Early Risers.

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Amongst fellow ER'ers who did the University/Degree thingummy It'd be interesting to know just how many actually went into careers that required/used that qualification, or went into something completely different instead?

Oooh! Oooh!

Me, Sir! Me, Sir!

iD

 

In fact it was only last week when i obtained another qualification (OK, OK, it was just a re-certification, but let’s not be pedantic here…)

[monkeysarefun]

I'm watching this doco on youtube on the telly at the moment called "Synth Britannia" (its worth a look if you are into the British  synth stuff from the late 70's/ early '80's, it goes into the tech, not just the music). 

 

Anyway its about the 38th minute and they are covering Gary Numan, and Buttons The House Budgie is going off!

 

Buttons The House Budgie is  obviously not a Kraftwerk, OMD, Human League, Silicon Teens, Fad Gadget or Cabaret Voltaire fan because he was quietly chewing on his bean sprouts all through them, but the second that "Are Friends Electric" came on he was up on his talking perch and started  chattering along to it. He kept it up all through "Cars" but as soon as "Fade To Grey" by Visage came on he went back to his brean sprouts.

 

So as an experiment I rewound it back to Gary Numan and he was  back up to his perch and started chattering away again.

 

I didn't guess up until this that he would be a    Gary Numan enthusiast, his tastes lean to  Australian pub rock -  The Angels, Cosmic Psychos, Midnight Oil, AC DC etc.

 

 Gary The Parrot is more a country and western style bird, though he does love yodelling, as well as  the  aria from  "Queen Of The Night", which he does try to  copy. He is close enough for it to be recognisable , and bad enough at it to be funny when he does it.

 

But then again, I got him for his longevity, not his choral skills.

 

 

Edit: Buttons also likes Depeche Mode apparently.

Edited July 4 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

I've managed to get through my whole working life without ever getting any qualifications. And I've only been to one job interview.

 

I was lucky enough to be in the right place when computers came into the work environment in the early '80's  and no one wanted to get into them so I said I'd have a go, and I've just kind of ridden the IT wave ever since, learning everything on the job, whether it was various Unix flavours, Linux, even Windows if I really really had to.

 

I do have a couple of dozen certificates from  week-long courses learning stuff like  "Administrating Solaris 2.51",  "Installing Vsphere 6.7" and so on but that's about it. 

 

I've got friends that did Uni, and friends who didn't but became electricians, builders, miners and so on and the non-uni guys in general get paid more, usually because they work for themselves or have jobs that get massive loadings for after hours work, overtime and so on. 

 

The one uni guy that I'd trade places with did a Masters in Science and then became a National Park Ranger, which required a uni degree.

 

He didn't get a lot of pay compared to the rest of us but he'd get assigned to parks in the loveliest parts of the state and just spend his days four wheel driving and being in nature.

 

He spent 15 years as head ranger in Sydney Harbour National Park. His ranger quarters were a heritage building (the old officers quarters from when it was a military establishment,  now  its a B and B) on Middle Head  in Sydney Harbour. 

 

His day was basically waking up, checking out the harbour views, repairing walking paths, counting the wildlife and getting his photo taken in his ranger uniform with Swedish backpacking ladies.

 

 

We'd all turn up there during whale watching season to see them as they went past the mouth of the harbour, or came in with their calves.  

 

 

 

 

Edited July 4 by monkeysarefun

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

the arrow just went round in circles.

Perhaps the Basildon version of the Bermuda Triangle!

The Broadmayne Vortex?

[DaveF]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Wot! No boozin' or "getting acquainted with the ladies"?

 

That came under the "etc", though most of us rarely drank.  The hall of residence had a bar, the only people using it were the rugby team.  For most of us boozing was replaced by a packet of chips with curry sauce (this was Rusholme in Manchester), often shared with the girlfriend.

 

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

For my career an appropriate degree was a vocational requirememt to become a teacher. Though I did change from teaching science subjects to computing and IT. I did end up teaching on technical and vocational courses. 
Tony

 

I too had to have my degree (and PGCE which took a further year) for teaching biology, though I also taught physics and chemistry (including some A level chemistry).  Later I taught A level IT but had no specific qualification, I could just get things to work and explain what to do.  In the end I became an IT consultant, mainly sorting out problems with school manangement software.

 

David

Edited July 4 by DaveF

[The Lurker]

14 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 

 

I, along with countless thousands of others, put in the hard yards, midnight (and often all-night) oil, blood, sweat and toil to achieve my degree.

 

 

I, on the other hand, did a History degree.

[Tony_S]

14 minutes ago, DaveF said:

I too had to have my degree for teaching biology,

When I started (1975) it was possible for maths and physics graduates (plus a couple of other subjects) to start teaching without a teaching qualification, and do two years  as a probationary teacher. I did the one year PGCE and then started. The head of the first school I taught was totally opposed to graduates (except for  B.Ed degrees from colleges of education). He made it quite clear he would have preferred not to employ me or a biology colleague (even worse he had a Cambridge degree ) but we were the only candidates. 

[roundhouse]

I should be cutting two lawns now that today is dry but still suffering with pains after stretching too much to help the heating engineer fit new pipes at the back of the kitchen units that I installed too well many years ago.

 

I am off the pain killers today as using other medication to ease it.

 

Currently sitting in the pub next to Berwick Station in East Sussex under the grape vines.

A rather nice day.

 

 

[The Lurker]

14 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

That would be like Pepsi trying to convince everybody that filtered tap water was 'special' and worth every pound they convinced the 'public/mugs' to pay some years ago.

Yes, Dasani from the plant in Foots Cray. The stuff they added to it to make it purer made it less pure than tap water

[GMKAT7]

Good afternoon folks,

 

Having studied engineering (mech and elec) at ONC, HNC and finally degree level I spent my entire working life in rail vehicles engineering.

 

Initially as a design engineer before moving into project engineering and project management.

Many of my colleagues did the same, eventually rising to Engineering Director level.

 

However, many of us preferred the problem-solving aspects of the work, so demoted ourselves back to project engineering rather than project management or team management.

 

But still, a lifetime in what I had studied and in one industry.

Probably not possible or desirable these days?

 

Cheers, Nigel.

[Tony_S]

Just now, The Lurker said:

I, on the other hand, did a History degree.

History degrees are great for “transferable skills”. I wish I had done a geography degree.

Aditi has a geography degree. She taught geography in the A level department of a technical college. While she was on maternity leave the department shut down geography teaching (too expensive) so she just reinvented herself as a sociologist (cheap to teach) . 

[Tony_S]

8 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

Yes, Dasani from the plant in Foots Cray. The stuff they added to it to make it purer made it less pure than tap water

Though if they have managed to convince people it was Pepsi who were responsible rather than their actual parent company someone has done a good bit of disinformation spreading. 

Edited July 4 by Tony_S

[Gwiwer]

As Australians are permitted to vote in UK elections the Aussie “Democracy Sausage” has appeared here. 
 

Not permitted at British polling stations but almost universally sold at Aussie ones while you queue to vote. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 4 by Gwiwer
ER/RMW is having a really bad hair day.

[Andy Hayter]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

Amongst fellow ER'ers who did the University/Degree thingummy It'd be interesting to know just how many actually went into careers that required/used that qualification, or went into something completely different instead?

 

Well I started off working in an industry research lab - so qualifications certainly require - then moved to plant technical support - so still linked back to the qualifications since analytical review of production conditions was required - but then moved, almost by accident, into logistics and stayed there.

[polybear]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

I've managed to get through my whole working life without ever getting any qualifications.

 

Bear can think of at least one Human Remains Dept. in the UK that would be sent into a total flat spin if presented with a CV for someone "with no qualifications".  

 

"But the applicant has been there, done that, walks on water etc. etc."

 

"Ah yes, says HR Herbert - but we NEED a bit of paper....."

 

😒

[The White Rabbit]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

Amongst fellow ER'ers who did the University/Degree thingummy It'd be interesting to know just how many actually went into careers that required/used that qualification, or went into something completely different instead?

 

Plus one for the Monty Python option. Well ... I did start a career associated with my qualifications but at a junior grade (which didn't need a degree) and it didn't last more than a few weeks, I left in a great hurry. The managing partner, well - let's just say I had serious misgivings over his behaviour. A year or two later he was professionally censured by the profession's supervising body and fined quite a bit of money. Meanwhile I hadn't found anything (even at a junior grade) in my area and when someone else made me a decent offer I took it. 

 

I have had various jobs, the academic training helped but none of what I think of as my 'main' jobs - bookshop manager, landscape photographer, professional modelmaker and analyst actually specified one (or two) law degrees.... such is Fate! 

[Andy Hayter]

Although I needed the qualification, no one has ever asked to see the bit of paper.  I am not even sure where it is stored now after several national and  international house moves.

[monkeysarefun]

6 hours ago, polybear said:

 

 

 

Ah yes, but that was back when Teachers were still allowed to chuck Board Rubbers at you.  It all started to go downhill when some do-gooders decided that wasn't allowed anymore.

 

 

Now I am not condoning corporal punishment but it HAS given me and my mate stacks of stories to reminisce about, stories that the modern generation miss out on sharing.

 

The cane was still the chief method of punishment in my school years , 6 across the palm of your hand, but teachers were apparently free to mete out any other variety of pain that they chose. One teacher would make you stand in the corner of the room with your nose pressed against the wall, if you didn't do it right he'd hit you on the head with  a screwdriver, which just typing that seems weird.

 

Another would make us hold up a stack of books in front of us, he told us that he was a pupil of Japanese WW2 torture tactics  but he couldn't do the "bamboo splinters under the finger nails" or the "put us in a hot box buried in sand",  let alone the "hit us on the soles of our feet with bamboo canes"  due to Education department guidelines so he was just left with the book torture.

 

Which seemed easy but its amazing how heavy they get after a minute or so holding them straight out. If we lowered our hands he'd whack the bottom of them with a cane to get us back in position. 

 

As guidelines against hurting the kiddies  got tightened I wonder what happened to these teachers, as the world they once  new shrank.  One of my mates  (one of the uni ones..) did teaching and did his practical  sessions at our old school about 6 years after we'd left it .

 

He was teaching  a PE class and one of the students refused to do sit ups so my mate held his feet down and made him complete one. The result was a meeting between the kids outraged parents, the headmaster and my mate to damp down the complaint of harassment that they put in as a result. 

 

How our standards had fallen in those few years between.

Edited July 4 by monkeysarefun

[The White Rabbit]

3 minutes ago, polybear said:

... "Ah yes, says HR Herbert - but we NEED a bit of paper....."

 

😒

 

The toilet's thatter way ... 🙂

[The Lurker]

13 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

History degrees are great for “transferable skills”. I wish I had done a geography degree.

Aditi has a geography degree. She taught geography in the A level department of a technical college. While she was on maternity leave the department shut down geography teaching (too expensive) so she just reinvented herself as a sociologist (cheap to teach) . 

I certainly don't use my degree in my current vocation but its transferrable skills were vital in me starting on the rocky road to being a tax accountant. I use the analytical skills I gained. 

 

Funnily enough I sometimes wish I'd done a geography degree too - I got my best A level result in the subject - but I liked the physical geography side and I suspected my maths was not up to it. Once someone took all the numbers out of maths and replaced them with letters, it became infinitely harder! Ironically I had to do some of the maths in my accountancy training anyway but use very little of it.  The one plus side was that when Elder Lurker was struggling with his GCSE maths, I found that over the course of 35 years some of it had sunk in and I understood it far better than when I did my O level. Some remained "difficult"!

[polybear]

Bear has added a little something to The Great Kitchen Refurb.....

 

 

Edited July 4 by polybear

[monkeysarefun]

8 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Bear can think of at least one Human Remains Dept. in the UK that would be sent into a total flat spin if presented with a CV for someone "with no qualifications".  

 

"But the applicant has been there, done that, walks on water etc. etc."

 

"Ah yes, says HR Herbert - but we NEED a bit of paper....."

 

😒

 

 

Australia maybe is still a bit  more open to giving you a go if you show initiative.

 

About 8 years ago my son got a job at Pizza Hut after school, some bloke who owned the local SpecSaver franchise came in for a pizza, got talking to him, liked his attitude so mentioned that there was a job going there on the weekend if he wanted it.

 

Alex said ok, got put through an optical dispensing course, worked there after school  for a couple of years until he got poached by another company that supplies outreach optical services to old peoples homes, jails, etc.

 

So now he earns a fortune travelling around in his fancypants company car fitting glasses to inmates of various establishments.

He has just bought his first home at the age of 23 which these days is very rare given the housing market, and is looking at buying a rental property in a regional town,   and again apart from his optical dispensing course he got it all just  because he was in the right place at the right time, no University degrees were harmed in the process. 

 

 

[GMKAT7]

Good afternoon The Lurker,

 

Funnily enough, I always struggled a bit with maths despite using it a lot in engineering.

The penny finally dropped on the second year of my degree course and it all then made sense (well apart from some of the calculus).

 

After that we weren't taught any maths but had to remember and apply what had gone before.

 

Cheers, Nigel.

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

As Australians are permitted to vote in UK elections the Aussie “Democracy Sausage” has appeared here. 
 

Not permitted at British polling stations but almost universally sold at Aussie ones while you queue to vote. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Though for the full Australian voting experience it n eeds to be accompanied by the usual photos of people at polling booths coming from the beach to vote in their swimming togs,

 

 

 

plus the obligatory pic  -  as a contrast  - of the line at the voting station at the Australian Antarctic research station. Like this one! 

 

(no matter where you go, there'll be a bloke in a Collingwood jersey,...)

 

 

 

Compuslory voting - say what you like about how you shouldn't be made to vote because its not democratic to make you be democratic  but on the other hand the  OZ government has to make sure EVERYONE can vote so there can be no devious "must show ID!" tactics, and instead has to fly a voting booth down to Antarctica.

Edited July 4 by monkeysarefun

[jjb1970]

I may be in a minority in that several of my roles required my educational credentials and the stuff I learned was important in being able to perform the roles.

 

In Lloyd's Register I worked in rules development and as a design approval surveyor. Very few people really know what class does, even within the maritime sector most people think of attending surveyors in shipyards and visiting ships in their white overalls with a hammer and all that. Most of their business is actually on the steel side, approving steel production, doing QA/QC inspections etc and so metallurgists are a key resource. Looking at ships and machinery, the key bit for rules compliance is design approval. The rule sets are voluminous and provide detailed design requirements for hull and machinery design and safety arrangements etc, all of which are surveyed in order to issue the necessary design approval certification. By the nature of the role it is pretty technical and largely maths and analytical work. Part of my role was doing torsional vibration calculations to approve the shaft line of propulsion systems (engine - gearbox if fitted - shaft - propellor) which was all math and if truth be told painfully dull (if important). They were very strict about verifying qualifications as it was important for their own potential liability if a design was approved which was subsequently found to be non-compliant following an incident. E.ON was similar. That's why they both wanted people in certain roles to be registered with the engineering council as IEng or CEng, it was all for box ticking so if anything went wrong they could point to a body of documentation to demonstrate they'd done their bit to ensure their people were competent for their roles.

 

That said, in my current role my educational certificates are just a 'ticket' needed to get into the room. I don't use much of my technical education any more, but the role demands that I have it to be 'credible'.