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My father-in-law helped design the pilot seat for that. Unfortunately he was unable to make the transition to computer aided design. After the defense cutback

My father-in-law helped design the pilot seat for that. Unfortunately he was unable to make the transition to computer aided design. After the defense cutbacks in the 90s, he could only find minimum wage jobs for the rest of his working life.

abhiminator 5y ago
>After the defense cutbacks in the 90s, he could only find minimum wage jobs for the rest of his working life. That's unfortunate to hear. Hope he's doing well now, in his retirement life.
- bcrosby95 5y ago
  Of course he's doing well, he has the best son-in-law ever ;) Jokes aside, he's doing fine. They got by on my mother-in-law's teacher salary and were lucky enough to get in on the California housing game in the early '80s. They mostly don't have to worry about the bills, and all their kids live within 15 minutes of them - we see them around 1-2x per week. And if they ever did run into issues, one of us could take them in. I just like to keep it in mind because I've been subject to fairly good fortunes when it comes to career. Same thing with all my relatives. But my wife's family has had more bumps along the way.
PostOnce 5y ago
In case anyone else is reading and thinking of that predicament, it needn't be a showstopper. You have a couple of options: You can do it the old way, and pay someone to convert it into the new way (I know a mechanical engineer who either sketches things or does 2D on a computer, and pays someone else to 3D it) which can then be sent to the client or manufacturer or whatever. Or, if you're doing the whole product to sell, you can do it however you want, no one cares how their product was designed, just that the end product is good. I don't know how the housing on the monitor I'm looking at was designed, and I don't care, I just care that it's decent. I feel like I count rant about this for a while, but all the "rules" change if you're taking clients or customers and not looking for FTE. It's got its own challenges, but with a few good / high paying clients, it's even easier than FTE, you can grow or not if you want.
- a2800276 5y ago
  Not sure if the Air Force will buy bomber seats from the back of a truck of some guy who designs them with paper and pencil.
  - PostOnce 5y ago
    If not, the defense contractor will subcontract to you and mark it up 4000% :) Also, the government generally has policies that some % of things have to come from small businesses, sometimes they'll hire you just in order to check a box, I'd guess. Nevertheless, if you can design an airplane seat, there are other customers than the air force. Lots of niche machines are made by 3 or 4 people and sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars per unit, to farms, to factories, to anyone in business. Consumers will argue with you for a week over a $10 purchase, but people buying things to make money with won't bat an eye at $10,000. There's a great big world out there and every hurdle doesn't have to be jumped, you can just walk around it half the time.
FearlessNebula 5y ago
Could he not take a class or an apprenticeship for CAD?
- Skunkleton 5y ago
  My dad went through a similar transition. In his case, the world transitioned away gradually from his skill set. He was able to continue moving to new jobs that needed his legacy skill set, until eventually he couldn't find them easily anymore. By the time he was in this predicament, he couldn't find a a path to restart his education. The critical issue was employment, once he found a job, the critical issue was working and keeping that job. He didn't have the luxury of taking the time to build a new skillset.
- xvector 5y ago
  Learning things becomes much harder when you are older. Our brains are physically less receptive to the process of learning.
  - cyberlurker 5y ago
    I don’t think this is true. I think responsibilities pile up and/or the need to learn more is less. The physical ability to learn is probably hardly impacted.
    - quietbritishjim 5y ago
      That's a nice idea but definitely not reality. Just try learning a language at different stages of life. I guess you could argue it's still the responsibilities holding you back but the difference is so stark that it's clear it's not just that.
      - cyberlurker 5y ago
        Learning a new language after decades of reinforcing the knowledge of a native language is hard. I’ve attempted multiple times. Personally, I don’t think it has much to do with physical ability as much as baggage from the previous language. I am right handed. Learning to write neatly with my left hand would be difficult too. I don’t think my brain is less capable of doing it though.

abhiminator 5y ago

>After the defense cutbacks in the 90s, he could only find minimum wage jobs for the rest of his working life. That's unfortunate to hear. Hope he's doing well now, in his retirement life.

bcrosby95 5y ago
Of course he's doing well, he has the best son-in-law ever ;) Jokes aside, he's doing fine. They got by on my mother-in-law's teacher salary and were lucky enough to get in on the California housing game in the early '80s. They mostly don't have to worry about the bills, and all their kids live within 15 minutes of them - we see them around 1-2x per week. And if they ever did run into issues, one of us could take them in. I just like to keep it in mind because I've been subject to fairly good fortunes when it comes to career. Same thing with all my relatives. But my wife's family has had more bumps along the way.

PostOnce 5y ago

In case anyone else is reading and thinking of that predicament, it needn't be a showstopper. You have a couple of options: You can do it the old way, and pay someone to convert it into the new way (I know a mechanical engineer who either sketches things or does 2D on a computer, and pays someone else to 3D it) which can then be sent to the client or manufacturer or whatever. Or, if you're doing the whole product to sell, you can do it however you want, no one cares how their product was designed, just that the end product is good. I don't know how the housing on the monitor I'm looking at was designed, and I don't care, I just care that it's decent. I feel like I count rant about this for a while, but all the "rules" change if you're taking clients or customers and not looking for FTE. It's got its own challenges, but with a few good / high paying clients, it's even easier than FTE, you can grow or not if you want.

a2800276 5y ago
Not sure if the Air Force will buy bomber seats from the back of a truck of some guy who designs them with paper and pencil.
- PostOnce 5y ago
  If not, the defense contractor will subcontract to you and mark it up 4000% :) Also, the government generally has policies that some % of things have to come from small businesses, sometimes they'll hire you just in order to check a box, I'd guess. Nevertheless, if you can design an airplane seat, there are other customers than the air force. Lots of niche machines are made by 3 or 4 people and sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars per unit, to farms, to factories, to anyone in business. Consumers will argue with you for a week over a $10 purchase, but people buying things to make money with won't bat an eye at $10,000. There's a great big world out there and every hurdle doesn't have to be jumped, you can just walk around it half the time.

FearlessNebula 5y ago

Could he not take a class or an apprenticeship for CAD?

Skunkleton 5y ago
My dad went through a similar transition. In his case, the world transitioned away gradually from his skill set. He was able to continue moving to new jobs that needed his legacy skill set, until eventually he couldn't find them easily anymore. By the time he was in this predicament, he couldn't find a a path to restart his education. The critical issue was employment, once he found a job, the critical issue was working and keeping that job. He didn't have the luxury of taking the time to build a new skillset.
xvector 5y ago
Learning things becomes much harder when you are older. Our brains are physically less receptive to the process of learning.
- cyberlurker 5y ago
  I don’t think this is true. I think responsibilities pile up and/or the need to learn more is less. The physical ability to learn is probably hardly impacted.
  - quietbritishjim 5y ago
    That's a nice idea but definitely not reality. Just try learning a language at different stages of life. I guess you could argue it's still the responsibilities holding you back but the difference is so stark that it's clear it's not just that.
    - cyberlurker 5y ago
      Learning a new language after decades of reinforcing the knowledge of a native language is hard. I’ve attempted multiple times. Personally, I don’t think it has much to do with physical ability as much as baggage from the previous language. I am right handed. Learning to write neatly with my left hand would be difficult too. I don’t think my brain is less capable of doing it though.