Generation B: At 58, a Life Story in Need of a Rewrite
August 28, 2009 by admin
Filed under Career News and Advice
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y.
MICHAEL BLATTMAN, 58, took a prudent path to a successful business career. Armed with an M.B.A., he started with the federal government, working at the General Accounting Office and Federal Reserve, before moving to the Sallie Mae student loan program, where he rose to be director of national sales.
From 2001 to 2008 he was a senior vice president for a private student-loan company and at his high point earned $225,000 a year in salary and bonuses, he says. He also taught business courses at the University of Maryland; lived in a 4,000-square-foot home in upscale Potomac, Md., and drove a Mercedes.
And then, in short order, this stable life came undone. When his younger of two children was almost ready for college, Mr. Blattman asked his wife of 25 years for a orce.
“We’d just grown apart, we had a different opinion on mostly everything,” he says. “Life is short — you got to do what makes you happy.” Since he worked out of his home, he could live anywhere, and decided Florida would be the place to start over.
But soon after, in January 2008, he lost his job. His company was shutting down much of its student loan business. Still, Mr. Blattman wasn’t worried. He received a $188,000 severance package and says, “I thought I’d find another job quickly, and actually wind up ahead.” He is well regarded in his field. Jim Murphy, a former president of the New York State Financial Aid Administrators Association, calls him “innovative, dependable, an asset to any organization.” Tony …
Read the original article at NYTimes