Getting in on the Mike Rowe love fest

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/dirtyjobs/mike-rowe-senate-testimony.html

Love Mike. The lack of skilled welders is understandable though...it is really hard!

Amen. My dad is an electrician, my grandfather was a stone mason. It's amazing how they could build, troubleshoot, or fix just about anything. Whether I need help with my car, my washing machine or my plumbing, my Dad is always a big help.

But growing up I swallowed all the propaganda my teachers and school counselors fed me - and I assumed that blue collar work wasn't for smart people and never really respected the work my father did. I took college prep courses, went to a big university, and had my heart set on a white collar job where I never had to worry about working outside or getting dirty.

How'd that work out for me? I've never found my job very fulfilling. I've seen my work outsourced overseas. I've become burnt out and tried to leave my industry several times, but had to come back because starting at the bottom rung somewhere else is hard to manage while providing for my family.

These day I feel as if I was lied to. Working with your hands isn't something to be ashamed of, or for the poor, or the stupid. Just try to find a mechanic who charges less than $50 an hour. Try getting a HVAC technician or plumber to stop by your house for under $100. These are good jobs, and in my area, more and more of them are going to first and second generation immigrants who see no stigma at all bout being blue collar workers. This reality is a big wake-up call for all the college grads who find themselves still waiting tables or living with their parents.

He is right. When I was in school I was considering going to a tech school to work work on cars. My high school was/is very anti physical labor and convinced my parents that if I wanted to work I cars I should instead persue engineering and design them rather than getting my hands dirty fixing them. Despite my mediocre math grades they decided, and for some reason I agreed that I would head to college and study mechanical engineering. After a year of failing classes and hanging out in the shop working I left with no skills, and angry parents. I bounced from job to job until I ended up at the bus company.

We've been trained from an early age that the people who do actual work do so because they are not inteligent, and now we've raised a generation of people who will sit on their parent's couch jobless rather than take a blue collar job. I have told several of my unemployed friends to take the test to work here and they admit that even though the money and benefits are good the work is too far beneath them.

My brother and his wife graduated with masters degrees in education a couple of years ago and have been unable to find any decent work. He is taking a job as a route salesman sellng and delivering ice cream so that they can make some decent money and get insurance for their baby. Several family members have expressed their disapointment and feel that he should hold out a bit longer to find a respectable job. After all, what would his daughter's friends think if they knew her dad drove an ice cream truck.

He speaks words of truth and I've been saying this to other people for a while. Nobody in this country wants to do skilled or manual labor as work anymore because they are not taught how to do it.

I don't know a single High School in my area that still has Vocational classes, they've all disappeared.

My end goal/career in life is to become a true renaissance man. And bartend.

"But that's not a 'real' career!!!"

Get berkeleyed.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Nobody in this country wants to do skilled or manual labor as work anymore because they are not taught how to do it.

I'd go further and say that they are taught not to do it, but to get a 'real' job so that they can pay someone else to.

Mike Row for President.

I've very seriously considered going back and learning a trade. But like mentioned earlier, I would go apprentice as an electrician helper, etc.

Just now that I've been out of college a few years, I couldn't afford to take the big pay cut.

Agreed. Not sure how a non-celeb gets a senate panel, but I agree with what he said. We are all overeducated and underperforming.

Wally wrote: After all, what would his daughter's friends think if they knew her dad drove an ice cream truck.

If I knew anyone that drove an ice cream truck, they'd be my best friend. Ice cream rules. And pie.

Pie and Ice Cream truck franchise?

I am lucky in that I have come full circle. I too was herded down the white collar path and ended up in engineering when I should have been a tech; more of a hands on guy who believes that a job results in something tangible.

I have over the last few years drifted into automotive metal-shaping and panel restorations.

Had a potential client who I knew to be in the legal profession ask why I was entitled to charge the asking price? I enjoyed answering?

my highschool had a garage that sat empty for years with nobody to teach it. even now at 31 two of the most specific memories of classes from grades 7-12 are from metal shop and wood shop.

a lot of people in this country really need to get it out of their elitist heads that some people are simply made to be better at working with our hands, and unlike the fashionable learning of today that rarely means instead of our heads.

my aunt told me about a book she really loved called Shop Class as Soulcraft, haven't read it but its on my list

I used to work with Mike. He's a super cool guy. And he acts exactly like that when he's not on camera too. Was really neat to get to work with him for a while.

I really had no idea what I wanted to do after high school. Everyone kept saying the thing to do was to go to college. I am the first child in my family so I guess my 'rents really wanted me to go too.

So I went. I guess I wasnt really ready for it, I didnt do so great due to lack of focus and interest. Dropped out after a year and a half, took a full time job job drafting on autocad. The only job related experience I had was 3 years of autocad classes in high school.

I had zero idea what surveying was until I started my job. I guess I knew it existed but that was about it. After working for a few years took some BS night classes at a technical school for an associates degree in drafting and design. Now I am also 80% of the way through a state apprenticeship program for Surveying and gearing up to take my licensing exams in a year or two.

Not the best paying field but I like what I do most of the time.

I do agree that college is pushed on kids way too hard. There needs to be more awareness that it isnt the only, or the best option for everyone.

mike's old QVC videos are pretty entertaining. you can see the Dirty Jobs guy just trying to make selling that crap interesting

A plumber was called to a doctor's home to do some work on a toilet. After working for about an hour, the plumber gave the M.D. a bill for $500. The doctor said, "Good Gracious Man! I have been to medical school and residency and have been practicing medicine for over 20 years and I can't charge that kind of money!" The plumber smiled and said, "Yeah, I couldn't either when I was a doctor."

There is a certain truth to this.

Read this book!

I think this is more telling of society, that the geeks shall inherit the earth. Cause the only ones left to fix stuff by the time this whole mess comes to a head will be the car geeks, the bus geeks, the computer geeks- the guys that like to tinker with stuff. And they'll be worth their weight in funyuns and Mt. Dew.

I've always thought being a plumer would be a rough way to go. Seems to me an electrician has it better. Plumers are always diging up the yard and dealing with smelly, nsasty stuff. Electricians are clean at the end of the day. If I went into a trade I'd be an electrician.

Don't get me started on sheet rockers.

That was some great testimony. Being in my late 20's, I grew up in the heyday of the upper middle class race to Harvard. The result is I see many of my friends suffering as I do. I have more than a half dozen friends with masters degrees in teaching who can't find a good job. Some are substitutes, some adjunct at universities and make as little as 30k for full-time work. As for me, I have a doctorate and am just getting out on my feet now. But, I am trying to learn to weld and try to work on my own cars and do other skilled jobs because, frankly, I can't afford to farm these things out. A decent mechanic charges about a much per hour as I do on a good day. My parents contractor, the best one I have ever met, has a degree in architecture and engineering. He has a list of jobs a mile long and we can't ever pin him down to work on our house.

Sparkys die more of electrocution though. I have utter respect for ALL electricians, because electricity scares the hell out of me more than anything else in the world. I've honestly considered going back to school as of late as an auto body/painter. I love pretty colors.

i learned one trade. went and did it got great at it. got tired of having to see peoples car in all states of dis repair and them alays doing enough to just keep it running not keep it running well. now i work at a pizza place and am going to go to school again for another career that im sure 6 or 7 years after im in it ill hate too.

AngryCorvair wrote: Read this book!

Convince me that it's not just a knock-off of this one. and I'll give it a read-through.