Profoundly Disconnected

My concern with reactor operators is that it's a dying industry due to the challenges in getting a commercial reactor permitted and constructed, along with the costs of renewables driving nuclear out of commercial viability. With that said, I think there'd be great value in an organization advocating and enabled students to get into these "experience-in-lieu-of-degree" types of jobs you mention. Mike Rowe is doing this [1] as part of his mikeroweWORKS Foundation/"Profoundly Disconnected", but my opinion is this needs to be performed at scale nationwide (such as getting involved with school counselors at the high school level). [1] http://profoundlydisconnected.com/

For another perspective, Mike Rowe (of "Dirty Jobs" fame) has a foundation to promote blue collar jobs. They even provide scholarships for training in a trade: http://profoundlydisconnected.com/ It seems like a great idea to me.

Exactly. Life is hard. Business is hard. Coding doesn't eliminate work, it just enables new kinds of work. And, it's like coding an app that makes money isn't completely effortless but it is obviously possible. Coding != literacy. In fact, not everyone needs to go to college either and can still make a living. Mike Rowe's trades-awareness work is fantastic: http://profoundlydisconnected.com/ There are many trades where the average age is 50 because no one wants to be seen as blue collar. Some of these are high income opportunities that are being missed because they're not mainstream fashionable.

I'm seeing huge amounts of commentary about going to college or not. Here's my take and experience for what it's worth, as well as a general response to some of the comments I'm seeing. 1) There is no one size fits all answer to the question is college worth it. Depending on what career you intend to pursue it could be required (i.e. try being a medical doctor without a degree) or silly (music composition degree for a non-academic role). 2) Most HR recruiters and certain 'this-is-what-all-the-other-managers-do' hiring manager types do care about the degree. Without it you will not be likely to get in the door. However, consider if these are the kinds of people you want to work for/with. The other type of hiring professional where the degree matters is the manager that wants 'only people from Stanford (Columbia, Harvard, etc)' or 'only Ivy League'... then the degree only matters if it's from one of those (obviously). 3) Be honest with yourself. We are not equal all equal and facing reality will help you better make choices. If you are brighter, more intelligent, better skilled, more highly productive, and better with self-promotion than the majority of people you know/encounter the college degree (and expense thereof) will often times not be worth it. There are other more effective ways to prove your worth. If you are much more average compared to your competitors, or less interested in proving your worth in terms of career, then the degree will open options that…

This is why I'm a big advocate (but not affiliate) of the "mikeroweWORKS" foundation. Mike Rowe, from the TV show "Dirty Jobs", is using his foundation to revive interest in trade schools and jobs. There are a lot of people who could be great machinists, electricians, plumbers, etc., but due to social pressures, they start college and soon drop out, then work for peanuts (if they can find any job at all). We need to eliminate the stigma against trade schools and encourage people to work with their hands if that's their passion. http://profoundlydisconnected.com/foundation/

The mikeroweWORKS Foundation is doing a great job of raising the status of manufacturing and skilled trades work. Worth supporting. http://profoundlydisconnected.com/foundation/

I'm not who you're replying to but I'll interject anyway: Retraining for millions of jobs in the skilled trades. This is the program championed by Mike Rowe [0]. It also happens to dovetail perfectly with Trump's so-called $1 Trillion infrastructure plan. If he actually puts his money where his mouth is, he stands a good chance of being the most popular Republican president in history (while simultaneously being the most hated). [0] http://profoundlydisconnected.com/

Skilled trades like plumber come to mind. There are millionaire plumbers. Car dealerships and real estate/ property management are also paths to success for many. Many jobs require some certification or education, but it's less than a college degree. http://profoundlydisconnected.com/

I think Mike Rowe's foundation[1] is really a good idea towards solving this disconnect. He's putting scholarships together for the training necessary to do "blue collar" work. Heard about it on the Tim Ferriss podcast. Be nice if the government was doing this instead of supporting more degrees in subjects that don't allow the recipients to provide value to others. [1]http://profoundlydisconnected.com/

I really like Mike Rowe's viewpoint on unemployment: http://profoundlydisconnected.com/

> existing jobs "There are three million good jobs that no one seems to want." http://profoundlydisconnected.com/

> This doesn't surprise me at all. We're now in a place where a non-skilled career doesn't get you much more than minimum wage, and if you absolutely have to have a college degree to get a job This is so totally and utterly not true. What you need these days is the same as you needed in old days: training. Going to college doesn't guarantee you anything unless your future employer considers it "training" -- which is not many fields. There are plenty of blue-collar jobs out there that pay livable wages. They all require some degree of training. Even right now there's an enormous demand for experienced electricians in the bay area, and their salaries are starting to rival average tech workers -- especially if they decide to work overtime (which many of them are because the demand is so high). I highly support and recommend Mike Rowe's organization which is doing a lot to actually help normal people find good paying jobs, and not selling them some absurd dream about education[0]. [0] http://profoundlydisconnected.com/foundation/

>Ugh. Please do some basic research before spouting off this nonsense. Government employment grew by 1.5% in the last decade. - http://research.stlouisfed.org/fredgraph.png?g=rs4 I like how you pick and choose numbers to suit your points. Are you a statistician or a marketer? By size/jobs I am referring to contracted jobs also. I would almost throw fake disability on top there too (that the current administration almost actively encourages so cooked up unemployment numbers look better). >You literally said Americans were too lazy and entitled to fill all of the open manufacturing jobs. Now you agree there aren't any manufacturing jobs? Huh? What part of "250,000 jobs open" means none open? >That's simply not true. The rate of unfilled manufacturing jobs is the same as it was in 2006, as it was in 2001. [http://research.stlouisfed.org/fredgraph.png?g=rs6]. The overall rate of unfilled jobs per unemployed American is just coming off its lowest point in history [http://research.stlouisfed.org/fredgraph.png?g=rs7]. Rate relative to what? changing and skewed unemployment numbers? I can't even read your acronym described statistic charts. They are wrong half of the time and have reasons beyond the context of the survey the other half. Here is a statement from a great article from Mike Rowe (I would dare say that not many have more hands on experience with laborers) on the state of today's workers. http://profoundlydisconnected.com/cnn-viewer-has-questions/ Last week, I…

My original comments were based on reading additional pages of Rowe's web site...in particular his work pledge: http://profoundlydisconnected.com/skill-work-ethic-arent-taboo/ > 3. I believe there is no such thing as a “bad job.” I believe that all jobs are opportunities, and it’s up to me to make the best of them. > 6. I believe that my safety is my responsibility. I understand that being in “compliance” does not necessarily mean I’m out of danger. > 10. I believe that I am a product of my choices – not my circumstances. I will never blame anyone for my shortcomings or the challenges I face. And I will never accept the credit for something I didn’t do. > 11. I understand the world is not fair, and I’m OK with that. I do not resent the success of others. > 12. I believe that all people are created equal. I also believe that all people make choices. Some choose to be lazy. Some choose to sleep in. I choose to work my butt off. * On the surface his rhetoric seems reasonable, but there's a libertarian bent to his ideas that suggests he places the onus for success squarely on the individual rather than the individual and society at large.

Blue collar jobs have gained a reputation of being jobs held by slackers or the less fortunate. Ironic given that plenty of blue collar professionals can make a lot more than your average worker in many degreed professions. (That's not to say the average blue collar wage is higher) I feel like referencing welding is pretty cliche, but for example: http://profoundlydisconnected.com/welding-is-a-100000-job/

Also there is a lack of youth going into the trades. Welding, electrical, plumbing, appliance repair etc. We have devalued those careers and now they just don't have enough apprentices. I'm a fan of what Mike Rowe is doing to raise awareness around the trades. http://profoundlydisconnected.com/foundation/

A big proponent of the type of things you're talking about is Mike Rowe. He created a foundation "that rewards people with a passion to get trained for skilled jobs that actually exist": http://profoundlydisconnected.com/foundation/

Neocon nonsense. But this just takes the cake: http://profoundlydisconnected.com/skill-work-ethic-arent-taboo/

It would be interesting to see what the socioeconomic/educational attainment breakdown of the long-term unemployed looks like (Link anyone?). I think the assumption is that most of people in this group are unskilled high-school drop outs but I wonder how many of them "have some college" or a degree and are just unwilling to "lower themselves" to working on an oil pipeline or any other kind of work associated with being blue collar. The assumption that people will take any job they can get, at least in my experience, is just plain wrong. For instance (I know this is just anecdotal) but I know quite a few people in NYC who attended elite schools that are perfectly happy to collect unemployment while they wait for a high prestige job opening (e.g. "I'm waiting for the New Yorker to have a job opening"). The thought that a government grant would get these people to go work in an oil field in South Dakota is absurd most of them are horrified at the thought of leaving Brooklyn. I was thinking of this article from Mike Rowe: http://profoundlydisconnected.com/cnn-viewer-has-questions/ "Right now, in the manufacturing sector alone, 600,000 jobs are currently available." If that is indeed the case there is something else going on.