As you say the job for life is just about extinct. I started working life at Rolls-Royce (Derby) and trained as an apprentice production engineer. At the end of my apprenticeship I decided to work for small and medium enterprises. My skills were transferable to many different manufacturing products so I went from Jet engines to Petrol pump nozzles, Gas Valves, Hi-Fi Loudspeakers, Chocolates, Computer Software, Wooden products, Chicken processing and then retirement.
Our family is now at the stage where the grandchildren are either just finished university, still at university or Just about to start University. My oldest granddaughter has a BA in Biology and Master's degree in Biomed and just completed her first year in a Cambridge laboratory. She is finding it difficult to get a first real job. All work is on contract and she therefore cannot get a mortgage and at 26 years old still not established in the workplace. I hold out little hope for my other grandchildren to find good stable employment. There are just too many people with good education going for work and the competition is fierce. She says she will have to leave the country to widen her choices. Having chldren is not even on the agenda at present - so different when my wife and I started out 58 years ago.