Do you enjoy your job?

[strantor]

That mantra is slowly being tempered in our high school since we have trade schools built into our small community college.

Also, the kids here see their parents making a very good living in blue collar jobs here as well.

This gives me hope. I wish it eventually becomes the norm (again). I wasn't around to see it be the norm the first time around, but I've heard stories and it sounds like a much better gig.

What I saw in school, the tenacity with which the whole of the public education staff promoted college as the only option, it felt like a religious doctrine or even a cult. I spurned all their guidance out of spite and rebellion, and found myself in the military instead. Turned out to be a much better choice, one of the only times hard-headed self-destructive tendencies worked in my favor.

I am convinced that there are some shady practices going on. Some kickbacks from private for-profit higher education industry to public education professionals. I doubt it's at ground-level; I doubt the teachers themselves are getting rich off brainwashing kids into the college pipeline. But someone is. Whoever pushes teachers to push kids in that direction. Money is the only explanation that makes sense to me. What else could have systematically turned us into a service-based economy with an artificially vastly inflated demand for university degrees? I think we need an accountability force in place to prevent this. Some checks and balances. Like Internal Affairs in the police force. We need the same thing involved the dealings between military and government contractors. I've seen how much tax dollars get needlessly thrown into the dumpster-sized pockets of private industry, even at the lowest levels, just because there is nobody around to audit what gets spent where, and no incentive to shop around for better deals. (In fact, almost invariably the incentive is strongly not to get better deals)

I wish my high school had practical classes like auto shop, machining, electrical, etc. Heck a financial management class should be offered... no, mandatory. For something that's supposed to prepare you for life as an adult, my high school education was way too abstract to be of much use. Ironically, the thing I thought most abstract and useless (trig) turned out to be one of the things I had to re-teach myself because I didn't pay attention to any of it.

 

[yooperterry]

Spent 32 plus years as a railroad conductor. First seven as a yard switchman/conductor. Loved my job, hated management. Best part was working out side and loved switching! Seen crews go from 5 man to 2 man crews! Seen the cabooses go too! My father worked for railroads too, 38 years! Told me when I was young "don't think the railroads will be here when you grow up" He was wrong, they are more important and bigger now than back then! But fewer companies,merged together! Miss it so bad I cry about it! Least I live by the mainline I use to work on and get to hear them whistle for the crossings and when they go by our house! Fogot, I MISS MY DAD!

 

[ArlyA]

Spent 32 plus years as a railroad conductor. First seven as a yard switchman/conductor. Loved my job, hated management. Best part was working out side and loved switching! Seen crews go from 5 man to 2 man crews! Seen the cabooses go too! My father worked for railroads too, 38 years! Told me when I was young "don't think the railroads will be here when you grow up" He was wrong, they are more important and bigger now than back then! But fewer companies,merged together! Miss it so bad I cry about it! Least I live by the mainline I use to work on and get to hear them whistle for the crossings and when they go by our house! Fogot, I MISS MY DAD!

I worked as a carmen (or is it carman?) off and on for years but just one time directly for a line. Most was on a BN double main line in SW South Dakota. Lots and lots or trains went through there! Where does Yooper Terry reside??

 

[Hay Dude]

Spent 32 plus years as a railroad conductor. First seven as a yard switchman/conductor. Loved my job, hated management. Best part was working out side and loved switching! Seen crews go from 5 man to 2 man crews! Seen the cabooses go too! My father worked for railroads too, 38 years! Told me when I was young "don't think the railroads will be here when you grow up" He was wrong, they are more important and bigger now than back then! But fewer companies,merged together! Miss it so bad I cry about it! Least I live by the mainline I use to work on and get to hear them whistle for the crossings and when they go by our house! Fogot, I MISS MY DAD!

Thats really cool. Im a railroad fan.

 

[two_bit_score]

What I was told in school was more along the lines of "you can be anyone you want be, do anything you want to do. So long as you go college. If you don't go to college you're doomed to the life of a ditch digging pauper. It doesn't matter what you choose to study there, so long as you go and get that paper. That's all that matters. At any cost, including life-long debt. Here's a stack of applications."

That mantra is slowly being tempered in our high school since we have trade schools built into our small community college.

Also, the kids here see their parents making a very good living in blue collar jobs here as well.

Man, I don’t know where some of y’all went to school but I never heard it that way. I did get a BA degree because I wanted it. My HS teachers encouraged it as a way of development but everyone I knew had parents who were good at what they did and a college degree only opened doors. It didn’t do the work.

 

[Citydude]

Man, I don’t know where some of y’all went to school but I never heard it that way. I did get a BA degree because I wanted it. My HS teachers encouraged it as a way of development but everyone I knew had parents who were good at what they did and a college degree only opened doors. It didn’t do the work.

In my prior line of work, equipment operation , maintenance,military or farming/ranching experience opened doors for employment. A BA degree meant not so much.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Nondestructive testing since 1992, I like it for the money but the job is not interesting to me and does not call to me. I like welding, fabricating, repairing things, doing landscape type work. None of that makes the kind of money that NDT pays. I typically make around 160, if I could be reasonably close to that playing with tools and welders... I would. But I am an "expert" in the NDT field, so that is where I stay. I hobby the rest. I'm also only 49 years old, so I am not ready to retire. I kind of hate the job, but love the pay. Love/hate relationship.

 

[ultrarunner]

Man, I don’t know where some of y’all went to school but I never heard it that way. I did get a BA degree because I wanted it. My HS teachers encouraged it as a way of development but everyone I knew had parents who were good at what they did and a college degree only opened doors. It didn’t do the work.

Found similar in many careers... having a degree knocks down barriers.

Although starting to see experience becoming more heavily weighted...

When we were a small stand alone hospital a degree was not that important but that all changed with the merger... glad I have it but it was never a factor...

 

[jonathco]

I've been blessed with a good paying job that provides for my family; were not rich, but rarely have bills we cannot pay on-time - I consider that a blessing in this day and age. I'm 35, have a degree I don't use, but went to college because my dad convinced me when I graduated from high school that in the economy of tomorrow, "those without degrees will not have jobs". I listened, picked a generic major in healthcare management, and got the diploma.

Today, I am a business analyst for a large public health organization, work largely from home, but to say I enjoy my job would be a gross overstatement. I appreciate the paycheck and the much needed health insurance (given I am a diabetic, and have one of my children who has chronic health issues), but I also spend most days daydreaming of doing something I enjoy or working with my hands.

Sounds like most of you folks enjoyed your job over the years. I am grateful for mine, but wish I'd ignored my father's direction to get a degree, and instead should have pursued a trade. I frequently wish I'd pursued blue collar work rather than white.

 

[grsthegreat]

one thing i really liked about being an electrician was the ability to work at different jobs, constantly. i could not stand being locked into a building. i made alot of money in the trade, and i could not be outsourced to china. getting paid $95 an hour to do something you enjoyed doing was pretty nice. but after nearly 38 years doing even something you enjoy, getting up early and heading to work got old. now i enjoy retirement.

the problem is, now i get to do ........and i dont get paid