Plumbing, Electricity, Etc: Engineering Graduates Should Run Local Trades

The norm now is for engineering graduates to go rushing off to big companies like Boeing in Seattle, to be wined and dined.  Being “recruited” is a lot of fun.  Besides, being in a big city can be exhilarating for young people who haven’t really seen the world.

         The high wages that go with places like Seattle might seem titillating at a distance, but cost-of-living quickly deflates all dreams of instant wealth.  Housing, food, clothing, and entertainment all cost a fortune in big urban centers.  Everyone is on the take to transfer your dollars to their own wallets.  The poor might be subsidized by one welfare scheme after another, but not engineering graduates.

        Starting at the bottom of the corporate ladder means being given the worst, most routine jobs.  The excitement of using calculus to solve cutting-edge problems soon fades.  Autonomy dwindles as the corporate pecking order takes over.  New hires will really be groomed for sales.

      Meanwhile, local fix/install/build trades involving technical skills such as plumbing and electricity are impoverished, peopled by “technicians” who are learning on-the-job while charging the consumer top-dollar for trial-and-error experience gathering.  Charging $75 a hour is common.  The owners of such service companies have blue collar experience, but not the technical background to provide the technological big picture necessary to understand beyond the hands-on.

      Engineering graduates might well be better off staying in the local market where they were brought up or went to college.   Smart ones will have interned in local service companies to pick up the trade, as previous generations apprenticed themselves to learn the business and technical basics.  Becoming an independent owner of a company won’t be far off.  Supervising a crew of technicians will also develop local economies and restore consumer confidence in  technical “how to” areas that are beyond the grasp of much of the public these days.

       Someone should tell engineering graduate Tom that the good life comes from within, instilled there by family values and reading.