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

[kim.herron at sbcglobal.net]

ABSOLUTELY GARY!!  It's why I'm where I'm at.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gerry Steffens" <gsteffens at pitel.net>
To: "'Duane Fischer, W8DBF'" <dfischer at usol.com>; "'TC Dailey'" 
<daileyservices at qwest.net>; <hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 10:15 PM
Subject: RE: [Hallicrafters] Nobody wants to be a "technician" anymore


>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
>
>
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________