Speak up or shut up?

[Gnpenning]

As you now know, with verification from your customer, you did the right thing and they appreciate it. Good for you.

In my past I taught at a vocational school. We had many students that had a 4yr degree that either couldn't find a job in the field of study or didn't enjoy the work. For every person that designs a building, how many people does it take to make it happen that don't require a degree? For the time I was at the school around 15% of the jobs in the state required a 4 yr degree. Huge waste of time, money and resources trying to encourage everyone to go to college. For a certain segment college is the best place for them. Short term training was a better use of resources and more practical for the majority.

Remember that the person who graduated with a D- gets the same diploma as the A student and everyone else in between. Completion of training and having a useable skill set are 2 different things.

Everyone has skills and talents, the hard part is knowing what yours are and being honest with yourself and others. I have things I would love to do for a living, except reality says otherwise.

Thanks for doing the right thing.

 

[Dabbler]

Remember that the person who graduated with a D- gets the same diploma as the A student and everyone else in between. Completion of training and having a useable skill set are 2 different things.

Often the ones with the poorer marks can be the very best candidates...

+1 on doing the right thing.

 

[Gnpenning]

Often the ones with the poorer marks can be the very best candidates...

+1 on doing the right thing.

Sometimes. We would get high school students that had been kicked out. Many because they were bored and in the process made bad choices out of boredom. A certain percentage of them were bored because they caught on very quickly and were waiting on everyone else to catch up. We all know school systems teacher at a slow rate without much creativity. The really bright ones that had been kicked out if interested were a pleasure to work with and did very well once they developed useable study habits.

During that time some studies had been done as to what made someone a better employee. Turned out the ones working and paying their own way made much better employees for a number of reasons. A few of those were, working with others, doing what is asked, time management etc. Most had B averages. The majority of the bottom tier just didn't care.

You can get good employees for the entire range, the likelihood for success favors those in the middle to upper range. None of this is hard and fast.

 

[pdentrem]

Engineering shares some characteristics with the medical profession. There can be huge consequences to every decision. Physicians intern to acquire the practical experiencve to make these decisions 'righter' more often. Engineering is similar. You can know all the math, but how to apply it appropriately is the art in engineering. Most engineers are considered junior for at least the first 5 years.

Interesting on the experience side of learning.
Years ago I came across a mention on when a helicopter pilot is properly trained. The CI (civilian instructor) replied after 20000 hours of flying he is still learning. Totally true. If you stop learning, how can you continue to be safe when the technology continues to change?
Pierre

 

[pdentrem]

The top 25% in the class are hired by the big companies, as they can afford to pay well and tend to have interesting projects. The bottom 75% are picked up by smaller outfits or government departments.
The really keen ones who were bored in class are always the outliers as they cut their own path to success.
Pierre

 

[savarin]

<rant>
I think those at the very bottom must go on to become plumbers, at least thats been my experience with them.
I have had to employ 7 different plumbers for various small jobs over the years and everyone of them did shonky work.
Their unions must know this which is why laws were passed to protect them making it illegal for Australians to do their own plumbing work. (and electrical)
The most outstanding one was a dill who placed soldered joints in the middle of the block work where they couldnt be inspected, one sprung a leak at 11pm that night. On phoning him his response was "just turn the mains off and I will be round some time tomorrow"
My reply was "I havnt paid the bill yet, you will come round now" He did.
At least it leaked before the wall cladding went on and was still accessible.
Not one of them appears to have any pride in their work.
I could go on but----
<rant/>

 

[brino]

laws were passed to protect them making it illegal for Australians to do their own plumbing work. (and electrical)

Wow is that ridiculous!
It is so backwards especially with "the right to repair" being a movement now for vehicles, farm equipment, etc.

About the only way that could be controlled is to sell plumbing parts ONLY to commercial contractors.
Here there are many isles of plumbing stuff at every hardware store.

@savarin, Charles Is there a black-market for plumbing parts down under?

Brian

 

[WobblyHand]

Wow is that ridiculous!
It is so backwards especially with "the right to repair" being a movement now for vehicles, farm equipment, etc.

About the only way that could be controlled is to sell plumbing parts ONLY to commercial contractors.
Here there are many isles of plumbing stuff at every hardware store.

@savarin, Charles Is there a black-market for plumbing parts down under?

Brian

On the flip side is some of the most hacky and non compliant plumbing done by home owners. If you've been house shopping recently (or remember it) it's not uncommon to see some hair brained plumbing done by non professionals.

I do have to say, it's most irritating to have to redo a professionals work because of them not putting in unions, ball or shutoff valves. Perhaps they aren't installed because they are trying to keep their quotes low to get the job, but not installing them is a major future inconvenience.

My house has some weird plumbing in spots, which I suspect were done by the owners. They used soft copper in spots, rather than figure out how to plumb things properly. I have a seemingly perpetual job replacing gate valves with ball valves at home. The gate valves are always the problem, for one reason or another. The joys of an old home. But hey, there's plumbing and I'm grateful for that!

 

[savarin]

We can purchase all the plumbing parts in every hardware store where they hang notices reminding you its an offense to use an unlicensed plumber.
Back in the UK I installed my own gas fired central heating in a two story house, just had to get it inspected before connecting to the gas main. It passed.
I also re wired the house, again I just had to get it inspected before connecting to the meter. It passed with flying colours. They are not difficult jobs so why are all the licensed plumber so useless. (IT cant be all of them but havnt met a good one yet)

 

[matthewsx]

We can purchase all the plumbing parts in every hardware store where they hang notices reminding you its an offense to use an unlicensed plumber.
Back in the UK I installed my own gas fired central heating in a two story house, just had to get it inspected before connecting to the gas main. It passed.
I also re wired the house, again I just had to get it inspected before connecting to the meter. It passed with flying colours. They are not difficult jobs so why are all the licensed plumber so useless. (IT cant be all of them but havnt met a good one yet)

I was shocked when I went to Australia for work (yes I had the proper visa).

Every extension cord and power strip had to be inspected by an electrician and have a little sticker applied.

We set up all the equipment for a big conference at the Sydney Convention center so you can imagine how much just that little bit of bureaucracy must have cost.

Never seen that level of Tom foolery anywhere else in the world, but I guess it keeps you all safe.

In Japan they don’t have any grounds at all and they hook their toilets to the mains power.

John