Interesting Career Advice From Mike Rowe

Dirty Jobs host, Mike Rowe, really has a very interesting message which goes against the sacred cow notions of a 4 year college degree.  It is this.  As a country, we have glorified the value of a college degree which has put young people into $1 trillion in student debt loans and does not really leave them with much more employable skills than when they left high school.  Meanwhile, there are 3 million, good paying trade jobs that go unfilled because there are less and less people available with the skills to do them.  These jobs do not require a 4 year degree but do require some sort of meaningful skill training.  He calls this "The Skills Gap".

I realize I have to approach the subject cautiously, since Mike Rowe is backed by Caterpillar, Direct Energy and other corporate sponsors who know it is in their best interest to throw the best light they can on work that they desperately need labor for.  Mike Rowe is the lead recruiter and a very effective communicator. 

I would agree that are many myths about trade jobs or jobs labeled "blue collar".  If I were starting again, I would definitely learn a trade like welding, plumbing, Heating-Ventilation-Air conditioning (HVAC) or electrical wiring.  You go where the opportunity is and right now, opportunities are in the trades.  Why?  These jobs require work to be done that cannot be outsourced.  Opportunities to branch off and start your own business are there for those with that drive.  Americans love indoor plumbing, temperature controlled environments, smooth roads and electrical power.  There has to be someone who knows how to build, maintain and repair the infrastructure that provides everyone with what we take for granted.  You can pretty much relocate to any state and be in demand, assuming you are good at what you do and have a professional work ethic.  

It is supply and demand too.  High demand jobs with a small pool of skilled labor drives wages for that skill higher.  Likewise, low demand jobs with large pool of people drive wages lower.  Each year, more white collar type work is going away due to automation.  Even high prestige work like engineering can be outsourced to a low bid overseas worker via email, Solidworks and Skype.  I have often heard it said that white collars workers are "screwed" for future career opportunities.

Are students really learning anything of value anymore in college?  College professors need to "publish or perish" so they need to be involved in research where they are likely to become inaccessible to their students.  Meanwhile, students are taught by the professor's graduate assistants or adjunct part time professors.  Also, professors are now rated online by students which means the professors that are easy and less demanding will get the highest scores.  This is what a student pays $120,000 for and which is projected to double that amount in 5 to 10 years?  I cannot see this lasting for very much longer.  There is a need for education reform more than ever.

Education in a school building is one of the only industries where there has been ZERO productivity gains over the last 100 years.  A teacher teaches a class of students the same way they did 75 years ago yet gets paid more.  That does not make sense and it not sustainable. 

It comes back to this - enormous amounts of money is borrowed for students to go to college with no hope of paying it back so they get a degree for a job that no longer exists.  This is the "Skills Gap" Mike Rowe is talking about and and I agree we need to address the whole topic of education, training and skill building.

"Learn a skill, get really good at it and work your ass off" is sound career advice even if Mike Rowe is paid to say it.

Mike Rowe's message on not following your passion, but bringing your passion with you is worth a look:
Don't Follow Your Passion
Also:
MikeRoweWorks

Martin Guitars Factory Tour

I went to Martin Guitars in Nazareth, PA on 9/30/2016 for a factory tour.  Martin offers daily plant tours so I was excited to get a chance to see how their guitars are made.  CF Martin started in 1833. Once you enter the lobby of Martin Guitars there are lots of things to see while you wait for the tour to start.  There is a museum on the left which beautifully showcases the history of the company back to its start in 1833.  There are guitars there that are 180+ years old! You could spend a long time in this museum as it is as high quality as any museum you will visit. There is also a gift shop and a guitar playing area where you can actually play several Martin’s hanging on the wall.

The tour starts with a tour guide handing out wireless earphones so you get to hear every word during the tour.  This is a great idea!  They are set up for daily tours and have it down to a science.  There are display boards everywhere in the factory showing what the workcell does and what the equipment does.  There are many cnc machines and robotic equipment but there still is lots of work that is hand done by craftspeople. 

There are about 600 employees in this 200,000 square foot facility.  It is a marvel that this company has survived all these years.  It is a privately owned company and the Martin family is now in its 6^th generation.  For anyone who is a woodworker or guitar player or both, this factory tour is really a special treat.  Even if you are not either, it is still one of the best plant tours you will see.  It is really interesting how the factory and walking tour are set up to showcase the employees and product.  There was careful thought to not make just a factory to build guitars but to market the high quality of the Martin product right in the factory itself.  When you are walking through and seeing the many different styles of guitars in process, you definitely want one!  It is really clever how this was thought out and something you will not see in other factories.  After the tour you receive a laser engraved sound hole cut out.

It is a bit of a ride from Philadelphia, PA but well worth it.

More pictures from the tour are here = Martin Guitar photos.

Paul Sellers Woodworking

Sometimes things just all of a sudden come up in life that are truly amazing.  They are like wonderful gifts that can change your perspective in an instant.  One such thing happened to me a few weeks back when I discovered a master woodworker, Paul Sellers on YouTube.  After watching about 30 hours so far of his videos and Woodworking Masterclass project instructions, he has by far become my favorite woodworker.  No other woodworker I have experienced comes close.  He truly loves working in wood and does so with mainly hand tools.  He is not just using hand tools for the novelty of it, but shows that they are superior to machines in a variety of ways.  He says, “I keep old tools to work with because they work; not because they look nice”.  He is one of the few remaining woodworking artisans that apprenticed under the 70-80 year old master craftsman that starting woodworking pre-1900’s.  These masters were working with tools older than they were and in some cases, tools they crafted themselves.  He dispels many myths about sharpening which is a subject that has grown so inconsistent in the past 20 years that there is a mass confusion which keeps hobby woodworkers constantly searching and buying the next great sharpening machine, stone or method.  None of the master craftsman had flat sharpening stones for instance.  He also focuses on hand planning all surfaces during project construction where sanding then becomes a way to “roughen” up the surface prior to apply finish.  Think of that!  This is completely opposite to the way most hobbyists, including me, work.  Normally, sanding is a process that takes more time than building and no woodworker likes doing it.  With Paul’s way of working, you basically only need a quarter sheet of 180 and 240 grit sandpaper to rough up the glass smooth surface so the finish has something to adhere to.  On top of all this, his gentle way of teaching while clearly explaining each step is indeed a rare combination of skills. 

Also, the hand tools you buy will last a lifetime when properly cared for and sharpened.  Contrast this to the disposable cheap products we have been trained to consume so quickly in the name of advanced technology.  There are not many new things today you can purchase or build yourself that can still be used by your great grandchildren.

I am sorry that I did not find out about Paul Sellers sooner, but I am just thankful I found out about him now so I can learn woodworking the right way and pass that knowledge to others who are interested in this hobby or vocation.  Paul has a blog that is a wonderful collections of his writings.  This collection of information is so thorough that any question I’ve had, I can just search his blog and find an article that addresses that question. 

I was on the “conveyor” with many other woodworkers that get taken in by salesman, machines and contraptions that are expensive and leave you far away from actually “working” the wood.  They also leave you with a bulk sandpaper supply that requires you to build a special rack just to hold all the grits from 60 to 400.  Woodworking is now fun again.  I will be posting woodworking projects this year that will be built by hand tools and some newly practiced skills.  These will be pieces that will still be around for the next 150 years or more which is exciting!

https://paulsellers.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/PaulSellersWoodwork

Pursue Your Passion or Just Do With Passion

After reading about all of the articles on “finding out what you love to do” and “pursue your passion” I am beginning to wonder about it.  It leads us down the path of postponement, continues a cycle to discouragement, and provides no clear answer.    

Even if we are in a job at McDonald’s, it can be done with love and passion.  If you adopt the attitude that you despise or hate the situation you are in, it will be the mind’s job to prove you are right.  The mind will filter out any people or opportunities that are right where you are.  We could be in the perfect job for us right now, but we may miss opportunities everywhere in it because we convinced ourselves that we are not pursuing our passion by wasting time at this job.  

Even after all of the reading, skill inventory exercises, listmaking and journaling, I still don’t know what my passion is.  So instead of pursuing a passion or finding what I love to do, maybe I need to realize that I am already in something I love to do, but just have not realized it yet.  I can make use of the wealth of people, excitement, and opportunities right where I am.  

Work is always the same.  A cup of water in a glass will still be a cup of water even if you put it in a bowl.  It is the same water taking form of what contains it.  The use of the water to purify and refresh is not altered by the container.  It is the same with our work.  If drudgery and apathy persist, a change is required.  The worker.

Will this lead me to be the next Bill Gates, Walt Disney or Oprah Winfrey?  I don’t know.  Years ago my uncle worked in a sewage plant, slinging the muck around as a laborer.  However, he did it with such enthusiasm and determination that it made him stand out.  He was quickly noticed by a VIP and was quickly promoted.  Would this have happened if he was so discouraged and down that he was not pursuing his passion by slinging sewage all day?

We can rise only as high as our thinking.  Not passionate about anything?  Start today to be passionate about whatever you are doing now, no matter what it is.  Don’t put off passion until you can someday find it.  You may never with that attitude.  I am committed to working like no one else at what I do, even if it is cleaning toilets, pushing paper or sanitation engineering.  Opportunities don’t just appear.  There is no such thing as magic.  Opportunities are always right where we are.  Our attitude determines whether we see them or not.

Quotes by Me

I like reading quotes from others.  Here are some quotes that I came up with:

“Cost savings at big companies are like the 400 lb. man cutting a bag of m&m’s from his $500 weekly grocery bill. $2 was saved, but there still is a problem.” 

“Ideal is a myth. Work with the reality of the situation” 

“The more detail you provide, the more you have to become a defense attorney” 

“Everyone is working to different agendas, bosses and deadlines. Count it a miracle that anything gets done.” 

“As soon as you take something over from someone else is when all hell breaks loose.” 

“Everybody is a mechanical designer and a cost estimator, until it does not work or there is an audit.” 

“Fear of the future and worrying about the past keeps you from the only place you can do anything about it.” 

“Unexpected things occur. Complaining won’t change a thing. How do you know it is not meant to be that way?” 

“Stock Investing is a marketing term used by the financial industry that really means gambling”  

“Retirement is for those who picked the wrong career.” 

“Because of Industrial Light & Magic, how will we ever know for sure if we really made it to Mars or other planets?” 

“Simple courtesies seem too uncommon unless a boss is looking.” 

“A manager who thinks they are humorous because their staff laugh at them is 10X more funny than any of their jokes” 

“Layers of salaried management hired to run projects pad it with extra time and money until you get to the hourly workers who get neither” 

“People walking hallways on the cell phone are putting on a show rather than actually conducting any real business” 

“If you don’t get something for nothing is true, then you don’t get nothing for something is also true”

Back To Eden film

I watched a wonderful movie yesterday named Back To Eden. It is free to watch online but I ordered a DVD of it because it was so good. It is a very inspiring account of a man's experience in the garden. It is a great reminder of all of the miracles happening in a garden.

Paul Gautschi is a great teacher with so much enthusiasm for what he is doing. I can't say enough good things about this and I hope the information in it can spread. The results speak for themselves and hard for even a skeptic to challenge.

Trailer is here:
Back To Eden

We have been making compost behind the garage in two piles for the past few years. I started yesterday by putting 3" of it over our garden and I also found a nearby source for free wood chips for covering. The wood chips I found are even well seasoned and not just fresh cut. Tons of it. I am really grateful for finding this film and the free wood chips nearby.

Work

After reading about all of the articles on “finding out what you love to do” and “pursue your passion” I am beginning to wonder about it. It leads us down the path of postponement, continues a cycle to discouragement, and provides no clear answer.

Even if we are in a job at McDonald’s, it can be done with love and passion. If you adopt the attitude that you despise or hate the situation you are in, it will be the mind’s job to prove you are right. The mind will filter out any people or opportunities that are right where you are. We could be in the perfect job for us right now, but we may miss opportunities everywhere in it because we convinced ourselves that we are not pursuing our passion by wasting time at this job.

Even after all of the reading, skill inventory exercises, listmaking and journaling, I still don’t know what my passion is. So instead of pursuing a passion or finding what I love to do, maybe I need to realize that I am already in something I love to do, but just have not realized it yet. I can make use of the wealth of people, excitement, and opportunities right where I am.

Work is always the same. A cup of water in a glass will still be a cup of water even if you put it in a bowl. It is the same water taking form of what contains it. The use of the water to purify and refresh is not altered by the container. It is the same with our work. If drudgery and apathy persist, a change is required. The worker.

Will this lead me to be the next Bill Gates, Walt Disney or Oprah Winfrey? I don’t know. Years ago my uncle worked in a sewage plant, slinging the muck around as a laborer. However, he did it with such enthusiasm and determination that it made him stand out. He was quickly noticed by a VIP and was quickly promoted. Would this have happened if he was so discouraged and down that he was not pursuing his passion by slinging sewage all day?

We can rise only as high as our thinking. Not passionate about anything? Start today to be passionate about whatever you are doing now, no matter what it is. Don’t put off passion until you can someday find it. You may never with that attitude. I am committed to working like no one else at what I do, even if it is cleaning toilets, pushing paper or sanitation engineering. Opportunities don’t just appear. There is no such thing as magic. Opportunities are always right where we are. Our attitude determines whether we see them or not.