6 ms·

speaking as a lead auto mechanic for a chain of shops, please for the love of god quit sending everyone to college. You're making it impossible to find anyone

speaking as a lead auto mechanic for a chain of shops, please for the love of god quit sending everyone to college. You're making it impossible to find anyone whos worked outside a starbucks. It takes on average nearly a year for us to do any meaningful hiring. We dont drug test, we dont do a background check in most cases, and we certainly dont care about credit scores. If we did, we wouldnt hire anyone at all. we just watch your work for the first 2-3 months to make sure you're not full of snake oil. we care about your experience, but we're more than willing to teach. Two of my junior shop techs are changing oil and aligning tires, but before this one of them had a masters in Biology and the other had an anthropology degree. As someone who has always had a tool in hand I cant conceive of whats gone wrong in the college sphere but it terrifies me to think of what drove a woman who once worked on genetics to come work for me. And for those of you out of college and out of work, please take a look at using your hands. You wouldnt believe how many trades pay close to six figures that are incredibly understaffed. Plumbers, ironworkers, mechanics, maintenance techs, you name it. in most cases a lot of these jobs will pay you to learn the trade. You might not get a cozy office chair, but at the end of the day how many people can say they helped helped build a bridge or fix someones flight home on the week of a big holiday?

jjuhl 8y ago
That's the best comment I've read in this thread so far. Great attitude! Wish there were more employers like you.
throwawayjava 8y ago
Checking in from an old auto town. Our region is exactly the opposite of yours. We are saturated with jobless gear-heads but there's HUGE demand in healthcare. Shop techs around here make ~$10-15/hr, aren't guaranteed 40, no benefits, never get overtime, and there's no upward mobility unless you start your own shop (which for almost everyone requires taking out a big loan, and most attempts flop). Finding work is easy, but you can do MUCH better in the service industry or in healthcare. Hell, I have a relative who breeds dogs because it pays better than the auto work he can find after his last attempt at opening his own shop failed. But the hospitals are starving! With a Bio grad degree, the hospitals would pay you to get into nursing. From there, with the degree, it's easy to get into a PA program. And there's insatiable demand for PAs. > You wouldnt believe how many trades pay close to six figures that are incredibly understaffed My general observation, at least in our region, is that six figures are a high water mark, not an average. Six figures for the last ten years is A LOT different from six figures for all thirty years. And even the last 10 years is wishful thinking. But again, the recently closed factory might've put a huge downward pressure on salaries throughout the trades in our region. I think that "trades are the answer" is just as stupid as "college is the answer". Inserting "community" into "just go to college" doesn't change the fundamental problem with the advice, which is that it's suggesting a global heuristic for a problem that has varying solutions from region to region and especially from person to person. It's not about "trades vs. white collar". It's all about knowing the (regional) labor market.

jjuhl 8y ago

That's the best comment I've read in this thread so far. Great attitude! Wish there were more employers like you.

throwawayjava 8y ago

Checking in from an old auto town. Our region is exactly the opposite of yours. We are saturated with jobless gear-heads but there's HUGE demand in healthcare. Shop techs around here make ~$10-15/hr, aren't guaranteed 40, no benefits, never get overtime, and there's no upward mobility unless you start your own shop (which for almost everyone requires taking out a big loan, and most attempts flop). Finding work is easy, but you can do MUCH better in the service industry or in healthcare. Hell, I have a relative who breeds dogs because it pays better than the auto work he can find after his last attempt at opening his own shop failed. But the hospitals are starving! With a Bio grad degree, the hospitals would pay you to get into nursing. From there, with the degree, it's easy to get into a PA program. And there's insatiable demand for PAs. > You wouldnt believe how many trades pay close to six figures that are incredibly understaffed My general observation, at least in our region, is that six figures are a high water mark, not an average. Six figures for the last ten years is A LOT different from six figures for all thirty years. And even the last 10 years is wishful thinking. But again, the recently closed factory might've put a huge downward pressure on salaries throughout the trades in our region. I think that "trades are the answer" is just as stupid as "college is the answer". Inserting "community" into "just go to college" doesn't change the fundamental problem with the advice, which is that it's suggesting a global heuristic for a problem that has varying solutions from region to region and especially from person to person. It's not about "trades vs. white collar". It's all about knowing the (regional) labor market.