Pretty much none of that is true. There is still a need for good techs. For example when I worked at Davis Tool (Large machine shop) we had people in maintenance quit and it was virtually impossible to find people to replace them. People coming in off the street could not even pass the basic skills test. Techs are all over industry, they have not gone anywhere. Every company that produces a product has them, especially if there is end user service required. You just don’t build a million dollar machine and not support it.
And these are usually pretty well paying jobs too. Companies just do not throw away equipment when it needs repair, not if they want to stay in business long. There is a breaking point when you do throw something away, usually if something costs a couple hundred or less, then the labor makes it uneconomical. If you are willing to work your way up you will be fine. I have done it and many, many others have. This whole idea you need a degree to get anything should go by the wayside. -Jerry On Sep 18, 2014, at 3:35 PM, David Madden <[email protected]> wrote: > On 9/18/14, 3:17 PM, Manuel Muro wrote: >> we need the modern day equivalent of the technician! > > True...I believe that's what you used to get out of schools like Benson, > and theoretically what you get out of DeVry and similar places. I don't > know that there are good long-term career paths for people like that, > though. > > I think you used to be able to spend your whole life machining (or even > programming) and do more and more complex things (and have clients who > wanted or needed those things). But now, companies have realized that > it's more economical to build a business around 100% replaceable parts > -- they don't want to have a 50-year-old genius machinist or programmer, > because their business depends too critically on him/her. > > This is a double whammy for people who would otherwise be good > candidates for technician: you won't be called upon to develop more and > more skills, and you'll be replaced by some other modestly-skilled > worker when your health insurance starts costing too much. And that'll > be the end of your working life. > > Throw student debt into the mix and you have a clusterfuck -- and one > for which no schools teach the critical reasoning necessary for people > to understand and avoid. > > I don't know how to fix it, btw, but it's gonna be Interesting Times (in > the Chinese curse sense) if people start paying more attention. > -- > Mersenne Law LLP · www.mersenne.com · +1-503-679-1671 > - Small Business, Startup and Intellectual Property Law - > 9600 S.W. Oak Street · Suite 500 · Tigard, Oregon 97223 > > _______________________________________________ > dorkbotpdx-blabber mailing list > [email protected] > http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/dorkbotpdx-blabber _______________________________________________ dorkbotpdx-blabber mailing list [email protected] http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/dorkbotpdx-blabber
