Like the last child in a very large family, I was born at the tail end of the Baby Boomer generation–1964. As a result, I always seem to be at the end of the receiving line for everything in my life. I’ve had to compete with a large number of others and work very hard for everything I’ve ever gotten. Looking back, it reminds me of the ‘more please’ scenario in Oliver Twist: you work very hard for what little you get, but you still have to work to get more.
Entering University and the Job Market
By the time I finished high school, for example, Universities, Colleges, and the job market, in general, were full to the maximum. There were mass lineups to register for University (it was a multi-day event), and there were rooms full of people writing tests for government jobs. I had to work hard to start out on the bottom. When I did start out at the bottom, it was tough to get a raise and move to another level. In the job market, I competed for higher-level jobs that I couldn’t get because I didn’t have the highest education.
The Education Cycle
When I realized I needed more education to get to a better job (or even to keep my job), I went back to school. The problem was that I ended up in another field that was already saturated with the Baby Boomers that had come before me and advanced. It seemed to be a cycle: go to school, end up in a dead-end job, go back to school, etc. I did the only thing I could do…go back to school again. This time I was a little luckier. I picked a high-tech field at the beginning of the mass need for computer-trained workers—Y2K. The head of the line, at last, I got into a higher-paying job. Advancement was available. As the technology field took off, the problem was that the competition came from, not only the older Baby Boomers, but also the post Baby Boomer generation who were quicker and, of course, younger. As a result, I retreated from the Java jobs back into the COBOL/Mainframe jobs, where I knew the competition would be older, and I could potentially keep up.
Retirement?
As retirement looms, it’s still not looking good for those of us on the end of the line. By the time I retire, I don’t know if there’ll be funds left in the government pension for me. I may have to continue to work to pay for the pensions of the younger generation, and ironically, the older generation who took all the high-paying jobs. I can only hope that I don’t get sick and need one of the hospital beds being used by the other Baby Boomers who came before me. If I wait for everyone else to retire, I hope to finally come into my own in the job market—time will tell.
