Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
I don't see any at my shop.
.100 %. I have 6 guys, and I have been finding them in trade schools. Somebody has to train them...
I'm 22, the highest I have seen is 4 out of about 40 across all shifts in this shop. Right now, there is just me and another guy. The gap in age tends to be huge.
One place I worked at had a much larger majority, nearly 40-50% of the guys were under 40. But it was full production, and all anyone ever did was load a part, push the green button, check for dimensions and put in offsets. They thought they were hot shit "machinists". I just shook my head. They could work there for 20 years and still wouldn't know how to indicate a vice. Hell, the tools were even preloaded in holders most of the time.
They didn't tell us about this stuff. Blue Collar was for failures in the eyes of High School Counselors. They told us that if we didn't get into a good enough college we were jacked and would end up flipping burgers or loading boxes onto a truck. This job... Machining, has taken every ounce of my intellegence and concentration and still continously kicks my butt. I have to be better than I was last week every damn week. Because this stupid piece of stock is going to become a good part damnit! The Shop Floor has a way of beating the laziness out of you and instilling hard work, determination and manhood that is just lacking in my generation.
I cannot tell you how frustrated I get when my friends in college post about their finals week, 1 week out of the year they spend working like they should have the whole year and they bitch up a storm about it. But then I remember I have a way cooler job than them, a career path, I don't have 50K in student Loans and most of them graduated this year and are working at Barnes and Nobles,Starbucks, and Whataburger.
We need to stop sending smart kids into cubicles and put them back into making the backbone of this Country strong again.
Wow! A lot of wisdom in this post. And you're only 22! What North America needs--have to say that since I'm Canadian--is a few hundred thousand more youngsters like you to get us back on track. I agree completely about the fact that our collective education systems have spent the last one or two generations focusing on college or university education--to the detriment of all the trades. I have maintained for years that for a country to be great it needs to "make" things, not simply buy them and use them. Sure it's tough to compete against cheap labour in other parts of the world but with a trained and motivated workforce I think it's possible. The sad thing is that even if we start right now it's going to take another whole generation to turn things around and re-focus our education systems...
Here at the shop I work at, we have 1 Machinist under 40 out of 7, and he is pushing 40. 1 Moldmaker under 50 out of 3, and that man is pushing 50. So the percentage here would be 10 percent now and getting close to 0 percent. Which is probably close to the average answer you'll get I'm betting. Young people don't run to this trade anymore, they run away from it.
not that i dont agree with watley...because his additude is on par for sure...but imagine what that would do to they pay scale adding a few hundred thousand peple to this trade. pay scale needs to go up first. this will attract people our age. right now, making 40000 a year with all the stress and OT isnt going to attract anyone that hasnt already been exposed to the industry. Some people think tool and die makers make screw drivers and ink. No simple solution, we need a major reformation. but it'll never happen...wanna know why? we all shop at mthafkn walmart.
I both agree and disagree. It seems to me that most people want to be paid after training prices before the training even starts. If you so much as hint at learning something new you get that "not my job" mentality. Then guys wonder why they never get a raise?
I came in (mostly unpaid) weekends and learned to do what I do, and I still spend way too much of my own time getting better at solidworks and mastercam. Plus I sponge information off the guys on here like crazy. I'm now in a position to get what I ask for (because I am reasonable!) and it's a lot more than 40k a year.
Public education in this country is an abomination. I'm almost proud to call myself a high school dropout.
Weasel - I sure would like to move to Colorado, the scenery is so much nicer there! I've got a pretty good setup where I am now though, don't really think I could convince myself to move.
Notice
This website or its third-party tools process personal data (e.g. browsing data or IP addresses) and use cookies or other identifiers, which are necessary for its functioning and required to achieve the purposes illustrated in the cookie policy. To learn more, please refer to the cookie policy. In case of sale of your personal information, you may opt out by sending us an email via our Contact Us page. To find out more about the categories of personal information collected and the purposes for which such information will be used, please refer to our privacy policy. You accept the use of cookies or other identifiers by closing or dismissing this notice, by scrolling this page, by clicking a link or button or by continuing to browse otherwise.