Careers

Hello HD community.  I need to vent a bit and hope that one or more of you can relate to my situation and provide some insights.  As I posted on this site several weeks ago, I was terminated the day before my 59th birthday.  After close to 40 years, I suddenly found myself without a job that often required long hours including 3 hours of commuting time.  I was unhappy and unfulfilled in my role and considered quitting,

I recently watched the music video for Dimash Qudaibergen’s Love’s Not Over Yet. It tells the story of a man who becomes so consumed by work and the pursuit of success that he gradually loses sight of the people he is supposedly working so hard for.
As I watched, I felt an uncomfortable sense of recognition.
Many years ago, while building a landscape business with my twin brother, Nick, I became that man. The business was successful,

Looking back, it’s remarkable how much of my life depended on one government issued card.
My twin brother Nick and I had no way of knowing that becoming permanent residents of the United States would eventually lead us to careers we never expected, a business we built together, financial independence and, ultimately, an early retirement. At the time, though, it just seemed like another piece of paperwork.
After spending much of our childhood in England and Bangladesh,

I am 59 and have worked as an IT contractor for over 20 years. Recently, my contract ended, and I’m transitioning away from my primary career. While I’m financially able to retire, I’m open to taking on less demanding paid work if the right opportunity comes along.
For those who retired from your primary career but later did other paid work, how did that happen? Did you plan it, or did the opportunity find you? Was it through networking,

When my twin brother Nick and I sold our landscape business at the end of 2012, at the age of 52, we agreed to stay on for another three years. Looking back, that may have been one of the best retirement decisions I never consciously made.
Those three years gave me time to ease into retirement instead of falling into it. They also gave me time to think about something I believe is far more important than deciding when to retire.

Hi HD Community, I need your help.  Today is my last official day of work, having been abruptly terminated with a fellow group of Sr. Managers as part of a corporate restructuring.  To be honest, I was not surprised or even particularly upset with the decision as I know the company is struggling and I have been unhappy in my role for some time.  Some quick background…I am recently 59, happily married for 35 years with two adult children who are both out of the house and on their own. 

“Does any part of your busy schedule stem from a feeling that you need to be busy?”
That sentence is part of a question posed by Edmund Marsh to Dr. Lefty. It ties in with an article I began to formulate a while back.  
Should I Start a New Business?
The obvious answer is a resounding NO. Still, there’s a little gremlin inside me who        sometimes shows his ugly little gremlin head; you should buy that building,

Today marks the one-year anniversary of my retirement after a 35-year career as a university professor. Since I wrote it about it several times leading up to that day, and another one after six months, I thought I’d add some thoughts about the first year “out” has gone for me.
Overall, it’s been great. Maybe my biggest surprise has been how little I miss my job. My identity was so intertwined with my academic career for so long that I worried I’d have one of those loss-of-identity depression spirals that you read about.

At every stage of my life, I picked up at least a tidbit of knowledge that helped me when I moved on to the next step. Here is some of the curriculum from my school of life. 
 

Don’t Drive Like My Brother, 101. Dave is three years my senior. We used to go out driving around after he got his license. He drove like a mad-man. Tickets, accidents, street racing, you name it. He was a one man wrecking crew.

By the early 2000s, our business was heavily tied to the hotel industry, though over time we had added apartment complexes and office buildings to our customer base. When 9/11 happened, we suddenly felt exposed. Travel slowed, hotels struggled, and uncertainty was everywhere.
Then something unexpected happened. The Vice President of Operations for a major hotel brand called me personally and said, “Don’t panic. We’ll get through this.”
And somehow, we did.
My divorce became final in 2004.

In the spring of 1985, at age 16, I got a work permit and landed a job scooping ice cream at $3.60 an hour—slightly more than the state’s $3.35 minimum wage.
Before then, I brought in cash by mowing lawns, cleaning rain gutters, and selling the Sunday papers (yes, Los Angeles had two major dailies back then). But with a car and college on the horizon, I wanted a stable income.
I kept my job search within walking distance of home,

Over the past few years of retirement, I’ve discovered that writing a book is one of those pursuits that sounds serene from a distance—like a person sitting at a desk with a cup of tea and a head full of ideas—but in practice feels more like a long hike with stretches of beauty, stretches of slog, and the occasional moment where you wonder why you ever left the house.
I’m curious how many others here have taken on a writing project in retirement,

This is a story of a startup and will be told in two phases.
It was in 1992 that my twin brother Nick and I entertained the idea of starting our own landscape company. We had worked together at two other landscaping companies and were growing restless. We wanted something of our own. Something we could build, not just manage.
By September 1992, Panoramic Landscape Services was born, backed by $40,000 we couldn’t afford to lose.

Here is my second Forum post. This one is also touches on one my favorite topics – careers
Another week. Another flood of LinkedIn goodbye posts.
Talented people thanking colleagues after being locked out of their systems. No chance to pack their desks. No final email. No dignity.
Some companies now send layoff notices at 3:00 a.m. Others run two Zoom calls at the same time—one for those “safe,” another for those gone.

I have been a long time reader of Humble Dollar and the excellent forum posts. I have been contributing a “Friday Thoughts” articles on my Linkedin page for several years. Today I want to post one of these articles for our youngsters on the importance of networking. Please let me know how much you like this and other topics you would like to hear about career and leadership.
Every year on my birthday, I receive a call from someone I met at work over 20 years ago — and in all these years,