I admire your background, your story is typical of what made America unique and great. I only wish that model still applied. I suspect if one works for a small businessman with vision, it still could. However, anyone who works in Corporate America today unfortunately faces a vastly different environment. They word “Loyalty” is no longer spoken, either by workers or management. Workers spend their days proving their commitment to “diversity” and celebrating deviant sexual lifestyles. Everyone is an instantly disposable commodity. When our islamo-communist-fascist leaders finally achieve their dream of total global domination, this model will be officially extinct, as there will no longer be small businessmen, ambition, pride, work ethics. Only silent compliance, if one knows whats good for them.
Cheer you up yet?
I know very well what you are talking about.
A couple of things:
As you mention, corporate America has its own problems. The further you are from the work, and the further you are from the final customer, the more delusional and fantastical the work environment. That’s not where you want to be if you are the guerrilla fighting your way up the ladder.
Worse than that, even, are companies where the blue collar function is unionized, because the psychological barriers are greater and more vicious. Union guys can be really rough on the guy who is starting to break out from the pack.
There is and always will be a niche... more than a niche, a crying vacuum, for people with blue-collar skills and the ability to move in white collar circles. The wall between those two worlds is quite porous for people with the right skills and personal qualities. You aren’t going to get those, though, trying to advance from cubicle to cubicle. You have to do something that gets you out of that trap.
So, as you mentioned, you can work for a smaller shop where you get to see the whole process, and you get to deal directly with your client. Working your way up through a corporate bureaucracy is frustrating and ultimately pointless; they actually have an invisible ceiling. Getting past that, a guy who ran a small operation is more valuable than the guy who shuffled paper for 20 years in a corporate office.
Everyone’s story is different, and every industry is different, but I have seen it again and again. There is always a need for guys who know how things work, at a practical level, who have the ability to extrapolate from that how the bigger picture works, and who then can sit in a meeting with managers and look like he belongs there.
Its just that the guys who make that jump, after a certain point no one knows or cares what their educational background is.
The original thread was about BA degrees. The problem is that kids graduating with these often can’t find a job... but the actual problem is that they are looking for a certain kind of job which doesn’t exist. Get your degree in Medieval French Literature, and when you can’t find a job as a Corporate Manager, take yourself down to the Navy Recruiter. He’ll know what to do with you, and doors will open you would never dream of. Or take your degree in History and go to work on the assembly line and work your way up. You will, in the medium to long run, do better than the guy who started a couple of rungs above you on the ladder but does not have your understanding of the overall processes.
I fully acknowledge that God has opened doors for me over the years, but I also know that I was not unique. I also know that if I had understood better what it was that made me valuable I would have gone further than I did. You just have to be willing to get mud on your boots; be willing to get out from under the corporate hierarchy. Don’t worry what the corporate dweebs are doing, they are doomed anyway.
Cheers