Do they think Trades are for the stupid among us?

[OLDNEWBIE]

Anyone heard that asinine Ad Council spot about how to find a job online? An obviously "educated" woman instructing a helpless job seeker. It plays at least twice an hour on A.M. radio.

The woman tells the guy what to type in the blanks on the form. And the clueless job seeker reads out as he's spelling, "E-lec-tri-cian." like he's never been on a computer before in his life! Then he's surprised at the job offers he's been missing because he's so out of touch or a bit slow or just your typical guy working in a trade?

As we all here know, just because you work with your hands doesn't always mean your stupid. And of all the trades, an Electrician! I'd bet your average Electrician has 10x more upstairs than your average Unemployment Office slouch!
Just emphasizes what biases Universities are filling up young minds with these days as I know the ad wasn't a product of a mere Trades Person!

Is it just me or is this ad demeaning? Whoever wrote this and signed off on it has a lot of gaps in their education IMO!

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[OLDNEWBIE]

This spot kind of goes with this thread. Too bad M.R signed on with CNN but maybe that's a good sign.

 

[jbett98]

How many colleges are non profit?

 

[KalamaMark]

My daughter made a collage one time and nobody bought it. No profit.

In fact, I've seen a lot of collages, and I've never seen anyone every buy any of them, so I would assume, from my anecdotal experience, that all collages are non-profit.

 

[redmud]

Any of us in the trades already know better. But to stereo type us as being computer illiterate and unsure of our ability to spell electrician in the same commercial is stupid. Considering that I email almost all bids, Then print off a copy to physically sign.

I mostly listen to Pandora or downloaded music on my Bluetooth enabled stereo from my smart phone. Not as many commercials.

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

Colleges profit from easy government backed student loans. That's why tuitions are as high as they are.

Most of the Jobs obtained by College grads don't justify the student debt incurred. That's why a Trade is a smarter choice for many people. The point of the thread though is this National Ad is basically hinting that a highly skilled Tradesman is ignorant about the internet if not a lot of other things.

How out of touch do you have to be to think that?
Imagine the creepy, dare I say "LIB" educated circle of friends and colleagues that you have to be surrounded by day and night to think this way!
Don't they ever venture outside of their comfort zone?

 

[teflon6string]

Tap... tap, tap, tap... "Proc-to-lo-gist."

 

[KalamaMark]

The current attitudes are what keep the wages in the trades very high. I'm an HVAC/R guy, I've been working in the trade for 25 years, have never been unemployed, and I suspect I earn more than some lawyers and doctors and such...

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

S-E-N-A-T-O-R...........

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

The current attitudes are what keep the wages in the trades very high. I'm an HVAC/R guy, I've been working in the trade for 25 years, have never been unemployed, and I suspect I earn more than some lawyers and doctors and such...

I'm a HVAC/R dropout! Electrical and Mechanical skills are required for that trade. I wish I would have stuck with it, I was doing well but I met this girl and.......

 

[IronMonster]

I dunno, Being a blacksmith is about as "trades" as it gets and I can tell you I aint none to smart If I was smart I would have started a bank. Only guys around who can pull money out of thin air and loan it at interest.

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

It ain't all about the money.

 

[IronMonster]

Well it kind of is. I dont care about money, What I do care about is having to give up most all of my life to make enough money so I can eat and have a place to live. Wealth is the ability to spend your time as you see fit. That is what I want, To be able to spend my time doing things for the sake of doing them.

Granted I have a pretty cool job, But I can not do anything for myself or any personal projects. I have made some really cool ironwork for some big name places. I have stuff at the Tukwila Transit station, The QFC in Ballard, Teatro Zinzanni's at the Seattle center as well as many big dollar houses. I recently built a set of gates for a house on Mercer Island which is currently undergoing a 24 million dollar remodel. You know what kind of iron work I have in my house? none. I cant afford my own work

 

[erudne]

please keep in mind that there is a way to "barter" w/greenbacks
1st : remove that nasty tracking device by giving it 10 seconds in the microwave

 

[NoFlinch]

I dunno, Being a blacksmith is about as "trades" as it gets and I can tell you I aint none to smart If I was smart I would have started a bank. Only guys around who can pull money out of thin air and loan it at interest.

So, what you're saying is ALL Blacksmiths aren't smart?
Isn't that "racist" or something?

I didn't Start a bank (I tried to once, and raised 5M before I decided getting the required 10M more was going to take too long........and the REGULATIONS.........GOD, the regulations).

So maybe you're smarter than Bankers

 

[aflineman]

Yup. We are looked upon as knuckle draggers by the educated folks. In this day an age, you need to understand computers better than your average Joe, to survive as an Electrician.

 

[Just Jim]

I don't think it's people working with their hands that the upper crust look down on, it's working with your back. Most are so lazy they couldn't do an honest day of labor, they tried it as kids and decided they better get educated so the don't have to do physical labor?

Father in law called them educated idiots.

 

[Just Jim]

What really ticks them off is when you get paid big bucks and you didn't pay some college for an education.

 

[The Heretic]

My computer support phone conversation with a Doctor :

"Now type in a:\Install.bat"

"How do I type in the colon?"

"The key to the right of the 'L' key, hold down the shift button and press the key to the right of the 'L' key"

Everybody is ignorant about different things.

Education is important, but attitude, aptitude and being determined to learn and improve yourself is just as important.

I write software. I make a six figure income.

I have two associate degrees - one is in "trades" (how to repair ag and industrial equipment) the other is in Electronics Engineering.

The only thing the EE degree really helped me do was get my foot in the door in the tech fields. I taught myself how to write software and apparently, mostly due to 20+ years of experience writing software, I still know how to write better software than some people with Comp. Sci/SW Eng. degrees.

I wish I had gone for a CS degree instead, I would be better at my job, but only because I am determined to be good at my job. There are a lot of people out there who have a CS/SWE degree of some sort who don't apply their advantage, or don't seem to know how.

As is often said, what you get out of college depends on what you put into it, and it is just a foot in the door. If you don't use it properly you won't do as well.

 

[The Heretic]

I don't think it's people working with their hands that the upper crust look down on, it's working with your back. Most are so lazy they couldn't do an honest day of labor, they tried it as kids and decided they better get educated so the don't have to do physical labor?

Father in law called them educated idiots.

There is a difference between intelligence and wisdom.

When I was laying on my back in the mud, under a tractor, busting my knuckles, getting all greasy and having crap fall off the tractor and into my face - I decided that there were a lot of people who thought they could pick up a wrench and be a mechanic. Some were good, some not so good.

Not so many people knew how an alternator worked, or the rectifier bridge in that alternator, or anything electronic - like a TV or computer. The more complicated it was, the more likely they were to ask someone like me to fix it.

So I decided to get my EE degree.

Later, the field evolved that unless you were into design, being an electronics tech often meant you were removing and replacing modules, never repairing them at the discrete component level. This increased as electronics increasingly became digital black boxes.

I saw a future in software where I control what I am working on down to the littlest bit. Instead of repairing, I was creating, and people were directly using what I created. I like that.