Many of us were shaken to our core from an awful recession that impacted retirement accounts and killed home values. It’s truly a different world. But–there is some good that we can all point to. The market downturn changed the way they think about spending, saving, investing and yes–retiring!
That’s where I strongly believe that senior HCIT talent has an advantage. Whether the shortfall of knowledge based HCIT workers is 50,000 or more is up for debate. Those numbers are huge and it tells me that your skills as CIO will continue for as long as you want to keep working. Besides, what are you going to do anyway? And more importantly, why in the world would you consider bailing out of the hottest technology segment in the market when your skills will be needed? All questions you should ponder before taking 1-75 South to the Sunshine State. You will have plenty of time for that later. I always talk about understanding your value equation and now more than ever your skills are in demand. More good news: You have lots of choices to decide how you want to spend your time if you semi-retire.
I was talking to a very bright CIO last week who has a chance to punch his retirement ticket if he so chooses. When I asked him how he was going to spend his time after working for all of those years, he really had to stop and think about it. The more we talked the more he convinced himself that he wanted to consult with hospitals and perhaps a HCIT vendor (or two) for a few years. In that scenario, he would get to choose where to live, how many hours he wants to work and what rate he would charge for his time. Now we’re talking!
You are the one in the driver’s seat on how you write the next chapter of your life. Do stop and smell the roses. You have earned the right. Just make sure you enjoy life doing what you want to do and when you want to do it. That feels pretty liberating to me!
