There are several reasons I'd say. Some just like doing something with their hands and seeing the results of it. For me in a machine shop it usually isn't that hot or cold like it used to be since now you have almost all CNC equipment and they don't handle the range of temperatures.
As far as the college part I can also say that I've seen many that had a degree and made less or about the same as I do and I didn't spend years in college and tab for courses I had no need for. To me being in a office would be like a mouse in a cage and there are also dangers like carpal tunnel for many in todays world. It all boils down to what makes you happy and I don't think that the schools give both sides of the equation and maybe with good cause many parents tell their kids don't go blue collar get a education so that you don't get laid off, which is also not true.

 

What I'm talking about is factory work. No one wants to do it. Machinists, welders, etc, don't really count IMO. You guys are specialists. Skilled labor.

I'm going to bet that most of you had to go though some sort of school to get where you are now.

I also couldn't imagine sitting behind a desk all day. I don't know how people do it, but for most that's where it's at. I'd probably take that over the factories I've been in though.

I'll be back when I'm sober and can think and type correctly.

Mike

 

Well, I did go to college to be where I am. Of course, i'm a cnc machinist, and it's not normal filling boxes or repeated work. But i love it. and it definatley NOT hard work. I'm a green button man.... get program ready load raw material... and then sit back in my chair and push green button all day. Stack parts when done.

And as far as pay goes.... i'm 23 and i'm making 50 a year... a bunch of overtime is what got me that much. But I'm happy with that for now.

Could still be cutting down trees..... talk about cold, hot, lots of work, and killing my body.

 

America has been losing it's brain trust for the heavy industries, manufacturing, tool
and die making, high output machining work and even the auto mechanic trade is
starting to go a little by little. I blame a big part in the specialization of the schools
and the way they teach that is leading to this especially in the auto field(a good diesel
mechanic is rare) Of course a big part is the amount of work that went overseas and
that of course left those who did know to search for other employment and of course
use it or lose it and things get forgotten. There is alot of ways to get something
done but a lot of teachers teaching the classes are also graduates of the same school
and for some of them it wasn't too long ago!! It is happening here with a certain or
both of the motorcycle mechanic training schools here I see ads for instructors and it
will say recent graduates okay! That doesn't make sense to me since some things just
can NOT be learned from a book or a computer and even the best computer powered
code reader or analyzer can't tell you everything that is happening with a motor as
well as a mechanic that can do it intuitively, By listening, smelling, feeling and by a
simple reasoning of the symptoms.
There is a bit of a renewel in intrest of the so called black arts and a general intrest
of doing things that are generally done for us by others.
It is called DIY PUNK and it covers fixing your own car to cutting your own hair to
making your own fuel and basically becoming self reliant and of course the pleasure
that comes from saying I made/did/created that!!
It all really rests on the shoulders of those who can do, to teach those in the
younger generations that it may seem hard but you can do it!! The world is based
on the laws of physics and the governing principles of them will allow you to pretty
much do anything you want. Explain that to a kid next time they say what am I going
to use physics for or mathematics for. An airplane, the car, the phone and building
houses all use the same set of rules, maybe a different language to interpret it but the
same laws!! Buy a kid an electronics lab for christmas or do what I did for my nephew
and build him the electronics lab it get's the point driven home from the beginning, My
uncle built this for me so I should be able to build what he gave me the potential to
build!! http://www.amazon.com/Vintage-Sports.../dp/B00005K2SY

 

yea, i can really see that college algebra class coming in handy. or that bio 1 and 2 class.

but i am happy that i got to take at least a couple of classes for my major.

 

My dad is an electrician in a factory, and even he told me over and over that I didn't want to work there (even though the money was good).

College is pushed so much now, even people that shouldn't be in college, are. A great example is my younger brother. He made below average grades in high school but everyone pushed him to go to college (plus they wanted him to play football there). He went for a semester and dropped out, and now works with a railroad maintenance company which is more his line of work.

I dunno, I mean, I love working on stuff with my hands, but I'm of above average intellect and was always pushed toward college. I was always more interested in the technical stuff and I never found anything I really liked in college. As a result I ended up with a garbage bachelor's degree, and I'm actually using my Associate's to do CAD. I like it, but I hate sitting at a desk all day (at least my job lets me get out and about sometimes).

Looking back, I wish I could take the knowledge I have now back when I was in high school. I've found out in the past couple years that I love fabricating stuff out of steel, maybe I should have gone to welding school? Hell, I don't know. I'm sure if I did that, I wouldn't really be happy with it either.

 

The thing about college is no one really fails in college, drop out yes, change majors,
But when was the last time you heard of someone flunking out of college? That of
course doesn't include getting kicked out for drugs/rape or whatever.
My grandfather used to work at Remington during their heydays quite along time ago
and he was in charge of all the tools, specing, adjusting, basically making sure they
did exactly as they were supposed to measure, cut, etc. and he said it did make him
nervous knowing that if he screwed up. It could mean a gun being made that would
blow up in someones face and even with that pressure it was the most rewarding job
he ever had and he worked there forever and retired from them.
The property they had there in Stratford(IIRC) had a bunch of deer and other animals
right in the middle of a city and driving by you would see big bucks, it was pretty cool!

 

They last manufacturing job I had was Plasma Spray Technician for 10 years. No schooling except in house training (O.J.T). You start out hand spraying then move to robotic. Robotic programming training was a non existent thing, I taught myself, only qualified people to program were 2 engineers and one lead sprayer. The 1 lead sprayer was only one getting top sprayer pay. After 10 years I was still stuck in mid sprayer range. More so because I would not become a member of the boys club.
I revamped 20 programs, Saved the company tons of cash by not wasting powder. I filled out all the proper forms to engineering and got them all approved up the corporate ladder. Pay boost didn't come even though the company policy clearly states it does. I found out it my supervisor was holding me back, he even went as far as turning down a department change to R & D.That corporate wanted me shifted to,all Unbeknown to me. I filled a transfer to the department after I found out. Shifted to R & D and pay raises got better. Only reason I found all this out was because of the engineers I was submitting all the revised programs and test samples to. Showed me all the memo.s where my former supervisor kept degrading my capabilities. For one reason or another.
2 years before they had a job opening for 2nd shift supervisor. 4 people signed up for myself included. Minimum requirements was must have at least a minimum 5 years plasma spray experience and 5 years supervisory experience. all 4 of us had that, the job was given to a 19 year old boys club member, who hadn't even signed on the job posting listing and clearly not qualified. 19 years old - 5 year experience = 14 years old he started? This was his first job ever at 18, so that blows the 5 year supervisory experience also. Best part was they wanted me to train him to be a supervisor. I flat out turned them down. I told them I see no benefit me in me training him for a job, he was grossly unqualified for and that I myself bid on.

 

ididntdoit99 - Just curious where you work at in Waterloo, John Deere? I do similar work in Marshalltown. Sorry for hijacking the thread.

 

There are good jobs to be had in my area. most all of the plants take out at least a 1/4 page add looking for people every week. One of the bigger ones bought a full page add every week for 11 years. The are offering sign on bonuses, full bennies, and nice wages to start. A guy I know just started at a factory, doing assembly, making 16/hr. with full bennies. That is dang good money when you can go down the street and buy a house for 40-60k.

The plant I worked at was good but the main reason I left was because the lower end workers got to me. It don't take many brains to put 4 paint cans in a box, or to put a lid on a five gallon bucket. Working near those people drove me nuts (I worked in warehouse, loading trucks) I told my super to get me doing something else so I did not have to deal with that crap every day.
The thing that I never understood about them is they started you out 50 cents above minimum wage (Hey I needed a job bad no experience what so ever and they were the fist ones to say ok) then if you had a brain they would pump your wage way up, in the 18 months that I was there I got $4 in raises. They wanted to get me into a higher paying job, even started training me for assistant supervisor, but I needed to get out of the brain dead workplace.
If it was not for that it would not have been a bad job, we had fun, good wages AND the respect of the higher ups.

I also think that too many people go to collage. I know too many people that have a 4 year degree, that work dead end jobs. Hell my father in law went to school to be a CPA and is now a toilet scrubber at a factory. His parents said he had to go when all he wanted to do was smoke grass. It takes all kinds of people to make this world turn, if everybody goes to college, who is going to do all of the non-college jobs?

 

I think you are wrong about this. When I started college my class of mechanical engineering majors had over 100 people. When I graduated we had 20 something.

Being the college is a business, they will never stop taking your money. So yeah you can't "flunk out". But you better believe people stop going when they realize its going to take them forever to graduate. To those that continued, we referred to those people as having flunked out. Those that changed majors to something easier, flunked out of engineering. I bet everybody does this.

Also, when I started we filled out survey forms. One question that stood out in my mind was a question asking what the reason you attended. there we options such as get a good job, meet friends, meet husband/wife, have fun. So i think there are wealthy families who send their kids to college for the wrong reasons.

The problem I see is in the high schools. They constantly push people towards college. People who barely get by are pushed to apply. Some people with poor high school grades are pushed to go to pre-med or other difficult majors. Very rarely were we ever presented the alternatives to college.

 

Well, I started this thread to see if anyone thought that there were mf'g jobs going begging. It's certainly drifted off course. Howver, it's touched on some interesting subjects.

I've always liked school, and I made it a ways through formal college before switching to a path that let me become a company 'engineer equivalent'. I still pursue education, even though I'm retired.

But that's me. I don't think that college is for everyone. I also think that people have other education and skills that are vastly undervalued today.

My father in law doen't believe in algebra. That's a fact -- he told me that very forcefully. But, he was ( he's in a home now), wonderful with his hands, and had other valuable skills.

I once used his carpet scrubber -- and wrecked it. He took it apart and looked it over -- he knew nothing about electricity. From the appearance of the metal, he figured something out. He proceeded to fix it, although he really coudn't explain how.

That's just one example of the unrecognized and largely unappreciated talent
in today's world. There are people who have the patience and focus to perform routine operations with great speed and consistency. There are people who can listen to an engine and tell you many things about it. And, there are college grads who don't have the sense that God gave a goose.

This is not to say that college isn't great for the right folks. But it is an attack against the all too common attitude that a non college grad is of no use. I am ashamed to say that my native Minnesota decided to upgrade Vo Techs by calling them 'technical colleges' -- oh, please.

We should value talent in whatever form it takes,

ford2go

 

with so many going to college and getting passed through, especially at the 2 year level, a college degree has really been dumbed down.

i am about to graduate with a 2 year diploma and there are about zero great new job opportunities for me. but i was planning on continuing anyway.

or another talent is language, my wife has a great talent for languages but she can't get hired for 2 reasons, one for her citizenship, and 2, because she does not have a degree. now they don't require a degree in a language or anything, a person takes a separate test for that, they just require a degree in about anything, as long as it is a 4 year degree. so she is in school now working on her stupid degree so she can get hired maybe one day for a job that has no relation to her studies.

heck, with my degree i only took 4 classes that had anything to do with my major. what does that tell someone about what colleges (in some aspects) are really for?

 

I agree that some college degrees are actually worthless. But some are far from it. When I was in college me and most of my friends seemed to notice that there were actually several very different experiences in the same college. One group of majors were constantly working almost to the point of exhaustion. Another was partying to exhaustion.

I think that overall we do overvalue a degree. I know that to be a manager at some retail stores you are required to have a college degree. This makes no sense to me. I really think that most engineers should have a college degree.

But I do notice that there might be some problems with the current engineering education system. I saw there were two types of people there, those that got great grades in highschool and wanted a challenge that would get them a good paying job, and those that did okay in highschool and were essentially itelligent gearheads(i was in this group).

The classes were really set up for those super intelligent people, but now that we are in the real world working, I see the gearheads who struggled through college are now quickly getting promoted and become a valuable part of the company. I think some people just have innate ability to understand mechanical systems that cannot be taught, but it seems like these people can get punished throughout college.

 

Nope, did an intership at Deere's while I was in college... hated that place.. Money is alright, benefits are great... but I like working in small shop where everyone knows everyone else... and your not just an employee number.

I started out working at Iowa Laser in Cedar Falls (making mostly Deere's parts)
Now I'm at Geater Manufaturing in Independance, We mostly make aerospace parts for Rockwell Collins down in Cedar Rapids.