[Hallicrafters] Nobody wants to be a "technician" anymore

[Gerry Steffens]

I offer a different perspective.  I have held positions of electrical
engineer, operations manager, vice-president of Operations and now Manager
of Electric Operations in four different electric utilities.  Yes, I was
downsized once.  I did change, I moved.  I am currently Chair of the Project
management Committee of a 450 million dollar electric transmission line
project.  This project is one of three such projects totaling 1.4 billion
dollars in investment being done by a consortium of eleven companies
comprised of investor owned, rural electric cooperative and municipal
utilities in Minnesota.  The number of first class linemen, truck drivers,
engineers, accountants and the like required for such an effort is in the
high hundreds.  We don't know where to find them.  Most all of these jobs
START in the range of $55,000 to $70,000.  These projects are just starting
but will go on until about 2015 or so.  Then the next round hits.

My son (the blonde, blue-eyed, Polish/Norwegian boy) is trained in
engineering technology and computer science.  He graduated about 5 years
ago.  He now is a computer systems administrator and troubleshooter for one
of the largest property insurers in this country.  Most of the people in his
classes were not of western European extraction.  His view is that generally
the parties he knows just don't want to work hard enough to study these
topics (this is either in college/university and/or tech school).  The US
previously turned out 70,000 to 90,000 engineers per year.  Now the numbers
are in the range of the high teens or low 20 thousands.  Much of the job
transitions are necessitated by not having the skills available.  Everyone
can't be a lawyer or professional entertainer (sports or otherwise).

I recently hired a tech school grad to be an electric system operator.
After hire he had to study almost 9 months to get the necessary
certification to do the job.  He started at $72,000 annually.

My examples are not the only ones out there, I could quote many others.  The
point is that the skills needed are constantly changing.  One must
constantly learn/change.  Many folks (young & old) refuse to do so.  

I am 63 and have about two or three different offers coming to me monthly.
But, folks must be willing to do the time first, get the reputation, the
skills, etc.

We don't have any more nasty conspiracy out there than in times past.

Older guys like us need to recognize that just like the hoo-haa about young
folks (like gen-Xers) needing to be treated differently because of culture,
we need to be instructed in what the job to be done is and how it must be
done today, not how it was done yesterday.

I was a tube type aerospace engineer out of school.  If I had not changed, I
would be in the minimum wage situation Duane describes.  I always ask those
who complain, "How have you changed or modernized?

Sorry for the chapter & verse diatribe.  I know there are some cases where
the jobs have moved off-shore and more.  But, one of my system operators was
a baker in his earlier life (that person now is dragging home over $82,000
annually).  Now that's change.

I haven't really proofed this, I even made myself tired.  Hope my point is
salient.

Cheers from Minnesota,

Gerry