Find what you are really good at and enjoy doing. Cultivate contacts - really tough for nerds, I know. In my case I was downsized at 55 by a multinational, even

Find what you are really good at and enjoy doing. Cultivate contacts - really tough for nerds, I know. In my case I was downsized at 55 by a multinational, even though I had won a number of internal awards. They had a habit of cycling managers and my last award winning project didn't cut the ice with my new manager. Interestingly my previous manager and VP were downsized a few months later; so the politics weren't working. If you don't win the start up lottery, IT can dump you out on the street somewhere between 35 & 55. Think hard about teaching and government once you hit your mid thirties and haven't won the lottery.