This is the first time I have logged on to the site and seen nothing but job postings on the home page.
And it is going to get worse. I am a young tech in the grand scheme of things. Most of the people I work with are 5 to 15 years older than me.
Ahh yes... to be on "old codger"...
I posted a note about a technical issue just this week but the job posts appear to have displaced it.....
The fact that a lot of techs are getting out of calibration is a good thing. For those of us that are left it greatly expands our possibilities and hopefully increases our pay. Supply and demand is great when it works in your favor.
Quote from: USMCPMEL on 06-05-2017 -- 07:49:26
The fact that a lot of techs are getting out of calibration is a good thing. For those of us that are left it greatly expands our possibilities and hopefully increases our pay. Supply and demand is great when it works in your favor.
I feel the same way. Unfortunately this career field has been watered down tremendously. Lots of companies are hiring non qualified people for way less money which hurts people that have actual Metrology training. On the flip side I've also seen lots of instances where the managers doing the interviews only have business backgrounds and aren't capable of weeding out the fakers. In bigger companies you're stuck with those individuals because it's extremely difficult to get rid of them once they are hired!! My hopes are that in the future all the knowledge and skill I've acquired over the years will be more valuable than it is right now.
Quote from: silv3rstr3 on 06-05-2017 -- 08:59:47
Lots of companies are hiring non qualified people for way less money which hurts people that have actual Metrology training. On the flip side I've also seen lots of instances where the managers doing the interviews only have business backgrounds and aren't capable of weeding out the fakers.
I agree, although I would say that both of those things are on the same side of the coin. When I left my last commercial cal place, they replaced me with an 18 year old ITT tech kid...because he was cheap.
They get what they pay for.
I wonder how things ended up shaking out at Tektronix. Las I heard they lowballed everyone and cleaned house of the folks who knew what they were worth.
Lots of companies are hiring non qualified people for way less money which hurts people that have actual Metrology training. On the flip side I've also seen lots of instances where the managers doing the interviews only have business backgrounds and aren't capable of weeding out the fakers.
I agree, although I would say that both of those things are on the same side of the coin. When I left my last commercial cal place, they replaced me with an 18 year old ITT tech kid...because he was cheap.
They get what they pay for.
I wonder how things ended up shaking out at Tektronix. Las I heard they lowballed everyone and cleaned house of the folks who knew what they were worth.
I actually have quite a few friends on Tektronix and I have never heard that they cleaned house? I actually worked there for a number of years as well and do not remember that happening.
Quote from: USMCPMEL on 06-05-2017 -- 10:55:07
I actually have quite a few friends on Tektronix and I have never heard that they cleaned house? I actually worked there for a number of years as well and do not remember that happening.
It was what an old fart I used to work with in Phoenix told me long ago. Haven't been there since they were Sypris, started when they were still Bell
Quote from: griff61 on 06-05-2017 -- 12:01:08
Quote from: USMCPMEL on 06-05-2017 -- 10:55:07
I actually have quite a few friends on Tektronix and I have never heard that they cleaned house? I actually worked there for a number of years as well and do not remember that happening.
It was what an old fart I used to work with in Phoenix told me long ago. Haven't been there since they were Sypris, started when they were still Bell
I must be an old old fart. I started there when it was Metrum before it was bought out by Bell I left when it became Sypris.
I keep trying to get you older techs to write something down. Document some trick of technique you have created and used for years in calibration. Something you can pass on to the next generation of metrologist.
Look at the Cal Lab Magazine's Metrology 101's. The whole goal behind that was to encapsulate a little bit of knowledge for the next generations. Because you are correct, the field is getting watered down. But the techs coming into the field are a green as you and I were 30 years ago. What they don't have is a stack of coworkers 5, 10, 15, 20 years their senior. Most companies will have a 15+ year knowledge gap that will be near impossible to fill.
So I ask each and every one of you. Write a couple papers before you retire.
Mike
"I ask each and every one of you, write a couple of papers before you retire."
Absolutely spot on. I think about all the senior guys who took the time to show me different parts of all my technical knowledge. Who am I to take that from those guys and refuse to offer to pass it down?
Quote from: briansalomon on 06-07-2017 -- 13:04:54
"I ask each and every one of you, write a couple of papers before you retire."
Absolutely spot on. I think about all the senior guys who took the time to show me different parts of all my technical knowledge. Who am I to take that from those guys and refuse to offer to pass it down?
In my years it I have found that it isn't that Im willing to pass it down but that the younger techs feel the need to not listen as they "Know it all already".
I've been out of the Army since 78 and in the commercial world ( sort of. DOD contractor a couple of times.) and I'm still learning stuff every day. I figure when I stop learning. I'm dead or in the hospital.
Quote from: ck454ss on 06-07-2017 -- 13:50:06
Quote from: briansalomon on 06-07-2017 -- 13:04:54
"I ask each and every one of you, write a couple of papers before you retire."
Absolutely spot on. I think about all the senior guys who took the time to show me different parts of all my technical knowledge. Who am I to take that from those guys and refuse to offer to pass it down?
In my years it I have found that it isn't that Im willing to pass it down but that the younger techs feel the need to not listen as they "Know it all already".
We were all young once! But at some point in our lives, we stopped knowing everything and looking sh!t up. For me, it was about the time I transitioned from Altavista to Google.
Mike
Quote from: dminesinger on 06-07-2017 -- 13:55:54
I figure when I stop learning. I'm dead or in the hospital.
You know that we'll be checking out cal stickers on the monitoring equipment in our hospital rooms
Quote from: griff61 on 06-07-2017 -- 16:40:36
Quote from: dminesinger on 06-07-2017 -- 13:55:54
I figure when I stop learning. I'm dead or in the hospital.
You know that we'll be checking out cal stickers on the monitoring equipment in our hospital rooms
So true...
Quote from: CalLabSolutions on 06-07-2017 -- 09:59:11
I keep trying to get you older techs to write something down. Document some trick of technique you have created and used for years in calibration. Something you can pass on to the next generation of metrologist.
Look at the Cal Lab Magazine's Metrology 101's. The whole goal behind that was to encapsulate a little bit of knowledge for the next generations. Because you are correct, the field is getting watered down. But the techs coming into the field are a green as you and I were 30 years ago. What they don't have is a stack of coworkers 5, 10, 15, 20 years their senior. Most companies will have a 15+ year knowledge gap that will be near impossible to fill.
So I ask each and every one of you. Write a couple papers before you retire.
Mike
Writing papers and all is great, however I have learned that "passing on knowledge", while it is usually appreciated by the people/techs needing the knowledge, companies don't tend to appreciate it, especially if you are doing it on their dollar. In today's environment it is all about the dollar, turning equipment, etc. Writing a paper or something similar doesn't make money or turn equipment.
Oh, you want me to write it on my time? So who is paying me for my time.... right, no one out there pays for papers.
Just my thoughts.
Papers are nice and all, but I think demonstration and practical training gets us more bang for the buck. We have a program here where each tech is required to present a class on something they feel that they are an SME on. Even long time techs learn new things and often even the presenter learns something as well. It makes it much easier on the organization as a whole when someone is absent or moves on. There is a much smaller learning curve, if any, when a "new" tech assumes that particular function.
The problem is that companies see that Metrology is just overhead, and paying one of us vets to come in and train all these green techs is an unnecessary expense.
I left a company not too long ago where the manager believed that if you didn't have an EE, you couldn't possibly calibrate electronic equipment.
So every candidate I wanted to hire, with a military background and decades of vital experience, he lowballed.
Seems to be the trend in the market these days. Companies will pay the price.
I did just that. Great magazine, by the way. I wrote METROLOGY 101's for torque wrenches and Ice Baths. Parenthetically, I am working on becoming a writer (book project in the work for the past 18 months).
I would love to see some ideas for a next METROLOGY 101 article. I completely agree that we need to pass things down to the next generation.