BOOMERS

We will feature real life examples of how
people change their jobs and or careers.

Roberta Flinn, [email protected], [email protected], 
was the computer manager at a grocery store chain. She taught 
herself database programming when the chain needed a way to 
track inventory. 

Flinn's computer career was derailed in September 1992 by a car 
accident. The doctors told her she'd never work again. After
three years of rehabilitation, Flinn was referred to Infotec by 
a counselor at Oregon Vocational Rehabilitation, a state agency. 

She earned her certification as a Certified Novell Engineer (CNE) 
in January 1996 -- expertise that enabled her to re-enter the
workforce as a self-employed entrepreneur, testing hubs, switches 
and routers for Intel Corp. under an 18-month contract. 

While working for Intel, Flinn self-studied and earned a Master 
CNE in July 1997, taking the exam at Infotec. She's studying
now for accreditation as an MCSE -- Microsoft Certified System 
Engineer -- to better focus her skills on network
infrastructure and backbone administration. 

She is also starting a new contract at US Bank in Portland, Oregon. 
``The accident was a forced career detour,'' said Flinn.
``I've supported myself since I was a teen-ager. I cannot explain 
what it felt like to go back to supporting myself.'' 

John Carlton, [email protected], was 47 years old when he 
``got picked up in a layoff of 40 workers,'' putting to an
involuntary end a 28-year-long career in the corporate world, 
during which he managed avionics engineers in the aerospace
industry and, at the Texas Association of School Boards, 
served as vice president of technology development. 

Carlton searched for a management position for a year -- 
but temping for agencies and taking on private work, for 
individuals and several small businesses in the area 
around Austin, Texas, taught him that employers needed 
hands-on workers. 

He qualified for retraining aid from the Private Industry 
Council under the ``Job Training Partnership Act,'' a 
federal program administered by the Texas Workforce 
Commission, a state agency that runs the Unemployment 
Compensation program. 

``I took the full Novell CNE program starting in January 
1995,'' said Carlton. The certification qualified him for 
a contract position to upgrade Novell networks and servers 
for the Liberty Hill Independent School District outside 
Austin. He was offered and accepted full-time employment 
after ten months. 

Mike Tucker, [email protected], and Dennis Bray, 
[email protected], are -- today -- both Infotec instructors,
teaching workers from other industries how to design, 
program, manage and fix computer code, networks and Internet
applications and Web sites. 

Tucker was hired by Infotec after passing six certification 
exams -- rebounding after he was laid off from his job as a 
radar engineer for 12 years at Lockheed. 

Bray, a part-time marching band instructor, was MIS manager 
for a chain of pet stores for nine years. He became ``UNIX
system administrator because of a personal interest in 
technology.  '' When the chain went bankrupt, a private 
industry council helped him to enroll in Novell certified 
NetWare engineer classes at Infotec. ``I went from cleaning 
aquariums to teaching network engineers by leading the band,
'' said Bray. 

The Department of Commerce reports that one in ten information 
technology jobs is currently unfilled, and the United States
will need more than one million computer scientists and engineers, 
systems analysts, programmers and other ``core'' information
technology experts by the year 2005. Further, the Labor Department
reports there are 100,000 new computer jobs each year,
but only 25,000 computer-related bachelor's degrees.   

(SOURCE: Infotec Commercial Systems Inc - Company press 
release March 23, 1998)