Case studies on how several workers have seen their careers ethered, going from 110K to 33K for instance.
Keep in mind these "underemployed" don't show up in the U3 reported unemployment figures. They sometimes show up in the U6 figures.
Expect to see more college degreed "knowledge workers" driving trucks, taxis, waiters, etc. Nothing wrong with those jobs, but it shows the social contract in the US is broken. Workers take time, & often debt, to become a knowledge worker.
Apparently in the US now, it's a luxury to work a knowledge worker job until retirement.
Unions & pro-employee government policies are needed ASAP. Let's see if Obama & the Dems do a little something for us wage slaves & unemployed wage slaves, or they bitch out as Corporate Whore DINOs ala Bill Clinton did on NAFTA in the 90s.
Showing posts with label career. Show all posts
Showing posts with label career. Show all posts
Monday, January 12, 2009
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
fwd - article on age discrimination
fwd - article on age discrimination. Some examples of 50 yos getting laid off from their good jobs in fields like IT or engineering, & then not finding a new job, or taking an unrelated non-"knowledge worker" $12/hr job to get by.
I'd like to see some study done, ranking US occupations by reasonable chance of working in that occupation until age 65.
I'd like to see some study done, ranking US occupations by reasonable chance of working in that occupation until age 65.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The New Unions
This article "The New Unions" has kind of swag-jacked a theory I've had for a year: the only real unions for college-degreed jobs are licensing requirements.
From a US worker perspective, it's natural for one to want their occupation to be over-licensed, in order to keep supply of colleagues in the occupation low, & thus demand high. This effect is the same as a traditional union, in terms of enhancing the employment rate, pay, working conditions, etc, of those licensed workers in question.
For a general US citizen perspective on the US economy, the problem with the current scheme is that there is no coherent scheme. Some occupations are not licensed at all and should be. Other occupations are over-licensed.
Some occupations, such as IT professionals such as software engineers, & certain engineers in general, face extreme competition from H1-B visas, offshore outsourcing, & age discrimination. Other occupations have there professional society force extreme protectionism to prevent newcomers, whether US citizens, H1-B, or offshored workers, from competing in the field.
IMHO Ideally the nature of each occupation could be analyzed for the work content and skills, & an appropriate coherent level of licensing would be required. The H1-B visa could be reformed perhaps to allow a limited amount of yearly visas, say the 65k workers/yr number from a few years ago, to be put out for competition to the highest bidder. Maybe it would cost something like $40K per visa, & companies hiring IT, engineers, professors, lawyers, accountants, physicians, architects, etc, would have to compete with each other for the limited H1-B slots, & would have to really rethink hard their statement "we couldn't find an American willing/able to do the job".
Of course any such reform, if it happens, is probably not going to happen significantly for years. In other words, people that are actually adults now may want to consider retraining (or training if still in college) for heavily licensed careers.
I'd love to see the MVP US economist Dean Baker drop some knowledge on this article. I'm gonna hit up his blog comments & see if he'll pontificate on this & drop the $0.02.
From a US worker perspective, it's natural for one to want their occupation to be over-licensed, in order to keep supply of colleagues in the occupation low, & thus demand high. This effect is the same as a traditional union, in terms of enhancing the employment rate, pay, working conditions, etc, of those licensed workers in question.
For a general US citizen perspective on the US economy, the problem with the current scheme is that there is no coherent scheme. Some occupations are not licensed at all and should be. Other occupations are over-licensed.
Some occupations, such as IT professionals such as software engineers, & certain engineers in general, face extreme competition from H1-B visas, offshore outsourcing, & age discrimination. Other occupations have there professional society force extreme protectionism to prevent newcomers, whether US citizens, H1-B, or offshored workers, from competing in the field.
IMHO Ideally the nature of each occupation could be analyzed for the work content and skills, & an appropriate coherent level of licensing would be required. The H1-B visa could be reformed perhaps to allow a limited amount of yearly visas, say the 65k workers/yr number from a few years ago, to be put out for competition to the highest bidder. Maybe it would cost something like $40K per visa, & companies hiring IT, engineers, professors, lawyers, accountants, physicians, architects, etc, would have to compete with each other for the limited H1-B slots, & would have to really rethink hard their statement "we couldn't find an American willing/able to do the job".
Of course any such reform, if it happens, is probably not going to happen significantly for years. In other words, people that are actually adults now may want to consider retraining (or training if still in college) for heavily licensed careers.
I'd love to see the MVP US economist Dean Baker drop some knowledge on this article. I'm gonna hit up his blog comments & see if he'll pontificate on this & drop the $0.02.
most consultants are mere order fulfillment?
Vinnie pointed out this Brian Sommer opinion stating that most business & IT consultants are not true consultants, instead they are order fulfillment folks delivering tasks.
Interesting perspective, my take is that there's a spectrum between consultant status & order fulfillment status. At least in the supply chain software implementation area, there is usually some specific nature of the client's business requirements, which requires some creative thinking by the project team. If it was pure order fulfillment, more of the project could be automated in software, or delivered in manuals that a trained client person could do themselves. I can't speak for other business app software areas like ERP or CRM, they might be more commodity in nature.
Interesting perspective, my take is that there's a spectrum between consultant status & order fulfillment status. At least in the supply chain software implementation area, there is usually some specific nature of the client's business requirements, which requires some creative thinking by the project team. If it was pure order fulfillment, more of the project could be automated in software, or delivered in manuals that a trained client person could do themselves. I can't speak for other business app software areas like ERP or CRM, they might be more commodity in nature.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Why Career Planning Is Time Wasted
I stumbled upon this interesting article arguing that "career planning is time wasted". The reason psychologists give is "miswanting", the concept that humans are bad a predicting what will give them future happiness.
The article recommends ""The best strategy for career planning is this: make your best guess, try it out and don't be surprised if you don't like it".
The Simple Dollar references this article in a blog post, arguing that personal finance trumps career planning, since personal finance will always be needed & relevant in your life, whereas a specific career plan may become irrelevant if you choose or are forced to change careers.
The article recommends ""The best strategy for career planning is this: make your best guess, try it out and don't be surprised if you don't like it".
The Simple Dollar references this article in a blog post, arguing that personal finance trumps career planning, since personal finance will always be needed & relevant in your life, whereas a specific career plan may become irrelevant if you choose or are forced to change careers.
workplace A vs. B players
This USA today article compares the concept of workplace A vs. B players,& that a company needs to respect both types of workers. I'm not sure if I agree with the concept, but it's interesting to know anyways, since many PHBs out there do believe in this A/B concept.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Bright Future Jobs
Bright Future Jobs is a pro American citizen/permanent resident worker lobby, focusing on IT & other American workers whose employment/occupations have been hurt substantially by the H1-B visa program.
If I resorted to 3rd grade insults like some "on the other side of this issue", I would declare that those who don't support this are "anti-American citizen & permanent residents", kinda like how some of them declare anti H1-B folks to be "anti-immigrant".
immigration, the job market, & economic prospects for the average working person (white collar or blue collar), are complex urgent issues that do not get discussed in a meaningful productive way in the lamestream media.
If I resorted to 3rd grade insults like some "on the other side of this issue", I would declare that those who don't support this are "anti-American citizen & permanent residents", kinda like how some of them declare anti H1-B folks to be "anti-immigrant".
immigration, the job market, & economic prospects for the average working person (white collar or blue collar), are complex urgent issues that do not get discussed in a meaningful productive way in the lamestream media.
Monday, November 12, 2007
PayScale
I browsed PayScale, which is a good broad salary site, in which 1 can browse job titles by many factors, such as industry, yrs experience, age, etc. PayScale also has other countries, however I only looked at the USA in my skimming of the site. Off of a cursory glance, it seems PayScale > Salary.com
Sunday, November 11, 2007
article that says lucrative > altruistic career for society
Here's an interesting opinion by Daniel Akst, that says that a lucrative career is better than an altruistic career, not just for yourself, but society.
He has a thought experiment where 2 friends are compared 25 years later, 1 an investment banking company founder, the other a journalist/novelist. Akst argues that by being a multimillionaire, some millions of which are given to charity, & by giving good jobs to his employees, the investment guy helps society more than the journalist/novelist guy.
It's an interesting take, but I don't agree fully with the premise.
First, Akst is comparing a "best-case scenario" investment guy, with a mediocre altruistic career guy. Akst is comparing the 0.1% investment guy with a mediocre 50% altruistic guy.
The investment guy is given great performance, & great altruism. It's not certain that the investment guy would have the ability to be 1 of the few wildly successful entrepreneurs. Even if he has the ability, office politics or timing might prevent him from that goal. Also, if he does become the successful entrepreneur, treating his employees well, or giving substantially to charity is not a certainty.
In contrast, the journalist/novelist is a mediocre guy. For example, the journalists who exposed the Nixon corruption ending in Nixon's impeachment, did a great altruistic service for American democracy. A social worker who over a long career helps 20 parolees reform into productive members of society, has done a great work for society. The public health scientists who get an effective plan for dealing with avian flu, could potentially save 1000s of American lives.
Second, the premise that one's pay reflects the value to society is bogus. This is another example where I seem to be 1 of the few that recall from Econ 101, that free market capitalism requires many producers & many customers, such that any 1 entity has no meaningful influence on price or quantity of product.
The investment industry is closer to an oligopoly than free market capitalism. A few huge companies control a majority of the market.
American oligopolistic companies tend to source & desire qualified yet cheap labor, whether this means age discrimination of 40+ yo workers, excessively detailed job experience requirements, H1B visas, illegal workers, offshore outsourcing. If a union or union-like worker professional society exists to protect workers & limit supply of workers, the workers will be able to improve or maintain good pay & benefits.
The point is that many industries have artificially reduced the number of employees due to oligopoly, &/or reduce the number of qualified employees available via union/professional society, to make the free market capitalism model inapplicable. As such, Akst assertion is false that pay reflects the value of the work to society.
Like I said, IMHO Akst's argument is flawed, yet interesting. What do you think?
He has a thought experiment where 2 friends are compared 25 years later, 1 an investment banking company founder, the other a journalist/novelist. Akst argues that by being a multimillionaire, some millions of which are given to charity, & by giving good jobs to his employees, the investment guy helps society more than the journalist/novelist guy.
It's an interesting take, but I don't agree fully with the premise.
First, Akst is comparing a "best-case scenario" investment guy, with a mediocre altruistic career guy. Akst is comparing the 0.1% investment guy with a mediocre 50% altruistic guy.
The investment guy is given great performance, & great altruism. It's not certain that the investment guy would have the ability to be 1 of the few wildly successful entrepreneurs. Even if he has the ability, office politics or timing might prevent him from that goal. Also, if he does become the successful entrepreneur, treating his employees well, or giving substantially to charity is not a certainty.
In contrast, the journalist/novelist is a mediocre guy. For example, the journalists who exposed the Nixon corruption ending in Nixon's impeachment, did a great altruistic service for American democracy. A social worker who over a long career helps 20 parolees reform into productive members of society, has done a great work for society. The public health scientists who get an effective plan for dealing with avian flu, could potentially save 1000s of American lives.
Second, the premise that one's pay reflects the value to society is bogus. This is another example where I seem to be 1 of the few that recall from Econ 101, that free market capitalism requires many producers & many customers, such that any 1 entity has no meaningful influence on price or quantity of product.
The investment industry is closer to an oligopoly than free market capitalism. A few huge companies control a majority of the market.
American oligopolistic companies tend to source & desire qualified yet cheap labor, whether this means age discrimination of 40+ yo workers, excessively detailed job experience requirements, H1B visas, illegal workers, offshore outsourcing. If a union or union-like worker professional society exists to protect workers & limit supply of workers, the workers will be able to improve or maintain good pay & benefits.
The point is that many industries have artificially reduced the number of employees due to oligopoly, &/or reduce the number of qualified employees available via union/professional society, to make the free market capitalism model inapplicable. As such, Akst assertion is false that pay reflects the value of the work to society.
Like I said, IMHO Akst's argument is flawed, yet interesting. What do you think?
Friday, November 9, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Gone With The World
Peep this blog Gone With The World. It's written by a American guy with a BS in science degree, with a decade-long career in software engineering for business application software.
This guy is RIDICULOUSLY ON POINT! His INSIGHT IS SCARY. The TRUTH, LITERALLY.
Sorry for the uppercase "hype beasting", but it's warranted. This blogger writes about the American "knowledge worker" labor market, offshoring, the economy, education, the business world, etc.
If Paul Craig Roberts is like the veteran Andre Agassi-like commentator on these issues,
this blogger is a Novak Djokovic-like talented upstart.
This is the Golden Corral of Food For Thought. Eff getting a plate, get a few, & go back for 3rds!
This guy is RIDICULOUSLY ON POINT! His INSIGHT IS SCARY. The TRUTH, LITERALLY.
Sorry for the uppercase "hype beasting", but it's warranted. This blogger writes about the American "knowledge worker" labor market, offshoring, the economy, education, the business world, etc.
If Paul Craig Roberts is like the veteran Andre Agassi-like commentator on these issues,
this blogger is a Novak Djokovic-like talented upstart.
This is the Golden Corral of Food For Thought. Eff getting a plate, get a few, & go back for 3rds!
Monday, June 11, 2007
Career InfoNet
fyi, this Career InfoNet is good career info website, from the Fed Govt. Also, there's the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
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