Posted on 10/19/2005 8:10:37 AM PDT by vannrox
A relative of mine, immediately after graduating from college, went to work for a bank. Even though he had a university degree, he was assigned the job of repossessing cars. We kidded him a lot about that. He eventually ended up a vice president, but his entry into the banking industry was about as low as you can get, and we never let him forget it. In similar fashion, the Enterprise car-rental firm goes to college campuses to recruit management trainees, but among the first jobs these trainees handle is washing and cleaning cars coming off rental.
When I moved from engineering to writing for a trade magazine, I was part of a staff consisting of only three editors. As the new guy, I was expected to be a jack-ofalltrades, and among my job obligations was proofing printing plates for advertising. That means I really started at the bottom, and many times while I was handling the ink roller, I figured I may have made a big mistake when I switched jobs.
The upside, as I eventually discovered, is that the staffs of large technical publications mostly sat at their desks and edited submitted manuscripts, while I actually went out and interviewed people for articles. So I learned to be quick on my feet. Along the way, I gained a good feel for what a day's work was.
Then I was hired by MACHINE DESIGN, which is a large publication by the standards of the trade press. And I was eventually made a manager. One of the first things I discovered is that at least a few staff members had firm ideas of what was and wasn't possible, and their ideas happened not to reconcile with mine. But I had been there and done that. I knew what a day's work was, and I never asked anyone to shoulder a load that I couldn't carry myself. That gave me confidence I couldn't have gained any other way.
There are other cases I know of where supervisors had moved through the ranks in an office accustomed to a leisurely pace. By a quirk of the economy, they started in the middle and quickly reached supervisory status. Although they were bosses, they didn't have a grasp of what a reasonable workload was. So people reporting to them pretty much called the shots, and the net effect was a lot of featherbedding. In my eyes, that illustrated the downside of managers not putting in enough time at the bottom.
It is possible, however, for the pendulum to swing the other way, again because of inexperience. I've seen managers come in at the top to manage technical magazines without realizing how much work is required to write and edit for a complex publication. With all their experience being with simple publications, they had totally unreasonable concepts of workloads and staffing. I am sure there are parallels in design and manufacturing with, say, a consumer products guy coming in to manage aerospace work.
In all, it brings up the question of whether or not people should serve time in the ranks before being appointed to a management position, and my opinion is that they very definitely should. People brought in at the top without getting their hands dirty are usually dangerous when it comes to managing a corporation. If you are going to run a company making cuckoo clocks, you ought to know how to build a cuckoo clock.
Where does that bring us with respect to the tens of thousands of youngsters receiving MBA degrees? Draw you own conclusions. Where have these graduates been, and what have they done? If the answer is that they haven't been anywhere and haven't done much, there is no reason they should be on a fast track to management.
-- Ronald Khol, Editor
Send feedback to MDeditor @ penton.com
I wish all the civil engineers I have to work with had gotten their boots muddy before college. I can't beleivve some of the garbage plans I see.
I have the same opinion concerning law degrees.
You think you've got problems. I have over 25 years experience in Design Engineering and I report to a 26 year old Industrial Engineer who is the Manager.
I used to handle the repossesion of cars for a finance company - it was actually a very interesting job. Dealing with enraged customers teaches one a lot of self control!
I'm all for getting your hands dirty - nothing wrong with it.
I work mainly in remodelling kitchens and replacing countertops. There's nothing worse than having some dweeb with his handy-dandy little computer trying to tell me what will work and what won't or shorting the materials order. What's even worse is when they get involved in sales and tell the customer all kinds of crap that can't be done.
I happen to think that only a person who actually knows how to do the work is qualified to sell it, but the sad reality is that the person who does know how to do the work often lacks the "people skills" to handle the sales. And the smug folks with their laptops, who call themselves "professionals" because they wear good clothes to work, won't listen to the people who do know because their computer program tells them otherwise.
No offense, but it must really hurt to have your car repossessed by Cathy. Bruno, sure. Spike, okay. But, "dude, what could I do? They sent Cathy around!" just doesn't feel right ;)
Me, I loved those minimum wage jobs. You go home at night physically tired, mentally clear, and totally without job baggage. And job security? Who needs it! Plenty of other Mickey D's in this burgh.
Darn shame minimum wage jobs only pay minimum wage.
i once worked at a corporation where there existed an high-level manager who i'd talk to from time to time. (One of the man's few strengths as a manager was that he was easily accessable). He told me that businesses were encouraged to find CEO's who knew NOTHING about what their company did or made. This was considered "cutting edge" thinking at the business schools.
i sat back and thought for a second and said "(Name withheld), i could teach you squad level infantry tactics in a few weeks. If you paid attention, you MIGHT survive a firefight without curling up in the fetal position, and pissing yourself...But i DON'T want you driving the 24th Mechanised Infantry. No, i want Barry McCaffery driving the 24th.
The guy never got the message, and he also no longer works at that Corporation
One must remember that business schools...< stereotype> often have FAILED BUSINESSMEN for professors.< /stereotype> We should be very afraid when we consider what American Business is coming to, and why everybody else in the world appears to be kicking our @$$.
We had an engineer at my company who had a hard time measuring where to put hole in a sheet of aluminum for a test device SHE was making. I, the non-"engineer" measured and marked the holes. Several days later, I saw her complaining that the twist drill was dull. She said she'd been trying for 30 minutes to drill one of the holes and couldn't. I grabbed the drill out of her hands, flipped the switch to forward and walked away.
I found the cars and arranged for the pick up and handed it over to Spike or Bruno - contract repo guys. Big companies like GMAC or CFC won't send their people out - they let the professionals do it - or that is the way is used to be.
I had the cars brought to me, arranged transport to the auction, got them sold and handled all the contacts with the customer - who was usually pretty pissed when they realized their car wasn't coming back and they STILL owed us money.
Let me tell you - there ain't no people like repo and auction people - ooooweeee! They are good old boys!
Hire out of the Navy or Army civil engineering corps :)
Most of the civil engineers I work for in the Navy Corps are former enlisted, which helps.
(I'm not en engineer myself, just a grunt)
Hire out of the Navy or Army civil engineering corps :)
Most of the civil engineers I work for in the Navy Corps are former enlisted, which helps.
(I'm not en engineer myself, just a grunt)
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