[SBE] Industry retirement situation

[Jeff Carter]

I'm 40.  I think the demographic shift is going to make me a lot of
money, personally, because I'm already getting calls out to fix LPTV
stations at odd hours.  As expensive as I am, I have to believe
they're calling me because nobody else will go.

As folks retire or move on, somebody is still going to have to fix
this stuff.  Also, since there's a shift away from having engineers
in-house and on staff, this means when they call me they're paying my
premium.

The receptionist will be able to replace modules, but the odds against
running down all the damage caused by lightning  or the problems that
are impossible but happened anyway make me think that I'll always have
something to do to pay the bills.

That is, of course, until *I* retire, then I can't even picture who
they're going to call.  Over at the college, we're graduating folks,
but in the last few years I can't think of many who wouldn't recoil at
the thought of HV.  For most of these folks, 50 volts is high
voltage...and they don't even know that there's that much on the
landline phone.

Jeff
Atlanta

---- Original message ----

>Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:26:55 -0400

>From: "Gary Stewart" <gstewart at ctvn.org>

>Subject: [SBE] Industry retirement situation

>To: "sbe member discussion mail list" <sbe at sbe.org>

>

>Maybe the SBE has our birth years in its records and can run a report on

>what percentage of members will reach a certain age in each of the next

>10 years.

>

>I know we have been thinking about it here.  We have 6 traditional

>technical employees of varying involvement and specializations within TV

>engineering. (2 fewer than 2 years ago) (22 years ago we had 4 just

>taking care of studio cameras) Our weak point, of course, is IT.

>

>Our current ages are: 63, 62, 60, 57, 51, 50

>

>The nice thing is that of the two youngest, one is RF and the other

>isn't. With technology moving the way it is, maybe they are all we will

>need in 6 years.  Maybe by the time they retire the receptionist can do

>it.