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Subject:Re: English Majors as TWs From:jane <judydh -at- TOTAL -dot- NET> Date:Tue, 20 Jul 1999 17:49:34 -0400
The Luddite strikes again:
Post-secondary education is a business and a disservice to many of those who
hope to be happy and successful when they grow up. Its real customers are
governments and industries, to which it provides:
-cheap (indentured?) labour while the student works to get their degree
-rather skilled workers (BONUS! if they think they owe the company for
employing them in the first place because they're desperate to get out of
McJobs and student debt)
-a certain amount of familiarity and apathy towards systems for a system's
sake (aka, why did I take Calculus 1 three times when I passed every time?)
-newbie gophers and lab rats with high and somewhat enlightened hopes that
cynical bosses coworkers can then enjoy crushing (face it, you've at least
enjoyed witnessing it)
Whenever people ask me if there's some course they could take to get a job
like mine (which at perverse moments I do think is a dead-end job, even
though that still makes me happy), I react with guffaws. I've met some
people who started their career at age 17 with a high school degree and a
hobby in design (i.e. artsy or programmatic). They, of course, were paid a
little less to start than a university student or grad, but they were a hell
of a lot further by age 22 and again at age 27 than any of their peers. I
was sorely jealous of them while I floundered for two years after university
looking for anything to keep fed, groomed and busy. Yeah, now I have a
degree, but not in Tech Writing (Biology, actually).
Don't be lazy. Hire people who you *like*, who seem to have the talent, who
seem to learn from their mistakes. Give 'em some time to ramp up. They
aren't going to make the company go broke.
Young people have better things to do with their money (or go into debt for)
than pay for job training. Boring old folks only buy sports cars 'cause they
were too broke to enjoy life when they had the stamina for it.
Down with the syndicate! And that goes for Quebec unions, too (except, of
course, the nurses' union)!
