"I'm bored at home. As long as my health, intelligence, and qualifications allow it, why not work?" A 66-year-old IT worker, upon learning that he was being laid off, sent out 700 resumes and received a new offer. How it was

Accidentally got into IT

Serhiy was born in Zhytomyr and has lived in his hometown almost all his life. Now he and his family live in Rivne. He is a graduate of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute with a degree in Automation and Telemechanics and has over 30 years of experience in IT.

«As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been interested in electronics — it was very interesting to go through the path from the first detector receiver to a professional stereo amplifier and other interesting things with my own hands. I dreamed of becoming an engineer — and this dream came true in full,» Serhiy recalls his childhood dream about a profession.

In fact, he got into IT, as the specialist admits, by accident. At one time, Serhiy worked at the Zhytomyr hosiery factory as a design engineer, from which he was drafted for two years as an officer in the Soviet Army. And when he returned, this position was occupied and it was somehow unseemly to demand that the person who held it be moved somewhere. And it was at this time that the department of automated control systems was being created at the factory, in which the specialist was offered the position of electronics engineer.

«This was my first job in IT — the first IBM PCs, which we brought all the way from Moscow, the implementation of a payroll program for 3,000 factory employees, then the implementation of a German enterprise management system, a business trip to Munich, laying a network using the old, strange ArcNet technology (which few people remember now), the first server running the Novell OS, and many other interesting things that allowed me to develop as a specialist,» says Serhiy.

From the hosiery factory to the banks

Serhiy warmly recalls the period of work at the hosiery factory — he says it was really interesting. «But times were generally hard then, the salary was the equivalent of $20, and even that was not paid very regularly. Only a small niche business that we started with friends helped out. And when this niche collapsed, we had to look for something more stable. And then a vacancy for an electronics engineer appeared in the Zhytomyr Regional Directorate of the Joint-Stock Postal and Pension Bank „Aval“,» the IT worker recalls. Contacts worked, or, as they say now, networking — Serhiy was invited to the bank by a friend who headed the software and hardware department there.

«Honestly, I was thinking of just staying at the bank for a year or a half and opening another private business, but somehow I got used to it, liked it, and worked at Avala (then Raiffeisen) from 1997 to 2025,» admits Serhiy.

According to him, the first years at Avala were the most interesting and difficult — these were the years of rapid growth in the banking sector, a constant race with Privatbank for leadership, and the growth of the directorate’s branch network from 10 to 42. «I didn’t get out of the car for months, driving around the regional branches. But it was a drive that all Avala employees still remember as the best times and the best team,» the engineer recalls.

Gradually, career growth also followed — Serhiy rose to the position of Head of the IT Department of the Zhytomyr Directorate. Among the tasks were the reconstruction and equipment of the new six-story office of the Directorate in the center of Zhytomyr, networks, communications, new banking technologies, cooperation with contractors. «And then another reorganization in the bank (which I experienced several times), the regional IT departments were liquidated and I was invited to Kyiv, to the Central Office of Raiffeisen, to a completely new field of activity — to create a testing department from scratch,» the IT specialist shares.

Hansel was the deputy head of the department, responsible for creating test environments, which simply did not exist at the bank at that time. «It was also interesting and difficult to recreate in the test almost all existing banking systems and new ones that came with development projects, for example, Internet banking or the bank’s new operating day,» he explains the specifics of that work.

Pandemic and war

Serhiy found himself in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in Raife. «I gained a few pounds when I started working from home and became interested in cooking,» Hansel jokingly recalls that period of his life.

And during the war, he, together with other Rife teams, actively participated in the migration of banking systems to the cloud — AWS, AZURE, IBM cloud, Oracle cloud. «What would have taken several years in normal times, we did in three months,» he says.

With the start of the full-scale invasion, says Serhiy, the news began with questions to colleagues in the regions about whether something explosive had landed on them from the Russian Federation.

Letting go and finding a new path

Serhiy says that the Raifu management informed him of his dismissal two months in advance. «It’s not that there were any complaints about the quality of my work, it’s just that someone had the idea to fire pensioners and I fell under this action,» says the IT worker. However, he did not plan to live a normal life in retirement. «I’m bored at home. As long as my health, mind, and qualifications allow it, why not work? Well, the financial side of the issue is also important — with work, I will be able to maintain my usual lifestyle and donate more to my former colleagues who are now at the front,» Hansel admits.

It was then, about eight months ago, that he posted the OpenToWork profile on LinkedIn, wrote a resume (as the specialist admits, not very informative), registered on work.ua, robota.ua, and some Telegram job search channels, and began monitoring the labor market.

«It was like a full-time job — constantly checking my email for new vacancies, job reviews, messages to recruiters, etc.,» says Serhiy. In total, he sent out more than 700 resumes, received 24 responses, mostly negative, went through six interviews (three in person, three remotely), completed 3-4 test tasks and didn’t receive any feedback on them. «Two companies were ready to offer me a job, but for such ridiculous money that I would have spent half of what I received on travel,» says the IT specialist.

Why didn’t he give up? «Probably because I’m a pretty stubborn person and tend to see things through to the end,» admits Serhiy.

He adds that his relatives, except for Onika, did not have much faith that a new job would be found.

«No one — practically no one, not even my wife (a saintly, but not at all positive woman!) believed that at 66 years old I would find a job in my specialty or find a job at all. Only my granddaughter Sandra sincerely believed in this utopian (sic!) idea — she supported me and from time to time threw up various vacancies. As a natural result of my persistence with Sandra, I received a job offer from a very decent bank, which I accepted. Persistence is a virtue,» Serhiy tells about his job search experience on LinkedIn.

Onboarding and first day of work

The specialist’s new employer is the well-known Pivdenny Bank in the financial sector. «The employment is completely official and complies with current legislation,» says Serhiy happily.

The stages on the way to the offer, according to him, were as follows: an interview with a nice girl-recruiter, then a meeting in ZOOM with my future managers, then filling out a questionnaire on the bank’s website (very convenient, by the way), a security check, and receiving an offer. «The managers told me about the scope of my future responsibilities and asked if my health allowed me to work,» the IT worker shares with a smile.

The first working day in the new position, Serhiy shared on LinkedIn, was successful and really productive. «Everything is so familiar and familiar that it’s just scary, only the keys from the old communication cabinet from Raifu don’t fit the new one in Pivdenny, but I already have three new sets and a safe to store them,» the specialist says on LinkedIn.

He adds: in the new place there are adequate and friendly colleagues and management, excellent working conditions. Today, two switches with 48 ports each are to be delivered to the department for Serhiy, which he will personally screw into the cabinet and switch on. «I am looking forward to the opportunity to enter the domain and continue to benefit the employer,» he says.

True, Serhiy jokingly admits, his subscription to the SportLife swimming pool on weekdays has become «covered with a copper basin»: he will have to swim at double speed on weekends.

What’s next?

Currently, Serhiy says he has no career ambitions. «Everything I wanted to achieve, I achieved before. Now I just want to benefit my employer and receive a decent reward for it,» says the IT worker.

And to all those who want to work in modern IT, especially at a respectable age, he gives only one piece of advice: never give up and constantly learn new technologies. «I personally know a person who works in a top-five bank at the age of 76 and has no intention of quitting,» he cites an eloquent example of the fact that anything is possible.

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