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Lately I've been thinking of friends who are finding it difficult or impossible to find work after being laid-off.

In particular, my friends who are VAX/VMS experts.
On the whole, they are mostly clueless when it comes to any operating system other than VMS.

These are intelligent people, how could they not have seen the train coming?

Is VMS so brain-cycle intensive they couldn't afford to spend the time to pick up some other skills?

I started off as a Netware guy, but have picked up Windows skills, because I needed to work. I still work in a mixed Netware/Windows environment, but it's becoming more Windows and less Netware all the time.

Of the six people I know who were VMS admins, 2 have left IT and the other 4 are still looking for work after being unemployed for more than 1 year. And this, in a supposedly improving economy...

I feel for them, but maybe this is Darwinism in action...