[Milsurplus] School help

[David Stinson]

Now, before I get started-
this does not reflect my own situation, because for some 
reason I cannot imagine, the Almighty has been kind to me 
and my family, my employer is good to us and we're doing OK.  
The hours can be very long and I'm never going to get rich, 
but the bills get paid (usually).  
I certainly don't deserve His grace, but am very grateful for it.

That being said...
I've been in this business almost 40 years, 
and have loved working in communications electronics 
since I built my first crystal radio at 10 years old.
But I'll be frank with you:
Unless you are in love with communications electronics, don't do it.  
You will make more money as a unionized garbage man.

You will need years of training to come up to speed,
and the technology will go screaming out ahead of you
every day.  You'll be required to re-train often
without any compensation for that expensive re-education
because few places will pay to have you trained on new tech,
but they will expect you to know it from day one.
I advise against it unless, as suggested by another list member, 
you go into the Navy and let them pay the expense 
of training you up.

Then there's the important matter ( or cruel joke) of pay.
If you can get a 4-year degree and if you can find a postion
as an "engineering tech" or "field engineer," you can make 
some modest money.  Good luck on getting that berth with
no job experiance, even with a 4-year degree.
As a plain-vanilla "Electronic Technician" 
with a trade-school certificate, you'll be little more than chattel.  
Some people reading this post are an El-Tech chattel's "massa" 
and know I'm telling you straight.

To give you some idea:
In 1982 I got called by a "head hunter" to go to work 
in Nevada for $12 an hour.  
1982... $12 an hour.  That was 29 years ago.
Today.... 2011....the national average pay for 
an El Tech with 1-4 years  of job experiance is.... 
        (drumroll) ........  $14 an hour.
That's a breath-taking 17 percent increase 
in *three decades,*  in a field where 
you'll be expected- nay, required- 
to run faster than the gingerbread man 
in the impossible, hopeless task of keeping-up 
with technology's light-speed advance.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the cost 
of a hamberger and coke have gone up 
a little more than 17% in the last 30 years.

Going into student-loan debt to make $14 an hour 
is a bad idea, and one of the reasons the work gets outsorced
to places where a bowl of rice and a chicken head for dinner 
is considered "high livin'."
If you really love this field, the only sensible way to train up 
is in the military, especially the Navy.  As was mentioned before-
there are a lot of other bennies to that path.  I hope you aren't 
too old to consider it.  Frankly, if you've waited until 
you're too old for the military to learn a marketable skill, 
you have a very serious problem already 
and trade school probably won't fix it.
If you aren't "in love" with this field, do yourself 
and your family a big favor:  do something else.  
Find your passion and do the research to determine the best way 
(and least expensive way) to get a career doing that.  
Life is much too short to work at a job you hate,
so invest the time to find your "sunny spot."

Best of luck to you,
73 Dave S.