They are making videos about what myself and others have lived through.

[ltlvt]

A good video about the loss skill in our trade. They mention that many of the old timers are retired and can not teach the younger generations. They did not mention that many of the Exerienced tool makers are dead. What Universities provide is a PRODUCT. Once they sell the product they are only interested in the next sale. I will ask the question because others will not ask it. Who is the most Unemployed the person with the Masters in Business or the Unemployed tool and die maker? We all should know that answer. Hope you enjoy the video.

 

[ChazzC]

Hey, Terry: I resemble that! I have an MBA and am (technically) unemployed (retired). However, I got my MBA after I had been in a leadership role (i.e., officer) in the Navy and had been working in industry (Food Process Engineering Design/Troubleshooting/Management) for a total of 15 years. The MBA'ers who are out of work are the ones that immediately got their advanced degrees and got jobs with "Big 8" type firms and are usually burned out after 10—12 years. Too many people get a colege degree, can't find work doing (earning?) what they envisioned and decide to go to Graduate School.

What we need are folks who are willing to work for a living and advance "through the ranks" based on their accomplishments (and companies that recognize them!).

 

[Ulma Doctor]

I’m the last of my kind.
Very few people do the kind of work that I perform over a broad range of manufacturers and models.
I have tried to train apprentices, but nobody seems to be willing to learn and retain critical information and keep a sense of urgency about the work they perform.
The first problem they encounter is a reason to throw up their hands and have someone else deal with the problem.

I have been the guy who gets to deal with the problems nobody else wanted to, or the only guy there is to fix the problem.

I want to share knowledge passed to me, but a lot of the information is for things that isn’t real for most.

 

[ltlvt]

Hey, Terry: I resemble that! I have an MBA and am (technically) unemployed (retired). However, I got my MBA after I had been in a leadership role (i.e., officer) in the Navy and had been working in industry (Food Process Engineering Design/Troubleshooting/Management) for a total of 15 years. The MBA'ers who are out of work are the ones that immediately got their advanced degrees and got jobs with "Big 8" type firms and are usually burned out after 10—12 years. Too many people get a colege degree, can't find work doing (earning?) what they envisioned and decide to go to Graduate School.

What we need are folks who are willing to work for a living and advance "through the ranks" based on their accomplishments (and companies that recognize them!).

Charlie I agree. I also worked my way up. In the early 80's I was at a class for young managers and there was a young guy that had his degree in Metalurgy. He had graduated from the Colorado Schools of Mines and the company had assigned him a position as a front line supervisor. He said he did not go to school to work at a place that would not allow him to use his skill. I do not blame him. Many times I have seen this happen over the years. What usually happend is the kids that do get hired are captured with the golden handcuffs as many of us were and still are. Can't earn the money using their degree so they are stuck in a job they hate for entire careers. Being that you were a Naval Officer I'm guessing you spent some time at University of VA Darden.

 

[ChazzC]

Being that you were a Naval Officer I'm guessing you spent some time at University of VA Darden.

I would have loved to have returned to UVA (BSChE, 1975) for my MBA, but I was working for Hershey at the time so had to settle for a PSU satellite campus. (Actually, most Post Graduate Management degrees in the Navy in the 70’s - early 80’s were granted at Monterey; the Lawyers in all Services went to JAG School at UVA).

Maybe 10 years ago, companies in Central Pennsylvania were trying hard to recruit machinists and similar trades, going to the extent of offering full-time Apprenticeships while attending trade school with the company paying for the training: very few takers as no one wanted to do “manual labor.” In the 30’s, my Father (who attended the same Science & Technology High School that I did 40 years later) left his $0.13/hour job at Glenn L. Martin (assembling the China Clippers) to become a Letter Carrier (making almost what the G.L. Martin Engineers did). He retired as Employee Relations Director at the Baltimore Post Office. He worked for a living, something too many of our High School students today are acquainted with.

 

[mmcmdl]

I’m the last of my kind.
Very few people do the kind of work that I perform over a broad range of manufacturers and models.
I have tried to train apprentices, but nobody seems to be willing to learn and retain critical information and keep a sense of urgency about the work they perform.
The first problem they encounter is a reason to throw up their hands and have someone else deal with the problem.

I have been the guy who gets to deal with the problems nobody else wanted to, or the only guy there is to fix the problem.

I want to share knowledge passed to me, but a lot of the information is for things that isn’t real for most.

So was I . Hired to train new employees . Retired after giving up due to company's beliefs .

 

[mmcmdl]

my Father (who attended the same Science & Technology High School that I did 40 years later) left his $0.13/hour job at Glenn L. Martin (assembling the China Clippers)

I have a picture you may want Chazz . When I bought out a woodshop 5 years ago or so the guy did the same as your Dad did . If you can hold on I'll go down and take a pic of it . Let me know right away and I'll do it .

 

[ChazzC]

So was I . Hired to train new employees . Retired after giving up due to company's beliefs .

Company Culture contributed significantly to my job change decisions (and my decision not to work until I was 70).

 

[ChazzC]

I have a picture you may want Chazz . When I bought out a woodshop 5 years ago or so the guy did the same as your Dad did . If you can hold on I'll go down and take a pic of it . Let me know right away and I'll do it .

Definitely would like it, Dave, but bring it with you on your next trip North so I can scan it.

A piece of Duralumin (small curved hull portion that was removed for cables/hydraulics to pass through) that he had vanished in one of the moves, so I don’t have anything other than his passed down memories from GLM. I do have some documents from his time with the US Postal Service, including a publication about the new sorting system at the Parcel Post Station in Baltimore where he was Superintendent in the early 60’s. I could tell you tales, going back to the 50’s, some of which would get me banned.

 

[mmcmdl]

Oh , they were boats ? I didn't know that , thought they were planes . But anyway , the guys shop I bought out was named Leo Delynski . He was 95 when I bought him out and he died when I was in the process of cleaning his outbuilding out . I have his first paycheck stub of when he started at Martins along with a stack of Baltimore war papers from the early 40s with who was building what etc . Here's the pic . I am not connected to it and actually just found it the other day cleaning up the other basement .