Re: beefing up my tech skills (longish...)

[Andrew Plato <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

"Charles E Vermette" wrote...

> how to approach this when I'm mid career and mid age (mid 40s?)
> 
> Someone once said that downturns are good because they shake out the
> hacks. I can get by being a hack. I don't want to.

Get techie. Sell yourself to engineers and not tech writers. Emphasize
your ability to work with technologies. This will make you very attractive
to small to mid-size firms that are more interested in industry skills
than writing skills.

Sandy is right, security is very hot right now. But she is also correct
that there are a lot of companies with a lot of fluff and no substance to
their security products and solutions. Spend some time at
www.securityfocus.com to get down with the nerds of security. 

One consideration is to broaden your skill set so you can do more. Look
into being a systems administrator, database engineer...or something else.
That way you can apply for a greater range of jobs. 

Good luck

Andrew Plato 

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