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>There's somewhat of a internal forum question - nobody wakes up saying "today I want to be a septic engineer" about 20+ years ago I was working at a place th

>There's somewhat of a internal forum question - nobody wakes up saying "today I want to be a septic engineer" about 20+ years ago I was working at a place that made concrete walls or other concrete fixtures, these walls were then taken and shipped around mainly the Western United States but theoretically all over. Hated the job and I wasn't very good at it, although I got good reports from the supervisors because I was one of the guys who only called in sick once a month, most people, even the illegals were calling in sick at least once per week because it was a really miserable job starting at 5 in the morning in a cold windy area with lots of injuries and sometimes fatalities. Anyway we got a new guy joining the team, Rory, he was 19 or 20 I think. And one day we were standing out in the middle of the yard waiting for a big concrete wall to be picked up and brought to us, and I looked over at Rory and he had this big smile on his face and he was almost dancing with excitement and he announced, because evidently he thought I wanted to share, that this was his dream job that he had been dreaming of since he was a little kid. I probably looked stunned and disgusted as I said something like "really?!?" Yep, he explained, when he was a kid he would watch the guys working the big construction sites and he thought I want to do that when I grow up! So what I'm saying is - maybe somebody does grow up thinking "I want to be a septic engineer". Thinking about it I wanted to design ecologically sound waste disposal systems some years back, so I guess I could have talked about that too.

lubujackson 2y ago
My cousin literally went to school for water filtration stuff, grew up in a family of farmers and worked out graywater solutions for their farms and is now working as a septic engineer, maybe not 100% in the role he wants to do but certainly in the ballpark. But obviously some jobs are going to be worse than others, but what matters is people's tolerance and increased compensation. People work crazy dangerous jobs on oil rigs because of the pay. They aren't forced to do it. The economics would just rejigger such that harder more necessary jobs pay more while easier jobs pay less. There has already been a shift the past few decades where plumbers and other blue collar jobs are bringing in more attractive salaries by lack of workers, so more kids are choosing those careers now (especially with the stupidity of higher ed costs). I wouldn't be against plumbers and electricians making more than finance and tech bros. Sounds like a better rebalancing of societal needs, honestly.

lubujackson 2y ago

My cousin literally went to school for water filtration stuff, grew up in a family of farmers and worked out graywater solutions for their farms and is now working as a septic engineer, maybe not 100% in the role he wants to do but certainly in the ballpark. But obviously some jobs are going to be worse than others, but what matters is people's tolerance and increased compensation. People work crazy dangerous jobs on oil rigs because of the pay. They aren't forced to do it. The economics would just rejigger such that harder more necessary jobs pay more while easier jobs pay less. There has already been a shift the past few decades where plumbers and other blue collar jobs are bringing in more attractive salaries by lack of workers, so more kids are choosing those careers now (especially with the stupidity of higher ed costs). I wouldn't be against plumbers and electricians making more than finance and tech bros. Sounds like a better rebalancing of societal needs, honestly.