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

[kim.herron at sbcglobal.net]

Geez, Bill!!  I thought I was the only one that ran into that.  I spent 
two hours last week teaching basic ohms law to two building maintenance 
techs that work on fire alarms and HVAC controls but couldn't figure out 
why a 3 phase line starter didn't work and what went wrong.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Gerhold" <wpgerhold at elongo.com>
To: <hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 4:52 PM
Subject: RE: [Hallicrafters] Nobody wants to be a "technician" anymore


> 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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