People I know look at restaurant workers and retail store employees as the people you say "You go to college so you don't end up like them."
I would never say that about mechanics, plumbers, and HVAC technicians. They have skills that I respect and value. I often ask them what was wrong and their analytic and problem solving skills often impress me.
I got a new HVAC system with a 2 stage compressor. Everything was working fine until the summer when it would shut off cooling just when it got hot even when the thermostat was saying it was cooling.
The technician determined that the system worked fine in "low" mode and when the thermostat went into "high" mode the enter system shut off.
He traced the thermostat wire through the crawl space and found a splice. 20 years earlier when the house was built someone spliced the cable and only spliced together a few wires that were needed for that simple system. He connected all of them and now the 2 stage compressor works great.
It took him an hour of debug going back and forth measuring stuff with a multimeter inside and outside.
> People I know look at restaurant workers and retail store employees as the people you say "You go to college so you don't end up like them."
That certainly happens even more often, but within that statement is also an implication that one must go to college to avoid that kind of work. And why is that kind of work so bad? Mostly because they have to deal with people who treat them like garbage because they think so little of them.
Well I don't treat them like garbage. I treat them like human beings but sometimes I wonder about how a 40 year old person ended up working in a fast food place.
I know there are lots of reasons and many of them are outside of the control of the person.
I should really change my statement to "Learn some skills whether a 4 year university degree or technical / vocational / community college so you don't end up working fast food or retail."
Why is that work so bad? The low pay is the main reason. You can learn the skills required in a few hours or days. I feel like their managers and employers treat them worse than the customers.
I am absolutely in favor for more education and financial assistance for higher education. The low end jobs are the first to be automated away. Fast food and warehouse robots are going to get more popular and I already use the self checkout line 80% of the time.
Jobs for people without specialized skills are going to get rarer in the future.
I would never say that about mechanics, plumbers, and HVAC technicians. They have skills that I respect and value. I often ask them what was wrong and their analytic and problem solving skills often impress me.
I got a new HVAC system with a 2 stage compressor. Everything was working fine until the summer when it would shut off cooling just when it got hot even when the thermostat was saying it was cooling.
The technician determined that the system worked fine in "low" mode and when the thermostat went into "high" mode the enter system shut off.
He traced the thermostat wire through the crawl space and found a splice. 20 years earlier when the house was built someone spliced the cable and only spliced together a few wires that were needed for that simple system. He connected all of them and now the 2 stage compressor works great.
It took him an hour of debug going back and forth measuring stuff with a multimeter inside and outside.
I was impressed.