It does suck getting the sack after 25 years but also probably a self fullfilling prophecy.
As is the rest of the outcome, no other company is going to hire a 50+ engineer that worked for 1 company in 1 job his entire life (not saying that is the case here).
New motto of the 21st century:
- make sure you take another job around every 5 years (could be in the same company, but be sure it is in a different field)
- stay in touch with new developments and be flexible KEEP LEARNING/STUDYING and preferably make your employer pay for it.
- don't trust your employers promises before they are black on white
- make sure that you are (very) good in what you do and have uptodate knowledge so in case you are sacked tomorrow, you know you can find a job soon.
"Keep learning" is an absolute must. I've trained my replacements, professionalism was a large part of it. The lady thank me, but I just said I am still being paid - just that my job now is getting you guys capable of taking over.
I like to think I did that solely because I am a professional, but often I fail to meet my own standard. What does kept me going is the idea of walking out as tall as I walked in. The idea of walking out like a defeated kitten just was not appealing.
All in all though, we all have to understand as employee, we are valuable as long as we bring in the value. There are times what we know and/or what we can do is no longer as valuable as it once was, and loosing sight of that is deadly career-wise. That we are no longer valuable at employer X doesn't mean we are not valuable. There are skills we have that perhaps employer X just doesn't need but someone else may pay dearly for.
As to changing job every 5 years, I am not sure I agree with the way you put it. One should be growing in ones job. A job without growth is by definition a dead end job. One should be doing more than one was a year ago. That said, one should also look at job ads every few months if not every week and ask: what am I worth in this market.
Frequently looking at job ads allows one to know the direction of the market, and allows one to know the market value of ones own skills. A side benefit: I told a friend of mine, his company is outsourcing to India. He asked how would I know. I said, well, they are hiring this this and this technical skills, willing to do international travel, willing to live in India for x months... What do you think? He choose not to think and it hit him like a ton of bricks a few months later.