Posted on 12/08/2014 4:45:51 AM PST by thackney
This article is hard to believe. We have 92 million people out of work in this country and companies can’t find talent?
They don’t just need a pair of hands. They need specific skill sets that are in short supply, compared to the current demand. My company has the same problem and we do pay above market rates.
....with experience...in a particular field that has little crossover expertise...
More young people would go into this field (dedicating the required time, money, and effort) if they didn’t fear our government allowing foreigners in to steal their jobs. Bill Gates publicly bemoans the lack of young Americans going into the tech sector, out of the other side of his mouth he is threatening our government that he will move jobs to Asia or Vancouver to keep salaries down...
My take on the piece is that there is a pool of retirees that must put the collar back on and pull the wagon a while longer for big $$$ : )
America's been painted into a corner with our job market. Over the years, unskilled labor positions have been outsourced while skilled labor positions have required more specific skillsets. I can point to my own industry, IT, as a perfect example:
When I started in IT in the mid-90s, anyone who could code a simple HTML web page was considered an "IT guy." Over the years, the understanding of computer basics has become commonplace to the point that Indians with a basic grasp of the English language could talk your 80 year old grandmother through clearing her Internet cache or rebooting her computer.
Now, even the Indians are starting to show their lack of advanced skills while lower-level IT positions such as help desk and desktop support are being "insourced" with many companies contracting their support for those roles to American workers. Sadly, the skillsets required for domestic help are higher than what was expected of the Indians, so you have many help desk positions going unfilled due to lack of basic IT functional understanding (i.e. the difference between RAM and disk space).
I'm seeing more and more often that the "low end" IT people are, to be frank, really dumb. They know how to shuffle around work orders to their engineers or do basic, scripted IT support, but overall, they have no drive to be better, they are just happy to have a job. Meanwhile, the rest of us are becoming more specialized in our disciplines, leaving gaps in certain specialties.
I have to imagine this all translates to other industries as well.
Get some of these highly skilled illegals to fill the positions.
The industry has been taping that pool for a few years, at least from what I see on the engineering/design side of energy related facilities.
Most can’t pass a drug test. I have 70% failure on drug tests - even when you tell them there will be a test. Had one last week show up and blow a 0.14 at he clinic.
We suffer from the same disease here. Upper Management has decided to make Help Desk staff P/T, they are only allowed hours below the Obamacare minimum hours per week.
It takes 12 to 18 months to get them up to speed to perform to a level we can rely on to function independently. Those with any ability and drive are usually gone in less than 2 years for a Full Time position some where else.
The Poor ones never leave. Out of 8 Hired 2 years ago, 4 left for Greener pastures, two were fired and the other two can hardly log a call properly.
Sounds familiar. They keep hiring more people not realizing that the problem is competency and not numbers. I’m predicting that advanced systems comprehension will become a rare skill while basic computer skills will become unnecessary as more people opt for mini and micro platforms that are considered “throw away.”
I now have two relatives working in the energy industry. Both took the jobs within the last 6 months. Prior to taking the jobs one was an underemployed college grad, the other was self employed but got out of it as being too expensive and hard to be a one man small business.
So Thackney, I have a 16 year smart young man(my son). He is good in math and science. He is a good organized thinker. What would you recommend he train himself to do?
Chemical engineer, Petroleum engineer?
I talk to several long haul trucking companies. There is a truck driver shortage in the US. The biggest issue for them is hiring someone who can pass a drug test. As you can guess, the last thing you want to do from a liability standpoint is put a pot head behind the wheel of a $150K semi tractor pulling a $75K trailer that weighs 110,000 pounds.
My opinion, and worth everything you paid for it:
Petroleum Engineer will pay the best while demand is high, and fall the quickest of most engineering when the eventual swing comes.
Chemical engineers tend to stay in steady demand, processes for for different products, from different feedstocks can help balances swings, baring global economy drops. At major firms, they tend to be more inline for promotion to upper management, but no hard fast rule there.
I’m electrical, facility based. I’m specialized in power despite my college adviser attempts to guide me away from that “old technology stuff”. I’ve worked upstream, midstream and downstream; which has helped me find work through the business cycles. If oil/gas is expensive, upstream booms. When those feedstocks are cheap, downstream can afford their expansions. When new areas become producing, midstream booms. Mechanical, structural, controls tend to all have the same flexibility I see for the market I serve. And the greater Houston market is nearly equal to the rest of the US for this industry.
Way more industries demand engineers than the oil/gas/petrochemical market. But I rarely find they consistently pay as well. Consulting type engineering like I do tends to pay far better than working direct for the owners. But it also has the most ups and downs. The consulting worlds in the bigger firms also open up opportunities to reach a different industry, like a Nuclear Power Plant design. It is harder to get into.
All that discussion based upon an assumption he wants to be an engineer, and is willing to put forth the effort in college while he watches many of his buddies get to spend more time at parties, etc.
Absolute best advice I can give is to one starting college for engineering, get summer jobs/co-op in a technical area. Grunt work at an engineering office, or a construction job is far more valuable to the college grad recruiter than being the manager at Taco Bell.
When I graduated from SUNY Forestry school in 1985, all the paper science engineers had multiple job offerings prior to graduating. It was basically chemical engineering oriented to making paper. However, most of those paper mills were in small towns in the middle of the woods. Ok place to work if you liked just to hunt and fish, but not a lot of night life. Also, a tough place to move to for a single young man.
Not too many potential future Mrs. Woodbutchers. if you know what I mean.
I graduated with a degree in wood products engineering. I was offered a job in Graying, MI at a particleboard plant. It turned it down because there was nothing to do in Grayling other than hunt fish and snowmobile. I went into selling wood products instead of manufacturing them. At least I did not go into the furniture manufacturing industry. I would have had to move to China. Some of my classmates did. They had to switch industries when all the plants moved offshore.
He is a good student and not girl crazy. He is not that interested in partying. He is not a jock either. He is kind of a nerd. He is self driven to stay on the high honor roll(straight A’s)at school.
He is mad at his current pre Calculus teacher because she does not teach in class all of the material on the tests. He says he learns more from the homework. He also seems to like chemistry and anything engineering. He is taking an engineering course in high school now. His first project was to build a bridge. He choose a truss design. His current project is to take a printer and use the parts from it to make a car that will be judged based on speed and towing ability. He was talking to him about gear ratios. He seemed to comprehend well.
So, to summarize, I believe he would make an excellent engineer. The only thing that scares me is when he brings home a brochure from Northeastern University and the cost for tuition, room and board is $56K/year. Holy crap, I need to sell more lumber.
My oldest daughter had this problem. Her high-school calc teacher didn't teach worth a darn. She learned calculus at the dinner table late into the evening with me. A lot of struggle.
This year, in calculus at Texas Tech, her average is above 100% due to the possible extra credit and curving of major exams.
I believe he would make an excellent engineer.
Sounds like the right aptitude and attitude.
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