Prepping against unemployment

[CharlesHarris]

This is all very good advice.

I found myself out of work during the economic downturn of 1987-88. I relocated 1000km away from where I had been and survived on my preps and what money I earned in part-time consulting work until I found a new position, in a different career field.

After I got out of the military my work experience had all been industrial engineering, foundry operations, machineshop, automation and computerized design, manufacture and statistical process control. As the manufacturing base moved overseas the work went with it and I didn't feel like learning Japanese...

But my QA and analytical experience helped me get a temporary position on an accident investigation team where there had been a pancake collapse of a high-rise building under construction in which a bunch of people were killed. My metallurgical test lab experience proved valuable as we set up to do full-scale load tests on beams and fasteners which had failed, and I soon had a permanent engineering position.

I ended up staying there 24 years and got a broad spectrum of experience from damage assessment and failure analysis to road program management, waste to energy generation, power plant operations and infrastructure protection. I didn't get rich, but I avoided the petty local government politics by being a meticulous investigator and risk manager. All the pieces came together after 9/11 and while I worked the hardest I ever did in my life, the personal rewards were satisfying, because I could see that my efforts made a difference. I testified as an expert witness, helped put people in jail who belonged there, and mitigated the after-effects of criminal mischief and natural disasters.

30 years ago I would have never guessed in a million years what I would be doing, but if I had been allowed to stay in the military, looking back I would surely not have lived this long.

Do the best you can with the hand you are dealt and never whine about it or look back.