As a 59 yo who transitioned from development to tech support 20 years ago, I saw the writing on the wall years ago that IT development/engineering is a young man's game and if you don't want to transition into management, ala Bill Lumbergh and TPS reports, which I didn't, you end up fading away. I didn't have mad skills so I took the most hated job in IT, tech support at a college.

I can't say it's been a bed of roses, but I don't need a 6 figure salary and I get to interact with a diverse user base. I also get to do practically nothing when I feel like it and also walk around campus ogling 19yo coeds on a sunny day as long as I do my job. Management in the public sector is notoriously weak. I want to believe that the author of "The Peter Principle" worked in academia or the public sector.

Anyway, regarding IBM, I've been reading about them culling the herd of the elderly since the early '90's causing many suicides, heart attacks, and substance abuse among their formally well paid and important (in their own minds) denizens. I tried imparting this wisdom upon my favorite nephew to become a doctor (back when it didn't cost an arm or a leg or a military commission to become one, but he chose engineering. Didn't invent anything and now is an over worked mid level manager with a large mortgage and 2 children 5 and 7 years from college subject to lay offs at upper management's whim - he's been through two of them already and is only 42. Oh well.