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Originally Posted by vaughanwilliams
There's always the skilled trades. Kind of hard to outsource an electrician, for example. But, that's a lot of hard work and the pay has gone to hell.
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True. Unfortunately, there is a continuously growing supply of cheap immigrant laborers who are willing to do this work for something far below a living wage. There are also enough people willing to hire ill qualified workers to handle the wiring in their homes. At some point, many of these trades may not even be worth going into, even if they can't be outsourced. Don't look for your politicians for help, they're basically rolling out the red carpet for these parasites.
Quote:
Originally Posted by packer43064
Try to learn as many trades as possible.
When one fails on you move onto the next. I don't see how someone can work for the same company doing the same job for 30 years. I would go crazy.
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It's not that easy. Many trades require years of experience before workers become fully proficient. If you think you know it all, chances are you don't know (use your imagination).
Some folks like to boast that they are master craftsman in their trades, but that is often times not the case. They master a few particular skills that their employer needs, but if you give them something completely new to do, they fall apart. The real test is to give them a typical 10 year experience level job, and make them do it start to finish with only standard trade manuals and publications.
I would recommend any young person interested to invest the time researching potential trades of interest. After that, take some classes or acquire some form of certification. The paper doesn't mean squat but it does show that you are committed to learning your trade. Nothings worse for an employer than investing 6 months or a year into an apprentice, only for the apprentice to hit the pavement because it's not what they want to do anymore. The boss doesn't make any money on them, but they sure do lose a bundle when the kid walks out. But at any rate, that person needs to do everything possible to learn as much as they can, as soon as they can. This is much easier if you actually have the interest. If you're just looking for a job that pays a good buck, the trades aren't the place to go.
And that applies to any profession. Invest the time learning as much as you can. Don't just learn a skill, master it. Don't just focus on being fast, be the worker who does it right the first time, every time. Doing things fast is meaningless if you have to do it over again. Admitably, I've learn that the hard way
Why is this important? Employers are going to continue to widdle jobs away, but they will never eliminate every role entirely. They will always need the knowledge acquired through doing the work hands on for an extended period of time. When the technology has a hiccup, you always need someone to diagnose the problem, and get the job running smoothly again. Subpar/average workers are going to feel the pinch, because employers will have a continually growing supply of competent and skilled workers. Retrain all you want. If you primary focus isn't on being the best, don't waste you time.
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Originally Posted by statisticsnerd
Same here.
A lot of people act like it's next to impossible to make a decent living nowadays and that no career field is worth pursuing. That's a load of crap.
I'm an accountant. I just got an 8% raise about a month ago and the company I work for has hired some additional accountants recently. BTW, our jobs haven't been replaced by a computer. We just use computers now to make our jobs easier. The computer can't audit by itself as there are many, many issues that we encounter on a daily basis that require human judgment. The number of brains needed to do the work has not gotten smaller.
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We rely heavily on computers in my line of work as well. It definitely makes the job more efficient and easier, to the point that far fewer workers are needed today. I have done things the old fashioned way, and still do when dealing with small quantities of work. It makes the brain hurt... Planning 30 steps into a job, converting metric to standard, trigging out abstract dimensions, juggling multiple values and figuring how they must relate... Tons of opportunity for error, and one mistake, you start all over. But you have a your trusty pencil and paper so what could go wrong
But seriously, the way things were done in the old days were a major PITA. Employers had to pay more to attract a sharper breed of worker, and keep them chugging away because the work was challenging. They also needed more workers because old methods took longer, and more mistakes happened along the way. I'm sure you aren't seeing how many jobs are being eliminated in your profession because you haven't seen how things were done 30 years ago. More paper was used. Someones has to organize and retrieve documents, make copies when necessary, mail it, put it back.... Probably took a whole team to maintain. Now files can be saved to a hard drive, so less need for those services today. Need a copy? Doesn't take much to print a document. Any time you make a job more efficient, you eliminate head counts. It's happening to every profession these days. What seems to be happening any time technology makes a job more efficient... High skilled workers become more productive, and are more in demand. Middle and low skill workers see their jobs eliminated, or the value of their time cut if they are lucky.
Glad to hear about the raise. Keep up the good work
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