Five year plan

Most of the time it's out of my control, but if someone were to ask me today in a job interview, where I want to be in five years, my answer would have to be: "Working for another company." High school and college are normally four years each in length. For that reason it is probably more common to be on a four year cycle than five. I'm not sure why I hang around for the extra year or two. Probably because going on job interviews is so uncomfortable. As I get older, traveling and trying to make a positive impression become more of a challenge.

For most of us, the days of working at one job for your entire career are long gone. Everything seems to go well until the company you are working for starts to struggle. Once you start going through year after year of layoffs, budget cuts, and wage freezes, the excitement is gone. But unless you have skills that are in demand in multiple industries, it is likely that other companies in your field will be struggling too. I've been able to jump around a bit with my knowledge of computers. In fact, I am so far removed from my tech school major, that people are often surprised when they find out that I have an associate degree in architecture.

I have learned a few things working for large, medium, and small companies: "You will never be truly satisfied working for someone else." and "You will always be judged by the level of your education and less so by your experience." Working in a company with a lot of college grads can be frustrating. They often make you feel like your judgment is not qualified. I have a two year degree with 27 years of work experience. But more often than not, the degree is what becomes our work identity. The reason I bring all this up is because there are many older unemployeed Americans looking for work right now. And I can understand the struggle they are having trying to figure out what's next in their future.