Retirement: from foreboding to fulfillment | Brendan Murray | TEDxDrogheda

The subject on which I’d like to speak is the area of losing one’s identity upon retirement. My career and work defined my identity until I retired in May. Since then I have realised that I no longer have that particular identity, so I need a new one. Identifying what it is that defines an identity was initially difficult until I realised that it’s not about what I did, but rather what I achieved. Work provides a perfect framework for creating wins and giving one the satisfaction of a job well done. This is the area where I had to apply myself: do something that gives me a sense of achievement, that allows me feel that I have made some small advancement today. I took early retirement in May 2017 after some 39 years developing software, including the last quarter century in IBM Ireland where I designed and developed industry-leading software, and was elected to the IBM Academy of Technology. During my time there, I have represented IBM on the Unicode Consortium and the Java Community Process, which have led to me speaking a number of times at Unicode Conferences across the globe and at JavaOne in San Francisco.

My early career included working at CIM-Centret and Kontor Automation in Denmark, and ICL in the UK.

I hold an MSc in software engineering from DCU.

However, now that I've retired, I'm toying with the idea of a technical startup between looking after my bees, fishing, and enjoying my family. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx