[wplug] Best mid-life career advice

[Bryan J Smith]

The ultimate irony is that our focus on academics was our ultimate undoing.
We have qualified technicians who can't get jobs, all while companies complain
there isn't enough "qualified" technicians, because theirs are wack.

Case-in-point from another field:  Land Surveying

Once they started requiring a BS, instead of an AS or 8 years
experience, to be a land surveyor, their numbers plummeted.
The result is that they are allow undegreed mappers to the
same license. So now we have even less qualified technicians doing the job,
and still even less in the field.

It is *DETRIMENTAL* to our future to require superficial credentials
for a job. And we're reaping the issue of people not understanding what
an "engineer" is and isn't, which started when we began downplaying
vocab type education and engineering technology as "suitable" careers.

Heck, I was so concerned in 2004 that I became a middle school teacher
for 4 months. I taught the kids business and physical science applications.
Not only did it get them more interested in math because
"word problems" were no longer "hard" but "fun," especially when I
tailored them to the kids, but they understood the concepts better for
the standardized tests.

I was *LAMBASTED* for breaking from the "academic" and "pure math."
No wonder nearly all 8th graders are "lost" when they come to the NSPE'
"MathCounts" competition - they don't even know what "units" are!
No wonder kids don't enjoy math!

Heck, there was nothing more gratifying that getting the "chatty,
popular girl" focused when I started putting things in terms of shopping.
Not only did she stop destracting others, but both the guys that
liked her, and the girls that wanted to be her, started following her lead.

Heck, even the "geek" started to like being around her.

--  
Bryan J Smith - mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org  
http://thebs413.blogspot.com  
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile  
    

-----Original Message-----
From: "Nathan Marcus" <latefreight at gmail.com>

Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2007 10:41:02 
To:"General user list" <wplug at wplug.org>
Subject: Re: [wplug] Best mid-life career advice


Wow, this email thread is a superb overview.  I have even printed it
out in fact and intend to show it to somebody I know considering
entering this path right now.

Thanks.

On 9/3/07, Bryan J Smith <b.j.smith at ieee.org> wrote:
> Combination of the continuing military-industrial complex,
> combined with the acquired US wealth and investments in other countries,
> combined with the lack of the Chinese liquidating their acquired US assets.
>
> The Chinese are the major factor, especialy with our private
> and public debts. Next is the fact that that the US does have a lot of
> foreign assets, just like the British do as well, which keeps them afloat.
>
> But make no mistake, our golden age is long past, and the US private
> economy will not be able to sustain its 40+ year of gradually increased
> social spending, and our economy will result in much like the British shortly.
>
> A good amount of unemployment and lack of industry, resulting
> in an even greater separation between existing wealth and unable to
> gain any wealth - let alone unaffordable house and other "entry-level"
> type investments that are the foundation of wealth.
>
> We are no longer the "land of opportunity," and becoming
> much like the British "land of (some) entitlement."
> No depressions, but I full expect 10% unemployment to be commonpalce,
> and 90 either employed by the public, or in low-paying serivce jobs.
> All within 20 years.
>
> Once the raised income taxes become the norm again, people like
> myself will question if I should even work, or my wife, and income
> will actually go down, and the GDP with it, as we return above the
> "Point of diminishing returns" of 47%.
>
> Oh, and everyone will have healthcare, and it will *NOT* include what
> most people have with their HMOs today, and definitely not the
> multi-million dollar procedures that save lives which everyone assumes it will.
>
> --
> Bryan J Smith - mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org
> http://thebs413.blogspot.com
> Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Neal Sofge <neal_sofge at rand.org>
>
> Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 23:20:13
> To:General user list <wplug at wplug.org>
> Subject: Re: [wplug] Best mid-life career advice
>
>
> > I think it's the exact opposite, we've pissed away our competitive
> > edge.
>
> OK, so why can we continue operating, then?  What's paying the bills?
>
>
> --
> Neal Sofge, Web Technology Analyst
> RAND Corporation <http://www.rand.org/>
>
>
>
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