A Change of Career

Yesterday was my last day as a software engineer at BAE Systems in Frimley. 

I have been there 17 years, so long that I find it hard to remember what life was like before I started there.  In those 17 years I have acquired a wife, a daughter, and a mortgage; and my beard has turned grey. 

For the first 16 years I was a member of the same project team.  But, eventually, that project came to an end, and the team is now being dispersed across other projects and other sites.  It is quite a shock to the system to be separated from people who you have shared office space with day-in-day-out for so long.  You don't realise just how much you come to depend upon those off-hand discussions over morning coffee for your sanity.

Having just turned 50, I found that my software development skills are much less valued than when I started out.  Jobs that I could do have either disappeared altogether, or else are being done by new graduates who are being paid quite a bit less than I am.  Rather than try to compete, I have decided to make a complete break with software development, and to move into a career that should see me through the next 15 years.  In January I will be starting as a temporary teaching assistant at Prospect School, Reading.  If this goes well, I will be applying for the PGCE Mathematics course at Reading University, starting in September 2009.   I reckon that secondary school maths teachers are always going to be in demand.

Comments

[Aydin]

Good luck with your new life.