Saw this video this morning and found it brilliant. I cannot disagree with a word he said.

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-609023?hpt=Sbin

I have the same rug as him. Yay Ikea.

Hard work is what built this place. Funny how easily that is forgotten but yah, blue collar jobs are viewed with distaste in our current popular culture. Heh, A good welder right now makes more money than average.

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/05/16/in-defense-of-dirty-jobs/

Here's a good article oh his senate speech, and a link to his TED Talk, which is fantastic.

This morning on CNN they were talking about the labor shortage in the Gulf.... Seimens has some 3800 positions open but can't find skilled labor to fill them. So apparently they are spending billions to retrain peoples.... I don't get this... we have 9% unemployment? And they showed some girl who just got her 2yr degree and will be making more than her brother who got his 4yr degree in engineering. Unfortunately they didn't give specifics on degrees that would have been neat. I worry about my neice and nephew who are entering college... I fear they are wasting $$$ on useless education. :(

This morning on CNN they were talking about the labor shortage in the Gulf.... Seimens has some 3800 positions open but can't find skilled labor to fill them. So apparently they are spending billions to retrain peoples.... I don't get this... we have 9% unemployment? And they showed some girl who just got her 2yr degree and will be making more than her brother who got his 4yr degree in engineering. Unfortunately they didn't give specifics on degrees that would have been neat. I worry about my neice and nephew who are entering college... I fear they are wasting $$$ on useless education. :(

Education is never useless... At the very least it still teaches critical thinking and arms you with knowledge which can be very powerful in any line of work.

Exactly.

I know that I learned far more the very first day of my internship than I ever learned in the 4 years at college - but college led me towards that internship, gave me the networking opportunities through professors and colleagues, gave me a lot of general knowledge that is useful regardless of the line of work, and hypothetically if I ever actually applied for a job it would have shown that hypothetical boss that I was able to jump through all of the hoops and complete all of the requirements for the variety of professors to accomplish that task and earn a degree.

There also is a very important social and personal growth side that happens during those 4 years of college that going right into the workforce or what have you can cause someone to miss out on.

I am very hesitant to ever hire anyone without a college background even though 9 times out of 10 it doesn't apply in my line of work.

Education is never useless... At the very least it still teaches critical thinking and arms you with knowledge which can be very powerful in any line of work.

Tell that to all the liberal arts majors out there making lattes right now. Being "overqualified" can be a huge detriment to finding an average job if you aren't able to get work in your specific niche.

For the most part, you can get a college education at a library if you really want it. Most people are going to college for things like partying, networking, finding a future spouse, and doing what they've been told to get a good job. If you think college teaches critical thinking very effectively, you haven't spent much time dealing with the average white collar product of our diploma mills.

I'll be surprised if we don't see a massive shakeup in higher education in this country within the next decade or two. Just like with home values a few years ago, the net present value of many four year degrees has remained flat while the cost has soared; especially in the for-profit education sector, where relatively few even graduate and/or get jobs in their chosen fields. That's not sustainable.

Take that Bachelor's degree and join the military as a second Lieutenant. Commissioned officers make a great living, especially if they get a full time Reservist position where they can double dip. There is always a good job associated with a Bachelor's degree, assuming they meet the physical requirements.

:devil

As a former Seabee with a high security clearance and someone who has worked with people from Seimens, Mantech, PAE etc and other government contractors I could probably get a good paying job tomorrow with any one of those outfits, but I am passing it up for finishing up my degree first. Experience plus degree is win.

Totally, if you know what you want to do and can get advanced training for that career at college, it's a good investment. It's the people getting diplomas to ultimately end up filling out TPS reports or making lattes that are making a huge mistake by mindlessly going to a four year school because it's what they think they're supposed to do.

The key difference for Lum, and Kelraz (and myself) is the experience gained outside of college. With just my military training alone (once I finish this leg anyways) I can get a job averaging 45-60k a year depending on what part of the country I work in. And onto that some specialization courses in the civilian sector and I can bump it up a bit. Easy enough to support my small family on that kind of paycheck. However, I *want* not need to do more with my life so I'll be going to graduate school for more, oh and I won't have to spend but a little of my own money to get it paid for because of my veteran's benefits. Hell if I can get it done right, the Army will pay me while I go through grad school, and then pay me to get my PHD.

Education is never useless... At the very least it still teaches critical thinking and arms you with knowledge which can be very powerful in any line of work.

Do you do any sort of hiring where you work? Are you in IT or some other trade industry? We recently tried to fill a position that we posted in December. Last week we finally found a qualified applicant and filled it. We went thru countless resumes and 2 tech hiring agencies to find someone so many people applied/submitted resumes it was like an endless wade of shit. In the end, we hired not the college grad but the guy with certifications and 10+ years experience doing what we were looking for, who also happens to be a veteran with a security clearance.

Education is useless in my job unless you're going into management or you're going to write code and even then it's iffy. My degree is in political science and I make over 100k a year doing IT. I haven't done anything with my degree since the day I decided to join the Army.

I'm not saying all education is useless but I am telling you do not need a 4yr degree to do what I do or what anyone in my group does only 2 out of 14 have a 4yr degree and make really good money. So yeah, when my nephew is taking out loans to go to college and get a degree in CIS I /shudder and get worried about him starting life in debt when it's not needed.