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<p class="MsoNormal">Working in a Detroit steel mill, I got acquainted with Mo, an immigrant from the Middle East who operated a Cold Mill pickling line on the afternoon shift. Mo had attended, I believe, Wayne State, where he had earned a Mechanical Engineering
degree. Mo had been selling cell phones and plans as a living at the time of graduation and had been unwilling to take a pay cut to take an entry level engineering job. Eventually the cell phone craze died down but his degree had aged out.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I took a 30% pay cut once to get an entry level job appropriate to the program I had just finished.
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:deanvp@att.net">deanvp@att.net</a>] Al, I don’t think it was the intent to show disdain for a 4 year degree. I think the intent was to discuss how some 4 year degrees may not be as valuable to employers as a 2 year trade
school degree. Unfortunately, there are way too many 4 year graduates who have spent 4 years focusing on “underwater basket weaving” thinking that all that is important is a degree… any degree. The real world punishes those types of graduates. But I even
have more disdain for parents who allow their children to waste a real opportunity and probably are then burdened with a huge student loan debt to pay off without the earning power to do so. Did parents decide they don’t have any more responsibility for
their children when they attend college? Many of the teachers and professors are the worst kind of people to pass their responsibility to. It is a real mess. I can verify that I have seen this mess all too closely and it is sickening. Three of my 4 children
all graduated from the University of WA, 2 with technical degrees and one with Teaching credential. The 4th Graduated from Western WA University with a Physics degree and moved on to do his work on a Masters and Doctorate in Optical Physics. Of the 4 he was
the most highly educated but had the most difficulty finding the right kind of job. A very specialized field requiring relocation to area’s he could not live in due to health reasons. He was focused on the learning not the light at the end of the tunnel.
We accept some of that responsibility. He ended up in the Computer field. Turns out he was very good at that contributing early in the development of Cloud Computing for Microsoft. The skills he developed in college crossed over to other disciplines. “Underwater
Basket Weaving” skills are not very transferable. <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">[Al Jones] Starting my 23rd year in education. It seems that a lot of people have a real disdain for four year degrees, a lot of that seems to be political but I won't go down that road. While I think this is wrong, the mindset is slowly,
very slowly shifting away from the notion that a four year degree is a requirement to be successful, which I think is good. The most important thing a person preparing for life after high school needs to consider is what their goals and interests are and go
from there. With the costs of four year schools now, you have to have a plan and it has to be realistic, and it has to have several back-ups if Plan A, B, or C doesn't work out. A psychology or similar degree just doesn't pencil out for most people.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">All the statistics I have seen in forever point to increased demands for skilled tradespeople. There are and will be some real opportunities for young people if that is their interest. <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I was fortunate in that I knew what I wanted to do. If it was 1992 again, and if I didn't know what I wanted to do, I'd go into the military and let the government pay for my education once I had a plan together. <o:p></o:p></p>
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