Or, the lack thereof:


http://profoundlydisconnected.com/reasontv-interviews-mike-rowe-on-the-high-cost-of-college/


Get the kids into debt they cannot repay......the American way.

 

I watched that a while back. Good bit. Mike Rowe is a smart guy, and I've never heard him say anything that I disagree with. Pay for trades is and has been on the rise, as all the young degreed professionals don't know what to do, but they damn sure know it isn't manual labor. I like Mike's slogan "Work hard AND smart." That's what I like the most about my job; I get to work with my hands and at the same time, use my brain. It's fulfilling, and I don't get detached from reality.

Being a skilled welder can earn you more than most degrees can. Electricians make good (degree-level) money after 5 years, and they get paid during those 5 learning years too, instead of paying out for school. Machinists are making excellent money too, as long as they aren't scared of CNC.

 

Around here in the last five years of the skilled labor sect has went from being a problem to a extreme asset.

Before that if you had hands on skills drove truck or just did manual labor you were at the bottom of the company supporting everyone above you.

I can recall jobs where I got billed out to the customer at $120 an hour at 12 hours billable for a job of which I got all of $8.40 and paid for the 8 I was actually there with no insurance in return.

Now guys like me can walk into a company and get $25 - $30 plus full benefits from day one or walk out if the company isn't keeping us up to that level.

 

The traditional view of craftsmen from the management perspective is that they are a cost, not an asset. Maybe now that there are tens of thousands more Bachelors degrees than there are jobs for them, the people that actually make widgets can get paid what they are worth.

or maybe I accidentally smoke some potpourri...

 

My grandfather was a craftsman (blacksmith). He wanted his son to do better and send him to university.
My father became a top bureaucrat. He wanted me to do better so I was taught a trade.
Circles! E

 

FWIW... I am one of those, that values versatility in my skill set... I know just enough about the building trades, to get me into a world of trouble

Kidding aside, developing a varied set of marketable skills, is a worthwhile endeavor. Granted, one cannot know everything... that is why there are Books... as it states in Bertus' signature...

" You don't have to know everything, if you know where to find it. "

 

FWIW... I am one of those, that values versatility in my skill set...

Similar thought here as well.

The odd thing I have found with jobs is how many people in management are convinced the know more about everything than the guys in the shop who are doing the actual work and when someone comes along who can prove they can do more than the guy who is managing them it's seen as impossibility.

I have always stood by the practice of put your skills where your mouth is and show them! (Then I get ran off by said manager about 2 - 4 weeks later for some lame excuse that does not add up.)

 

Similar thought here as well.

The odd thing I have found with jobs is how many people in management are convinced the know more about everything than the guys in the shop who are doing the actual work and when someone comes along who can prove they can do more than the guy who is managing them it's seen as impossibility.

I have always stood by the practice of put your skills where your mouth is and show them! (Then I get ran off by said manager about 2 - 4 weeks later for some lame excuse that does not add up.)

Sounds like you've had a series of bad experiences. I think the highlighted word might be the key. I leave my mouth out of it. I exceed expectations without making a big show of it. I let my skills speak for themselves, never boastful (this reply is as close as i get). Within a short period (variable, depends on how in-tune management is) of starting employment somewhere, that manager's propensity to "know more than me" gives way to the manager asking me nicely to do things that are impossible and then swallowing my "why not" explanation with little more than a whimper. Because he knows that if I could, I would, and if I can't, nobody can.

 

Best thing to do with one of those bosses is do exactly as he says. Then let him explain to his boss.

 

Sounds like you've had a series of bad experiences.

I think of them as hands on diplomacy experience.

I exceed expectations without making a big show of it. I let my skills speak for themselves, never boastful (this reply is as close as i get). Within a short period (variable, depends on how in-tune management is) of starting employment somewhere,

Same here. I am a terrible person to go up against in a whose job it is to do what match. I do everything. Even the crappy little jobs that they say I am overpaid to do which scores big points with co workers but does not with managers who can't delegate responsibility.

 

Best thing to do with one of those bosses is do exactly as he says. Then let him explain to his boss.

Oh Hell Yeah !!! Ain't it fun to watch them stew in their own sweat ?

Maybe my bad attitude, but sometimes the perp of the " Smarter than thou " mindset has the consequences coming.

 

It depends. He is going to say the crew can't follow instructions, etc. Either the know-it-all will get replaced or the crew will.

I'd like to mention the sad feeling I had the first time I realized my boss didn't understand what I was doing and could not educate me on the finer points of the circuit. Watch for that boys and girls. There will be a day when you pass your own teachers.

 

Watch for that boys and girls. There will be a day when you pass your own teachers.

And when that day eventually does arrive... Have enough tact to let him/her live with the knowledge, without a word being spoken...