If you believe that a college degree is the best indicator that someone can finish what they start, and has discipline you really shouldn’t be managing people.

And, expecting that kind of debt for a PART TIME JOB? Ridiculous and arrogant.

I lived in Austin for six years. I had to leave to find work once I got my MBA.

Now it’s crowded with lots of jobs, but housing prices have skyrocketed, property taxes are through the roof, and the traffic is awful. The people who were there through the tough times when there were almost no jobs are a little bit bitter about the changes.

It all depends on what’s most important to you, finding a good paying job without being in debt for the rest of your life, or not moving to a faraway place. Both choices are valid, but every choice we make is to choose the consequences of that choice.

(And nobody should make a career decision without doing thorough research. In the case of applying to a company so desperate for skilled tradesman they’re willing to pay for the training, that kind of research into the local market is pretty much automatic.)

This is incredibly location-dependent, though, so I would caution anyone considering the trades to really do their research on the market in their area.

I grew up in a blue collar area, and frankly, there are not enough blue collar jobs to go around. Many trained welders and plumbers end up at Wal-mart or in a warehouse because there aren’t enough jobs, and certainly not enough with good wages.

I should have mentioned that this was 15 years ago, so $20 a week for that was pretty good.

This. When we bought our house we hired a young man, Jake, who was 12 years old and lived a couple of doors down, to mow our lawn once a week for $20. So he mowed the lawn. And a couple days later we saw him outside and he was edging the lawn. And a couple days later he was out there spraying weed killer in the cracks of the sidewalk. All for that $20 a week. Turns out he had quite a large number of lawns he cared for in our neighborhood and was quite efficient about it – edging on one day, weedkiller another, etc.

By his junior year he had saved enough money to buy his own used pickup truck, which he used to expand his business. And he had a plan after graduation – become a diesel mechanic. He already had the school/training picked out, too. And he executed that plan very successfully and is well-employed today.

I would have hired Jake at any time for any thing. His work ethic was astounding, he was smart and focused, and any place is lucky to have him.

+1000

You treat people like commodities, but you want them to be solid gold.

Well, I guess Gold is a commodity …

Americans have a fetish for college degrees, while millions of blue collar jobs – many of which pay better than entry level jobs that actually *need* college degrees – go unfilled. An 18 year old with no previous job experience can be making $60k/year before he’s 19, as a welder (and if he reinvests some of that in additional certifications, he can be making $300/year before he’s 30). Machinists, auto mechanics, building trades, jobs that our technological civilization from collapsing, many employers are so desperate for workers they’ll pay for the training, and pay the trainee while they’re learning. But you’ll go home dirty at the end of the day.

I’d much rather have my toilet fixed by a plumber that served an apprenticeship (and made money doing it, rather than going into debt) with a master plumber than one with a PhD in underwater basket weaving.