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(A.K.A. Non-Original Rants)

–Co-opting good stuff from all over the ‘Net and maybe some original thoughts—ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE

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Best display I’ve seen—Well played local High School

I was at a local small town high school last week. One of the displays caught my eye. It had a title of: “See your future”. It had a mirror in it surrounded by various post-graduation options represented by emblems and icons.

What struck me was the fact that, although there were colleges included, there were also logos for unions, mechanics, welders, electricians–several trades and jobs were represented. It juxtaposes with something I read a little while back (can’t find the link) that indicates that HS students who are taking trade/skilled labor classes are getting jobs paying upwards of 70k straight out of the gate. A friend of mine’s son is doing auto mechanics and already has three offers for internships so it’s not anecdotal.

The pendulum swings again as real-world skills are recognized for their importance.

As the daughter of an electrician, it’s refreshing to see and well-played on the part of the school administration.

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17 responses to “Best display I’ve seen—Well played local High School”

  1. boneman1959 Avatar
    boneman1959

    The pendulum need swing more. Unfortunately the “Elite” are in power. I worked many years for an international, privately owned company worth BILLIONS that had SUCH an ingrained case of what I call “Degree Worship” it was disgusting.

    Case in point? I was “Topped Out” as an “Hourly” associate… a very skilled CAD Op with 35 years experience. I cut my teeth on CAD systems AS THEY WERE BEING INVENTED. Hence, I have no “Degree” in CAD Science. There was no such thing in 1985 when I came off the board as a “Draftsman”… During my tenure with this company I even ended up with no ness than FIVE Patents. So no dearth of creativity for sure.

    Was I promotable? NO. I was not in possession of a “Degree”. I hit the wall HARD after five years.

    Here’s the kick in the teeth… There were those I worked with… one “Packaging Scientist” pulling down $80K (around the year 2000) who had a degree in? HORTICULTURE. Another SENIOR Packaging Scientist pulling down $150K… with a degree in…. wait for it… ANIMAL HUSBANDRY.

    So it’s like “The NOBILITY” vs the “PEASANTRY” in a lot of these places still. Or at least there.

    And many of these folks… had to have dictionary.com bookmarked as I would very often flex my acute sesquipedalian proclivity when composing emails. Just because I felt the need to expose the pusillanimity of their educational shortcomings.

    Not taking away anything from your posting. It’s truly amazing to see this, it really is. Just that my arse is still a bit chapped over my personal experience. I do hope that in this case the “Pendulum” is more like a WRECKING BALL that topples the “Nobility” I refer to here.

    Thanks for sharing. It IS inspirational!!!! 🙂

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  2. Gary Avatar
    Gary

    Heres a link to an MSN story about it

    https://www.msn.com/en-ie/money/careersandeducation/high-schoolers-getting-70k-a-year-job-offers-from-companies-desperate-to-hire-skilled-tradespeople/ar-AA1ElZHp

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    1. Midwest Chick Avatar
      Midwest Chick

      Gary–Thanks for this–I believe it’s the article I was trying to find again.

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  3. Matthew W Avatar
    Matthew W

    “The world needs ditch diggers too”……………………….

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  4. Matthew W Avatar
    Matthew W

    boneman1959
    May 19, 2025 at 6:21 am

    There used to be “Degree worship” really bad where I work, but it is fading. Unfortunatley, DEI (RACISIM) is still strong.

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. Unferth Avatar
    Unferth

    I have three kids (girl, boy, girl). The girls both graduated from a University of California school; the boy got married and went to work. My son and his wife (also not a college graduate) own a house and have three kids. Neither daughter is married; both will probably be rent-slaves for the foreseeable future.

    If you want a deep, philosophical discussion about the formation of societies, what makes something fundamentally right versus wrong, how to grow and encourage prosperity, talk to my son. The daughters are clueless — worse, they’ll just regurgitate some half-baked, ignorant drivel the picked up in school with no real understanding.

    At work, I was leading a group of about 22 people. I’m not convinced that my best developer even graduated from high school; I know he did not graduate from college. Some of the other developers got jealous and convinced management that we needed a “kumbaya” moment. During the next all-team meeting, they had everyone sit in a circle and announce what degree they had. The only purpose was to humiliate the guy without the degree, who was also earning about half what anyone else was — and producing about three times what anyone else did.

    I graduated from a university a few decades back. My graduating class was relatively small. All but one of the women I graduated with only graduated because they were sleeping with professors.

    Universities have their place, but I need the farmer, the fireman, the bricklayer, the construction worker, and the grocery-store worker far more than I need a university graduate.

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  6. OutOfTime Avatar
    OutOfTime

    Graduated college in 1972 with a BS in civil engineering. I had worked as an electrician on and off to pay for my schooling so when I was out I was offered a full time position with the electrical contractor I had worked part time for. The choice I had to make was, follow engineering and start at about $4.00 an hour or continue as an electrician and start at $16.00 an hour. Yes, at the time there was that kind of pay difference. Took the electrician job and never looked back. I have worked all over the world in some exotic places doing interesting and challenging work often at twice the rate of the other trades on the job and often at more than the “degreed” office and support personnel. I was never asked if I had a college degree until I was 47 and was going to work at a large skilled care facility as a resident electrician. I had to produce my high school diploma, which I didn’t have as they would not accept a college degree in its place.
    Do what you love. AI can replace a lot of jobs except that of installing and repairing AI.

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  7. WDS Avatar
    WDS

    Decades ago at my first FT job, they hired a guy fresh outta college with an “Industrial Engineering” degree that included “Time Studies” and “Efficiency” and promptly canned him in under 90 days as his vast knowledge completely backlogged production so bad it almost lost us two of our biggest clients. One of those customers was a $400K per month contract.

    $40K a year vs $400K per month? I guess it wasn’t really a hard decision.

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  8. Midwest Chick Avatar
    Midwest Chick

    boneman–The head of the first data department I worked for had a PhD in Communications. I don’t have a PhD so it’s kept me out of a lot of jobs, even with decades in the field. I think degree worship is waning, but sorry it hit you hard.

    Matthew–Agree on both.

    Unferth–Some people are just assholes. Yes, both paths have their place, but the idea that you had to go to college in order to be happy was a recent artifact. People are starting to realize how stupid that is.

    OutofTime–Sounds like it worked out for you–love your story!

    WDS–At least your place of work learned that lesson quickly!

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  9. stevesky1 Avatar
    stevesky1

    Mike Rowe on How Much Welding and Other Skills

    This amazed me the first time I saw it.
    Link

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    1. Midwest Chick Avatar
      Midwest Chick

      stevesky1–Thanks–I’ll check it out!

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  10. Don Curton Avatar
    Don Curton

    I graduated with an engineering degree in 1990. Worked directly in the field with hourly technicians. One time I worked out the trade-off, 4+ years of college versus going directly to work out of high school. Working salary versus hourly with at least 20% overtime. Turns out that it would be somewhere in my late 40’s before my salary position would out-earn their hourly position. The overtime was a big issue, but like it or not, as salary I was putting in some extremely long hours too with zero extra pay. Now close to 60 I’m glad I can sit in the office and not sweat my ass off in the field, but for the first 20+ years I would have been better off financially not going to college.

    Unfortunately getting that type of job directly out of high school doesn’t really happen anymore. The companies want trade school certificates, experience, etc. without offering much in the way of training programs. Glad to see that some people are trying to change that.

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    1. Midwest Chick Avatar
      Midwest Chick

      Don–Yes, they’ve always touted the ‘over time’ for degrees to be worth it in many fields. There are a lot of trades with internships, etc. and training and they are growing. I think it’s a good thing.

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  11. MrLiberty Avatar
    MrLiberty

    The problem, as always, are the CENTRAL PLANNERS. We ALLOW government to control education, steal our money to pay for it, then are upset when their central planning and government monopoly fails us. Government at EVERY LEVEL of the employment process and even SEC/EU professional job requirements, has impacted who MUST have a degree, what degree they MUST have, etc. regardless of OTJ experience. Get government OUT OF OUR LIVES and 90+% of all of our problems disappear.

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    1. Midwest Chick Avatar
      Midwest Chick

      MrLiberty–Excellent points. And yes, government interference, especially on the part of unelected bureaucrats, is the root of a lot of issues.

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      1. Gary Avatar
        Gary

        Let’s not leave out the Teachers Unions and their stranglehold on who can teach. No ‘teaching certificate’, sorry, even if you have a lot to offer students in real-world experience.

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        1. Midwest Chick Avatar
          Midwest Chick

          Gary–Yes, absolutely. They are a blot on society.

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