As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m a 55-year-old business graduate who found himself manning a help desk in a call center when his career imploded three years ago. In that time I’ve picked up a wide variety of new, if relatively simple skills; often find myself more comfortable then some of the “network administrators” I deal with.
The problem is that my employer, a consumer-oriented ISP, continues to increase the breadth, but not the depth, of the subjects to which I’ve been exposed. I want to gain exposure to skills which will enable me to solve more involved problems without a fixation on handle times, personal multitasking and stenography.
My employer, on the other hand, wants more of my time devoted to dead-end tasks like arguing over billing, making tasteless sales pitches, and teaching an octogenarian to program a TV remote.
All of these “advances” bring more headaches and tighter schedules, but never an increase in pay.
Worst of all, almost all paths of career advancement at my present job involve a combination of front-line supervisory responsibility, coupled with constant exposure to an overindulged public which doesn’t understand our business, and has been led to expect far too much. Threre just aren’t any moves upward here for introverts who seek some measure of autonomy and privacy.
I know that sooner or later, all this will come to an end, most likely when some nameless actuary decides I’m too great a threat to the health-insurance plan. But I have no idea how to identify which of the multiplicity of skills I’ve acquired in recent years offer the possibility of a retirement sideline more in synch with my mode of living. Any input would be appreciated.
