In reply to 11GTCS :
Where I work 14/20 people are aged 50-66 years old. We are all old people. Young guys want to get into IT rather than industrial hoses and gaskets.
In reply to 11GTCS :
Where I work 14/20 people are aged 50-66 years old. We are all old people. Young guys want to get into IT rather than industrial hoses and gaskets.
Datsun310Guy said:In reply to 11GTCS :
Where I work 14/20 people are aged 50-66 years old. We are all old people. Young guys want to get into IT rather than industrial hoses and gaskets.
Wen I was in high school 25+ years ago, everyone was told they had to go to college and do something in the tech industry because that is where the future was.
There are two of us in my office under retirement age, and thanks to the pandemic most of them are working their way out the door in the near future. I'm not sure how the plan on replacing everyone especially since they've made it a pretty undesirable position to be in.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Telling every kid they won't be successful unless they go to college has been one of the greatest failings of our educational system over the last ~30 years.
We're now knocking on the door of the consequences of those policies.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:Datsun310Guy said:In reply to 11GTCS :
Where I work 14/20 people are aged 50-66 years old. We are all old people. Young guys want to get into IT rather than industrial hoses and gaskets.
Wen I was in high school 25+ years ago, everyone was told they had to go to college and do something in the tech industry because that is where the future was.
Even now, the trades are severely looked down upon. The WORST part of this is- what's left. Schools have systematically shoveled all the kids they could into college, only leaving the very dumbest out for the trades. This leaves people like me dealing with licensed plumbers that quite frankly shouldn't be trusted with a box of crayons. If you're a homeowner and asking me for advice, fine. If you're a professional....we have a bigger problem
In reply to Rodan :
It set me back quite a bit. I was told I was too smart for trade schools and talked into studying engineering. It was a terrible idea for someone who is at best a C math student, I predictably failed out in three semesters and floundered a bit until I got in as a bus driver.
College degree or you'll be flipping burgers for the rest of your life. Those were the only choices in 1997 apparently. Too bad I bit into it. I could have had almost 25 years as an operator making $50+ an hour.
Seeing what kind of money they made, I thought of getting into HVAC when I was in high school, but got pushed towards college, too. Graduated with a mechanical engineering degree right when demand wasn't so great, and eventually ended up in IT, which I really should have gotten a degree for in the first place. I suspect I'd have been reasonably happy in the trades, too, though. And wouldn't hate sitting in front of a computer as much as I do now.
Mndsm said:Pete. (l33t FS) said:Datsun310Guy said:In reply to 11GTCS :
Where I work 14/20 people are aged 50-66 years old. We are all old people. Young guys want to get into IT rather than industrial hoses and gaskets.
Wen I was in high school 25+ years ago, everyone was told they had to go to college and do something in the tech industry because that is where the future was.
Even now, the trades are severely looked down upon. The WORST part of this is- what's left. Schools have systematically shoveled all the kids they could into college, only leaving the very dumbest out for the trades. This leaves people like me dealing with licensed plumbers that quite frankly shouldn't be trusted with a box of crayons. If you're a homeowner and asking me for advice, fine. If you're a professional....we have a bigger problem
I have only worked with two people my age or younger in the industry that I would trust to do my job.
One is now a tech lead at a dealership somewhere. The other went to work for Honda USA in their engineering department.
In reply to Appleseed :
I know there are HVAC companies out here that need good people so badly, they will hire you and pay you to go through the local technical college to get your cert so they can put you to work. They were talking to me at a local high school so I could tell my students. Finish your HVAC cert in HS (we would send students to the local tech school for electives that we did not offer) and they would guarantee you a job starting your summer after HS graduation. I thought about it myself at 45, but I got back into engineering.
matthewmcl (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Appleseed :
I know there are HVAC companies out here that need good people so badly, they will hire you and pay you to go through the local technical college to get your cert so they can put you to work. They were talking to me at a local high school so I could tell my students. Finish your HVAC cert in HS (we would send students to the local tech school for electives that we did not offer) and they would guarantee you a job starting your summer after HS graduation. I thought about it myself at 45, but I got back into engineering.
The first time we had our HVAC serviced it was by a "team" a supervisor and an apprentice. She just got her own truck and was really excited to be on her own. The supervisor stepped back and let her work, answered a few questions and didn't treat her like anything other than a fellow employee. When they needed a new capacitor for blower fan, he suggested contacting one of the other trucks in the area to see if they had one to drop off and pointed out some tips on how best to access it.
It was awesome to see and filled me with hope for the future. I chatted with her a little bit, she and her daughter are excited to move out on their own after living with her parents and she was probably in her early 30's.
A former co-worker, who was my IT Team Lead and was eventually laid off due to an acquisition, went into HVAC work and seemed to be pretty happy with things and even with his lingering knee injury (he twisted it badly stepping off an office chair and had to have surgery to fix it, still limped afterward).
My cousin who's a month younger than me got into laying carpet/flooring and now runs his own business with several employees and seems to be doing quite well.
So while I personally am glad I didn't go to college and have all of that debt to deal with, I think a trade would have made more sense for me in the long run, I'm just lucky I was able to walk into IT when it was getting big and learned enough along the way to get to where I am.
Thanks guys, I appreciate the thoughts. I'll just have to deal with being the last old guy standing, I'm not planning on going anywhere anytime soon.
Ironically, I have both an engineering degree and went through a 4 year apprenticeship in HVAC. The combination of practical experience on top of the engineering has helped me to do very well in my current role in sales and project management. I encourage everyone who asks to consider the trades; the current apprenticeship programs in our area typically offer associate degrees with a little extra work with one of the local technical colleges and at no cost to the apprentices.
Dear trash bag manufacturers.
Did someone actually suggest that garbage bags that smell like old rotten whore was a good idea, or did you come up with that on your own?
Of all the smells in the world you could have chosen, why did you settle on Skank Whore from Caracas? Could you have possibly found a better class of whore to get the scent from? Maybe Manhattan Escort instead? Rotten Tomatoes in the Sun would be better. Or maybe Elephant Fart in the Face. Even Baby E36 M3 after Carrots is improvement over what you chose.
Please stop with the funk. When your scent smells worse than the actual garbage, you are doing it wrong.
In reply to Toyman01 (Moderately Supportive Dude) :
I almost universally hate scented things. I work very hard to make sure to use unscented laundry detergent, cat litter, etc etc etc. Most of that crap is just awful.
In reply to Duke :
We do too. Occasionally a box gets bought by mistake. It's amazing just how bad they smell.
Rodan said:In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Telling every kid they won't be successful unless they go to college has been one of the greatest failings of our educational system over the last ~30 years.
We're now knocking on the door of the consequences of those policies.
Totally agree. You ever look at the wages of a graphic designer and a concrete guy? In our area a graphic designer makes about $13-16. Concrete guy starts at $18-75ish an hour.
My wife has a degree in graphic design and found out that rural paper routes pay 4 times what a graphic designer makes......because no one will do the route.
I've worked with 1 guy younger than me in 10 years. Currently my guys are in their 40s-50s
11GTCS said:I encourage everyone who asks to consider the trades;
Aside from the current pandemic, I have done very well in the Trades as well. I too have a four year BA degree and work on stage. While generally very well, right now is tough as everything has ground to a halt in entertainment. I have been on furlough since March 16 and at the end of this month I transition abruptly to laid off.
In reply to Toyman01 (Moderately Supportive Dude) :
This goes for dog poop bags too. The one's they have on the poles at the park near our house have so much scent on them that they make me itch all over. I have to wash my hands with dish soap to get the smell out of my skin.
between machine issues and do-overs because of working from my memory instead of a sketch, i have about 30 hours in a bell crank for monzora shifter. 30 hours. i need to get better at this E36 M3.
Damnit... I've already suffered through Algebra, Chemistry, and Latin once in my lifetime. I really hate having to do it again.
Oh, and on 'the trades', most emphatically agreed.
I work in TV, and it provided me a good living for quite some time.
"New" place, not so good. Thing y'all might find interesting, one of the stations we own has televised high school football games for the last couple of weekends. Ratings were great!
One thing I noticed, though..the major sponsors were trade schools and the local (Atlanta) IBEW chapter.
Word might finally be getting out to 'the kids' that you can make better money in the trades. The IBEW ads in particular mentioned their apprentice program, and that young folks don't need to incur so much debt to get an education for a 'good paying job'.
Why does everyone seem to expect me to make some kind of radical change to my life? I put a lot of work in getting to where I was happy and comfortable, and I'm still pretty happy with much of this. Several times a week I get asked about what I'm going to do now that I'm "free". Almost every person is disappointed to learn I'm not quitting my job, I'm not moving, I'm not even blowing my insurance money on coke and strippers (yet, it's still early). For the most part I will remain the same responsible adult I've been for years and I'm kinda happy about it.
About every 4 years, I get a new cell phone. I usually spring for a flagship phone that way it takes a bit longer to become obsolete.
I've been rocking a Note 8 for awhile now and decided to spring for a Note20 Ultra 5G. My old Note was rock solid but it was starting to become excessively slow and the battery was degrading.
The new Note20 is great except it absolutely hates my wifi in my house. Random disconnects, network timeouts and overall just poor performance. My old Note never suffered from any of this. When I try and browse media heavy sites like Imgur or Instagram or stream music or movies, it either fails to load or the wifi disconnects. I've tried everything in my wireless router to make the Note20 happy. I've messed with the phone's wifi settings. Nothing is helping.
Come to find out, there is lots of reports of crappy wifi with the Note20. I literally have to browse/stream over the cell network to get anything to work. I really hope an update will be pushed to fix the wifi. I kinda wish that I didn't get a new phone now .
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