Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Just curious about vocational skills

I only have two year Associate degree. After 40 years though I was a Program Manager supervising 50-60 people making under $100K. Where I worked in Nevada tunnels, trade people were making $150 K.

It was my own fault though. It was all On The Job Training.There are no degrees in Underground Nuclear Testing, but I sure loved the job. The company would hire new engineers and bring them to me with the instructions to teach them everything I new about the job. I ended up working for those guys until the company realized what was happening. Then Clinton signed the test ban treaty and put us all out of our jobs.

Problem now isn't money, it is what it has done to me breathing all that nasty stuff in the tunnels.

There is nothing wrong with jobs that get your hands dirty as long as you can make a living at it and like what you are doing.

I'm a CNC Machining student at a vo-tech school in Indianapolis. I wouldn't send my dog to this school. Grades are given away to boost the school's stats. Students are graduating with few marketable skills due to most of them being 18-20 years old and not taking their education seriously. I'm a good bit older than that and my grade average is 99.93%. That's mostly due to the fact we have unlimited attempts on the midterms and final exams we take and because our quizzes are only 5-10 questions and we have 2 attempts. The highest score is kept. Most the kids around me snap pictures of the answers after their first attempt and get a perfect score the second time.

I'm asking questions and work on my own half-cocked machining projects after class. I WILL get something out of this even if I have to challenge myself. The teachers are challenged enough just to breathe and see straight.

Luckily the VA's VR&E is paying my tuition and monthly stipend. I would have left a long time ago if I were paying for this crap.

One of the olders kids (21) in my class just interviewed with a manufacturing company in Louisville, KY. He walked out and told the hiring to GFY after he only offered him $23/hr to start. He's holding out for $27/hr+. 🤡🤡

Pultrusion was the worst job I ever had. Dirty, nasty, fiberglass everywhere. On my feet for 12 hours…Right elbow still messed up. After I quit, took 6 months for my body to recover.

I spent time in both worlds. Degree in Health and Biology and taught for several years before going into management and customer service in manufacturing. Rolled both the teaching/biology and the customer service backgrounds into buying one of the most “dirty” hands on service companies, a barely hanging on septic pumping business. By taking care of customers and educating them the resulting synergy of both backgrounds let us grow it into a successful company that continues to support my wife and I well into retirement and the best part is I never missed a school event, birthday or other milestone again. My point is take advantage of the opportunities presented and keep an open mind snd good things can happen in any field.

I have an Associate Degree and it has served me well. I did HVAC work before I retired. A couple of my grandkids want to follow in my footsteps, why not. I'm retired now and don't have a need for additional funding. Wife and I are doing very well, putting grandkids through hockey camps and what have ya.

Somebody has to get their hands dirty.

Pultruding spelled wrong!😊

In this case it's fiberglass materials, extruded through dies, while being injected with
resin, under heat and pressure.

Used to make construction shapes in a continuous process. It's being used in place
of steel. Stairs, walkways, buildings...

Someone mentioned it's a nasty business.
It is. Two sides in most shops. Pultruding, and fabrication.

Pultruding gets to deal with sticky, stinky resins and raw fiberglass.
Fab is machining the shapes, and bolting and bonding them together.
Either way, you get sticky and itchy.

Hate to guess how many here work in the field.
2 plants employ hundreds each.
Affiliated shops machine the stuff, assemble, or otherwise support the industry.

Most workers earn a decent survival with government assistance.

I don't know if he's crazy or not. Last I worked as a CNC programmer/lead was back in '96, at $19 an hour. 27 years of inflation ought to darn near triple that, I'd think. So starting as a skilled operator able to do setups for $27/hr may not be silly, depending on geography.

Anyway, good on you for putting your all into it. Cream will rise, whether it's your employer realizing it, or you going out and hopping from one employer to another every 2-3 years. And moving from job to job as a machinist is actually a good thing. Every shop will have its specialties, and learning new insights is never not bad.

Used to be............now they attach to many academic classes and doubled the time and cost to get training.

I encourage everyone to make an effort to apprentice in any powerplant they can. We make more $$ than the engineers. A guy working zero overtime in this craft will be $115-125k depending on location. We don't work odd hours very often and get treated pretty well.

We have a great CC nearby.
Courses in welding, machining, HVAC, auto tech, instrumentation, law enforcement and more.

Son did 2 years of welding/machining and had a great paying job secured 2 months prior to finishing his courses.