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I’m an EE with 22 years at the same employer; first job out of grad school. Working until 67, I could be there 42 years, and I probably will be. This is an old school defense contractor.

Though EE (RF, Microwave, Antennas to be exact) still has the respect for the gray beard.

The record for my employer is 60+ years; a machinist who started at 18 and still working into his late 70’s as he enjoys it.



I worked at an old school defense contractor where tenure was measured in decades. :)


My employer had a sharp bimodal age distribution. I was hired during the defense layoffs of the mid 90’s, and was smack in the middle of that distribution, until the wave of retirements.

Now the age distribution is log-normal with 5 years average experience. Was just given a 25% retention bonus yesterday, which is unheard of. They are scared of the old people leaving, and rightly so.

The millennia’s job hop like crazy, and in my field there is a lot of institutional knowledge built up.




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