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The Case for Working with Your Hands

If the goal is to earn a living, then, maybe it isn’t really true that 18-year-olds need to be imparted with a sense of panic about getting into college (though they certainly need to learn). Some people are hustled off to college, then to the cubicle, against their own inclinations and natural bents, when they would rather be learning to build things or fix things. One shop teacher suggested to me that “in schools, we create artificial learning environments for our children that they know to be contrived and undeserving of their full attention and engagement. Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract and distant, and the passions for learning will not be engaged.”

A gifted young person who chooses to become a mechanic rather than to accumulate academic credentials is viewed as eccentric, if not self-destructive. There is a pervasive anxiety among parents that there is only one track to success for their children. It runs through a series of gates controlled by prestigious institutions. Further, there is wide use of drugs to medicate boys, especially, against their natural tendency toward action, the better to “keep things on track.” I taught briefly in a public high school and would have loved to have set up a Ritalin fogger in my classroom. It is a rare person, male or female, who is naturally inclined to sit still for 17 years in school, and then indefinitely at work. […]

An economy that is more entrepreneurial, less managerial, would be less subject to the kind of distortions that occur when corporate managers’ compensation is tied to the short-term profit of distant shareholders. For most entrepreneurs, profit is at once a more capacious and a more concrete thing than this. It is a calculation in which the intrinsic satisfactions of work count — not least, the exercise of your own powers of reason.

Ultimately it is enlightened self-interest, then, not a harangue about humility or public-spiritedness, that will compel us to take a fresh look at the trades. The good life comes in a variety of forms. This variety has become difficult to see; our field of aspiration has narrowed into certain channels. But the current perplexity in the economy seems to be softening our gaze. Our peripheral vision is perhaps recovering, allowing us to consider the full range of lives worth choosing. For anyone who feels ill suited by disposition to spend his days sitting in an office, the question of what a good job looks like is now wide open.

New York Times: The Case for Working With Your Hands

(via OVO)

The problem described here cuts both ways: young people with no interest in aptitude in academics are not only being deprived useful training in the trades in the public schools system, but are dragging down their more academically oriented peers. The result is a large population of mediocre high school graduates, who have learned next to nothing when they enter college or trade schools.

I, for one, have never been good at nor enjoyed “working with my hands.” And it’s not for lack of trying. But I certainly relate to the problem of the overly abstracted, disconnected work place.

10 Workplace Skills of the Future

This is worth reading, despite the author’s creating lots of new buzz words for established skills. Here they are, in older terms:

Ping Quotient – Responsiveness and Confidence – “Good Networker.”

Longbroading – Big Picture Thinking

Open Authorship – Cooperation, Collaboration. “Team Player.”

Cooperation Radar – A common leadership trait.

Multi-Capitalism – OK, I still have no idea what this means.

Mobbability – See “Open Authorship” above.

Protovation – Risk Tolerance.

Influency – Communication skills.

Signal/Noise Management – I guess this is as good a term as any for this.

Emergensight – Adaptable, Resourceful.

10 Workplace Skills of the Future

Before you get too wound-up thinking about the above list, don’t forget the mainstays: leadership, creativity, attention to detail, intelligence, work ethic, efficiency, self-promotion, etc.

In the recession, does advanced education really pay off?

As some of my e-mailers recognize, their dilemmas are those of the relatively fortunate. They are young. They have advanced degrees. As Sam wrote, “It should be noted that I’m a very lucky, healthy, happy 23-year-old male who, aside from having little money and having caught a bad break on his choice of careers, has nothing to complain about.” For a dose of perspective, I’ll include an e-mail from Dani, who is 28, lives in Chicago, and couldn’t go to college right out of high school. She works in a warehouse office and will finally graduate in May with a two-year associate degree for which she scrimped and borrowed and is “fighting tooth and nail for.” She can’t see how she can afford to go on in school, and she points out that “for those of us not privileged enough to have [a college degree] being seen as not as valuable as someone who is ‘smarter’ than us because they have a degree puts us behind in the job market even further. We are already worried about our futures, and the thought that this economy or even one bad thing happening [could] disrupt our paycheck-to-paycheck lives, is more than terrifying.” It is bad to have a degree that you fear is underwater. But it’s still worse to have no degree at all.

This article fails to adequately address the matter at hand because they only compare people with advanced degrees with those without any sort of degree or special training what so ever.

Here is another question: are people with advanced degrees better off than those who opted for vocational training of some sort, or even those who only got bachelor’s degrees? Comparing the plight of MBAs, Phds, and lawyers to plumbers, mechanics, dental assistants, etc. would be more relevant. It would also be worthwhile to compare people with advanced degrees with people who have bachelor’s degrees in certain fields such as biology, math, computer science, and engineering.

Slate: Help, My Degree Is Underwater

(via Cryptogon)

Sustainable Industry: Retraining America’s Workforce

In the energy sector, utilities are especially struggling to lure young people to an industry that’s plagued with a somewhat outdated stigma. Peter Darbee, CEO of San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric (NYSE: PCG) in January 2008 told the San Francisco Chronicle that within five years more than 40 percent of the utility’s 20,000 employees will be eligible for retirement. Almost half the nation’s utility workforce will be nearing retirement age by 2016, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
Overall, job seekers with college or technical training will have the best shot at filling utility positions. Computer systems analysts and data analysts are expected to be among the most in-demand workers, in addition to employees with the training to help utilities expand their renewable energy portfolios, according to the Labor Department.

When it comes to training a workforce for a rapidly changing economy, the country’s nearly 1,200 community colleges are at the center of it all. PG&E has even partnered with community colleges to develop its PowerPathway program to train future employees.

With shorter programs and lower tuitions—about $2,360 on average nationwide—than four-year schools, community colleges present fewer barriers to entry for students than private technical colleges or even big, state universities. Plus, many technical and career programs are designed to train and certify workers for in-demand fields in less than a year compared to conventional four-year degree programs.

Full Story: Sustainable Industry Magazine

Where do laid off journalists go?

From an un-scientific survey of laid off reporters:

Many of the respondents have found new jobs. It’s too early to tell about those who lost their jobs within the past year, but for those who did so between 1999 and 2007:

• Just under 36 percent said they found a new job in less than three months. Add those who say they freelance full time, and the total jumps to 53 percent.

• Less than 10 percent say it took them longer than a year.

• Only a handful – 6 percent – found other newspaper jobs. The rest are doing everything from public relations to teaching to driving a bus and clerking in a liquor store.

While they’ve found work, many of the people with new jobs are making less money. The midpoint salary range for their old jobs was $50,000 to $59,000. Those who listed salaries for their new jobs were a full salary band lower – $40,000 to $49,000.

Of the people who volunteered their old newspaper salary, only 2 percent made less than $20,000 a year. Of the people who gave me their new salaries, that number shot up to 17 percent. The age of those at the bottom of the salary scale has changed surprisingly as well. The median age of those who made less than $20,000 at their old newspaper job was 24. The median age of those now making less than $20,000 is 48.

Full Story: American Journalism Review

Why boredom is exhausting

By now you’ve probably seen this story floating around about how doodling may improve concentration, but I’m particularly interested in this part of the story:

When people are bored they have high levels of brain activity, Andrade says. “When you’re bored, you think nothing much is going on, but actually your brain is looking for something to do.”

So we daydream. But daydreaming takes considerable mental effort, particularly when we get stuck in a daydream. “So that sucks mental resources and energy away from the other task we’re meant to be doing,” Andrade says.

Which explains why we can feel so tired and burned out after a long, boring but easy day at work or school – or many successive days of boredom.

Full Story: Canada.com

Why you should be optimistic about Portland’s future

It could be worse

We think we have it bad here in Portland, but many cities have it much worse. According to this BLS report, Portland clocks in at 269/369 in employment rates – ahead of struggling cities like Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Not to mention economically crippled cities Detroit and Flint.

Inventive City

According to the Wall Street Journal, Portland ranks 13th in number of patents filed, trailing Silicon Valley but beating Seattle and New York. Why is this important? As the article says “New patents often lead to the creation of new companies, which in turn mean more jobs.” Whatever your position on patents and intellectual property, having a large number of inventors in town bodes well.

Renewable Energy Leadership

The announcement that wind turbine manufacturer Vestas is expanding their North American head quarters in Portland was overshadowed by gloomy layoff announcements by OHSU. That, combined with the fact that the Pacific Northwest has a clean power surplus paint a bright picture for Portland’s future in the “green economy.”

Portland’s also been ranking as one of the cities best prepared for Peak Oil.

Creative economy

I’ve talked off and on here about Richard Florida and his creative economy ideas (the patent thing plays into this as well). Portland’s home to apparel heavy-weights like Nike and Columbia (and is the regional headquarters for Addidas) and start-ups like Nau and Ryz.

We also just saw the release of Coraline from Portland animation studio Laika, and the release of Hellboy 2 based on the Milwaulkie, OR based Dark Horse Comics series. Portland is also home to Top Shelf Productions, publishers of Alan Moore‘s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell comics, and Oni Press.

Portland’s also become a hub for marketing and design companies, most notably Wieden+Kennedy.

Intel upgrading during the recession

Intel, the areas largest employer, is closing some locations in Hillsboro. But they’re also investing in upgrading other local plants. Intel bet on their higher end processors, missing the better opportunity in lower end (but more innovative) processors for netbooks. Intel is investing in their future during the recession, preparing to produce more chips for netbooks and smartphones.

Conclusion

Incidentally, none of this depends on government stimulus spending, though that certainly won’t hurt the green energy part. Portland is a strong position ecologically – we’re able to subsist on a comparably low amount of oil, and are positioned within a region producing an excess of electricity. We also have a wealth of visionary talent, complemented with the resources to design, manufacture, and market their creations. Most importantly: we don’t have all our economic eggs in one basket. Things are tough right now, but there are few places in a better position for the future.

LaidOffCamp San Francisco

From his perch on a balcony high above the floor of a dimly-lit nightclub, Chris Hutchins looks out over a sea of long faces and grins.

He’s happy because he’s found his calling.

Hutchins isn’t surveying a crowd of boozing hipsters, but rather a mass of over 300 recently laid-off workers from the Bay Area’s technology industry. They assembled here Tuesday for LaidOffCamp, a free, day-long conference for the recent victims of the souring economy: the unemployed, the self-employed and the freelancers eager to fill their suddenly uncluttered schedules.

Full Story: Wired

Top ten jobs in Portland

This is a very unscientific analysis of recent job listings on Portland Craig’s List based on 1) copying and pasting listings into Wordle and seeing what trended to the top and 2) some verification via searching for terms in Craig’s List.

I’m sure I drastically overrepresented something here and underrepresented something else. But this might give you a general idea:

The top ten most “in demand” jobs are, in no particular order:

  • Dental Assistant
  • Medical Assistant
  • Caregiver
  • Registered Nurse
  • Physical Therapist
  • Office/Admin Assistant/Reception/Secretary
  • Web developer
  • Mechanic
  • Call center worker/telemarketer
  • Cook
  • Based on SimplyHired’s information, Tualatin has the most jobs in the area, followed by Lake Oswego, Tigard, Beaverton, Portland, Vancouver and Hillsboro (in that order), and the companies with the most jobs in the area are:

  • Home Depot
  • Intel
  • Kaiser Permanente
  • Medical Connections
  • Providence
  • JP Morgan
  • Wells Fargo
  • Wal-Mart
  • Please keep in mind that these types of articles are not very useful. I put this together together out of curiosity.

    Update: Added Lake Oswego to the list, with more jobs than Beaverton.

    Update 2: Added Physical Therapist and dropped Nonprofit Director. See comments for details.

    Update 3: Updated the city list again. Forgot Tigard and Vancouver. Going to leave it alone for now.

    Top ten cities for job growth in 2009

    Re-posting from klintron.com:

    According to Forbes:

    Madison, Wis.
    Washington, D.C.
    Boston, Mass.
    Richmond, Va.
    Milwaukee, Wis.
    Pittsburgh, Pa.
    Baltimore, Md.
    Seattle, Wash.
    Houston, Texas
    Dallas, Texas

    Full Story: Forbes

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