How long can I keep working in the IT industry?

In the rapidly changing IT environment, many people in technical fields feel anxious about their careers after age 60. As one practical solution to this, this piece proposes securing expertise and preparing for retirement by obtaining Professional Engineer, the highest grade of national technical qualification.

The Information Management Professional Engineer covers a vast scope spanning the entire field of IT, including IT management strategy, software engineering, AI, security, and DB. Although the difficulty of the 400-minute descriptive written exam is very high, it was possible to pass in just 4 months by securing 40 hours per week of study time and applying repetitive learning based on the Scrum methodology.

The practical benefits gained from obtaining the Professional Engineer qualification are as follows:

• Qualification as Chief Information System Auditor and opportunities for external evaluation/lecturing
• Activities as a professional evaluation committee member at NIPA, the Korea Industrial Technology Evaluation Committee, etc.
• Building a network of about 1,200 Professional Engineers and acquiring broad IT knowledge

Beyond simply obtaining the qualification, the sense of accomplishment gained through the challenge process and the image of self-development shown to family become important driving forces that make life more valuable.