To Copeland and the thread. Home run article. Hope everyone reads it. However, the glass is also half full. Here's just one example of why that could be repeated 10s of thousands of time across America IF parents would only encourage their kids to shift their focus when it comes to post secondary education:.
9 yrs ago, we got lots of flak and patronizing condescension about letting our son go to a top automotive trade school. A strong work ethic, plus a borderline MENSA I.Q., allowed him to wiz thru H.S., doing very well in all the honors courses. His ACT scores had Ohio State practically breaking our door down to get him. After a year there? He was bored to tears with academia. Fortunately, Sue and I recognized the huge oversupply of college grads vs growing shortages of top level tradesmen.
Sure enough, in the dozen years since he finished at Wyo-Tech, near the top of his class, with multiple awards at graduation, our guy has risen right to the top of his field thru hard work and smarts. With a near photographic memory, he remembers almost every car he's ever worked on, and can immediately diagnose nearly every car that comes in from that memory bank. That plus his highly efficient work routines, results in him finishing each car 50 to 100% quicker than his average co-worker.
Despite that exceptional productivity and extremely lo return rate, his company was reluctant to give him another raise, 4 yrs ago.
So, he put out a few feelers, detailing his work stats. The offers to jump ship were huge! In his lo key, non threatening manner, he presented the offers to his employer and they were forced to match the offers or lose their top guy. His compensation package is so hi, they had to keep it a secret from the other men or face an insurrection. There's no doubt he's now the highest paid VW tech in the entire Columbus, OH metro area and also one of the youngest managers in the history of the company.
Point is not to brag about my son. It's to emphasize the extraordinary opportunities out there for hard working, intelligent, young people to make 6 figure incomes without going broke with student loans to get a college degree and then facing the devastating disappointment of NOT being able to find a well paying job, even multiple years after graduating.
If there's one thing I'd emphasize to parents, with H.S. age children, reading this? It's talk to your kids about going to a trade school. Become a tradesman in a depression resistant industry with jobs that CAN'T BE EXPORTED!!!
Isopatch |
