WTF IS WRONG WITH COLLEGE KIDS!

[Ricky B]

It's all give and take...as I said before, get a roommate, and you knock that rent mortgage down to $450, even less if your rent isn't that much. Drop the $250 a month bar tab to $50 or $100 and you have some money for toys. The best advice I can offer is DON'T GO GET A HUGE CAR PAYMENT AS SOON AS YOU GET YOUR FIRST JOB. Your new car will most likely loose value as fast as you you can pay it off for the first 2-3 years. If you can't follow this then don't expect to have any money for toys.

My expenses didn't include a car payment or bar tab, just living expenses . . . . .

 

[Joel]

Coming out of College with a BFA in Graphic Design and Illustration and about 2 classes short of a Double Major, all in 4 years of school, I didn't expect to make much. I was happy with my $20K at my first real job. However my buddies that did Computer Science or Technology, stepped out of college into Jobs at IBM making $50-60K. and with in a few years they were pulling 100K+. I never could wrap my brain around how the hell they pulled that off. I'm now 12 years out of college and not making that much.

Remind me to give you a hug next time I see you Brent.

 

[ol'Jeeps]

It seemed crazy that anybody would pay that much but it kind of sunk home with me. You need to provide serious value and understand supply and demand. You can't just be good at something that anybody can do. If you're terrific in a skill that takes 3 years to master your job is too easy. Pick something that takes 10 years to master.

It seems, unless your in the, oh say, top 2% of the graduating masses, or in the medical or legal field, it will probably take you 10 years to realize the true economic value of your education. (After costs are paid, and practical experience is gained, to where you are truly useful (?) to a company.) Seems to be about the case in skilled trades also! Guess the real issue becomes the disappearance of skilled trade jobs? Getting the degree seems to be necessary in the modern day society.

...
As for the lazy college kids everybody knows, not all of them are like that. ...

Really a good point. But the lazy ones are generally the ones at the larger, more visible "sports" Colleges. The masses that are only there to party or to get a "degree in something". I believe the best education is available from the small private Colleges. (Belmont, etc) Not many lazy folks there, because it is expensive, the curriculum is more demanding and not "grade curved" to increase grad rates! (high grad rates=good press=more money for the College!)

 

[rattlecanpaint]

Unfortunately, I think a degree is almost required to get a job that pays (or will ever pay) decent money these days. It shows you are know some of the "theory" behind what the degree is in. Unfortunately those of us in the real world know that what works in theory rarely works in real life. To the OP would your company have even granted interviews with these two guys had they not had degrees?

I went to tech school (twice) and got 2 different associates degrees. One in HVAC repair and one in automotive repair. And both degrees got me nothing more than job interviews and the basics of how the systems worked. The real education came with the EXPEREINCE in the field. I came into my first job from automotive tech school and had to watch REAL close how the lift worked (Old in-ground 2 post) so as to learn which way was up and which way was down. And in the 5 years I was there, I went from 30k or so to 55k.

I also learned that most of BMW's engineers had experience in working on cars and how to build them to take apart, And I can see without a doubt that most of those guys have been replaced by college educated idiots who have never worked on a car in their lives.

Engineer: "According to my calculations, this little tiny clip should be more than enough to hold this cupholder and the air vent in the dash of this car."

Me: "Hey dumbass! You forgot to add the weight of a 44 oz big gulp in there and the torque it's going to apply when you slap that puppy in there! This ain't the "theoretical" world, it's the real world. Maybe it's time you got off your ass and got rid of that restless leg syndrome by gettin' your hands dirty and finding out how the real world works for a change.

And Ricky, just got a stiff slap in the face there didn't 'ya. How's the real world taste? Now you see why it's taken your parents their entire lives to get what they've got, maybe you won't be so quick to ask for that next $$$ for "upgrades" to your POS Z71 Yugo.

 

[raleighjeepguy]

wow theres some anger in that post haha

To the OP would your company have even granted interviews with these two guys had they not had degrees?

No b/c it was for a summer internship lol
but in all seriousness we prob just would have laughed at them harder and told them to stfu, given them min wage, and beat them until they either quit, died, or gotten good. Atleast thats what happened to me in my first field job.

 

[mbalbritton]

Remind me to give you a hug next time I see you Brent.

That'd be great Joel, Thanks! just keep your reach arounds to yourself.

 

[Ricky B]

And Ricky, just got a stiff slap in the face there didn't 'ya. How's the real world taste? Now you see why it's taken your parents their entire lives to get what they've got, maybe you won't be so quick to ask for that next $$$ for "upgrades" to your POS Z71 Yugo.

No def, it really is a slap in the face, used to getting paid $10 an hour or so for part time jobs and literally pocketing pretty much all of it except for like gas $$, now all of a sudden Im gonna be working full time and not even making but probably enough to break even with my monthly bills . . . . kinda sucks

But I don't ask anyone for $$ to upgrade my junk, I'm not some spoiled Kid, I pay for all my junk that has to do with my Trucks it's just like I said I pretty much had no overhead before, now I have so much I won't make pretty much anything

 

[rattlecanpaint]

Yea, sorry, but sometimes I really hate automotive engineers.

Honestly, When I started with BMW the guy helping me said, "these are the easiest cars in the world to work on. If you cant get something out of place or it seems like it's just not working, you're doing it wrong. Go read the instructions and you'll see what you've forgot to take off to get to whatever your trying to get to." And he was right.

This new generation of cars that just came out is like some blind dumbass designed them. You have to take off the front bumper cover to replace the halo (Angel eye) light bulb in the new 7 car. It's not like they didn't know that eventually the bulb would burn out. And even then on the old car it wouldn't be so bad, the bumpers came off with a few clips and two big bolts and a few 8mm screws. Now there's 25 screws of all different sizes and types, push clips, and regular clips. You got to have half your tool box out to change a friggin' light bulb!

 

[ol'Jeeps]

Rattlecan did hit on something important.

College cannot make a good mechanical engineer. College can take someone with a good mechanical aptitude and a genuine interest in things mechanical and teach him the science of how it came to be, the science of how it works, on all levels, and and give him the tools to take it to the next level. And there are some great Engineers. Both, formally educated and some not. And really good Engineers make really good money. Sadly, bad Engineers still make good money, costing companies lots of wasted $$!

Unfortunately, most engineers today don't meet this criteria. They have the tools, but no sense of how to use them! So they just muck thru the system screwing stuff up, covering each other's ass, cashing checks, and giving engineers as a group a bad name!

(And NASCAR attracts those guys like a moth to a flame!)

 

[dfvaulter]

This is all a very interesting perspective on college education. The key to college is to pick a major that has lots of demand and pays well in the real world. I got made fun of for 3 years in college for being a Financial Planning major, but now that i'm out and making more money than most of my peers they really don't make fun of me anymore.

As for the suits, some jobs require it. If i hadn't worn a suit when i went to talk to the company i work for now they wouldn't have even given me a interview and i know that as a fact now that i have done some recruiting for said company.