and with 4 years “on the beach” as it were, I may not be the very first choice as Project Manager for most employers despite my experience. But frankly you never can tell, you might just meet someone who likes older people because they are not a personal career threat to them or, they know from experience that they are very reliable, you just never can tell.

I live 30 miles south of Bristol the second largest Financial Centre in the UK with very many well known “brands” having major operations in the City. It would seem the logical place for me to seek project management roles but… With all this downsizing, merging and so on, wouldn’t they have a surplus of IT people, probably they won’t want anybody else..?

Here again why be negative because you don’t know the circumstances. Yes they may have a surplus of IT people particularly if it was a merger/takeover like Lloyds/TSB and HBOS but that may well strengthen the need to bring in an outside and fresh pair of eyes who owes ‘loyalty’ to neither brand, you just never know. So for the moment I will keep the ‘possibility’ of returning to IT Project Management as an open option but, for how long ?

Being Realistic

I have no wish for my Mother to hasten her departure from this ‘mortal coil’ and therefore have no specific notion of when I will be available to work. Suppose it is a year hence when I will be 63 coming on 64, not a great age but still ever stretching forward and less likely that I will be offered a role in IT so it was in this context that that I was wishing earlier to be somewhat younger.

However necessity is the mother of invention so as there is nothing that I can do about my age perhaps I had better ‘work with the grain’ on this one and concentrate on doing something that requires little to no capital and utilises skills and equipment that I already have.

Given my passion for photography and ability to manipulate images in various ways producing probably limited runs of original prints might be a possibility although the marketing of them needs to be considered very carefully because low volume and high unit price must be the objective if I wish to develop and sustain my own market.

So my real reasons for the above ramble was to evaluate my choices so that right now, I concentrate my resources and energies in one direction rather than dissipate them and running around in circles like a headless chicken. Mind you in such times as these, some other and surprising opportunities may well emerge from the mix for both you and I, you just can never tell, be lucky !