Posted on 10/24/2009 11:44:00 AM PDT by george76
I had a somewhat disturbing conversation yesterday with Steve Fussell, the senior VP of human resources at pharmaceutical maker Abbott. His basic message, which I may pursue in a column down the road, was that Abbott is going to be hiring tons of people for high-paying jobs over the next decade, but not many of them will be Americans because we study the wrong things in college and we're not willing to work overseas.
The key quotes:
1) "I hate to say we don't have the world's best universities. We may have the best minds, the best liberal arts education. The problem is it doesn't match the work anymore." (That is to say, not enough students are getting science and math degrees.)
2) "I don't have these graduates in Europe and Asia telling us they want to live with mom and dad or they don't want to relocate to Asia."
(Excerpt) Read more at curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com ...
I am glad I have an EE degree and have my PE.
I met two lovely young 20-somethings in a dining group I belong to. Both ready to get their MBAs. Didn’t have the heart to tell them that their degrees were close to worthless.
Souns like a self-serving statement. Multinationals like to hire foreigneers because they are cheap labor.
The same, but had I to do over again, I’d have started a business and cheated my ass off in taxes.
did you get their digits?
I think they will discover that they have incentivized their own personnel problems.
Our son has a bachelor's in info systems, is about to earn his MBA and has a great job, now and will get a raise and continue in that job when he completes this degree. Of his graduating class of MBAs, most are already employed, or have jobs lined up (and unemployment in our area is around 12 percent in our area.)
That said, I'm still looking for jobs in Singapore.
FWIW, I have worked in Korea and Russia - you see a lot of Alaskans and folks from Down Under working OS. Don't know why, you just do.
Ditto but for an ME degree.
No matter what age, sex, color, etc..
5.56mm
What he is REALLY saying is they work 60 hours a week for 1/2 of what Americans want..
If our universities are so bad, why is our local University’s medical. dental and engineering schools filled with Muslims, Indians, Chinese etc??
Congrats and good luck to your sons.
In the stock market, my field, I do see a big preference for advanced degrees. But I don’t see a big difference in pay for those who got the degrees and those who advanced through the ranks.
Having said that, employers also gauge people who have advanced degrees as being individuals who can stick to a plan and complete it.
There are plenty of high-skilled, scientific/technically degreed Americans.
The problem with them is that they have illusions about being middle class or that they are no longer 25 years old. Corporations talk about “entry-level” positions requiring at least 5 years of solid experience and pay not much more than unskilled labor.
I would never encourage a young person to go into a scientific field unless they were curious and had a fallback plan for making a living.
I had this exact discussion with my coworkers 2 weeks ago.
The is no longer the societal stigma attached to adult children, who can afford to live on their own, still living with their parents.
And I think that changed within the last 10 years or so.
However, our university system produces the finest commie loons in the world.
First let’s send all our lawyers overseas.
My brother just shrugged. He is, after all, a barking moonbat.
A lot of the seemingly low pay overseas is due to mispriced currency. Guys in India making $50K can live as well as they can in California on 100K. Housing in India is high if you have to buy, but the rents are amazing cheap. You can get a nice two-bedroom apartment for $200 a month.
That is not true. MBA programs are still placing the majority of their students.
Its a wakeup call for liberal arts students. They are unemployable.
Hard science? That is bull. Our better universities are producing excellent students. Perhaps Ohio State University isn’t, it that twit’s opinion, ...
BUT the real problem with US students is their lack of work ethic. They are, for the most part, lazy and think they are entitled to employment and not having to work.
Obama is making it worse. Its ALL about entitlements and being lazy. Now he wants all these losers who can’t get into college now to get financial aid to jam our universities with even more stupid and lazy students.
Would Obama have actually gotten into Columbia, Harvard (or even Occidental) on his own merits? Probably not.
The degrees most blacks get are not worth the ink they are printed with.
It's like hiring someone with an honorary doctorate to run your science lab.
I want a burger alarm company..!!
Bingo!!!!
Having shared courses with people of all races, I disagree with your race-based conclusions.
8-)
you read the comments
They are fortunate that people doing the hiring and firing don't hold your view.
I agree. Further, the type of ‘reform’ that Obama wants to force on health care will lead to a reduction in incentive for drug development in the US, and commensurately the incentive to pursue careers in science will also diminish.
We shouldn't be looking for ways to convince people to live overseas. We should be looking for ways to kick the rear ends of these other countries economically. Of course, at the same time that we need more incentive in our system to encourage risk taking and hard work, the Obama administration and his liberal fans are taking away incentive by punishing the successful.
And liberals think they are smart. Go figure.
Nobody who gets an engineering degree (and the same could said about a host of other degrees from Sciences, Math, Finance, etc) from a reputable college is lazy. They would done in by Freshman Calculus, Chemistry, and/or Physics.
You need to look no further than what the makeup of majors looks like from a typical U.S. University as opposed to one in India. I don’t think they even have Liberal Arts departments. On U.S. campuses the hard (vocational type) degrees are in the minority.
I wouldn’t want to undermine my conservative cred, but... money isn’t everything. I have two kids, one a few years out of a great Liberal Arts college with a degree in English Lit who’s working for a big company with a mouse for a logo doing on line “game and community management editorial”, whatever the hell that is. (She has several IT degree holders under her.) My son is almost finished at a great books college, St. John’s. I trust he’ll find a way to make enough money to support the life he wants to live which, at this point, seems to be a life of the mind.
LSIT here, subdivision and other boundary work (my specialty) is down but there is always a need for quality as-builts and staking. I went to a community college 2 year civil program and received and education qualifying me for numerous jobs including inspection, QC, and even construction engineer positions without necessarily moving. All for about 2-5% of what these degrees cost. A piece of paper isn’t necessarily worth much in the real world...JFK
Well, I hire and fire. And I have 44 years of work experience. I have seen MBAs get in my field and have absolutely no practical experience.
In other areas not as specialized as mine, there may be more mileage from advanced degrees.
bookmark
You have "cheap" confused with "hard working" and "dedicated". The actual term that sums it all up is "hungry", which means they want more challenges, not less.
Too many Americans feel a sense of entitlement.
They would have be better off having a technical undergrad degree with an MBA.
any degree with a Something Studies degree is worthless and might better spent the money going to bar tending school...
Universities often consider private markets unpleasant or yucky. For this reason they teach courses that often have little to do with real markets; the outlook of the professors and the syllabi reflect this.
The more a prof eschews market, the more he is worthy of academic dignity and legitimacy.
Is it any wonder that those who graduate cannot market themselves, or compete in that market? No.
The solution is to bring universities to the market, which means moving it all ONLINE. The only complication would be LABS —noting more.
I spent most of my career working overseas and found it more challenging, fulfilling and enjoyable than working in the States. Money was sometimes but not always higher than the US and the challenge and rewards of adapting to other cultures and ways of doing things were of great appeal.
After nearly 40 years and work on 5 continents I can say the best place was (the old) South Africa and the worst (although a great place to live) where I saw more corruption and shoddy work in public heavy construction than in any (other) 3rd world country.
As for wages, generally now European wages are higher than US as are living costs.
I spent almost my entire career working overseas,,mostly in Asia as an expat engineer/marketer. Now most of the jobs are being filled by foreigners, because there are more foreign engineers and US tax law(we tax our expats) disfavors US citizens. It is cheaper to hire a foreigner because they only pay local taxes.
It is also hard to find US citizens now that are willing to work in the developing world even with great perks, pay and contracts. Much harder if you want engineers.
I spent almost my entire career working overseas,,mostly in Asia as an expat engineer/marketer. Now most of the jobs are being filled by foreigners, because there are more foreign engineers and US tax law(we tax our expats) disfavors US citizens. It is cheaper to hire a foreigner because they only pay local taxes.
It is also hard to find US citizens now that are willing to work in the developing world even with great perks, pay and contracts. Much harder if you want engineers.
I spent almost my entire career working overseas,,mostly in Asia as an expat engineer/marketer. Now most of the jobs are being filled by foreigners, because there are more foreign engineers and US tax law(we tax our expats) disfavors US citizens. It is cheaper to hire a foreigner because they only pay local taxes.
It is also hard to find US citizens now that are willing to work in the developing world even with great perks, pay and contracts. Much harder if you want engineers.
PING for later reading.
PING for later reading.
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