You may have seen memes of middle-aged folks struggling with rapid digitalisation and technology. Coming from the generation of pagers and pay phones, the transition to a world where everything is run on palm-sized smartphones, stored on the cloud or shared on TikTok may seem mind-boggling.
Some suggest that technology is a young person’s game. Others have pointed out that these assumptions are charged with ageism.
A Gen-X-er in her early 40s, Nelly Lee shrugs off such assumptions. Even though Lee works as a DevOps engineer for one of the world’s leading gaming companies – which she prefers not to name – she laughs at herself in good humour.
“I am a noob,” declared the 42-year-old, using a term that commonly describes newbies in the gaming world. “I know how to use a computer, but tech terms, and even the difference between Windows and MacOS, used to be completely lost on me.”
Lee did not need to know these terms. For most of her career, she worked in the travel industry, leading tours, selling tour packages and planning itineraries. Yet, last year, she made a surprising job switch to a tech role where she now manages codes for game updates and fixes bugs.
It was not an easy switch. Partly driven by pandemic desperation, and partly inspired by her great love for her eight-year-old daughter, the single mother told CNA Women what gave her the courage to push through with her extreme mid-career switch.
Source: Channel News Asia
