Blue-Collar Envy: Skilled Trades appeal to Underemployed Ph.D.

Blue-Collar Envy: Skilled Trades appeal to Underemployed Ph.D.

Being an electrician may not be glamorous but the job does have its advantages.

http://www.careerjournal.com/columnists/perspective/20060329-fmp.html?cjcontent=mail

 

I think we may have found the stupidest person on earth - the person that wrote this article.

 

LOL

Whaaa!!! Whaaa!!
I have two friends, both with degrees, who whine like this. I find it very bothersome...okay, I want to strangle them.

 

Um, I would have to agree that while this person is certainly not stupid, she is certainly not being realistic. I mean, come on. I understand that Oregon isn't exactly the Biotech or Pharmaceutical capital of the world, but I'm sure that there is Lab work out there for her, if she just looked around a bit. Of course, maybe she is really bad at interviewing. That's possible. Or, perhaps she has a weight or other issue. It's well documented that employers discriminate upon people that are overweight. But even overweight people (specifically, those with a PhD in Chemistry) SHOULD be able to land a job in their field!

In the end though, Whaaa, Whaaa, Whaaa is about right here!

- Tom

 

hmmmm ...

Sniff ... sniff ... is that hubris and smugness I smell?

Of course when some people get their degrees employers will appear out of nowhere and beg to employ them, regardless of how often they move, how small the town is, and the sacrifices they make to maintain a committed relationship.

Life is a comfortable fantasy for some.

Lifelonglearner

 

The article does not mention the source of the degree. The person in question might have a PhD from KWU or other degree mill and that can be the answer to the issue.

 

Stupid may not be right...how about foolish?

 

Re: hmmmm ...

No smugness here. I work damn hard and work even smarter to make my education count. How could someone with a PhD in chem get a fast food or retail job? It does not add up...like japhy4529 said, there may be other issues.

 

Re: Re: hmmmm ...

How many colleges would happen to have TWO vacant positions in chemistry where a husband and spouse team happen to be the two most qualified people in the world for the job?

Unless they were in a big city, or close to a well established center of research, it is unlikely that both could find employment easily.

Her story strongly suggests that hubby is teaching at a relatively small college with few if any other colleges or high tech industries close by.

I'm sure there are jobs in her field somewhere. She and her husband have simply chosen to live somewhere else.

 

She makes a good point about leaving the PhD off the resume. Unless you are applying for a job that requires it, leave it off.

Every year UF hosts a rather large career fair. I went to the last one to talk to some perspective employers I was interested in working with. My initial interview went great, but as soon as they found out I was a PhD student, they lost all interest in me. A couple even told me outright that they will not hire PhDs.

 

And there is always this quote too:


"If I would be a young man again and had to decide how to make my living, I would not try to become a scientist or scholar or teacher. I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler in the hope to find that modest degree of independence still available under present circumstances." -- Albert Einstein, The Reporter, 18 November 1954

 

Okay first off Corvallis is a college town. It is about 50k people and frankly she shouldn't be very suprised she can't find a job there.

However, the Oregon economy sucks bad. It has for a long time and will continue for some time I imagine. However, her argument holds rather true and you people calling her stupid are just being horribly unfair. People of all disciplines are struggling to compete for jobs. Some get them, some don't. Yet jobs like electricians are in every city, they charge insane amounts of money, work for themselves and tend to have lucrative businesses. Yet electricians find themselves working at starbucks sometimes. Even in portland, Oregon your not going to have companies beating your door down to come be their chemist, and most lab jobs pay $10-$12 bucks an hour.

Best money in chemistry is usually in chemical engineering in our area where either you help someone make nasty chemicals in bulk or you sell other companies these nasty chemicals.

However, everyone struggles, some more than others and I think its perfectly okay for a person to whine periodically. Hell, I whine all the time.

 

I wonder if Xarick also lives up here in the Pacific NW. As mentioned, our economy has been lagging behind the rest of the country for the past few years. In recent years, Oregon and Washington have been trading off for the highest unemployment rate in the country.

Depending on what her dissertation is in, and her research/corporate interests are, I can easily see how a chemistry doctorate is not a guaranteed job in this area. I am reminded of when I graduated with my shiny new masters' in chemistry back in the early 80's, and could not find employment in my field in Seattle. Of course, this was the height of the recession back then in the early 80's, and mortgage interests costs were 16% or so. Fortunately, I was able to retrain, and I am now paid far more than I ever would have been paid as an analytical chemist.

The author of the article is probably correct when she points out that a skilled trade, in terms of employment, is probably more portable than a physical science doctorate. An electrician probably can find work in their field almost anywhere in the country; a high-particle physicist is probably far more limited in this regard.

 

And let us be even more frank:

LAWYERS generally can find work wherever we want to live. It may not pay what we'd like it to, or even well enough to pay our student loans if we're going to eat and pay the rent as well, but the work is essentially always there.

Professional doctorates are financially a better investment than research doctorates. Unfortunately, this truth is more and more expressing itself in the rising relative COST of the professional doctorate.

 

Okay, I live in a college town of about 50,000 (with a college enrollment of about 25,000) and this cheap pool of labor does push wages down....but that isn't the point.
I also agree that she may not be able to get a teaching position, or research position that would make use of her chemistry PhD...but that isn't the point.

The point or (perhaps better said) the question is... How can a person
who is intelligent enough to earn a PhD in a hard science,
who claims to be motivated,
and who seems to have good communication skills
not be able to find a job that pays substantially more than the minimum wage?

Maybe the hubris and smugness a poster smells emanates from the author who

so she

It seems she is cutting off her nose to try to make a point about...
republicans?
outsourcing?
bigbusiness?
the downfall of modern society?
...her poor lot in life!?!

Give me a break.

 

Trades are interesting for portability. My nephew who is an upholsterer who has specialised in motor vehicles has travelled the world and has been in high demand.

My other nephew is a teacher who also has a trade. He has had to fall back on his trade when travelling. The teaching jobs were not there or were highly regulated to exclude foreign teachers. My nephew's teaching degree is from an excellent university.

Both have travelled Europe and Canada on their trade qualifications. I am doing a Doctorate in Public Policy. Will I be able to move and work like my nephews? I suspect not.

I think the reason for the portability is the shopfloor throws up more jobs than the white collar levels. The number of vacancies in white collar executive or highly technical positions is obviously a lot smaller. The pay is also higher of course.

The higher the money, the more competitive it is, and there are fewer positions. PHD's are not required on the shopfloor where there is more volume of work. PHD's are no longer the awe inspiring degree they once were. There are quite a few people with them and its an employer's market.

 

She's not exactly stupid. Perhaps a bit naive in certain respects. But, so are many PhDs. Now, that said, a young couple with matching PhDs are always going to have a difficult sell trying to find dual professorships at the same university (or even two universities in the same area), though there are occasionally instances like the case of Robert and Robin Stacey, who, upon graduation with their PhDs in Mediaeval History from Yale University, managed to locate two open positions as Professor of Mediaeval History at the University of Washington in Seattle. That said, most people who get doctoral degrees were no doubt told by their parents time and again by their parents, "Go to college and get a good job!" And many of those were never taught to analyze the market demand for their field before picking a job. Most PhDs, I am sure, think that they have the most beautiful dissertation ever written because their dissertation is their baby. And so, many charge straight ahead, thinking that they will land on their feet, even if they have heard vague rumors of the terrible job prospects for most PhDs. But, hey, she has hit upon an adaptive strategy to remain somewhat in-field: go get a PharmD. And, what the heck, $97,000 a year to start ain't so bad, now, is it?