Rebroadcast - The Secret to Success to Staying Employed in Technology into Your 70s #330

Description:

In this episode, I speak with Mike McNatt, a test and compliance engineer who continues to work contract jobs well into his 70s. He was introduced to me as the guy who has got this gig work down and that is not working for Uber. This is a rebroadcast of one of the best episodes of 2022.

You may be asking why I am doing a rebroadcast at this time. As my long-time listeners know I live in Ajijic Mexico just south of Guadalajara. My wife and I have some major decisions to make in the coming weeks. My wife needs to have what I hope will be non-invasive heart surgery. I will be putting my focus on whether my wife has the surgery performed in Mexico where we have no insurance but dealing with healthcare is much easier or do we return to the US where we are covered by Medicare but we will have to deal with the US healthcare system.

Just to be clear, my wife feels fine and has not been told to reduce her level of activity. This came as a complete surprise, and we feel blessed to be dealing with healthcare here in Mexico. Making the appropriate appointments with world-class medical specialists can be done in days and not weeks or months.

That is where my focus will be in the coming weeks and not producing content for this podcast.

Back to the introduction of the episode.

My good friend, Marti Konstant, who is a workplace futurist and career coach, said I needed to have Mike on this podcast. Mike has worked contract engineering jobs and has developed a strategy to stay fully employed.

Mike is an engineer who was interviewed for Forbes called, Working In Tech At Any Age–This Engineer Tells You How. He also produced multiple LinkedIn posts on his strategies which I will include in the show notes.

Back in the 1980s, when I worked for IBM, I helped lead a mechanical design support group. Our internal customers hired a lot of contract engineers for 12-to-24-month contracts. What I learned was they would work a contract, then take a few months off and then find the next. They were completely comfortable with this lifestyle.

Here we are 30-40 years later, and this is a new way of working. Mike has become comfortable with this, and I want you to listen to his story.

This episode is sponsored by Career Pivot. Check out the Career Pivot Community, and be sure to pick up my latest book, Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life Third Edition.

For the full show notes and resources mentioned in the episode click here.