Pittsburgh has no good jobs (loans, high school, college)

[Craziaskowboi]

if you're not qualified for them.

[BrianTH]

In terms of the skills that are needed to fill these jobs, the analysis shows that over 60% of the posted jobs required more than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor's degree.

So the days of great jobs for everyone with a HS degree (well, every guy, who knows someone in the union) may be over. But apparently you don't need a four-year degree either--you just need to be trained for the right field.

[DaBurgh]

This is something that I have not completely thought through, but it does not seem that a lot of companies offer training programs for entry-level employees. Workers, especially in this economy, would welcome learning a new skill, but don't have the money for schooling, let alone know what or where to gain new skills. If companies were to bring in new workers, pay something like 75% of the future wage, train them on exactly how to to the job, it might benefit the company over the long haul through loyalty and low employee turnover. Instead, we get job postings like "requires 3 years of experience using so and so software, communication skills, administrative experience, and experience in a so and so environment" .....

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by DaBurgh

This is something that I have not completely thought through, but it does not seem that a lot of companies offer training programs for entry-level employees. Workers, especially in this economy, would welcome learning a new skill, but don't have the money for schooling, let alone know what or where to gain new skills. If companies were to bring in new workers, pay something like 75% of the future wage, train them on exactly how to to the job, it might benefit the company over the long haul through loyalty and low employee turnover. Instead, we get job postings like "requires 3 years of experience using so and so software, communication skills, administrative experience, and experience in a so and so environment" .....

This is exactly the problem I face. I can't afford to take on more debt to go back to college, yet the skills that I have aren't in very high demand. So now I'm looking for jobs that have minimum experience requirements that I can't meet, which means I get no experience, which means I can't get hired, which means I get no experience, which means I can't get hired, which means I get no experience, which means I can't get hired, which means I get no experience, which means I can't get hired, which means I get no experience, which means I can't get hired, which means I get no experience, which means I can't get hired, which means I get no experience, which means I can't get hired, which means I get no experience, which means I can't get hired, which means I get no experience, which means I can't get hired, which means I get no experience, which means I can't get hired, which means I get no experience, which means I can't get hired, which means I get no experience, which means I can't get hired...

It's a ****ty feedback loop.

[Renaldo5000]

Originally Posted by DaBurgh

This is something that I have not completely thought through, but it does not seem that a lot of companies offer training programs for entry-level employees. Workers, especially in this economy, would welcome learning a new skill, but don't have the money for schooling, let alone know what or where to gain new skills. If companies were to bring in new workers, pay something like 75% of the future wage, train them on exactly how to to the job, it might benefit the company over the long haul through loyalty and low employee turnover. Instead, we get job postings like "requires 3 years of experience using so and so software, communication skills, administrative experience, and experience in a so and so environment" .....

This is a breath of fresh air in comparison to the current paradigm of "go to college, take a bunch of classes that have nothing to do with any potential vocation, accrue a bunch of debt, get your foot in the door doing crap work that you could have done without a degree and then hopefully work your way up". The current educational and career reality in this country is just shameful, inefficient and wasteful.

[MissShona]

The "recommended family sustaining wage level" is $28,500? You have got to be kidding me!

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by iwonderwhy2124

This is a breath of fresh air in comparison to the current paradigm of "go to college, take a bunch of classes that have nothing to do with any potential vocation, accrue a bunch of debt, get your foot in the door doing crap work that you could have done without a degree and then hopefully work your way up". The current educational and career reality in this country is just shameful, inefficient and wasteful.

I wasted my time going to college. I dropped out at one point for a perfectly good reason, but my mother nagged and nagged so perfectly naggingly that I went back at the worst possible time in my life, when considered from a going-into-debt standpoint. I'll spare you the details, other than to say that when I was finally ready to study something interesting to me, i.e., cooking, I was already so in debt from going to undergraduate school, I just couldn't do it. I couldn't afford to stop paying the existing loans. If I had children, I would not let them go to college unless there was something they really wanted to study, something they really wanted to be.

God, I'm dredging up all this **** today. I don't usually let myself think about this stuff, let alone talk about it.

[Mr. Humble]

Originally Posted by jay5835

I wasted my time going to college. I dropped out at one point for a perfectly good reason, but my mother nagged and nagged so perfectly naggingly that I went back at the worst possible time in my life, when considered from a going-into-debt standpoint. I'll spare you the details, other than to say that when I was finally ready to study something interesting to me, i.e., cooking, I was already so in debt from going to undergraduate school, I just couldn't do it. I couldn't afford to stop paying the existing loans. If I had children, I would not let them go to college unless there was something they really wanted to study, something they really wanted to be.

God, I'm dredging up all this **** today. I don't usually let myself think about this stuff, let alone talk about it.

This is a great post and I know exactly where you're at. College is beginning to resemble another scam. I went, had to borrow, though I did get some grants, paid it off, though it took a while, and other than the few years I spent as a teacher it never earned me a dime, directly. It took me a while to understand this, but the best thing a young person can do, is find something that you love to do, that you hopefully have some talent for, and that you will eventually be able to get paid for. This country above all else pays for experts, experts at most anything. If you don't love what you do you will never be able to compete with those that do. If you love to cook, cook. Do it till you do it better than most others, even if they went to a fancy culinary school.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by Mr. Humble

This is a great post and I know exactly where you're at. College is beginning to resemble another scam. I went, had to borrow, though I did get some grants, paid it off, though it took a while, and other than the few years I spent as a teacher it never earned me a dime, directly. It took me a while to understand this, but the best thing a young person can do, is find something that you love to do, that you hopefully have some talent for, and that you will eventually be able to get paid for. This country above all else pays for experts, experts at most anything. If you don't love what you do you will never be able to compete with those that do. If you love to cook, cook. Do it till you do it better than most others, even if they went to a fancy culinary school.

Oh, I did cook. Did catering back in the '80s before getting back into editorial work (legal, so boring). It's still my favorite thing to do, cook. One of the only things I truly regret is not having had the financial wherewithal to go live in Italy for a couple of years doing a stage, which is French, I believe, for working for next-to-nothing in the kitchen of a great restaurant in France or Italy (or anywhere, really). After a stage, you come back and open your own place; it was really easy to get backers that way, or so the myth went. It's how a lot of good restaurants got started back in the '70s and '80s.

But I might not have liked it all that much. I did eventually work in restaurants and I HATED it. The pressure was not a type I could bear. Some people wonder how I could have done catering instead, as it's such a big picture way of working. I found it much easier than the minute-to-minute stress of restaurant line cooking, etc. Plus, it was a different gig every night.

[Mr. Humble]

Originally Posted by jay5835

Oh, I did cook. Did catering back in the '80s before getting back into editorial work (legal, so boring). It's still my favorite thing to do, cook.

Oh, sorry. I thought you were a young kid still trying to find your way in the world. I like to cook, too. Italian mostly, stuff handed down from my grandmother. But I wish I was better at it. After all, you gotta eat.