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

[Bill Gerhold]

As a 58 year old EE educated in power generation and power delivery, I am
astounded by the lack of young people getting into this field.  Every year I
interview at least 12 people coming out of college who know absolutely
nothing about power but know almost all there is to know about computers and
programming languages.  Nothing about vectors, how a generator works,
magnetic induction etc.

It's a shame.  Few are going into power in our universities.  I am up to my
eyebrows in the "Intern", "Quick Learner, Hard Worker" types who don't know
the difference between a Philips and pan head screw.  Then there is the
intern who doesn't know the difference between an OCB and PCB.

I guess I'm just getting too old.

K2WH


-----Original Message-----
From: hallicrafters-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:hallicrafters-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Jim Brannigan
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 8:57 AM
To: Gerry Steffens; 'Duane Fischer, W8DBF'; 'TC Dailey';
hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] Nobody wants to be a "technician" anymore


Gerry,
Well written, you are exactly on point.

Jim

>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
>
>
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________ 

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